Longtime drummer undergoing treatment for liver cancer There has been plenty of sorrow this year for the Little Feat family, but the legendary jam band continues to play and tour thanks to a little help from its friends.
Gabe Ford has stepped up to fill in for longtime Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward, who is undergoing treatment for liver cancer.
“Here is a guy who is very, very talented and never really had the opportunity to really play,” Little Feat co-founder and keyboardist Bill Payne said of Ford. “He also is a cancer survivor, which many people don’t know. This all has Richie’s full blessing.”
Using Ford’s rich musical background and heritage in the band has not only allowed the band to fulfill its tour dates but has given the other members a bit of continuity in a year that not only brought Hayward’s illness but the death of Stephen R. Epstein, who worked for years as the band’s promoter.
The question is how the band members have retained their enthusiasm for performing. It’s been 40 years since Payne and guitarist Lowell George first started the band, which melds rock, R&B, blues, funk and other genres into what many consider the ultimate jam band.
“We still enjoy it,” Payne said. “Richie’s last date was in Montana on Aug. 8, and he played as beautifully as I’ve ever heard. … We are still capable of playing well, and that’s the good news for a lot of musicians. It’s not about age, it’s about ability.”
It’s also about the excitement of playing an unscripted show that is something both the musicians and the audience experience and enjoy.
If you go
New Year’s Eve with Little Feat
Where: Recher Theatre, 512 York Road, Towson
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Info: $60; ticketmaster.com
“They are part of something organic that is literally developing and unfolding in front of their eyes and ears,” Payne said. “Players say the same thing; they take off on a riff — some people are more adventuresome than others — and you’re not sure where it’s going.” Only a handful of bands with world-class musicians — including Little Feat, the Grateful Dead and a few others — have made long-lasting statements in music through jam. Of course that’s because musicians who excel in jam bands must know music so well that they can listen to another band member’s contribution and expand on that sound or even take it in a completely different direction. Payne, Phil Lesh, the legendary drummer for the Grateful Dead, and others sum up the talent as a love of unexpected artistry.
Consider Payne, who was a child prodigy and offered scholarships at major music institutions. Although he learned to read and play classic music, teachers allowed him to develop his own music and play by ear, something that was almost unheard of in the 1950s. From there, he developed his style of playing, which has made him one of the world’s most respected musicians, working with artists from Bonnie Raitt to Pink Floyd.
Yet despite all his fame and accolades, Payne always puts Little Feat first. This year the band has another full concert schedule with a special fan excursion to Jamaica in March and a possible blues project in the offing.
“It’s a love; I call it an experiment that’s gone on for years,” Payne said of the band. “People are there to be taken along for the ride. That is why Little Feat is still around.”
