Tony Cruz
Drummer Tony Cruz was recommended by the wildly talented Daphne Rubin-Vega, for whom Tony also plays drums. Tony is originally from “da Bronx” (his words), studied at Berklee College of Music, and has an MAT in Music Education from Lehman College. He subbed on Broadway for 10 years, playing in, among other things, Hairspray and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tony has toured with the Boston Pops Orchestra and continues as a hired gun in multiple groups and styles, ranging from big band to fusion (to whatever genre you’d pigeonhole Storytown into).Tony plays with cesium clock accuracy, time-wise, and he does this crazy fast triplet hi-hat thing with a ghost note on the snare that makes us want to play fast shuffles all night long.
I thought I’d continue the tradition set with Rick Wagner’s recent profile and share how Storytown’s drummer is described in our augmented reality app. And here’s an excerpt of Tony (and the band) from that app, “playing” on Houston St, in SoHo, in front of a painted wall near a Starbucks, largely ignored by busy New Yorkers:
As mentioned above, Tony was born in the Bronx, NY, “the year the Beatles came and the Civil Rights Movement was at its peak” (his words). Tony’s Italian mother and Nicaraguan father had ignored racial barriers and fallen in love. Tony says it was literally West Side Story playing out in the Bronx. He says their family "white flighted" to suburbia in 1973, eventually landing in Nyack, NY, on the Hudson River, where Tony lives now. Tony has two younger sisters.
Tony’s first and only instrument was drums; he says he was attracted to rhythm early on. In the Bronx he was in a Boy Scouts-like troupe called the Sea Cadets, and when the color guard came out and the drummer began his drum roll, that was it!
Tony’s first live concert was the Jackson 5 at Madison Square Garden: “My father was somehow able to get floor seats close to the stage. I have a clear, fond memory of being on his shoulders because everyone was standing, and I felt as if I was at eye level with Michael. It was a profound experience for all of my senses.”
Tony’s first drum set was a gift from his mother's cousin — a gold sparkled Ludwig set. Tony studied drums seriously with Gary Chester, whose presence on so many recordings invites comparison with famed Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine. Gary played on hundreds of hits; you may have heard of some of them: The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic”, Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”, and Dionne Warwick’s “I Say a Little Prayer”, to name a few.
Tony has told me that Gary played an important role in his life at a time when Tony was struggling, that he was a father figure with whom Tony had a special, spiritual connection that became “a driving force, not only in playing the instrument but also in business, parenting, faith, etc.” Gary passed away in 1987, and Tony is now partnerIng with Gary’s daughter Katrina to produce a documentary about Gary’s legacy as a session drummer and teacher. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to get the latest news on this project.
Back in the early 2000s Tony was asked by good friend and long standing Broadway drummer (Clint de Ganon) if he would consider subbing on The Rocky Horror Show. It was during this run that he met Daphne Rubin-Vega and told her he wanted to be the drummer in her band — she was making personnel changes at the time, and Tony grabbed the opportunity. He is still her drummer. Here’s a cool video of Tony playing with Daphne at the Highline Ballroom in 2015:
I don’t know if it’s a New York theater thing, but Tony says he remembers as a kid going to shows at Radio City, the Ringling Brothers circus, concerts, etc., and he would dream about being in the pit. He still remembers walking toward the theater on the night of his first show, entering the stage door, flashing back to his dream and being filled with gratitude that it had come to pass.
I play drums a little bit — it’s an immensely pleasurable, rhythmic, full-body musical thing — and I love watching and playing with a great drummer like Tony. It’s the little stuff; I LOVE the fill that Tony tosses off right before the bridge in “How the Other Half Live”, from Welcome to Storytown:
When we were recording the album’s final track, “Broken Promise Land”, Tony had an idea for something different during the outro. He and the engineer Sam Palumbo worked out miking the snare in a certain way, and Tony played this part where he somehow turned the beat around into a kind of fresh and surprising layer on top of the basic chorus groove that keeps going after the big crashing end:
When singer (and academic) Fawzia Afzal-Khan came to the studio later to record her vocal for the song, she told me that, in the Indo-Pakistani classical music in which she was trained, towards the end of a song the singer and percussionist will engage in an improvised back and forth. Tony’s part was pre-recorded of course, but Fawzia seized upon Tony’s groove switch at the end to improvise something in that spirit. The whole outro is maybe my favorite part of the song:
I asked Tony what he’s listening to these days: “I must preface this by stating that most of my life, my ear would go right to the drum tracks, and I would hear everything built in that. Lately, I catch myself listening to classical (e.g. Mahler's 5th), classic rock and roll (e.g. Moody Blues), Gino Vanelli (not sure what genre that would be (?)), and 70s/80s dance music (e.g. Earth, Wind, and Fire) and structure my listening on something other than the drums. This is exciting to me.”
Tony’s favorite drummer is wildly accomplished but a name that was new to me: Vinnie Colaiuta. Check out his impressive discography here.
I leave you with some photos of Tony with one of my favorite bands, Storytown:
Please send me your thoughts about anything, either in the comments on this page or by emailing me directly at guy@storytownband.com. And go ahead and share this post with a friend who might enjoy it. Do it!
Until next week….