Jonathan "Sugarfoot" Moffett

I went to see "This Is It" last night, the concert documentary of Michael Jackson's last days. I didn't go to see it because I'm a massive MJ fan. MJ was, however, a cultural touch point for me. I remember very vividly watching the world premiere of "Thriller" on MTV. It was a big deal at the time. He wasn't an artist that I bought albums for or would call myself a "fan" of...but he was an artist that had a big part in the back ground of my cultural and musical education and history.

Beyond that, I wanted to see the movie because I thought it would be cool to see what goes into the development of such a large scale concert tour. I saw a similar documentary of a Rolling Stones concert once and it was fascinating.

Film trailer:


There are two drummers in the show, a percussionist, and kit drummer, Jonathan "Sugarfoot" Moffett. There is a bio of Moffett here.

I was very happy to see that the dummer (and the other musicians and dancers) were prominent parts of this movie...and of the planned tour. It is clear how important the live drum tracks were for this show (I guess I'd expected it all to be canned electronic drums, but it wasn't). You can see the drummer in most of the shots, and his beat is clearly one of the most important elements in the show, if not THE most important. This is, after all, dance music.

He played simple, but powerful, parts. It was very clean. And I was struck by the fact that no matter what was going on...he was there playing. I think he was the only musician on stage who never took a break.

Drum Channel video:


Here is his drum set up for the This Is It tour. The video focuses on the hardware because it was made by Gilbralter.


Here he is talking about his cymbal line:

Jonathan "Sugarfoot" Moffett

Soultone Cymbals | MySpace Video

A couple of brief comments about the movie itself. The show was really going to be something. Whether you like MJ or his music or not...it was going to be a feast for the eyes and ears. I was left wishing I could have seen the final concert to see how all the video clips and costumes and effects interplayed. Some of those things that were worked on for months never actually got completed, which is a shame. My favorite parts of the movie were where the humanity shined through. As a musician with very little self-esteem, I'm always wondering if other people have doubts...make mistakes...have fears. There were a few times in the movie where MJ had clearly given a certain direction to the band...and then changed his mind without telling them. He never showed that this was his fault. I could imagine being in that band and thinking "dude, we did what you told us to do". This made me laugh and realize that everybody deals with bosses who can be self-absorbed and who can misplace their own mistakes on others. The other funny thing was that MJ didn't like the in-ear monitors they were using. In one scene he is obviously irritated by them and explains that he's having trouble using them because he never has before. Even the King of Pop doesn't use in-ear monitors...so obviously you don't have to do that kind of thing to be successful. How the man could hear to sing without them on stage is kind of amazing, though. As for him...yeah, he seemed in control and perfectly fit. He was dancing and singing and keeping up with kids half his age. Did he likely have an addiction to prescription drugs...yeah. But he was functioning in spite of it. This is not to say he didn't likely have a problem that needed tending to...just that he was still able to do his job in spite of it. I suspect a combined tolerance to drugs for his insomnia, his desire to get a quick fix for the insomnia (that led to more and more intense drugs all the way up to anesthesia), and a careless and incompetent physician combined to kill the man. It is a tragedy...but it is a tragedy that is played out every day in lots of lives. Was it more tragic what happened to him versus all the people who choose drugs/alcohol over living every day (not just the "addicts" but everyone who chooses escape over living)? It is all tragic. Drugs are dangerous. Power is dangerous. Both cloud your judgement and lead to faulty thinking. Combining them is super dangerous.