Like many young musicians, drummer Tom Brechtlein used to fantasize about playing with one of his heroes. But unlike most, his wish came true. "When I was 18, I saw Chick Corea playing with Return to Forever on television," Brechtlein remembers. "And I said, 'Someday I'd like to play with that guy!'"

A mere two years later, Brechtlein landed an audition with Corea. "Chick had me play with several different bass players, but then he had to leave. He said, 'Tom, I'll see you again sometime,' and I assumed I didn't have the gig. But he did invite me to a concert he was playing with Herbie Hancock. I went and hung out, but nobody was telling me anything."

Finally, Tom got the call he'd hoped for. "Chick said, 'Listen, man, I want you to come on the road with me.'And I said, 'Yeah, sure!' I was very calm. But when I hung up the phone, I went nuts. I screamed like crazy! It was unbelievable."

Brechtlein went on to play on three acclaimed Corea albums, Secret Agent and Tap Step, both from 1978, and 1982's Again and Again. Since then, he's worked with a veritable Who's Who of progressive jazz and rock, including Al Di Meola, Jean Luc Ponty, Robben Ford, Frank Gambale, Eric Johnson and Wayne Shorter. And now he's playing with Corea again as part of the group Touchstone, which also features members of guitarist Paco de Lucia's band.

"It's a great group," says Tom. "Chick and I are the only non- Spanish people in the band—we're the gringos! The record is called Rhumba Flamenco. We've toured parts of the States and Europe so far. We're in Spain now, and next we go to Brazil. There's a new album coming out too called The Ultimate Adventure, which features Touchstone plus Vinnie Colaiuta, Airto Moreira, Steve Kujala, Hubert Laws, and Steve Gadd."

With a group of this caliber, Brechtlein's played plenty of great live shows. But sometimes everything comes together to make a performance truly transcendent. Much of that magic is communication, says Tom: "Everybody's got to be in good communication with each other. You can't force it—it's just there. You're not thinking about yesterday, or today, or whether the phone bill's been paid. It just goes. We had one of those shows last night. We have them a lot actually. Everybody's got to be there for everybody else."

The listeners play a crucial role as well, he adds. "The audience is actually part of the band, but they don't know it! We're just up on stage, while they're down there. Of course, they're there to be entertained. But when you go out there and they're ready, you can feel it. It's a nonverbal thing. Their instruments are a pair of hands, or whistling or screaming. They're totally part of the performance."

Brechtlein has played Yamaha drums since 1982. "They just sound great, and I like the way they're made. Yamaha makes some of the best wooden snare drums ever. They make the best hardware, too. I use a lot of different drumset configurations. With Chick, I'm playing a 20" Absolute Birch bass drum, with Absolute Maple toms 10" and 12" rackmounted and a 14" floor tom, all natural wood. And I'm using the Steve Jordan Signature snare. In the studio, I use a 20" or 22" bass drum, and 10", 12", 14", and 16" toms. Those are all Absolute Birch. And I like to use several different snares, including the Steve Jordan and the Absolute Birch 14" x 51/2" snare."

The Absolute Birch and Absolute Maple toms have distinct sonic characters, Tom notes. "You get a nice, rounded tone out of the Absolute Maple tom-toms, with a lot more harmonics. They're a little louder and they're warm-sounding, which I like. The Absolute Birch toms have more of a directed sound—but now, with the lugs the way they're designed, they 'sing' really well, too. And they feel really great to play."

Drumming for Chick Corea is still a dream job for Brechtlein. "You can call it jazz or Latin or fusion or whatever you want, but I think Chick has created a genre for himself. He knows what he wants, which is great. The guy leading the band is leading you to play his music, but when the time comes to actually play, he just becomes one of the musicians."

And at that point, says Tom, it's all about listening. "As a drummer, you're a support instrument. So it's all about playing for the music and making your bandmates sound good. If you do that, then you sound great. But the main thing is to listen and do what your ears tell you to do."