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A
Century of Drums and Drummers
Story
by Paul Matcott and Barnaby Gold
There
is a certain irony in the fact that whilst a drum or percussion
instrument of similar type would most certainly be amongst the
first musical instrument used regularly by us humans, the drumset
as it is now known is really a relatively new instrument. The
idea of putting a pile of drums and cymbals together and getting
one performer to play all of them only began early this century.
When marching and parade bands stopped marching, and transformed
themselves into dance bands, the drumset came into being. In this,
the last issue of Drumscene for the old Millenium, I will attempt
to give a potted history of the players and playing techniques
that have contributed to the evolution of the drumset over this
century.
When
marching and parade bands stopped marching, and transformed themselves
into dance bands, the drumset came into being. In this, the last
issue of Drumscene for the old Millenium, I will attempt to give
a potted history of the players and playing techniques that have
contributed to the evolution of the drumset over this century.
For all sorts of reasons I can only cover some of the better known
drummers, whose influence on other drummers particularly has been
considerable. As the world becomes more global in the next Millenium,
the work of drummers from all over the world will be more readily
available to drummers everywhere, and I for one will enjoy that.
In this article however, the bulk of the players will be American,
British and of course Australian. (I'm sure many readers will
have lots of drummers that they consider worthy of mention who
might not be included here, and that's fine – I welcome ongoing
discussion on the matter…) My timeframe for discussing styles
of drumming only extends forward in time to the early eighties.
My rationale here being that most readers of this magazine have
lived since then and will have their own views on contemporary
drumming.
In
the Beginning…
Marching
bands have been around for a long time, and the basic components
of the percussion sections have essentially been a large bass
drum, a side drum or some variation on a snare drum, and a tenor
drum. Turkish 'Janissary' bands (military marching bands) also
included cymbals, and for that we drummers must be very grateful
- it spawned the Zildjian cymbal making tradition. Techniques
for playing snare drums haven't changed that much, and consist
mostly of combinations of the four basic strokes – singles, doubles,
flams and buzz strokes. Around the turn of the century in New
Orleans, USA, the European marching tradition met up with a West
African approach to rhythm when jazz music was born. We can't
hope to know about all of the drummers from that time who made
a contribution to the development of drumming, but there are some
players whose influence is undoubted.
Whilst
musicologists may tell us that jazz wasn't invented in one city
alone, it seems that New Orleans, a port city on the gulf of Louisiana,
is where most of the early jazz players were centred. The red
light district of Storyville was where much of the emerging jazz
music was played. The music itself had its origins in the marching
bands of the time, who were well known then for their funeral
parades. On the way to the burial they were all serious and solemn,
but on the journey back they would play a more swinging, improvised
form of march, celebrating the joy of living, rather than the
sorrow of death. This style of playing became known as second
line drumming, and is still played today. When marching bands
stopped marching and drumset players emerged, it was this swinging
approach to march rhythms that became the foundation for jazz.
The instrumentation of the early bands consisted of one or more
cornets, a clarinet, trombone, banjo and drums. The main function
of the drums, at first, was to provide a rhythmic foundation that
fitted comfortably with the various dance steps that were in vogue.
With the traditional snare drum language as the basis for most
drumming back then, improvisation was not easy for drummers. The
march feel that was the mainstay of the marching bands was altered
to a more swinging 12/8 feel, or the eighth note triplet feel
that is the standard writing of most jazz today. The other big
consequence of the transition to one drummer was the incorporation
of other percussion instruments into the kit drummer's set up.
Woodblocks, tom toms and cymbals found their way into the drummer's
instrumental set-up. The style of playing was still very military,
but through the use of these additional instruments, the drummer's
vocabulary was greatly expanded. Most of the playing at first
was on the drums or on the rims of the drums or on woodblocks,
with cymbals being used mostly as exotic additions rather than
as the timekeeping devices we now know them as. Recording at this
time was cumbersome – direct to disc – which means that not a
lot can be gleaned about the 'standard' ways of playing that first
emerged. (With direct to disc recording, the performance was captured
live straight to vinyl records, which meant that the big sound
of the bass drum and the loud transient sound of the snare created
problems for the needle that tracked across the vinyl. Because
these drums caused the needle to jump, they were often left out
of the recording completely.) One thing is sure: the new drummers
had an opportunity to create a much greater timbral variety in
the music they played, which gave a certain license to drummers
to be creative and individual. There are many drummers who came
to prominence at that time, but space prevents me from giving
due regard to all of them. The ones profiled below are perhaps
the most influential, and are certainly the ones that other drummers
credit as being their inspirations:
The
Early Players
Warren
'Baby' Dodds.
Baby Dodds came straight out of the New Orleans brass band
tradition, and translated that music from the customary march
set-up to the 'drumset'. Born in 1898, in New Orleans, Baby Dodds
grew up with the emerging jazz music. He worked on the river boats
with his brother, clarinetist Johnny Dodds, and with Louis Armstrong
and Fate Marable amongst others. With the close of Storeyville
in 1917, he ended up, like a lot of other jazz musicians, in Chicago,
working with King Oliver's Creole Jazz band, which also included
Louis Armstrong. The style of music that this ensemble played
was a more soloistic one, with more than one melodic line being
played at the same time. Dodd's playing was the epitome of military
flavoured jazz, and his use of press rolls, strong bass drum playing,
and great melodic inventiveness marked him as one of the drummers
that others turned to for inspiration. George Wettling attributes
the broken triplet pattern that became the norm for cymbal playing
to Baby Dodds, and he was also one of the first to play simple
breaks and solos between phrases and different soloists. "It was
on the riverboats that I began using the rims instead of the woodblocks…
it sounded so soothing and soft. On the boat I also worked out
the technique of hitting the cymbal with the sticks. I worked
that out around 1919. Now everybody's using it, but it came from
me on the riverboat." (quoted in 'Star Sets: Drumkits of the great
drummers, by Jon Cohan p. 9)
Gene
Krupa said of Baby Dodds "..(he) taught me more than all the others.
Not only drum playing, but drum philosophy. He was the first great
soloist. His concept went from keeping time to making the drums
a melodic part of jazz. Baby could play a tune on his drums, and
if you listened carefully, you could tell the melody". (quoted
in Modern Drummer, 'History of Jazz Drumming Vol. 1 June/July
1980)
Zutty
Singleton
Born in New Orleans in 1898, and self taught, Zutty singleton
went on to play with The Tuxedo Jazz Band, Louis Nelson, The Maple
Leaf Band, Fate Marable and gained his greatest fame as the drummer
on Louis Armstrong's Hot Five recordings. He also moved to Chicago
with the close of Storeyville and played with Doc Cook, Dave Payton
and Jikky Noone before moving further north to New York, where
he worked with Armstrong, Fats waller and Sydney Bechet, He also
recorded with Jelly Roll Moreton, Pee Wee Russell and Buster Bailey.
Drummers such as Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Davey Tough and Jo Jones
all credit him with being a major influence: "He had a loose,
simple, funky approach to his instrument, always respecting and
supporting the soloist that he was accompanying and never getting
in the way" (Cohan, p.11). His use of the press roll, maintaining
the pulse through the accentuation of beats two and four of the
bar presaged the modern jazz cymbal beat. Zutty played a simple
kit that consisted of a snare drum, bass drum, two toms and two
or three cymbals.
Chic
Webb
Originally from Baltimore, Chic Webb came to New York in 1924
and formed his own band, working the nightclubs of the Harlem
district. When his band started recording regularly he became
prominent nationally. Playing at the Savoy in Harlem became the
testing ground for many drummers, in the legendary cutting contests
of the day; Webb was the master in this situation, and the fact
that he was a hunchback, eventually dying at the age of 32 from
tuberculosis, made his feats behind the drumset all the more amazing
and inspiring. His playing was pulsating and powerful, with a
control over the bass drum that was unique for the time. He played
with tremendous speed when needed, and had a wonderful command
of light and shade behind the kit. He was born only a couple of
years after Baby Dodds, and his playing was also military in style,
but his style was more legato and flowing, and he had a lighter
overall touch, one that many drummers used as their inspiration.
Such drummers included Buddy Rich ("I was there, I saw him. I
idolized him. There's nobody around doing it today"), and Gene
Krupa ("That man was dynamic. He could reach amazing heights.
When he felt like it he cut any of us down."). Webb was perhaps
the main bridge between the early jazz drummers and the drummers
of the swing era, a style which he helped pioneer. Another of
his big claims to fame was that he discovered Ella Fitzgerald.
Sid
Catlett
Born in Louisiana in 1910, Sid Catlett started playing in
Chicago at age 16. At 20 he moved to New York, working there with
Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, and Benny Goodman.
Sid was an all round player with very steady time, who understood
that his primary musical role was to tie all the rhythm section
ingredients together, to provide a solid foundation. He influenced
other players through his conceptual innovations and his contribution
to the rhythm section rather than exhibitionism. One of his greatest
contributions was in his solo construction; he explored themes
and melodic lines in his playing, based on the tune. He also pioneered
the use of the hi-hat as the primary timekeeping device. Sid managed
to bridge the gap between Swing and Bop on recordings with Dizzy
Gillesie and Charlie Parker in the early forties, one of the few
swing drummers to do so.
THE
SWING DRUMMERS
Early
jazz, or what most here in OZ would call Dixieland, was essentially
a 2-beat rhythmic feel. During the twenties, as jazz moved north
to Chicago and New York, the dominant style became a four beat
feel, where each beat receives equal stress as the basis to the
metric feel of the music. (This way of thinking in jazz is still
the most prevalent I think; check out Peter Erskine's first video,
'Timekeeping is Everything' for a good explanation and demonstration
of the steady forward motion of an even quarter note approach).
The instrumentation of the bands became that of the Big Band,
with trumpet, trombone and saxophone sections, together with a
rhythm section that included bass, drums, guitar and piano. The
swing bands led the first and really the only commercially successful
phase of jazz. Swing leaders such as Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington,
Count Basie, the Dorsey Brothers and many others, became nationally
and then internationally famous, and so did the drummers who worked
with them. The style of playing became integral to the needs of
the music. Timekeeping on a Zildjian cymbal (as opposed to the
sound of a Chinese cymbal) became the norm, and with the invention
of the hi-hat, and its' incorporation into the drumset, the instrument
began to take on the standard set-up that most of us envisage
when we think of the drumkit. There was the use of the standard
time pattern – 'ding-dingaling' – and a lightness in the overall
playing, except for solos and breaks, which were to take on more
importance with the emergence of the standard drum solo to end
the set each night.
Gene
Krupa
Gene Krupa was possibly the most famous drummer in all of
jazz. He was a key figure in the Chicago style of the late twenties,
spending hours in the informal tuition offered by Chicago's black
drummers. According to Krupa "I had no idea of the wide effects
you could get from a set of drums. I picked up from Zutty and
Baby Dodds the difference between starting a roll...with the left
or right hand, and how the tone and inflection changed entirely
when you shifted hands. Many white musicians of the day thought
drums were something you beat the hell out of; few of them realised
that drums had a broad range of tonal variations so they could
be played to fit into a harmonic pattern as well as a rhythmic
one."
Krupa
was born in southside Chicago in 1909 and was originally headed
for the priesthood before drumming took over. In 1935 he joined
the Benny Goodman Orchestra, which was soon to become the hottest
band around. Gene soon became 'the King of Swing' and his lengthy
solo on the tune 'Sing, Sing, Sing' directly led to the general
acceptance of the drums being used as a solo voice in many bands.
He successfully led his own band in the late thirties/early forties,
before working with Tommy Dorsey, and once again, Benny Goodman.
He toured with the Jazz at the Philaharmonic band for several
years, and led a lot of small combos up until his death in 1973.
Krupa's
legacy in drumming is huge; he is responsible for bringing the
drums into the spotlight for the first time. His style was based
on the black drummers he grew up with - he simplified the complexity
of Baby Dodds, but maintained the military flavour. He was a master
technician with a flexible and dynamic time feeling, whose thirst
for knowledge helped to increase his understanding of the history
and nature of percussion.
Buddy
Rich
Buddy was born in Brooklyn New York in 1917, and started performing
with his parents vaudeville act at eighteen months of age. At
four he performed on Broadway, and by age six he had already been
here in Australia, under the name of 'Traps the Drum Wonder'.
During the swing period he worked with Bunny Berrigan, Artie Shaw,
Benny Carter and Tommy Dorsey. He was in the Marines from '42
-44, after which he rejoined Tommy Dorsey for a while before starting
his first Big Band. He worked with Harry James in Las Vegas after
the swing era, before starting his own band once more in 1966,
which he was to continue to run until his death.
For
many drummers, and for many years, Buddy was 'the' drummer; his
awesome technical facility was universally admired. Few drummers
could match what Buddy did behind the kit. His playing was full
of imagination, humour, impeccable taste and musicianship, and
was the epitome of technical excellence. His power and endurance
were legendary, as was his sense of swing. Buddy came as close
to technical mastery of the drumset as anyone has.
As
far as Buddy's influence on other drummers, here are some tributes
that speak for themselves:
Roy
Burns: "Buddy Rich probably influenced every drummer, to some
degree, since 1940. He showed all of us what the instrument could
do. He pushed back the inherent limits of the drumset and took
it to new heights...you had to respect his ability, his drive,
and his dedication to the art of drumming."
Jim
Chapin: "For all of us who grew up in the swing era, he was the
ultimate paragon of skill. Styles have come and gone, but to many,
Buddy remained the incomparable delineator of what was good in
drumming – always on top of any worthy advance in the art."
Armand
Zildjian: 'During all of my life in this business, there was always
Buddy Rich. He gave me the best musical experiences of my life.
He had talent, and natural ability with that drive behind it.
You could recognise his playing 100 miles away. I don't know how
to explain it except to say that he just knew how music should
sound."
Peter
Erskine: "Buddy was the greatest drummer ever to pick up a pair
of sticks."
Louis
Bellson
At 17, Louis Bellson played with Benny Goodman. He went on
to play with Duke Ellington's orchestra, then later with the big
bands of Count Basie and Henry James. Though his playing reputation
is great, Bellson's major contribution to the world of drumming
was that of designing and pioneering the use of double bass drums.
He experimented with a range of set-ups, including two 20" bass
drums between which sat a large 16" floor tom to which were attached
9" x 13" and 7" x 11" toms on either side. His regular set-up
became two 24" or 26" bass drums with two 7" x 13" mounted toms,
two 16" floor toms, 5 1/2" x 14" snare, 15" hi-hats and several
ride cymbals. Bellson has always been a strong advocate of passing
on drumming heritage, as Big Sid Catlett and Jo Jones passed it
to him.
Dave
Tough
Another of the key players to shape the art of jazz drumming
in the late twenties, Dave was a member of the Austin High Gang
out of Chicago. He worked with Bud Freeman and Eddie Condon in
the late twenties and freelanced in New York with Red Nicholls.
He joined Tommy Dorsey in 1936, later working with Bunny Berrigan,
Benny Goodman, and Jack Teagarden. He went on the play in the
Woody Herman 'Herds' in the mid-forties. Originally a devotee
of Baby Dodds' style, Dave absorbed the New Orleans message to
an even greater extent than his fellow Chicagoans and was a player
who continued to evolve well into the Bop years.
He
used larger cymbals than most, and they spread like a golden shimmer
behind Woody. Dave made the ride cymbal the basic instrument of
the set. His playing was subtle yet inspired, and he played with
an intensity that only a Buddy Rich could match.
'Papa'
Jo Jones
Renowned for his work with the Count Basie orchestra, Jo Jones,
together with Freddie green on guitar and Walter Page on bass,
formed arguably the first true rhythm section: "Never before in
American musical history did any rhythm section create so much
heat with so little wasted motion – an effortless kind of cruise
control. Walter Page's bass was the trunk and Freddie Green's
brush-like strumming was the rustling of the leaves, as Basie
skittered in and out of their beat in a cat and mouse exchange
with Jones' understated yet indomitable pulse… In his melodic
dialogues with the great tenorist Lester Young, you could hear
the roots of Bebop and modern jazz in the making; and when he
tore into a hip-grinding break with...tenorist Hershel Evans,
you could hear the birth of modern R and B and Rock and Roll in
the making." (quoted in Modern Drummer Jan '84, p.10.)
BEBOP
Bebop
was born of a desire to do something different. As swing music
became so omnipresent lots of jazz players felt it had reached
its use by date in a creative sense, and many, particularly black
players, stated experimenting with new ideas. Minton's Playhouse
in Harlem was the setting for most of the early Bop experimentation,
which featured players such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker,
Jimmy Blanton, Charlie Christian, Bud Powell, Theloniuos Monk,
and drummers Kenny Clarke and Max Roach. Bebop was small group
oriented rather than Big Band, and was not really a dance form,
but more one of individual musical self-expression. As with most
changes in jazz, the most notable was the rhythmic change. No
longer did drummers have to maintain a steady dance beat on the
bass drum, they were free to drop bombs as it was known then -
to place rhythmic accents where ever they liked, using all the
colours of the drumset. Timekeeping became more focused on the
ride cymbal and the tight 'shick, shick' sound of the hi-hat.
The trend to smaller kits was another product of bop, though this
was as much to do with getting the instrument into a car as it
was with the aesthetic of the music.
Kenny
Clarke
Kenny "Klook" Clarke was a pioneer of the bebop style, namely
as a major contributor to time feel. After experimenting with
his bassist brother, Frank, Klook began to use the ride cymbal
as a focal time-keeping device, whilst reserving the snare and
bass drum for creating a "dialogue" with solo instruments. Playing
in this way enabled the bass line to be better heard, unlike the
"four on the floor" use of the bass drum in the previous swing
era, which obscured the sound of the acoustic bass.
A
story goes that Klook was often sacked for his broken cymbal patterns
and "bombs" on the bass drum. When he set up for a gig, he left
his cases sitting open behind him, in anticipation of leaving
early.
Klook
recorded with Julian and Nat Adderly, Miles Davis, Count Basie,
Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie among many of the great musicians
of the early bebop era. He appears on Bag's Groove with Miles
Davis and Thelonious Monk.
Max
Roach
Continuing in the vein of fervent, vital bebop music that he helped
pioneer, Max Roach made significant waves in the early 1950s with
friend and trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown. Their famous versions
of "Cherokee" broke records in note articulation at fast tempos,
some as quick as 400 bpm! Roach's drum-set epitomised the bebop
sound and set-up, using a 20" bass drum, 4" x 14" snare, 12" mounted
tom, 14" floor tom, 14" hi-hats, 18" and 20" or 22" cymbals. His
drums were always tuned melodically, including the bass drum,
and his solos were consequently tuneful. "Joy Spring", recorded
with Clifford Brown in 1954 contains a pertinent example of Roach's
articulate solo phrasing over a 32-bar form.
Roy
Haynes
Born in Boston in 1926, Roy worked with Lester Young and Louis
Russell before playing on 52nd Street in 1949 with Kai Winding.
He went on to work with Charlie Parker from 1949 - 1950. Haynes,
now known as the father of modern jazz drumming, has been sought
by a virtual "Who's Who" of 20th century jazz: Miles Davis, Sarah
Vaughn, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea
and Pat Metheny. His distinctive drum sound was described as "snap,
crackle" which was probably a reference to the crisp array of
buzzes, stick and rim-shots he achieved on his tightly-tuned 4"
x 14" snare drum. At 73, Haynes continues to play in modern jazz
contexts, though he mainly tours with his own quartet. He established
himself as a bandleader in 1958 with his album, We Three, and
went on to arrange and compose on his 1962 album, Out of the Afternoon.
Reed-man, Roland Kirk on Haynes:
"He
plays so spontaneously and never holds you back from what you
want to play. And he does more than lay a beat. I can hear him
making those drums talk."
BEYOND
BOP
After
the harmonic and rhythmic tension of Bop, jazz went through a
'cool' phase, where the music became calmer and smoother. Fast
chord changes were replaced with greater emphasis on soloing over
fewer chords, with more melodic invention and use of different
scales becoming the dominant approach. Miles Davis was a leading
exponent of this style in the fifties. Drummers also became more
expressive, using more light and shade rather than rhythmic complexity
to create the background to soloists. Drummers such as Shelly
Manne played with less energy and more musical refinement. At
the same time, by contrast, there was Hard Bop, which was pure
Bop, enriched with a greater harmonic understanding, and a more
'perfect' instrumental technique from all the players. Art Blakey,
Max Roach and a young Elvin Jones figured prominently in this
style. Elvin in particular, managed to fuse complexity of rhythmic
ideas and structures with a vitality and energy that was at the
time unique. Another musical journey from this time was the excursion
into odd meters, epitomized by Dave Brubeck's famous composition,
'Take Five', featuring the legendary Joe Morello on drums.
The
next major phase of jazz (sixties...) was the 'Free' style of
playing, where atonality and a lack of formalised musical structures
became the norm. Classical music had already gone through an atonal
phase some fifty years earlier, and now it was the turn of jazz
players to stretch the boundaries of musical sound beyond the
traditional Western tonal centred approach. "For the young generation
of free jazz musicians, the music preceding them had been depleted
in terms of playing...harmonic structure and metric symmetry.
It had become rigid in its cliches and predictable formulas, similar
to the situation twenty years earlier, when BeBop was created...All
possibilities of traditional forms and conventional tonality seemed
exhausted. That is why the young musicians searched for new ways
of playing - and in the process, jazz again became what it had
been in the twenties when the white public discovered it: a great
crazy, exciting, precarious adventure. At last, there was collective
improvisation again, with lines rubbing against and crossing each
other wildly and freely." (Joachim Berendt: The Jazz Book. p25)
The main players of this style were Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp,
Pharoah Sanders and Ornette Coleman, together with John Coltrane
(although Coltrane didn't go as far in this direction as did the
others). Drummers such as Sunny Murray, Don Moye, Rashied Ali,
Ed Blackwell, Elvin Jones and Beaver Harris were all contributors
to this style of jazz playing. Their playing became less metrically
oriented and more pulse oriented, using a great variety of rhythmic
influences (African, Indian, Arabian...) to create a new kind
of tension within the music. Timekeeping was out the window in
the traditional sense, with many tempos coexisting within the
one piece, with melodies and harmonies clashing and with structure
basically improvised for each performance. Drummers played 'moods'
or 'emotional' colours, using whatever combination of sounds they
could call upon, which greatly expanded the overall palette of
colours that all drummers could then begin to use. Elvin's rolling
tom tom patterns for example led drummers into completely new
tonal territory.
The
next major phase in jazz was the 'fusion' of jazz with Rock, which
was to become the next major commercially successful jazz style.
Post
Bop Drummers
Art
Blakey
"I think I'm the least educated about the modern method of
drumming than anybody in the field," said Blakey, "I just play
what I feel. I don't care if I got my sticks backwards, forwards
- if I hear something that calls for me to use my elbow, I'll
do it." Yet, students of jazz drumming seem to have plenty of
time to educate themselves about Blakey's raw energy and swinging
groove (and that monster press roll). The inescapable 'Blakey
shuffle' can be witnessed on the track "Moanin", recorded in 1958
with his group, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, which spanned
over 40 years and spawned many of the modern jazz leaders, including:
Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, and Terence Blanchard.
Philly
Joe Jones
Philly Joe Jones (nicknamed "Philly" from Philadelphia to
distinguish him from the still burning "Papa" Jo Jones) could
be characterised thus: a searing ride cymbal sound, a snare drum
with strong rhythmic statement, and rudimental solo chops, all
executed with musical taste and sensitivity. Philly was brought
to fame through his work with Miles Davis in the 1950s. Fine examples
of his ensemble playing can be heard with Red Garland (piano)
and Paul Chambers (double bass) on the Workin', Relaxin', Steamin'
sessions. One can hear in his playing the essence of the big band
drummers to whom he was exposed; he adapted the elements of taste,
power, and style to modern jazz.
Shelley
Manne
A "late bloomer" studying the drums at age 18, Shelley Manne
joined Stan Kenton's big band in 1946 where he flourished as a
player and became a star in his own right. He was primarily identified
as an exponent of the West Coast Sound, a hybrid of cool jazz
and bebop solo concepts.
"I
realised that drums could be used as a melodic instrument and
still maintain their place in the rhythm section. Instead of letting
the rhythm imply its own melody, my concept is to play melodically
and allow the melody to create the rhythm," said Manne of his
playing approach in the 1950s. To him, technical virtuosity was
secondary to a good set of ears: "Technique is only a means to
get there... The main thing a drummer still needs to do is play
time that swings... The time has to live, not just be good time.
A metronome has good time." Notable performances can be heard
with Andre Previn, West Side Story, and with his own group At
The Blackhawk.
Elvin
Jones
The Elvin Jones sound is unmistakably true to the rule: "It
ain't the drums, it's the drummer." His approach to the drum-set
as a singular musical voice was a rhythmic canvas to the innovative
saxophone styles of his major employers, John Coltrane and Wayne
Shorter in the early 1960s. Primarily self-taught, Jones culled
ideas from Sid Catlett, Jo Jones, and Gene Krupa. As he said in
Down Beat magazine: "It all boils down to a lot of hard work and
midnight oil. You just have to listen and learn and try to relate
the things you hear to your own playing."
Any
recordings with Coltrane and rhythm mates McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy
Garrison (e.g. Coltrane's Sound, The Real McCoy; and Shorter's
Juju) showcase Jones' original playing style, the feature of which
is his seamless, legato approach to time playing, utilising continuous
rolling triplets around the drums and cymbals. Speaking of a holistic
approach to the drum-set, Jones said: "Everything that's included
in a drum-set is there for a purpose and should be learned. Whether
you use it consistently or not, you should know how to use it."
Tony
Williams
At
17 years of age, Tony Williams was playing with jazz legend, trumpeter
Miles Davis. His first recorded appearance with Davis was on the
album, 'Seven Steps to Heaven' on which he displayed a focussed
time feel and a stylish, tightly phrased approach to soloing.
In the 1960s, Williams was part of the formidable Miles Davis
quintet which included Herbie Hancock on piano, Wayne Shorter
on tenor saxophone, and Ron Carter on double bass. 'Miles Smiles'
and the live double album 'My Funny Valentine' and 'Four and More'
are exemplary pieces by this ground-breaking contemporary jazz
ensemble.
Following
his engagement with Davis, Williams went on to form 'Lifetime'
with guitarist John McLaughlin. This raw mix of jazz and rock
was later to be called 'fusion' music. It was through this style
that Williams continued to create a new vocabulary of drumming
that transcended traditional approaches.
During
the 1980s, Williams pursued his role as composer and bandleader,
a role he maintained until his untimely passing in 1997. He is
remembered as a great innovator of drumming, embodying the style
and tradition of all the early bebop players whilst adding an
unrelenting drive to push music forward.4
Jack
DeJohnette
Born in Chicago, Jack DeJohnette studied classical piano and
was a graduate of the American Conservatory of Music. He went
to New York in 1966 working there with Jackie McClean, John Coltrane,
Freddie Hubbard, Chic Corea, Thelonius Monk, and Miles Davis.
He played on Miles' 'Bitches Brew' album, one that presaged the
emergence of fusion music. Jack went on to figure prominently
in the free jazz period, collaborating on numerous ECM albums
with bassist Dave Holland and pianist Kieth Jarrett. A fiery player,
with a style that has a strong mixture of Bop, Rock and Elvin
Jones.
ROCK
AND ROLL
Rock
and Roll was born from the fusion of two existing musical styles
– Blues and Country and Western, both of which had their own history.
People like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson
were already well known Blues players, and there were many locally
known Country and Western singers. Most of the playing was focused
on the singing, and the familiar four and eight bar phrases with
which we assosciate Blues today was not the norm. Drummers were
not integral to these styles at first, mostly because they were
centred around solo guitar or piano playing singers. As the players
moved from country centres to urban cities, the need for a fuller
sound became apparent and drummers were added. Prior to using
drums, players would often tap their feet, or their instruments
to create the time feel. Bass players would play slaps on beats
two and four as they walked their way through the changes. Early
Rock drumming was simple, as was the music, although capturing
the right feel was not an easy thing to do. Musicians have been
trying to copy the feel on records from the early fifties without
great success. (Muddy Waters described the feel as being a result
of social conditions of the time – 'One day I would eat, the next
day I wouldn't. Ain't got them kind of Blues today.') The early
drummers were most likely to have started off playing jazz, so
they had some musical schooling on the instrument which translated
well enough to these styles, albeit in a modified way.
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