Jimmy Chamberlin: A Drummer’s Heart on Canvas

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Scott K Fish
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SKF NOTE: Solid thoughts from Smashing Pumpkins‘s Jimmy Chamberlin on learning to communicate through drumming.

Jimmy Chamberlin: [A] lot of people…don’t give themselves enough time to master something, even something as simple as a paradiddle or a single stroke roll. I continue to work on that stuff today and try to make it better, you never really master it. You might master it to a certain degree, but everyone’s single strokes are different.

You need to realise that throughout your life drumming will remain a long arc of practise, completion and some type of resolution. Realising that allows us to continue to learn with patience.”

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[T]here are many levels of success. Letting people know that the destination of music is self expression is important, and that the reason…we practise the drums is for us to get what is in our heart out onto the canvas. That should be the only reason that we practise.

There’s a lot of people out there who can do it with very few brush strokes. Charlie Watts is one of the most recognisable drummers out there…. Then you have someone like Vinnie [Colaiuta] who obviously articulates in a very different manner, but the destination is the same. They both have feelings they need to articulate and get out onto the drumset, they just have a different mechanism. It’s all self expression.”

Source: Jimmy Chamberlin on drum education, developing your style and the mechanics of drumming, by Rich Chamberlain, MusicRadar.com 12/4/17

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Ginger Baker’s ‘Africa’ Drum Solo (1990)

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This Ginger Baker drum solo, Africa, as far as I know, has never been released. Chip Stern sent it to me as part of a cassette for a drum project on which we, and others, were working. The cassette is dated May 1990. I assume Ginger’s Africa was recorded around that time.

Posted with Chip Stern’s permission.

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Jack Bruce: Tony Williams is ‘the Prophet of Rhythm’

Posted on November 28, 2017 by Scott K Fish

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Photo courtesy JackBruce.com

Stanley Hall: Did you enjoy working with the Tony Williams Lifetime?

Jack Bruce: Oh yeah, it was one of the high spots, and Tony, he’s the prophet of rhythm.

Source: Jack Bruce: Low String Eclectic, by Stanley Hall. Down Beat, 1/26/78

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Peart’s ‘Big Lesson’ on Understanding Jazz Drumming

Posted on November 26, 2017 by Scott K Fish

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Photo courtesy TheFamousPeople.com

SKF NOTE: Neil Peart‘s travelogues — books written about his travels touring with and without Rush — are always good reading. Neil writes well, and his travel books’ format are such that each chapter holds up on its own. When I have a finite amount of time to read, I often grab one of Neil’s books.

I’ve been reading Neil’s Far and Away: A Prize Every Time that way for awhile. I recommend the chapter, Drums of October, from that book as must reading for every drummer; certainly for every drummer feeling stuck in  rut, or feeling too old to try playing some new music.

In brief, in 2008 Neil decides to perform in concert with the Buddy Rich Big Band. He rehearses the chart he’s asked to play, Mexicali Nose. Neil’s onstage, the song gets underway, when, writes Neil:

…I discovered two things: I was too far away from the horns to hear them.., and, second and far worse, the band was playing a different arrangement from the one I had learned!

In the aftermath of that “nightmare,” Neil decides to play again with the Buddy Rich Big Band. But this time Neil turns first to Peter Erskine for drum lessons.

I’ll let you read the book chapter, but near the end, Neil says:

I already had the notion that I would want to continue studying with Peter, for I had learned one very big lesson: understanding more about jazz drumming is simply understanding more about drumming. That’s got to be good — even in the ‘October’ of my own years.

Yes, indeed.

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Shelly Manne: I’m Not Thinking Rhythms, I’m Thinking Melodies

Posted on November 25, 2017 by Scott K Fish
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SKF NOTE: Growing up, Down Beat magazine’s writers, editors, and reviewers were inspiration to this aspiring music journalist. They set the bar high in their knowledge of music, particularly jazz, in the maturity with which they interviewed musicians, in their choice of topics. Those DB writers and editors seemed never to shy away from the tough topics.

My appreciation for DB is ongoing as I read anew articles I missed the first time around, and re-read with deeper understanding, and better appreciation, articles and interviews I valued the first time I read them.

Shelly Manne’s excerpted comments here come from a 1968 drummers’ roundtable discussion, where DB asked drummers in New York City (Art Blakey, Tony Williams, Mel Lewis, Cozy Cole), and Hollywood (Shelly Manne, Nick Ceroli, Donald Dean, Mel Lee), and in Chicago (Elvin Jones, Joe Morello), the same basic questions. The final piece was edited so that readers had the impression all 10 drummers were in the same place at the same time.

Shelly’s comments started with his answer to this question: “How much do you practice and how; do you practice on the pad or the set? If you practice on both, how much do you practice on each?

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Shelly Manne: I don’t think I’ve practiced two hours in 20 years. But it’s different with me than it is with a lot of younger guys because I’ve been playing practically every night for 20 years. If everybody had a chance to play constantly, I don’t think they would spend that much time practicing.

I believe a guy should practice enough to control his hands and be able to do certain things he wants to do with his hands, but I don’t believe he should practice to the point where the hands control his mind.That’s what happens with a lot of guys. Their hands start doing the thinking for them.

[A drummer’s] thinking should be a year ahead of the technique. That way you are controlling the hands from your head and your heart, and you’re making more music, I feel. It’s more spontaneous. It’s nothing that’s figured out in your living room.

Time can be learned, but swinging can’t be. It’s an emotion.

I’m not thinking of rhythms anymore. I’m thinking in terms of certain melodies I hear. I’m trying to play a way now — I’m scuffling a little bit — but I can make plenty of complex rhythms come out by just thinking the way I’m thinking. I’m trying to will my hands to do what I hear in my head at that time.

I don’t know what’s going to come out rhythmically in the end, because I’m thinking about something else completely.

When I hear it back, if it’s being recorded, I don’t know what I play; I can’t even repeat it — ever. Thatto me is where I want to go, and I think it’s important.

Source: Down Beat, Drum Talk: Coast to Coast, March 26, 1968

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