SKF NOTE: Revisiting drummer Paul Wilson’s gravesite for the second time in three years. Wilson, an escaped slave, was part of Company D of the United States 33rd Colored Troops Regiment. He died at age 15 and is buried at the Nombre De Dios cemetery, St. Augustine, FL.
Here is the account of my first finding Paul Wilson‘s grave.
Civil War Drummer Boy’s were communicators. The drums were used to send orders to all troops within earshot of the drummers.
SKF NOTE: Thank you, Franklin Vanderbilt. Economics plus art plus kids equals a positive recipe for success. How can we help?
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Lenny Kravitz’s drummer, Franklin Vanderbilt, tries to save Chicago’s kids with music
By Emily DeCiccio, Fox News
What was so crucial in his upbringing, Franklin said, was not only his parents, but also the activities and mentors that kept him busy and focused on his music.
The problem now, …he said, are budgetary cuts to the very programs that cultivated his talent.
“There’s been a subtraction of different programs and opportunities to advance and empower children…you need a way to exercise your mind, and when you take away economics and art, you leave people no choice but to fight,” he said.
“I want to open a performing arts and economics center to bring more opportunity to my neighborhood,” he said. “Put down the guns, let’s pick-up some knowledge. That’s what I want to do for the west side of Chicago.”
SKF NOTE: Joey DeFrancesco‘s experience with John Coltrane Quartet and Miles Davis caught my eye this morning. I’m sharing Mr. DeFrancesco’s words with you.
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Life-changing jazz albums: John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme
Hammond organ hero Joey DeFrancesco talks about the album that changed his life, A Love Supreme, by John Coltrane. Interview by Brian Glasser
[T]his was improvising to the point where you feel you could do anything. It takes a long time to be able to do that.
I heard the song ‘Resolution’, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Because there was everything – I didn’t only hear this other sophisticated harmonic approach, but I still heard the serious groove of Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison, and the way McCoy Tyner was playing behind Coltrane, the feeling. I heard a lot of blues in there too – it seemed like the history of music with so much feeling in it, all wrapped into one thing.
I think that was what I loved about Coltrane: you hear the big basis of the blues, but they’re stretching the harmonies, and they keep swinging and groovin’ so hard underneath. All the elements are there.
I think it’s very important to know the tradition. Without the foundation, the fundamentals, there’s no depth to your music. All those guys back then knew that. When I played with Miles, he explained everything musical to me with reference to that.
SKF NOTE: A once popular, now out-of-business, CREEM magazine hired me to produce American’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine‘s 1985 Drum Supplement. It was a lot of work. From acoustic and electronic drumsets (high-end and budget), to cymbals, to hardware, to accessories, I had to decide what drum products to include.
I had to contact all the drum industry manufacturers and tell them what I was doing. If they would like to be included, would they please snail mail me catalogs, brochures, info sheets, and photos suitable for publishing in a magazine.
The 1985 Drum Supplement was summation of each included product, my choice of photos, and my photo captions. After all that, soon after CREEM‘s October 1985 issue came out, the magazine went out of business and I was never paid for producing that Supplement.
I do still have a manila file folder of drum industry photos and catalogs from that project. (That’s where I had stored the cymbal ash tray photo.) And I learned the valuable lesson every freelance writer — and probably ever musician — learns about doing good work and not getting paid.
This morning, from St. Petersurg, FL, I read again what I wrote as the intro to CREEM‘s 1985 Drum Supplement — and I stand by every word. My thoughts on creativity’s relationship to musicial equipment are the same as they were when I wrote them 32 years ago.
SKF NOTE: From a stack of drum product photos comes this ash tray that mounts on a cymbal stand. Not sure who made (makes?) this product, or how successful it was (is?) But within our smokers-as-pariahs world, it’s hard for me to imagine much drummer demand for this ash tray. Plus, I can envision heavy-smoking drummers sending clouds of tobacco ash over drumheads and drumsets every time they crash this cymbal.
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