Along with Ed Shaughnessy’s letter I’ve posted consent letters from Joe Morello and Louis Bellson. Mr. Shaughnessy – along with his drumming skill – was a non-stop believer in passing along drumming traditions to other drummers. Especially younger drummers. Shaughnessy’s support of the up-and-coming Modern Drummer is a case in point.
SKF NOTE: Hal Blaine’s thoughts on drum fills. From a Hal Blaine letter written about 35-years ago. Good advice that still holds true.
Fills…come from within. Somehow the [brain] puts it all together. It takes the song you’re working on, listens to the lyrics, computes a feel, and calls upon all the years of experience…and comes up with a fill.
I invented today’s drumset in order to have a broader range of fills: more musical, more dazzling, more show offy. It worked!
When we run down a new song, [product commercial, or tv/movie music], I try to rehearse it rather cooly. I watch the film and see what it does to me. Then when the [recording] machine gets turned on — so do I.
As far as repeating fills? Sure. Why not, if they fit and feel natural?
Remember: when there’s an opening in a song and they ask you to fill [that opening], you are contributing something that will live forever on tape or film. Make [your fill] something you would want to hear time after time.
The fill, to a drummer, is his spot. Fill it comfortably.
SKF NOTE: Having once owned — and listened many times — to Joe Morello‘s Another Step Forward album, I think Jim Szantor’s 1970 review is fair. What is impossible to write about with accuracy is how Joe Morello sounds on his album. To my ears, then and now, Morello’s drums and cymbals always sound beautiful.
I recall very well finding gems of Morello ensemble work, soloing, and use of sticks, brushes, and mallets on this album. And as the years, and great drummers like Joe Morello, go by, musicians — especially percussionists — will cherish every chance to hear the greats, even their three star albums.
SKF NOTE: I found a monaural cut-out copy of John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass album in a drugstore on a wire display rack filled with cut-out albums. Africa/Brass is the John Coltrane Quartet with a big band.
That was my introduction to every musician on that record — including drummer Elvin Jones. Elvin’s playing was different than the more familiar Swing Era drummers like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. But I liked Elvin’s sound. I liked the whole Africa/Brass album.
And from listening and reading Dom Cerulli‘s liner notes for that album alone I read about musicians who influenced John Coltrane — Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy. The Africa/Brass session musicians weren’t listed on the original album sleeve.
My point is, to a young guy with a love for music, that one album offered paths to follow to learn more. Which is exactly what I did — and still do. Each new album, book, magazine article, helped reveal fuller portraits of the musicians, other sounds, and new musical paths to follow.
I recommend this joyful, continuing musical self-education method to anybody.
SKF NOTE: Getting ready to go out last night I set my MP3 player to Herbie Hancock and Santana – Live Under the Sky 1981. Some of the tracks are the VSOP Quartet with Hancock (keyboards), Ron Carter (bass), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), and Tony Williams (drums). The tracks with Carlos Santana (guitar) also add percussionists Armando Peraza, Raul Rekow, and Orestes Vilato.
I start the music playing and hop in the shower. Shower finished, I’m toweling off just as the VSOP Quartet is burning through the tune, Sorcerer. The tempo? Way upstairs. I’m listening, thinking again of how the rhythm section sounds of Hancock, Carter, Williams evolved from their start in the early ’60s with Miles Davis. The trio played tighter by 1981, their musical conversations non-stop, rolling on and on.
In the midst of the lickety-split, straight ahead, Sorcerer, something new grabs my attention. It sounds like Tony Williams has added rapid fire eighth notes between his floor tom and bass drum? Or was he experimenting at this concert with a double bass drum pedal?
I expect Tony to move on to something else, but he doesn’t. His precision, his stamina, his ability to maintain that eighth note pattern without slowing the tempo, or even missing a note–he’s like a machine!
Wait a second. Could it be? I step from the shower, moving closer to my MP3 player resting on the window sill. The window is open a bit and as I move, Tony’s eighth note drumming sound moves.
I take another step, pause, listen — and start laughing. Tony’s rapid fire notes are, in fact, my neighbor’s Kioti KL2610 tractor engine idling outside – in sync, precise as a click track, with the VSOP Quartet.
Scott K Fish 
You must be logged in to post a comment.