SKF NOTE: Watching current online drum videos now and then, I was starting to think I was alone, scratching my head at some of what passes as wise counsel from self-styled experts on how-to-play drums.
God Bless Fred Armisen! I suppose it takes a drummer to really know drummers. The moment I first saw Fred Armisen on SNL as senile drummer Mackey, botching rimshots behind “the best washed up lounge singer ever, Buddy Mills,” I knew Fred was a working nightclub/bar band drummer. He had to be. His insight is right on target. [Minors or Parents of Minors Note: The language on the Mackey video is coarse in spots.]
In mid-December 2016, thanks to Klaus Kinski’s story at BrooklynVegan.com, I discovered two more Fred Armisen drum characters: Jenns Hannemann offering “Really Complicated Drumming” drum video lessons, and also, Victor Benedetto offering video “Drum Tips.”
I know now I’m not alone. Thanks, Fred.
[Minors or Parents of Minors Note: The language on this video is coarse in spots.]
SKF NOTE: Excerpted from my late 1983 or early 1984 interview with Freddie Gruber. I don’t know how much, if any, of this excerpt is in Modern Drummer’s Focus on Teachers interview, but this excerpt differs in one respect. These are Freddie’s words verbatim. The MD interview was somewhat edited.
This exchange took place at Buddy Rich’s kitchen table in Buddy’s NYC apartment.
Scott K Fish: What’s the difference between a strong drummer and a loud drummer?
Mel Lewis: What counts is the intensity. The volume doesn’t mean a damn thing.
There’s a volume you can play at that’s sensible. To me, piano to mezzo forte is enough volume for normal playing in a big band. This way the whole band can play this way. You’ll have better feeling, better intonation.
When you get loud you go to a forte or a double forte. Triple forte‘s are not necessary. And when you go from a piano to a pianissimo or softer, you can really tell.
That’s why the guys can hear me in our band and bands that I’ve been associated with.
If I play louder, they’re going to play louder. And before you know it, it’s ridiculous.
I don’t believe in volume to create excitement. I believe in intensity. I control the band no matter what. The drummer is in control of that volume.
SKF NOTE: Among my boxes of drumming memorabilia are a couple of legal size folders from Charlie Perry full of written material. Charlie was a noted drum teacher and author. His best known method book, perhaps, isThe Art of Modern Jazz Drumming, which Charlie co-authored with Jack DeJohnette. Charlie Perry also had an early rock drum method book with Gary Chester.
I studied briefly with Charlie, and he was an earlyModern Drummerfan and Advisory Board member. How did I end up with Charlie’s file folders? Who knows? Charlie seemed always to have writing ideas looping through his imagination. It’s probable Charlie handed me these file folders, asking me to look them over, and do something with the contents. Do what? If I ever knew, I have forgotten.
Charlie Perry’s folder has a two-page photocopy of a LUDWIG DRUMMER magazine interview, circa 1966, with vibraphonist Gary Burton, bassist Steve Swallow, and drummer Roy Haynes. At the time, the thee musicians were playing with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. “One objective in the following discussion is to describe to LUDWIG DRUMMER readers how we approach rhythm section playing in general,” says Gary Burton in opening the interview.
In this excerpt, Gary Burton is talking with Roy Haynes about his bass drum technique.
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Roy Haynes: A lot of times [the bass drum] should be felt and not heard.
Gary Burton: Roy, I notice you play the bass drum pretty much all the time, for all levels of intensity. But there is so much control needed with that, which you do very well.
Do you have any guide lines that you go by, to maintain this style? What could you tell a student drummer or offer some suggestions about attaining this kind of control of the bass drums?
RH: I would tell them to think dynamics all the time….
GB: I mean, when to go up and when to go down. When I said you played the bass drum most of the time, or all of the time, I wonder why and how you play the bass drum al of the time?
RH: I play the bass drum very lightly so it can be felt for support only, mainly for the bass player, who should, with this proper support, feel free to play anything he wants.
GB: This is contrary to the usual thought that if the bass drum was being played, there would be less freedom.
RH: For instance, what I like to do behind bass solo, naturally, is not play the beat itself, but just the beat every now and then. And when I hear I’m getting sort of involved in the meaning of the solo, then I change to something related to it, not necessarily playing any rhythm pattern, just playing different notes, probably melodic, and so forth. Sometimes I would just rather lay out until near the end of the solo, and come back in gradually.
GB: I think what we are going for there is the give and take. If a soloist takes a very dominant role, you kind of want to let him take over. You know, it would be interesting to me if I heard you laying out when I was playing a solo, sometime.
SKF NOTE: Watching current online drum videos now and then, I was starting to think I was alone, scratching my head at some of what passes as wise counsel from self-styled experts on how-to-play drums.
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