SKFNOTE: Forty-two years up the road it is perhaps hard for a large segment of the drumming world to truly understand the initial 1980s impact of the LinnDrum on that world. Suddenly one compact machine could keep perfect metronomic time, it didn’t drink, it didn’t arrive to gigs late, it didn’t smoke, and it produced remarkably good drum sounds.
Max Weinberg, in my company, once put forward the idea that, in the future, kids who wanted to play drums would choose the LinnDrum over acoustic drums. “Why go through all the work of learning how to play a double-stroke roll when you can get that sound with the push of a button?” asked Max.
A scary thought. But plausible.
This 1982 Bill Bruford interview excerpt is from a longer interview edited and published as a Modern Drummer feature interview. This was very soon after King Crimson released its “Beat” album.
This is Bruford speculating on why the LinnDrum appeared, and then he shares some of the ways in which he found creative ways to use the drum machine in the studio and onstage with King Crimson.
Tony Williams“So What” – Tony Williams – Newport in NY Jam Session 1972
SKF NOTE: Here’s some worth-a-listen Tony Williams playing “So What” at a 1972 Newport in New York Jam Session. Except for used copies, I don’t think these albums are for sale anymore.
I’ve owned all four vinyl volumes since they first came out. Many great musicians throughout. The drummers on the different jam sessions, for example, are Alan Dawson, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Art Blakey, and Tony.
Here’s the lineup for this jam session:
Bass – Larry Ridley Drums – Tony Williams Guitar – Chuck Wayne Piano – Herbie Hancock Tenor Saxophone – Dexter Gordon, Flip Phillips , James Moody , Zoot Sims Trombone – Kai Winding Trumpet – Harry Edison Whistle – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
SKF NOTE: Andrae Crouch, The Winans, Freddie Hubbard, Koinonia — Bill Maxwell’s work as drummer and producer is among the best. Bill first came to my attention through my ears in 1981. No pre-judging on my part.
“Introducing The Winans” arrived as a new album release on my Modern Drummer desk in 1981. I listened to “Introducing….” on a marginal stereo system in my rooming house residence — and the music grabbed me immediately. Everything about that album was first class: the group, the songs, the arranging, the musicianship, and the production.
The drummer and producer was a name new to me: Bill Maxwell. As of this posting, Maxwell has produced eight Grammy winning recordings.
Long story short, after listening and loving a few more albums with Bill Maxwell producing and/or drumming, Bill stopped by Modern Drummer on August 17, 1982 for a feature interview, published in the August 1983 issue. This is Part 1 of Bill’s interview.
We talk about his early studies in music, both piano and drums, until he started playing six nights a week in night clubs at age 14. Other than a newspaper route, Maxwell said he has never had a day gig.
You’ll hear how Maxwell practiced on drums to “Art Blakey records, Elvis Presley records, Brenda Lee records A weird assortment. Freddie King instrumentals. But I just liked playing with them,” said Maxwell.
He shares how he moved in and out of drug use, and how he adjusted to playing drums straight.
Bill Maxwell was quite personable and enjoyable to interview.
Finally, at one point in this interview I reference a quote by writer J.D. Salinger, which I give to Maxwell to read on a piece of paper. So listeners will have the same information, here is the Salinger quote and source:
“It seems to me indisputably true that a good many people, the wide world over, of varying ages, cultures, natural endowments, respond with a special impetus, a zing, even, in some cases, to artists and poets who as well as having a reputation for producing great or fine art have something garishly Wrong with them as persons: a spectacular flaw in character or citizenship, a construably romantic affliction or addiction – extreme self-centeredness, marital infidelity, stone-deafness, stone-blindness, a terrible thirst, a mortally bad cough, a soft spot for prostitutes, a partiality for grand-scale adultery or incest, a certified or uncertified weakness for opium or sodomy, and so on, God have mercy on the lonely bastards.”
― J.D. Salinger, “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction”
SKF NOTE: Drummer/Bandleader Sherrie Maricle played Mel Lewis’s calfhead drumset at the Village Vanguard. Lewis’s drums sounded great, but playing them was awful.
Maricle leads the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and other smaller bands. She is a super drummer, bandleader, clinician, and teacher.
Listen to Sherrie’s full interview with Scott K Fish is here.
SKF NOTE – In August 1989, Neil Peart invited Scott K Fish to his Toronto home to, in part, conduct a Blindfold Test for a new percussion magazine that never launched.
Following the Blindfold Test, the tape was turned off and on to capture topics like song lyric concepts, minimalist drumming, studio recording — in a very random way.
Part 2 of our conversation covers a wide range of topics. Here is a partial chronological list:
Freedom, authoritarianism, spirit, mysticism, man’s relation to machines, sound sampling, musical chops, songwriting, arrangements, electronic and acoustic drums, technology progressing with Rush, making records, Geddy as keyboard player, playing live with sequencers, when drum solo sequencers fail, rehearsing for touring, playing Rush songs exactly as they are on record, repairing sounds on live albums, recording Rush shows for band critical analysis, mixing drum sounds onstage, switching from Polygram to the Atlantic Records label, We’re not really that big of a band.
Thank you for listening. And thanks for your help supporting this work.
Scott K Fish 
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