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.
As stated in the “Drums & Demons” press release, Selvin wrote the book, “With full cooperation from the late Gordon’s family, and based on his trademark extensive, detailed research, Joel Selvin’s account is at once an epic journey through an artist’s monumental musical contributions, a rollicking history of rock drumming, and a terrifying downward spiral into unimaginable madness that Gordon fought a valiant but losing battle against. One of the great untold stories of rock is finally being told.”
Selvin interviewed me several months ago for “Drums & Demons.” Mostly he wanted to know how my Modern Drummer feature interview with Gordon came to pass. I was happy to talk by phone with Selvin; to tell my story and to answer his questions.
Last week I received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of “Drums & Demons.” I look forward to reading it, but, of course, the first thing I did was to flip through to the pages where I am mentioned.
My name is misspelled in one spot as “Scott L Fish,” not Scott K Fish.
On page 219, where Selvin writes about the conditions during my Gordon phone interview, “[Fish] had not reviewed Jim’s career or listened to any records.”
I wrote Selvin, thanked him for sending his book, and asking if he could correct my misspelled name.
Also, I asked him to consider rewriting what he wrote on page 219 because it is incorrect. At best, it gives readers the wrong impression.
I wrote Selvin, “It would be accurate to say, ‘Fish had not prepared to interview Gordon in the thorough way Fish normally prepared for Modern Drummer feature interviews.’
“Normally, before interviewing Gordon, I would have listened to everything he recorded, or as much of his recorded works as possible. And I would have read as much as possible, although there probably wasn’t much in print at the time. Maybe some liner notes,” I wrote Selvin.
He sent me an email reply graciously promising to make the corrections in “Drums & Demons” second printing.
That’s great.
Meanwhile, you can now order “Drums & Demons” for deliver when it is published in late February. Click here.
And you can listen to Jim Gordon’s full interview here:
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