Dannie Richmond: Your Playing is the Same as a Conversation

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Dannie Richmond gives a fantastic drum lesson in under two minutes and without touching a drum.

Thank you Andy Weis of The Great Drummer’s Group for this great find.

— end —

Posted in Drum/Music News, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Gary Chester: I Want to Live My Personal Life

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: The full Gary Chester Modern Drummer interview is available here. In my view, many Gary Chester words of wisdom, because of space considerations, were left out of the MD interview. Fortunately, I can share them here.

chester_gary

Gary Chester / Photo by Rick Mattingly

Gary Chester: People all over the world were very good to me, man. That makes you feel like King Kong. That makes you feel like you’re really something. But meantime, you ain’t nobody.

But, there are all walks of people who thrive on knowing you because you write for a paper, a magazine. Or knowing me because I was with Burt Bacharach.

I feel sorry for those poor bastards. They don’t realize. You’re doing your job, I’m doing mine.

Now I want to live my personal life. I went to visit one guy and he said to me, “Did you bring your drums?” I said, “No. You’re a garbage collector. Did you bring any garbage?”

Why don’t people realize that the only way this world would work is: you’ve got to have bridge builders, you’ve got to have people who build big buildings, you got to have plumbers. You’ve got to have everything in the world. And everybody that’s doing what they’re doing is helping you look better!

Scott K Fish: It’s scary when people start finding their identity as a drummer, instead of a human being who plays drums.

GC: That’s the word. That’s the whole word.

I’ve had hundreds of offers to be interviewed. Down Beat wanted to interview me. Cash Box wanted to interview me. Newsweek caught me in Long Island. I was in a swimming pool. Newsweek interviewed me for Burt Bacharach.

I had all the offers. But at a very young age I realized, “Hey, man. That’s what I do. That’s what I do best. And that’s a very private thing. That’s for me. Now leave me alone. Let me live my life.”

That’s why I live here [rural upstate New York]. I’ve been here eight years. It took people at least six to find out what I was doing. They thought I was with the Mafia. I’m always home. I’m mowing the lawn. I’m picking goldilocks. I’m planting my tomatoes.

“Don’t you ever work?” I said, “No.” In the other house I told everybody I was a mailman. I’d leave the house at six o’clock in the morning. As soon as they found out who I was I couldn’t get rid of them.

— end —

Posted in SKF Blog, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Mel Lewis on Frankie Dunlop

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Just now I was reading through my typed transcript of my 1977 interview with Mel Lewis. It is long! Forty single-spaced typewritten pages, which, of course, was heavily edited by about half for publication as my first or second Modern Drummer feature story.

This is Mel Lewis talking about Frankie Dunlop. Ninety percent of this is published for the first time. It adds to jazz drumming history, a brief but interesting story of two Buffalo, New York teenage friends who went on to become world-class jazz drummers.

==========

220px-MelLewis-1979

Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis: There was a lot of fine young musicians in my hometown my age. [15-16 years old]. I wasn’t the only one. Frank Dunlop came from Buffalo with me. Frank was a wonderful young drummer then.

Scott K Fish: Could he do shows and all that too?

ML: Sure.

SKF: You’re talking about the same Frankie Dunlop who played with Thelonious Monk?

ML: Yeah, that’s right. Oh, yes. Frank, to me, is an excellent drummer to this day. He hasn’t had all the good luck I’ve had. Well, he wasn’t always in the same place I was. I mean, it…. Wherever he worked…. He was with Maynard’s [Ferguson] band. He sounded great in Maynard’s band.

So, he had big band experience. ‘Course, he claimed he got a lot of that from me. He use to show me all of Max’s [Roach] licks. He used to come and study with Max when we were kids. And I would sub for him on his gig with George Clark‘s group, ’cause that was the only way George would let him go — if I played.

dunlop_frankie

Frankie Dunlop

So he’d come back and I’d sit down and I would listen to what he just learned, and I’d pick it up. We were the two early Bebop drummers in Buffalo.

But I had big band experience and George use to insist that he [Frankie] listen to me. So we helped each other all the time. Frank and I were good friends. We still are. We don’t see each other as often as I’d like to, but it’s always fun.

SKF: Where is he? Is he still in New York City?

ML: Oh yeah. Well, he lives out of the City right now. I think he’s back playing with Lionel Hampton right now.

Frank has worked a lot of shows. He works the mountains ’cause he lived out in that area. Frank does a lot of the mountain work.

In Buffalo, he worked shows. He played in all clubs too. And with Maynard’s band. And with Monk! Oh, he sounded great with Monk.

SKF: Yeah. Definitely.

ML: So, I mean, there it is. He’s got those roots too. And he can do it.

[SKF NOTE: Near the very end of our interview, Mel Lewis said this about Frankie Dunlop: Frank Dunlop, who I’d like to hear with Basie‘s band.

— end —

Posted in SKF Blog, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

SKF Correction on Barry Keane

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Scott K Fish
Barry-Keane

Barry Keane

SKF CORRECTION 12/18/2015: There is good news and bad news. The good news is, this week I had an email and then a phone call from Barry Keane. It was great to reconnect. Just like old times. The bad news is, Barry reminded me that it is he, not Jim Gordon, playing drums on Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

In my original post on DrumForum.org — which I have posted below –I was w-r-o-n-g. I’m sorry, Barry. Thank you for letting me know.

I had the story half right. The Gordon Lightfoot song Barry told me, years ago, where Jim Gordon’s drumming really makes the song is Sundown.

========

SKF INCORRECT POST on DrumForum.org

I met Barry Keane when he was drumming with Gordon Lightfoot. Barry maintains what really makes Gordon’s song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, is Jim Gordon’s drumming. Especially his use of his tom-toms.

 

— end —

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Miles Davis and the Street Drummer

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This is a great snapshot of Miles Davis by his former road manager, Chris Murphy. It’s from Mr. Murphy’s book, Miles to Go: The Lost Years. An Intimate Memoir of Life on the Road with Miles Davis 1973-1983. A quick, enjoyable read full of insight into Miles Davis and his world.

=====

41I72iWwEZL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_[Miles Davis’s] mind was always active — he absolutely loved seeing new things and observing human behavior in its infinite variety. People and how they expressed themselves piqued his curiosity. It was one of the things that kept him going.

Once, after finishing a rehearsal at Studio Instrument Rentals in midtown Manhattan, we left in a limo and drove by the old Ed Sullivan Theatre, now the home of David Letterman’s show. At that time there used to be a character who hung out in front of the theatre every day, playing the street with drumsticks. People were accustomed to him, and many would slip him a buck, even though he wasn’t begging. He was usually dressed in the same black raincoat, and he would stand in front of the marquee, bent over at the waist, as he tapped out solos on the pavement, the sidewalk sewer caps, the fire hydrants, and the curbstones.

I was surprised Miles had never seen this guy before, but he hadn’t, and he ordered the driver to pull over so that he could watch. He was fascinated, and I saw his face become childlike with interest.

“He here all the time?” he asked.

“I’ve seen him many times, though not in the winter,” I said.

“Doesn’t his back hurt, bent over like that?” Miles wondered.

“I suppose so,” I replied. “Maybe he’s used to it. Maybe his mind is elsewhere, in the drumming, maybe.”

Miles shook his head slowly. He felt sorry for this guy, and yet he respected his obsession. We watched a good long time before heading home.

— end —

Posted in Drum/Music News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment