Keeping Alive the Sounds of Art Blakey

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This is second time in as many days I’ve run across tributes to Art Blakey. The first is former Blakey sideman Javon Jackson’s “The Jazz Message: Celebrating Art Blakey.”

This morning I read about this “Art Blakey-inspired percussion ensemble, Another Holiday for Skins,” celebrating Blakey’s several percussion-centric albums. The reporter refers to these albums as “an early exploration of…’World Music.'” That’s true.

I drove a house full of people outside onto a deck one night when I put Blakey’s “Orgy in Rhythm” on the turntable. I’ve listened to these albums many times. Also, to Blakey’s “Drums Around the Corner” album where he teams up with Philly Joe Jones and Roy Haynes.

None of this is background music, casual listening music. It’s more like listening to a cauldron of boiling percussion instruments. In the liner notes to “Drum Suite,” Kenny Washington said Art Blakey once told him he wasn’t entirely happy with these albums. Blakey felt the drummers were too quick to hog the spotlight. He was hoping more for interplay like he had heard with African drummers.

I agree with Art Blakey. There are cluttered moments on these CD’s, but they are still very worth listening to. Especially for drummers.

Thank you for keeping alive the sounds of Art Blakey.

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Afro-Brazilian Percussion in a Big Band Jazz Format! July 31st at TPAC
By WRTI STAFF  SUN JULY 5, 2015

The opening act for the evening will be the Philly-based, Art Blakey-inspired percussion ensemble, Another Holiday for Skins with Robert Kenyatta, Doc Gibbs, Pablo Batista, Luke Carlos O’Reilly and others. Another Holiday For Skins performed in February at the International House to a sold-out crowd featuring an all-star ensemble of Philadelphia drummers, percussionists and other musicians. This event was a celebration of the classic 1958 Ark Blakey, album “Holiday For Skins” and its sister projects, “Drum Suite” and “Orgy In Rhythm.” Recorded by master drummer, Art Blakey, who was joined by Philly Joe Jones, Sabu Martinez, Ray Bryant and others, “Holiday For Skins” was an early exploration of what we now call “World Music.”

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Steve Smith Plays Drums with Buddy Rich Alumni Big Band

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Scott K Fish

http://www.praguepost.com
Band mates of  “the world’s greatest drummer” join with Journey’s Steve Smith

The opening jazz concert for this year’s Prague Proms is a gala affair at Smetana Hall in the Municipal House featuring the Buddy Rich Bigband, including six previous members of Rich’s band including trumpeters Bobby Shew and Chuck Findley alongside Czech jazz players of the same stripe.

Buddy Rich Bigband
When: June 20 at 7 p.m.
Where: Smetana Hall, Municipal House
http://www.pragueproms.cz

And so, not surprisingly, the drummer of the current Buddy Rich Bigband is Steve Smith, born 1954, who is best known for playing with the 1980’s California rock group Journey. Smith, however, has also been playing with first-rate jazz players since the 1990s, and he is a standout on the tribute albums “Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2,” both released in the mid 1990s.

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Thank You, ‘No Name’ Drummers

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Scott K Fish

no_name_drummerI am thinking of the “not famous” drummers I’ve seen and heard, whose names I never knew or I’ve forgotten, from whom I learned one idea for evoking drumset sounds I used from then on.

There was the show band drummer at a Moline, IL night club. He took the metal looped back end of one of his drum brushes, placed it softly on his ride cymbal where the cymbal bell ends and the playing surface begins. Lightly pulling the wire loop across the cymbal toward him, the drummer produced a metallic shimmering sound. Perfect for a quiet ending to a song.

I had never seen that done before.

Another drummer, holding a wire brush vertically, moved it toward his cymbal until half the wires were above the cymbal, half below it. The drummer then gently moved the brush up-and-down, creating a one-hand roll effect. Again, a nice ballad effect.

A “no name” drummer taught me how to tune a snare drum, with no muffling, to produce a crisp, open-but-not-overringing sound.

I’m sure there are several other instances. Multiply my experience with the millions of drummers worldwide who have also learned, and are learning still, from “no name” drummers. Wow!

Thank you, “no name” drummers.

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Joe Wong: How Do Drummers Navigate Through Life?

Posted on July 11, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: I tip my hat to Joe Wong for his podcast series, “The Trap Set.” I’ve listened only to Mr. Wong’s Sheila E interview and some of his John “Drumbo” French interview. The production is first-class and what I’ve heard so far are interesting, knowledgeable exchanges between Wong and the drummers.

Plus, I think his goal with these drummer podcasts is right on: “[T]he craft of drumming is irrelevant to the show. I wanted to know answers to how people navigate through life.”

Reporter Piet Levy’s “No one interviews the drummers” statement is completely wrong, but we should not hold that against Joe Wong. I look forward to listening to more of “The Trap Set.”

Local Beat
Musician Joe Wong’s podcast gets drummers talking
By Piet Levy

Joe Wong

Joe Wong

No one interviews the drummers. Practically the only time they’re prominently featured in an article is when the drummer is the frontman, like Ringo Starr or Don Henley.

…”The Trap Set” isn’t shoptalk.

“Drummers have an interesting temperament I can relate to, but the craft of drumming is irrelevant to the show,” Wong said. “We address issues I tend to think about, like how to raise a family when touring all the time. I didn’t want to believe that being great in the arts has to come with the exclusion of anything else that makes you a person. I wanted to know answers to how people navigate through life.”

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D.J. Fontana, W.S.Holland, Richie Albright Receive Legends Series Award

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Scott K Fish

Nashville honor set for local drummer
John Andrew Prime, jprime@gannett.com 2:27 p.m. CDT July 9, 2015

D.J. Fontana

D.J. Fontana

D.J. Fontana, a Shreveporter and one of the rock world’s legendary drummers, will be honored in Nashville this weekend.

Fontana, who was drummer for rock legend Elvis Presley during the singer’s pioneer years, will be honored Saturday with the Church’s Chicken Legends Series Award.

Fontana will be one of three top drummers honored at the Music City Center during the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants)/World’s Fastest Drummer World Finals. Those drummers are W.S. Holland, who played with Johnny Cash, and Richie Albright, who worked with Waylon Jennings.

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