Stanley Turrentine: “Sometimes I’d go into the studio without knowing who was on the date. I wouldn’t know who was playing bass, drums, or whatever. No music, no nothing – we’d go right into the studio and create. And some of those albums, man, were some of the best I’ve made.”
Source: “Stanley Turrentine, The Blue Notes of Mr. T,” by Gene Kalbacher, Down Beat, May 1985
SKF NOTE: This is an interesting chronology of the Bo Diddley beat. Missing from this article is drummer Clifton James who recorded many of Bo Diddley’s great records, and deserves credit for popularizing that beat.
Bo Diddley used a canny sense of PR to open the door for modern rock and hip hop
JUNE 4, 2015
BY NICK DERISO
…“Bo Diddley” is something you can’t get out of your head. Perhaps that’s because the song, reduced to stark simplicity, is almost all rhythm.
…Diddley opened a door that the British Invasion, punk music, hip hop and new wave would later rush through.
Still, …Bo Diddley’s …“shave-and-a-haircut, two-bits” beat didn’t start with the man who made it famous. The sound, called kpanlogo, originates from Ghana, West Africa.
A similar rhythm drove “Hambone” by Red Saunders and his Orchestr…years before…. Kpanlogo-style drumming, in fact, made several appearances in the previous decade, notably showing up on a post-war Gene Krupa recording.
Clearly, Red Saunders needed a better PR rep. What he needed, of course, was Bo Diddley.
SKF NOTE: A snippet from Jim Clash’s four-part interview with Ginger Baker for Forbes magazine.
JUN 16, 2015 @ 9:52 PM
Cream Drummer Ginger Baker’s Early Influences, How He Kicked Heroin Habit
Jim Clash CONTRIBUTOR
Ginger Baker
Jim Clash: You are a jazz drummer at heart. Name some of the greats who you have met and/or played with.
Ginger Baker: I’ve played with Art Blakey, a totally unrehearsed thing in Munich in 1972. I’ve played with Elvin Jones. One of the nicest compliments I’ve ever had was from “Philly” Joe Jones when he heard me play. He said, “Man, you tell a story.” There was also playing in Nigeria and getting the whole audience on their feet!
JC: I know people here in America who consider you the best of all time.
GB: I wouldn’t quite say that. I think I’m one of them, for sure. I had my own thing, which Phil Seamen had, which Art Blakey had. When you hear them playing, you know who it is. Max Roach, “Philly” Joe Jones, Elvin Jones. It goes back to “Papa” Jo Jones and [Warren] Baby Dodds. All of these guys had a huge influence on me, but I didn’t copy them. Probably the biggest influence was Phil Seamen. He was God. He heard me play one night and said afterward, “Sit down, I want to talk to you. You’re the only drummer I know who’s got it.”
SKF NOTE: Indianapolis music teacher Bob Phillips, who John Von Ohlen mentions in this post, is, John says, “the guy who really taught me music.” Mr. Phillips and the back story to this 1985 Modern Drummer interview are explained here. Learn more about Mr. Von Ohlen’s current drumming on The Blue Wisp Big Band web site.
Scott K Fish: I’ve heard many favorable comments about the Stan Kenton Clinics. What were you expected to do there? How did you feel about doing them?
John Von Ohlen
John Von Ohlen: Well, they were wonderful experiences. There was only one thing that might have been a detiment: Teaching should be done by someone who knows. Well, hell! We were going into all these clinics, and alot of guys in the band were just learning themselves. But we were put into teaching positions. The kids looked up to us because we were with a nationwide touring band.
So you’re spouting out all this crap that is probably erroneous. I was guilty of that sometimes, but there were guys in the band who were in alot worse shape than I was and they were giving dissertations that were wrong. They were into brawn: How to play loud and nothing else.
What the hell kind of clinic is that?
I always stressed that drummers shouldn’t take it too seriously and should relax. Keep your physical body as relaxed as possible while you’re playing. Right away you get a better sound, and your time will probably be better because you are relaxed and free in your mind.
Everytime you get a bunch of drummers together they’re so serious. They’re thinking about all of this crap they’ve got to do because of all these heavy drummers around the country.
Man, some of the best moments in drumming have been the simplest little things.
Don’t worry about trying to be complicated. Bob Phillips use to tell me, “John, if you never remember anything else I ever say, don’t be afraid to play simple. Don’t be ashamed to play simple.”
I like to play as complicated as the next guy, but you don’t have to do that. Your base should be a simple perspective.
Harvey Mason can play complicated, but he lays down some pretty simple things. But it’s got that feel on it – so, what the hell! You don’t need to do much when you’ve got the feel. Why blow the feel for some brainy idea?
– end –
SKF NOTE: A DrumForum.org user asked about John’s severe snare drum angle in the photo accompanying this post. Here is my reply:
I spoke yesterday afternoon (6/22/15) by phone with John Von Ohlen. He told me he uses the severe snare angle for playing Bebop and small group gigs. It enables him to get certain left hand rim hits and shots he can’t get when his snare is at a flatter angle. That is, when John is playing in a situation where he most often is using his left hand only on his snare drum – he likes the severe angle. The snare drum, he said, “looks like it’s going to slide off the snare stand!”
But, John said, “That’s not the way to play.”
In situations where a drummer will be using his or her right hand on the snare — use a less severe angle.
And thank you, Joe Gaudio, for reconnecting me with John Von Ohlen.
Best, skf
SKF NOTE: On May 22, 2015 I posted two pages of photos of Gary Chester at a studio recording session from a book Gary co-wrote with Charles “Charley” Perry called, “The Popular Rock Drummer.”
These two pages from the same book are of historical interest. Example, Gary tunes his bass drum, in part, by filling inside the drum halfway with “rolled balls of newspaper.”
Click on the pics for full size versions.
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