“’Everybody hates something!’ the angry child flings. Perhaps. Surely most men do. But the artist must love to create. He must bring love to his art if it is to live. He can hate, but if this becomes all-consuming, his creativity dies.”
Source: Don DeMichael (Down Beat publisher): Love, Hate, and Jazz, Down Beat 10/26/61
Russ Kunkel
In the early 1980’s, Max Weinberg and I were working on a book that, unfortunately, never happened. But along the way, Max and I had a handful of interesting interviews with drummers.
When we asked if he could pinpoint the key to his success as a drummer, Russ Kunkel said it was because when he decided to be a pro drummer, “The only thing I had to fall back on was my ass.”
– end –
The Top Secret Drum Method
by Scott K Fish
Now and then I recall a brief correspondence I had with a drummer – call him Eddie – seeking help publishing and selling his drum method book. At the time, Modern Drummer was not publishing books, but in each magazine we published drum method columns.
Some columns, such as David Garibaldi‘s and Roy Burns‘s, were long running. And some were one-time-only columns. It was not unusual to receive envelopes from MD readers with unsolicited columns inside. If the columns were good – they were published.
So when Eddie contacted me, I suggested he condense his drum method book, or a part of his drum method book, into a column. MD would publish the column, include Eddie’s contact information, and we’d let the chips fall where they may.
We spoke a couple of times after that. Eddie was always in doubt. He was not saying yes to the column, and neither was he saying no. I couldn’t figure out why he was staying on the fence.
Then Eddie came clean. He said he was afraid if MD published a column based on his drum method book, someone would steal his ideas. As far as I know, Eddie never changed his mind. I don’t know what happened to him or his drum method book.
How do you create without sharing your ideas? Most of my life I’ve shared ideas openly. Sure, sometimes when approaching someone with a business idea, I think of the possibility that person could run with my idea, leaving me high-and-dry.
But everytime that happens – that’s when I remember Eddie. If I am so distrustful of people I never share my ideas – then I am never creative. My ideas die on the vine.
Instead, I pray, deal with good people, trust my instincts, and share my ideas. Every day of my life I’m benefitting from something I learned from someone.
– end –
There’s a reason the Monkees’ Micky Dolenz plays drums that way: ‘I know it’s bizarre’
APRIL 30, 2015
BY SOMETHING ELSE!
[T]he unique set up the Monkees’ Micky Dolenz employs for his drum kit.
When he…began to learn the instrument, in his early 20s, Micky Dolenz taught himself to play using his left foot for the kick drum, and his right leg for the hi-hat. He then focused on the snare with his left hand….
“Yeah, half-right, half-left,” Micky Dolenz tells Bob Girouard of Modern Drummer. “The bottom half is left-handed and the top is right-handed. I play the kick with my left foot and the snare with my left hand.
“When I was a kid I had a leg disease called Perthes,” Dolenz adds. “My right leg was, and still is, weaker than my left. So, when I went to play conventional-style, it hurt. But since I was just beginning, [my first teacher,] John Carlos, said, ‘Hey, change it around.’ He put the kick on my left and the hi-hat on my right — which I still do to this day — and it worked!”
[SKF NOTE: This looks great. The drumset players on this disc, in chronological order, are: Connie Kay, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Al Foster, and Ndugu Leon Chancler.]
Miles Davis at Newport: A Four-Disc Set Coming in July
By BEN RATLIFF
April 30, 2015 12:01 am
Columbia/Legacy Recordings is to announce Thursday that it plans to release “Miles Davis at Newport 1955-75: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4” on July 17. A four-disc set of live recordings, it traces the history of Davis’s concerts at the various Newport Festivals — in Newport, R.I., as well as in Berlin; Dietikon, Switzerland; and New York City. (About three-quarters of the tracks have not been commercially released.)
The set includes his complete performance at a festival all-star jam session in 1955, which led to his signing with Columbia; the 1969 concert played shortly before the recording of the studio album “Bitches Brew”; and an appearance in 1975 before a extended hiatus from performing — all of which cemented his status as a Newport mainstay.
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Scott K Fish 
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