New CD Set Combines Six 1961 Coltrane Quartet with Dolphy Shows

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Scott K Fish

[SKF NOTE: I have yet to do a complete inventory, but I know I have several cuts from at least some of these shows on various Coltrane albums. Every cut I’ve heard has first-class, experimental, straight-ahead musicianship. And Elvin Jones plays great throughout.

Acrobat says of this release on their web site: “This is to some extent a sequel to our 2014 release of “All Of You: The Last Tour 1960” by The Miles Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane, as it presents ‘live’ recordings from Coltrane’s European tour the following year.”]

Jazz
John Coltrane: So Many Things – The European Tour 1961 CD review
John Fordham – Thursday 5 February 2015 14.15 EST

5067385There’s been plenty of bootlegged material over the years from this celebrated 1961 tour by John Coltrane with saxophonist and bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy…. Now Acrobat has remastered tapes from six shows in Paris, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm and pulled them into a useful four-disc set….

Coltrane had not long formed his “classic” quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, and in 1961 had also forged a brief but creative association with Dolphy. Their fearless stretching of the postbop envelope remains enthralling (at times even shocking) in its intensity, and the set pinpoints how the same pieces (including Blue Train, Impressions, My Favourite Things and Naima) change from night to night.

Acoustics are inevitably uneven, but students of Coltrane’s gamechanging work at a conceptual turning point won’t mind that.

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Anatomy of Clem Burke’s Drums on Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Scott K Fish

[SKF NOTE: Thank you to the Wall Street Journal for giving writers a chance to publish accounts of well-known songs. It is fantastic to have these musical insights for posterity.]

Wall Street Journal
ANATOMY OF A SONG
How Blondie Created ‘Heart of Glass’
Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein talk about ‘Heart of Glass’
By MARC MYERS – March 3, 2015 11:57 a.m. ET

[Michael Chapman, an inventive producer who had success recording other downtown artists, including Suzi Quatro and Sweet]: We went into New York’s Record Plant in June 1978, but the sound I wanted turned out to be a Pandora’s box of nightmares. The first step was to get the tempo right. I had this Roland drum machine that I wanted to use in sync with Clem Burke ’s drums. You hear the machine on the opening. To provide Clem with a track guide, I recorded the vocal in falsetto. After we had the kick drum pounding, I changed the arrangement so it would skip a beat along the way, to give it a dance feel. I had to get the Roland to skip the beat at the same time.

Then we recorded the rest of the drum parts individually—the high-hat, the snare and the tom-tom. The eight tracks of drums took a week, and synchronizing them with the drum machine was the toughest part. We only had a 24-track recorder, and we couldn’t cut and paste like you can today. What I was asking Clem to do was close to enslavement, and he was ready to kill me. I also brought in two EMT 250s, the first digital reverb machine. I discovered the EMT in Montreux, Switzerland, a year earlier. They gave the snare drum—and later, the vocal—more dimension and an electronic vibe.

Once we had the drum tracks, I turned to the bass. Next came Jimmy Destri on the keyboard. When we had the rhythm-section track, I turned to recording Debbie [Harry]’s vocal on top.

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Fred Below: No Practicing Drums in the House Until You Could Play

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This is the second excerpt from my interview with drummer Fred Below, arguably the father of Chicago electric blues drumming. Mr. Below recorded with Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, the Aces, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, and other pivotal blues musicians.  The interview was published in Modern Drummer‘s September 9, 1983 issue as, “Fred Below: Magic Maker.”

I was at my MD desk in New Jersey using a suction cup mic and an audio cassette to record this interview. Mr. Below was at his Chicago home.

This is Fred Below talking about starting out playing on a practice pad. After graduating DuSable High School in 1944 Mr. Below went into the U.S. Army infantry. He practiced on helmets, boxes, and other things. Eventually, at Fort McClellan in Alabama, Mr. Below met jazz bassist Tommy Potter and saxophonist Lester Young and had opportunities to play music with them.

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Bucket Drummers: The True Meaning of Brotherhood

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Scott K Fish

‘Drum Beat Journey’: an interview wit’ organizer and filmmaker Elilta Tewelde
March 3, 2015
by The People’s Minister of Information JR

Elilta Tewelde [is] a Pan African organizer.., teaching Africans born in the Americas about our brothas and sistas from the continent, and vice versa.

She recently was living in Chicago and took a group of young Black male bucket drummers from the hood to Senegal, West Africa. She filmed the whole experience and is fundraising to get the documentary, “Drum Beat Journey,” made.

M.O.I. JR: What attracted you to the bucket drummers that you brought to Senegal? How old were they?

Elilta Tewelde: I was attracted to their vibrant energy. The musical sounds and vibrations…from the buckets and sticks reminded me of African drumming. Ages during our trip to Senegal: 15, 17, 19 and 19.

I was interested in Senegal for many reasons.

[O]ne of the main drums played in Senegal is…the Sabar, which is played with a stick in one hand and the other hand is used to play on the drum. I felt that was a great connection to make with bucket drumming.

[Also] Senegal is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. [T]he young men.., born and raised in Chicago, …don’t have the opportunity to experience what it feels like to be near the ocean and…swim in it.

Overall, Senegal has a rich culture filled with art, music and dance.

Senegal has a strong spiritual energy, so the boys experienced a lot of transformations…. They saw the importance of community and the roles that elders, children and parents played in that environment.

[D]uring meal time [i]n Senegal…everyone sits in a circle and eats together. [F]amily and friends have the opportunity to talk and share stories.

[The bucket drummers] are used to eating when they’re hungry and not sitting and eating together as a family.

This trip allowed them to be free and express emotions…bottled up in them for a long time.

They experienced the true meaning of what brotherhood feels and looks like amongst men of all ages.

M.O.I. JR: How much do you need to raise?

Elilta Tewelde: $15,000. We’re crowd funding on Indiegogo

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Brian Blade: The Bedrock Foundation for Everything I Do

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Scott K Fish

Drummer’s music is more about tunes than drum solos
By Tad Dickens // Posted: Monday, March 2, 2015 12:15 am

blade_brian

Courtesy Brian Blade’s Facebook page

[W]ith Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band[..,] Blade is the act’s leader and chief songwriter, but drums are in the mix strictly for rhythm and texture. On the band’s recent releases, “Landmarks” and “Season of Changes,” no drum solos are heard.

Not that Blade’s playing is chops-free. The man can burn….

Blade took the stage with [Chick Corea] last month to gather up the [Grammy’s] best instrumental jazz album award. The album, “Trilogy,” was a three-disc live set from the shows that Blade, [Christian] McBride and Corea played together.

“If I started thinking to myself [about past Corea stick men] Steve Gadd or Lenny White or Dave Weckl, they’re just daunting,” he said. Instead, “What have I learned from these great masters, and who am I?

…Blade[‘s]…father…has been pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Shreveport, Lousiana, for 53 years.

…Brian moved onto the drum throne at church. “[I]t set the bedrock foundation for everything else, musically, that I do. [W[hen I’m home on Wednesdays and Sunday, I’m back in the seat at church, playing drums still.”

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