Joe Morello on Buddy Rich Part 2

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Revisiting the transcript of my early 1980’s interview with Joe Morello today. Five or six times Joe Morello said some things about Buddy Rich which were new to me. I also found Joe’s remarks instructive and/or funny. I will post the remarks separately, by subject, over time.

Joe sat through our entire interview with a pair of drumsticks, sitting near a coffee table on which he had a practice pad. In this post, Morello demonstrates points he was making about Buddy Rich’s playing. Joe did so playing on his practice pad.

Also, the Buddy Rich Quiet, Please record was released when Morello was 12-years old.

Joe Morello on Buddy Rich Part 1 

Joe Morello: There was a record years ago by Rich called, Quiet, Please with Tommy Dorsey. This was an old 78. And I heard it and…, “Gee, that’s nice. I want to play like that.”

Buddy was responsible for my wanting to play too. ‘Cause I enjoy his playing, y’know. It was dynamic, powerful, and speedy at the time. [JM plays fast single strokes, demonstrating what Buddy played at the end of Quiet, Please.] And I could play it. I said, “Geez, I’m as good as that. Hell, I can play that. What makes him so good?” Y’know? “Man, I can do all that s**t.”

But I always could hear things easily. I never had to slow the record down or anything. I could always hear breaks very easy. That’s one thing that I was lucky to have. The old man left me with somethin’. I could hear pretty good.

You know what happened? I’d be playing these little jobs around Springfield, [Massachusetts], and I’d do the identical drum solo – and it never sounded the same. It never sounded good. “There’s something wrong. It doesn’t sound like that!”

‘Course, what you don’t realize at that stage is that this guy just played it off the top of his head, and he probably never played that thing again.

–end–

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Where a Drum Line is a Safe Place, a Home

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Grant drum line gets surprise of a lifetime in Hollywood
Lured to Hollywood with the ruse of playing a private party for Robin Roberts, the Grant drum line gets a huge surprise.

Sacramento – …Grant High is one the worst performing schools in Sacramento….

[E]asy for young adults to get into trouble. That’s where the drum line and…instructor, James Van Buren, come in.

“The kids that I’m with 24/7, I love them all, none more than the other,” said Van Buren, affectionately known as Mr. V. “I’m very protective of them.”

“A lot of gang members come out here, they sell drugs; but as the drum line, we protect ourselves, we look for each other,” said senior Tevin Lee, a snare and quad player.

“Realistically, they sleep on this floor,” said Van Buren, “There’s times that I’m doing some stuff, they’ll say. ‘I don’t want to go home’, and they’ll fall asleep right here.”

For some, it’s a safe place, …for others it’s an incentive…to stay out of trouble [and] keep their grades up….

They’ve been invited to play at next year’s Independence Day Parade in Washington D.C.

They were trying to raise…money to go — until Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts found out and asked them to play a private party in Hollywood.

It was just a ruse…. Instead, the group was dropped off at the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio, and given the biggest surprise of their lives.

The kids…were part of an elaborate surprise, to bring Van Buren on the set of Jimmy Kimmel while taping for an ABC special called, “Thank You, America!”

Marriott International heard the drumline’s inspiring story and…will…provide all the hotel rooms for the group’s trip to Washington D.C. next year, they also gave them…$20,000…to help with transportation costs.

Community Chevrolet, in Burbank [gave the group] a brand new Chevy Equinox….

How to Help

[T]he group is still short of the money needed for their trip to Washington D.C. If you’d like to help, please donate at the group’s YouCaring page.

Full Story

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Craftsman with Heart of a Teacher Gets Back His Drums

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Pals put ‘heirloom’ drum kit back in maker’s hands
Sherry Lucas, The Clarion-Ledger 11:26 p.m. CST November 27, 2014
Beloved metro Jackson drummer Joe Partridge Jr. was gifted with a set he’d made nearly 18 years ago, as pals pulled together in a good deed, for a good-deed doer.

This was the drum set that got away.

Joe Partridge Jr. of Clinton, a custom drum maker and high-end furniture craftsman, had last seen it when he’d finished it, signing his name plus “1-97” to mark the date and watching it beat a path out of his life. For good, he thought.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. He got a call from a friend at Lakeland Music when it wound up there.

Week of [a “Ringo Starr”] drum clinic, [Bill] Richardson and Matt Brennan, a drummer and a long-time pal of Partridge’s.., were texting. The conversation turned to those drums….

[Richardson said], “…Matt was real quiet… Then…it was like an angel on my shoulder — said, ‘Do it. Give him the drums.'”

[Matt’s] been a co-worker of Partridge’s…. “We became friends because he has the heart of a teacher. … He’s just a kind soul,” sharing his knowledge about wood working and drum repair.

Richardson and Brennan kept the gift a secret till the final song of the drum clinic.

“A great moment for a great guy,” said Denny Burkes, who caught the emotional reaction — shock, tears, hugs — on video, ” ‘Top Secret’ Mojoe Kit for Joe Partridge’ on Youtube.

Days later, Partridge still was blown away by the generosity of Richardson, Brennan, his friends.

“There was never a set that I made that I really wanted as badly as this one,” [Partridge said.]

Full Story

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Joe Morello on Buddy Rich Part 1

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Revisiting the transcript of my 1979 interview with Joe Morello today. Five or six times Joe Morello said some things about Buddy Rich which were new to me. I also found Joe’s remarks instructive and/or funny. So, I will post the remarks separately, by subject, over the next couple of weeks.

Joe sat through our entire interview with a pair of drumsticks, sitting near a coffee table on which he had a practice pad. In upcoming posts, Morello demonstrates points he was making about Buddy Rich’s playing. Joe did so playing on his practice pad.

Joe Morello: …Buddy’s a good friend of mine. He’s always been nice. Buddy and I have always gotten along very well. And we used to fool around together with the sticks…. He’s got very good technique. It’s not as fast as you would think it is. He looks faster and he sounds faster than he is because he’s clean. Everything he does is very clean. There’s faster drummers, that’s for sure. If you want to just look at it from that. From strictly technically there are much faster drummers, so Jimmy’s faster, Louie Bellson‘s faster….

Scott K Fish: Jim Chapin is faster than Buddy?

JM: Oh yeah. Sure, but Buddy puts it together so beautifully. He builds this picture real nice, y’know.

[Buddy] just does his thing. That’s all. He’s got great ears. He listens. He hears real well.

I remember when we were in Vegas in 1967. He was still with Harry James then. See, for awhile, as you know, he was buried with Harry James’ band. He was with James for quite awhile. When I was winning all the polls and all that s**t, Buddy was coming in like, 12th, 15th. ‘Cause he wasn’t doing anything. He was just in Las Vegas playing Ciribiribin, and he’d do a little think on Caravan, y’know.

I used to meet him on the road once in awhile. I’d say, “Why don’t you start your own band?” He’d say, “I’ll never start another f*****g band as long as I live.” He said, “I’ll just play my three hours a night and go home.” He told me this in San Francisco. That’s when we drove home together and I told him that I knew the way back. Christ! And we got lost. He had a white Jaguar. Oh, Buddy’s nuts. He’s a nice cat though.

I guess Buddy’s still doing very well now, because he’s got a good manager.

Joe Morello on Buddy Rich Pt 2
Joe Morello on Buddy Rich Pt 3
Joe Morello on Buddy Rich Pt 4

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Elvin Jones’s Room

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Scott K Fish

jones_elvinSKF NOTE: For a time in the late sixties, [Elvin Jones] lived in a first-floor room at the Chelsea Hotel. The room was long and narrow and dark, and it was clearly a bachelor’s nest. The bed hadn’t been made, and on a small dining room table were a box of cornflakes and a used cereal-bowl with a spoon in it. The bed was flanked by night tables, an overflowing ashtray and a copy of “The Voyage of the Space Beagle.” The bureau was littered with aspirin and Band Aids and a travelling clock, which had stopped. Wedged between a bass drum and a snare drum in a window alcove were a pair of shoes and a bow tie.

Jones rummaged around in a bureau drawer and pulled out what appeared to be a thick sheaf of hotel bills. “I’m the world’s worst bookkeeper,” he said…. “I’ve been living here for several months, and, man, the seventy-some dollars a week I pay is expensive for me. And Pookie’s Pub, where I’m at now, is not the highest paying club in town. I make about scale, or about a hundred and fifty a week. This morning I got a letter from my wife, who lives near the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco – she’s no hippie – and my kid is sick again, which means more doctor bills. Everybody wants that bread all at once.”

Source: A Walk to the Park, by Whitney Balliett, American Musicians II: Seventy-Two Portraits in Jazz, Oxford University Press 1996

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