Ginger Baker Turns 75: The Strange Life of Rock’s Wildest Drummer

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Ginger Baker Turns 75: The Strange Life of Rock’s Wildest Drummer
By Alex Magdaleno

The percussive genius behind the legendary British rock trio Cream turned 75 on Tuesday.

For all his iconic status, Baker couldn’t tell you why he’s so talented. “I just do what I do,” Baker told The Guardian. “I don’t think about it.”

He continued: “That’s the problem with so many people — when they think. They spend all day practicing something and then go to the gig and play what they practiced.”
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The Drum as a Sacred Instrument

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Spirit of the Drum Event Highlights Native American Culture in Washington
By Stephen Underwood, Special to The Register Citizen
Posted: 08/17/14, 7:27 PM EDT

“The important thing about the drum is the fact that it is circular and for Native Americans that means a lot. Everything on this planet is based on a circle, the seasons, the roundness of the Earth, a circle is totality, the shape is also very important to us,” he said.

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Audio: Danny Gottlieb: What Makes A Drum Solo More Than Noise?

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Scott K Fish

The Art of Jazz Drumming
by Jeff Hass

This week on The New Jazz Archive, we update our show on some of the music’s most unheralded heroes: the jazz drummers. Veteran drummer Danny Gottlieb will join us to dissect the art and craft of jazz drumming, and we’ll explore how one simple invention targeting the drummer’s feet set the stage for a hundred years of jazz drumming evolution. And we’ll dig deep into what makes a drum solo more than just a bunch of noise, and explore the life and legend of one of jazz drumming’s most colorful heroes: the great Buddy Rich.

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Moody Blues’s Graeme Edge: A Responsibility to Play the Hits

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Playing the hits: Moody Blues drummer knows what band’s fans want to hear
Alan Sculley For the La Crosse Tribune

Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge says he’s perfectly happy to play the classic songs by his band — even if it’s the 2,000th time he has played a song like “Nights in White Satin.”

In a recent phone interview, he said he learned long ago that what the musicians on stage want to play isn’t what matters.

“You’ve got to do the hits, and I don’t disagree with it,” Edge said, citing a time some three decades ago when he learned that lesson. “I went to see a favorite artist, and he’d just gotten a new album out and he just did the new album. And I was so disappointed because I wanted to hear the songs that I knew. That’s when I realized you have the responsibility to play those songs because that’s what people come for.”

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Roy Haynes: Still Swinging After All These Years

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Roy Haynes… Salute To The Drummer At 88
Sunday, 17 August 2014 00:00, Written by Benson Idonije

Now 88, looking at least 20 years younger and sounding like a young lion, Haynes is one of the wonders of the jazz world; a true survivor who remains a commanding presence at the drums, whipping and driving a band like a team of untamed horses, eyes keen and piercing, face aglow with the joy of music-making. Still swinging after all these years, Haynes is a force of nature whose dynamic drumming continues to astound the jazz world, his athletically supple wrists and agile hands manipulating drumsticks as if they were his birthright.

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