SKF NOTE: This piece was thoroughly enjoyable to put together. My intent was to write similar pieces with pianists, guitarists, and other instrumentalists as subjects. Don’t remember why I never did.
Also, it is interesting to me, looking at this piece this morning, that on the July 1981 Modern Drummer cover this piece is titled, The Great Bass Players: On Drummers. Every where else in the magazine the piece is, Bassists: On Drummers. In his introductory Editor’s Overview, Ron Spagnardi wrote, “As drummers, we’re all well-aware of the importance of a good musical relationship with the bass player. If you’ve ever wondered what a bass player really looks for in a drummer, well, we talked with some of the best. Their illuminating comments are here to absorb in Bassists: On Drummers.”
[SKF NOTE: 6/17/17 – The Great Bass Players: On Drummers full article is now available on MD‘s Archive Page.]
SKF NOTE: In 1981, the idea of writing a History of Rock Drumming for Modern Drummer seemed as if it would be mostly combing existing books and magazines for biographical details, and weaving all that into a narrative. Boy, was I surprised!
To a large extent, except for a handful of high profile drummers, the history of rock drumming was ignored in authoritative books of that time such as Rolling Stone magazine’s Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll.
In the year it took me to research and write that MD rock drumming series, I discovered several wonderful drummers I didn’t know about beforehand. Also, I found out after-the-fact about drummers I didn’t mention in the series.
One of those was Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section drummer extraordinaire Roger Hawkins. And leaving out Roger from that history was a simple blunder, an oversight. I was very familiar with Roger and his stellar musical career. When someone – an MD reader? – told me I had left him out of the series, I telephoned Roger and said, “I’m sorry.” He was a real gentleman about it.
I also received a letter from a wife in upstate New York. She liked my History of Rock Drumming, she wrote, but thought her husband should have been included. His name, she said, is Gary Chester. And Mrs. Chester included, as I recall, some of the well-known artists Gary had worked with, and some of the well-known songs with Gary on drums.
One thing led to another and I drove to the Chester home upstate New York and interviewed Gary. It was an interesting day with Gary, his wife, and his two daughters. Wonderful people.
My favorite parts of the interview/visit? Gary, talking about first hearing Steve Gadd play, said, “You could tell he wasn’t guessing.” A subtle, to-the-point, assessment.
There exists a photo of a young Gary Chester playing a drumset at a Gene Krupa drum contest – which Gary won. Krupa is standing behind Gary in the photo. Gary said, “Gene was a nice man, but a lousy drummer.” And when I gave Gary a look of disbelief at that comment, he very calmly explained why he thought Gene Krupa was a lousy drummer. I don’t remember the specifics of what Gary said, but…fair enough.
Gary had interesting stories of sessions he played: Using a bean bag ashtray for a shaker sound. Or hitting a balloon with a timpani mallet for a bass drum sound. On a Laura Nyro recording session he rented a large sheet of glass and smashed it as part of a Nyro song.
He also spoke of a method he had for overdubbing drums behind or ahead of the beat, a way to fix songs where the drum parts were rushing ahead of or dragging behind the beat, without having to scrap an otherwise great music take. I also think Gary used a click track when doing this kind of corrective playing.
Let’s use an example where a beat is subdivided into 16th notes counted, “1-e-an-uh”. Let’s say Gary wanted to overdub an eight-measure drum part beginning on the “1” beat of the first measure.
If his goal was to overdub behind the beat, Gary would use the “e” as the “1,” as his starting point, all through the eight-measures. Presto! The rushed drum part was gone. Maybe some Gary Chester students can confirm or correct my understanding of this technique.
I still have my audio-cassette of my interview with Gary. One of these days I would like to digitize it and make it available to the public, or at least get a copy to his family.
[SKF NOTE on May 7, 2023: A few years ago I gave Gary’s daughter, Katrina, digitized copies of Gary’s interview, and a copy of the complete tape transcript.]
Gary’s feature interview appeared in the April 1983 MD. Six months later I was gone from MD, working for Gretsch. So I was not on hand for Gary’s method book, “New Breed,” and his subsequent, very well-deserved recognition by drummers worldwide. But I am glad to have known Gary Chester and to have helped others know him. One of my favorite writing career serendipities.
SKF NOTE: Recalling one morning places I saw Buddy Rich playing live. Not trying to remember times I watched Rich on television shows like “The Tonight Show.”
I remember seeing Buddy Rich in concert five times.
There was one afternoon watching Buddy at NYU. He stopped playing in the middle of his obligatory extended drum solo. And that was the end of Rich’s concert.
At Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, NY, Buddy sat at his drums playing time on his hi-hat, ready to open his second set, when he noticed a sax player missing. Rich stopped playing and asked other sax section members if they knew the missing player’s whereabouts.
They did not.
A moment later the missing sax player rushed onto the stage, took his seat, and opened the opening chart.
“Nice that you could make it,” said Buddy sarcastically. “Enjoy your last night with the band.”
Ouch!
It’s odd, I think, how my memory of first hearing Gene Krupa is clear as a ride cymbal bell. I also have vivid memories of hearing, for the first time, Max Roach, Ed Blackwell, Elvin Jones, Papa Jo Jones, Chick Webb, Jack DeJohnette, Ed Soph, and other drummers.
Through the years, right up to today, ask me who’s the best drummer, and I will tell you: Buddy Rich.
Oh, there are many other great players. But, for having command of the instrument? Rich was the best.
But I cannot remember the first time I heard Buddy Rich.
SKF NOTE: With Roy Haynes’s passing I’m reminded of several gems Haynes said in our interview in his home on this day, November 15, 46 years ago, when Haynes was 53 years old.
Having seen plenty of transcriptions of Haynes drum solos, presented on manuscript paper as so many triplet and other drum rudiment variations, I asked Haynes about favorite rudiment variations. He answered, “Not everything I play has a name.” And later, “I like sounds.”
Haynes was noted for freeing up the hi-hat. He didn’t often play his hi-hat on the standard 2 and 4 beats. Instead, his hi-hat was an independent voice within his overall drumset playing.
When I asked him about this innovation, Haynes laughed. He said he couldn’t play his foot in a continuous 2 and 4 on his hi-hat.
So, what some might consider a shortcoming became a signature part of the Haynes snap, crackle, pop sound.
Haynes said he dreaded playing drum battles with Papa Jo Jones. He said he, Haynes, could play the slickest drums ever, and Jones would have some trick – perhaps a facial expression, or a stick twirl – that would inevitably persuade the audience to vote Papa Jo the drum battle winner.
There was the time Roy Haynes was with a band sharing billing with Buddy Rich’s band. At one point, Haynes had to play a drum solo and he felt the great pressure of soloing with Rich in the house.
But, said Haynes, “everything went right” with his drum solo. And when Rich stepped onstage for his next set, he stepped up to the microphone, telling the audience about the sensational Haynes performance, and leading the audience in another round of applause for Haynes.
Roy told me that meant a lot to him.
I have several more memories of my time 46 years ago with Roy Haynes. But I will leave those for another day.
SKF NOTE: November promises to be a great music month for drummers with newly released albums featuring Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, and Jimmy Cobb.
The Lost Recordings label is releasing the Miles Davis Quintet’s The Complete Live in Paris Vol. 1. This is the Olympia, Paris concert of October 11, 1960. Miles’s band, in addition to himself, included Sonny Stitt (saxophones), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Jimmy Cobb (drums).
“For the first ever, this legendary concert is published in its entirety. The adventure began in 2022 with a visit to a tape recorder enthusiast who had the missing part of this extraordinary recording,” TLR tells us.
This concert, most of it, has been available for awhile. From what I can tell, TLR’s Vol. 1 includes four previously unissued concert songs: Softly, As in the Morning Sunrise, Autumn Leaves, Makin’ Whoopee, and So What.
We will have to see if Vol. 2 includes more unreleased songs.
But Miles’s band here with Stitt is excellent. The rhythm section, sometimes referred to as The Trio, always makes great music, always gives pianists, bassists, and drummers something to think about.
Said DeJohnette of this band and this date, which includes bassist Henry Grimes, “Everybody really played like there was no tomorrow. Luckily, we have this document from that week with this incredible personnel making this incredible music with this intensity and commitment. This recording represents a time and period where musicians were really playing, intensely searching and experimenting with new things.”
Finally, Columbia/Legacy Recordings delivers over four hours of previously unreleased music with Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet on Miles in France – Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8.
Is this album title misleading? The Second Great Quintet, in my mind, is Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Tony Williams (drums), and Wayne Shorter (saxophones). Columbia/Legacy’s upcoming Davis album is half Miles with Shorter, and half Miles with George Coleman (saxophones).
All in all, any month giving us new music from DeJohnette, Cobb, and Williams, is a great month.
Scott K Fish 
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