A Larry Bunker – Steve Gadd Mind Meld?

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Two days ago Frank Godiva’s post on the Great Drummer’s Group Facebook page reminded me of a question I would love to ask Steve Gadd. Godiva’s post concerned master percussionist Larry Bunker, and showed Bunker’s The Larry Bunker Quartette – Live At Shelly’s Manne-Hole album cover. Many years ago I bought a cut-out copy of the Bunker Quartette album on vinyl — and loved it.

The track, Panther Pause, especially grabbed my attention — especially Larry Bunker’s drum intro.

Later, circa 1972, I bought a vinyl copy of The Chuck Mangione Quartet’s Alive! album with Steve Gadd on a four-piece Gretsch drumset. Gadd’s intro on St. Thomas is remarkably similar in concept to Bunker’s Panther Pause intro. And I wonder if Gadd heard, and was influenced by, Bunker’s drumming on Panther Pause.

Or perhaps it was just a cool concept floating around in the ether tapped into by two musical giants.

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Big Sid Catlett – A Beautiful Sense of Composition

Posted on December 27, 2019 by Scott K Fish
Big Sid Catlett photo from Drummerworld.com

SKF NOTE: Ruby Braff was a jazz trumpeter born in 1927 and died in 2007. Having first hand accounts from musicians who knew and worked with great drummers like Big Sid Catlett is invaluable. In Ruby Braff’s brief remembrance here, he gives us insight into important universal principles of drumming Sid Catlett used so well: economy of motion, knowledge of music composition, and a musical style of soloing.

Ruby Braff on Big Sid Catlett — He arranged his drums so tightly around him they looked like little balls hanging off him. Watching him take a solo was a thrill. He hypnotized you. His sticks went so fast they were blurred. But they also looked like they were moving in slow motion.

Each solo had a beautiful sense of composition. Most drummers can’t even count, but if he took a twelve-bar solo he played exactly twelve bars and if he took a thirty-two-bar solo he played exactly thirty-two bars. And each solo sang its own song.

Source: Whitney Balliett, American Musicians II (Oxford University Press, 1996)

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1980s Drummers Steve Felix and Derek Blevins

Posted on December 26, 2019 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Here are two more drummer photos I’m putting in the public square. Derek Blevins with Jon Butcher Axis is on the left in that band’s photo. I confess I’ve never heard much of the JBA.

The Bus Boys’ first album was a hoot. I still like their song, American Worker. Drummer Steve Felix is also standing on the far left in the Bus Boys’ publicity shot.

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Kenny Clarke – When Technique Becomes Meaningless

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Scott K Fish
Photo found on baterasjazz.blogspot.com

SKF NOTE: A Q&A between drummers Art Taylor and Kenny Clarke.

Art Taylor: How important do you feel technique is for playing the drums?

Kenny Clarke: I think any musician needs just enough technique to express himself; I don’t think he should go beyond that. It becomes meaningless if it goes beyond his feelings. It’s always good to have a little technique to spare, but I don’t think you should become wrapped up in technical things as far as music is concerned, because music comes from the heart! It has nothing to do with technique at all as we know it.

Source: Art Taylor, Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews (1977)

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Mick Avory – Give The People What They Want (1982)

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: As a kid, I always loved The Kinks’s music. Their rockers as well as their ballads. And I owned several Kinks albums, from their first LP to either Arthur or Muswell Hillbillies. Then my limited funds were spent more and more on jazz and blues albums.

But a few years ago I heard Ray Davies’s solo album, Working Man’s Cafe, on the radio, liked the songs very much, and starting buying and listening again to his solo albums, and reading his autobiography, Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story.

Here’s a publicity shot of The Kinks (1982) for their Give The People What They Want album. The three original band members in this photo are, L-to-R, Dave Davies, Ray Davies, and drummer Mick Avory. Keyboardist Ian Gibbons is next, followed by bassist Jim Rodford.

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