Levon Helm’s Down Home Style and Sound

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This terrific Levon Helm video arrived yesterday on my Twitter feed. Thank you, Daniel Bedard, for your original posting.

I’m reminded of what a powerhouse musician we had in Levon Helm. He sang with one of pop music’s classic voices. You never wondered who was singing when Levon was singing. He played a number of string instruments well, notably guitar and mandolin. And he created his own down home drum style and sound that was, as they say, often imitated, but never duplicated.

Former members of The Band are here with Levon. Rick Danko on bass/vocals, and Garth Hudson on keyboards.

When I think of Levon I see him first behind his set of old wood rim Ludwig drums. Secondly, I picture Levon at his old Gretsch kit. While it’s not true, Levon at other drumsets, like the black set he’s using here, always seem to me someone else’s drums. Not Levon’s.

There’s some very good camera work here. Fun seeing Levon play from above and behind him, and from his left side. This isn’t drum method book drumming. It’s drumming learned by ear, trial-and-error, on-the-job training; drumming learned by watching and asking questions of admirable players.

Posted in SKF Blog | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Levon Helm’s Down Home Style and Sound

In Love with Art Blakey’s Minimalist Drumming

Posted on September 30, 2019 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Art Blakey is well-known as a powerful drummer, a great bandleader, and one of jazz’s best talent spotters. His near constant hi-hat played on beats two and four, his musical drum soloing, his press roll — these are pieces of Art Blakey’s drum style people write and talk about most often.

But, Art Blakey is a superb drummer in at least two other areas I find mentioned less. Blakey is an exceptional big band drummer. That was clear to me back in the mid-1970s on my first listen to a live 1945 recording of Blakey in the Billy Eckstine Orchestra playing Blowin’ the Blues Away. A young professional drummer then in my mid-twenties, Blakey’s playing on Blowin’ was a pivotal moment; a great lesson in swinging a band hard without overplaying. Also, a great lesson in using the bass drum to accent horn lines.

Then there is what I think of as Art Blakey’s minimalist drumming. He has perfected his ability to pare down his drumming to only what is absolutely necessary to accompany soloists, and to keep the tune swinging.

Blakey’s drumming on the title track from his Blue Note label Jazz Messengers album, Like Someone in Love, is a classic soundscape of his minimalist side. My ears always welcome this beautifully arranged medium tempo ballad. From Bobby Timmons’s introduction, through Lee Morgan’s unbelievable trumpet solo, and Timmons’s excellent piano solo, Like Someone in Love is very high on my list of favorite jazz tracks.

And Blakey? For most of the song, with drumsticks, Blakey limits his accompaniment to playing time on a riveted ride cymbal, clipping beats two and four with his hi-hat. Add a couple of snare drum taps, one soft roll, and some easy ride cymbal accents — a perfect performance, a perfect example of a drummer supporting his band members and never getting in the way.

Posted in SKF Blog | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on In Love with Art Blakey’s Minimalist Drumming

Kenny Clarke – Magic Brushes 1961

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Some eye opening brush work from The One, The Only Kenny Clarke with the Bud Powell Trio. Phew!

Posted in Audio, SKF Blog | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Von Ohlen – How the Blue Wisp Big Band Got Started

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Scott K Fish
John Von Ohlen

SKF NOTE: This exchange is from the full transcript of my 10/12/1984 phone interview with John Von Ohlen. He was at home. I was in my Modern Drummer office in New Jersey.

Scott K Fish: How did the Blue Wisp Big Band get organized?

John Von Ohlen: Well, we’ve got fine players in Cincinnati, and all the guys were doing was playing shows. That’s a drag if that’s all you’re doing.

We all need to make money. So I thought we ought to start a band, play what we like to play and just interest a club owner. You can usually interest a club owner real easy by saying that you’ll play for the door.

We came into the Blue Wisp Jazz Club and played on Wednesday night and got the best players in town for this kind of thing. It’s a real natural band and fun to play with. We’ve been together for about five years with the same guys.

When you start a hometown band, that day of your first rehearsal you might as well figure that those guys are going to be in that band for the rest of your life because they’re your friends. Even if you find out down the road that you don’t like the way they play — you can’t fire your friends. You know, you have to go to dinner with them. So they’re in the band. That’s it.

Posted in SKF Blog | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Frankie Dunlop – Johnny Rowland Showed Me Key to Coordination

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: An excerpt from the edited transcript of my 1984 interview with Frankie Dunlop.

Just before this part of the interview we had been discussing Frankie’s formative years as a drummer. The reference here to Charli Persip and Ed Shaughnessy is from earlier in our discussion, Frankie talked about watching those two drummers in New York City jazz clubs, studying their hand-feet coordination and their use of double-bass drums.

=====

Frankie Dunlop: [T]he one who really showed me the key to coordination was my teacher in Buffalo, Johnny Rowland. When I left Buffalo to move to New York, he’d been percussionist with the Buffalo Symphony for thirty to forty years. I’ve been in New York [City] for twenty-five years and Johnny’s still with the Symphony. So he’s got to be seventy-five, eighty years old.

He’s a very good instructor. He had that love in his heart and a will to share his knowledge for a small amount of money. And he didn’t have to do that. And even though he was involved with symphonic pieces and the classics, he knew just what to teach a new drummer so he could play jazz or whatever he wanted to play.

If you asked a thousand young drummers if they wanted to study with the percussionist from the Buffalo Symphony they’d say, “No. I can’t get what I want out of a cat who’s playing in a symphony. I’m a jazz drummer.”

But my experience was the complete opposite. I learned more about coordination from Johnny Rowland at a time when even the average drummer in Buffalo thought it was a drag that I was studying with him.

He showed me all the intricacies and gave me the kingpin lessons in all the things that would lead me to coordination and independence. How to be able to play modern. And I realized from one simple little exercise that you could practice on your knees that this was the same kind of stuff that I heard [Charli] Persip and [Ed] Shaghnessy playing.

Posted in Audio, SKF Blog | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Frankie Dunlop – Johnny Rowland Showed Me Key to Coordination