Casey Scheuerell’s Masterful Drum Pocket on Chaka Khan’s “And The Melody Still Lingers On (Night in Tunisia)”

Today probably more than ever, the division between drum pocket and drum shredding has become quite a point of discussion and display. An entire generation of players have attained a level of technical ability, blazing speed, and consumption of available space in musical time that leaves many drummers from the time before MIDI in the dust.

But in 1981, Casey Scheuerell’s drumming on Chaka Khan’s “And The Melody Still Lingers On (Night In Tunisia)” laid down a pocket that made all the chops in the world irrelevant. If you’ve not heard this song, well, you need to, because the drumming lesson within its measures will cure you of the urge to blaze and make you want to ride the whitecap of a wave that pocket drummers should strive to emulate.

I found an excellent blog post quite by accident the other night that covers the song’s history, and you can check it out here: https://movingtheriver.com/2015/05/04/story-of-a-song-chaka-khans-and-the-melody-still-lingers-on/

I can really only add a few personal comments, because this post nails what you need to know. What I love about Casey’s playing on this track is how with almost every hit, he was leaning about as far forward into the groove as he could without rushing it. That in itself in an art. So, I’m going to break the song down into the sections I could identify and share my appreciation for the groove he laid down (according to the post) in one take. Casey joined Abe Laboriel here on bass, Paulinho DaCosta on percussion, and David Foster and Ronnie Foster on keyboards.

The unmistakable essence of the melody is stated on trumpet from the start over a synth intro, and that horn is played by none other than Dizzy Gillespie, the bebop legend who composed the original tune in 1942 that this version draws inspiration from. Chaka Khan covered the hit with producer Arif Mardin, and her instantly recognizable rubato phrasing graces the first :32 seconds of the classic, followed by Casey’s single-headed tom lead-in that sets the pure pocket pace.

From that sound forward through the melody, he is on the edge of the beat, with a punchy kick that thumps you square in the sternum. The dynamic levels of snare, kick, and hi-hat find their respective places from loudest to softest, they don’t deviate from their interrelationship one bit. If you listen very carefully to Casey’s kick drum, you can hear the slightest and precisest dynamic level shift from pickup note to down beat in a two-beat pulse that rides like an elliptical cam in its delivery. Thump-THUMP, Thump-THUMP, Thump-THUMP.

Perfectly.

And when it comes time to play a two-note pattern starting on the beat leading into the bridge, each 16th note is equal in its dynamic level: THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP. The intentional and deliberate placement of these notes is a reflection of musical intelligence aiming exactly for the right place to put something. There’s no auto-pilot going on here. It’s a pilot flying the plane by hand every second of the song.

Casey’s fills compliment musical space the same way. They flow unobtrusively out of his hands, leaving precise room between each note, with narry a hint of hurry to get to the next one. He’s THERE. Right, where, he, needs, to, be…

Listen to the tom roll come out of nowhere at 1:45 in the song. It rise up like a swelling wave and delivers the only thing even close to fast hands. But they aren’t obliterating time and space with everything they’re capable of. They are contributing musically, like any other respectable and responsible melodic phrase.

From 1:41 to 2:55, Herbie Hancock contributes his Clavitar Keytar improv over the seamless rhythm section flow. At 2:16, Casey creates a brief floating moment with percussionist Paulinho DaCosto between two toms and the kick drum that is classic early 80s, with spacing that lets each tom hit and two-note kick phrase breathe and propel, like water drops. Again, he’s THERE… Right, where, he, needs, to, be… then back to the punctuating pocket.

From 3:15 to 3:46, the accents lead up to Chaka Khan unleashing her highest notes that go vertical and take you along for the climax ride. Then, at 3:47, producer Arif Mardin inserted a segment of the actual classic Charlie Parker’s alto sax run from the original recording, and it’s worth waiting the entire song for.

Dizzy Gillespie’s unmistakable one-of-a-kind trumpet voice restates the melody and improvises the song out to the end over Chaka’s haunting refrain, guiding the musical ghost back into the night from which it came. According to the above-referenced blog post, Gillespie almost wasn’t able to make the session. Doing so bridged a 40-year musical gap that no one else could have done, and seriously, it should give you the chills it deserves.

Nothing is going to stop the onslaught of all too often unmusical obliterating drum set overkill from its social media driven proliferation, but for 5:00 minutes in 1981, there was none of that to be found. There was only masterful pocket and musical excellence, revisiting and respecting a timeless classic that bridged that fused jazz and pop music in a very unique way. A tip of the hat, so to speak, to days gone by when musicans reached into their creative unknown, exploring a new style of jazz that begged for the dogs to be let off the leash to see how fast, far, and intensely they could run. With Chaka Khan’s “And The Melody Still Lingers On (Night In Tunisia),” drummers have a model of how to propel and support, thanks to the tasteful contribution of Casey Scheuerell. So crank this song and hit replay, and hear how your job as a drummer and a musician should be done. Right, there..

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Casey Scheuerell is known for his work with Gino Vanelli and Jean-Luc Ponty, and he’s the author of Stickings and Orchestrations for Drum Set (Berklee Press), as well as Berklee Jazz Drums (Berklee Press), which by the way, you might have seen a copy of the recent season of Fargo. Actress Sienna King, playing daughter Scotty Lyon, is seen holding a copy of the book at the dinner table.

Casey is a Professor of Percussion at Berklee, where has taught since 1993. His website is http://www.caseyscheuerell.com, and he probably doesn’t remember, but I sold him records once at Big Ben’s in Encino, California, way back in the day…

Neurodiversity Behind the Drum Set – How Accepting Tourette Syndrome Helped Me Embrace My Music Truth

The term “neurodiversity” has been making the rounds for several years now, the newest buzzword that carries interesting associations and implications. Socially, and more specifically medically, when someone says they are “neurodiverse,” the term is often used to express their particular condition, such as autism, Asperger’s, or in my case, Tourette Syndrome.

I did not receive a proper and correct diagnosis until I was 20; from age six to then, I had no idea whatsoever what was causing my body to move uncontrollably and make jerky movements whenever they chose to arise. I had virtually no control over these movements, but once I discovered the drum set at age nine, I found a pursuit that allowed me to release, harness, and express myself.

Playing the drum set also provided a socially acceptable means of moving my limbs, as well as receiving some degree of approval from people whom I would have otherwise dreaded being around for fear of being ridiculed and teased. This ever-present fear drove me deep inside myself, and to this day, nearly 60 years after the first symptoms began to appear, that withdrawing instinct still remains a force to be reckoned with.

So… when the term “neurodiversity” sprang up, and people started using it in reference to who they were, I was reluctant to use the word. I initially felt like it was just another buzzword that would trend and be used as some sort of crutch. I pulled away from it, quite honestly. The thing is, I’d also been pulling away for years from talking very much about Tourette’s and how it had shaped and helped my playing all my life unless I was talking with groups of people with Tourette’s.

I wrestled with how to incorporate Tourette’s as a topic of larger social discussion, and later out over the Internet into the musical community, because I didn’t want to be seen as someone who was labeling themselves. I wanted my playing to be judged on the basis of performance, not social categorizing.

This might not seem like a big deal to someone who doesn’t have any sort of neurological condition, but for those who do, you get it. I had a very hard time living with the duality of being known as a drummer and being known as a drummer with Tourette’s.

But then Dr. Oliver Sacks came along, and he started changed everything about how I viewed my dilemma.

I was doing an Internet search for my name one day several years ago to see what was out there, and I kept seeing my name pop up in reference to a book called Musicophilia, written by Dr. Sacks in 2007. I had no idea he’d included mention of me in his book, none whatsoever. I knew he’d written the Foreword to Don’t Think About Monkeys (Hope Press, 1992), a collection of short stories written by people with Tourette’s, and he’d liked what I had to say about how drumming had helped me in my contribution, “Rhythm Man.” What I didn’t know was that in the following years, he’d written about me in medical papers, and then in Musicophilia.

Finding these accounts helped me wrap my head around things better, but still, I felt uncomfortable with presenting myself as someone with something rather than just being someone, period. I can’t emphasize how much of an impediment this dilemma had been for me up until recently. However, that changed further last September 2023, thanks to a meeting of drummers in Boston at Boston University.

Dr. Gareth Dylan Smith and Dr. Virginia Davis co-sponsored an academic gathering titled “The First International Drum Kit Conference.” Academics from all over the world gathered to share thoughts and research about the drum kit, and I was invited speak as someone who had a very different perspective to offer than most… that of being a drummer with a neurodiverse condition.

I’ll be writing a separate post about that conference shortly, but for now, the moment that let me know how to find better balance came from a professor from Florida who replied to the small group meeting we had and the issues I shared about the term “neurodiversity.”

I was talking about how I didn’t know how to move forward with including the term and the ideas in reference to myself and my playing, or if I even should. He more or less said this: “It [Tourette’s] is an inseparable part of. It greatly contributed to the shaping of your playing. It’s not who or what you are, but it’s there nonetheless, and you don’t need to follow the conventional path, because your life is anything but unconventional.”

With those words, I finally realized how to move forward. It’s okay to talk about a term in relation to how it shaped my playing. It’s not a crutch of any sort. It’s a pair of shoes I’m walking in. That I can live with. That I can talk about. That lets me come out of my cave.

Hence this current blog post.

When I wrote Tourette Syndrome and Music: Discovering Peace Through Rhythm and Tone, my music autobiography in 2013 (Rollinson Publishing Co.), the term “neurodiversity” really wasn’t in use as far as I know. I self-published my story mostly for the Tourette community because I wanted them to know about how helpful music had been in my life and the control it had helped provide me over my body all those years. Still, I was reluctant to put the story for all the aforementioned reasons.

Today, I realize that I should be talking about all of this, a lot. The abilities that Tourette Syndrome have contributed to my playing have been lifelong and are fascinating. I now feel much more comfortable talking about them and will do so in future posts. One thing is certain: the hypersensitivity to touch has certainly helped me dial into the deeper subtleties of drumstick control, and I hope to be able to convey thoughts in the future that might help drummers with more normal neurological wiring.

Furthering those plans, I’m back in school now, working on completing my undergraduate degree in Psychology so that hopefully I can go on to graduate school to do research about the neurology of playing the drum set, to help bridge the gap between the arts and the sciences on this subject. I was recently invited by Dr. Smith and Dr. Davis to write a chapter about Tourette’s and drumming for an upcoming academic book publication, which I submitted a few months ago. The ball is rolling, and I finally know where to direct it.

We are the sum of our parts, and the resulting synergy is definitely greater than that sum. We all owe it to ourselves to be true to ourselves, embrace everything that’s there and do as much with it as we can in the short amount of time we’re here. That’s what I really get now and can embrace. Neurodiversity may be replaced with another term somewhere down the line, but whatever it’s called, it refers to the shoes we walk in.

The trick is figure out which way to point them. Once you do, the “path” becomes clear, because the real truth is, it’s more about embracing the path you’re walking the path than going in any particular direction. If this makes sense, then welcome to my renewed and clarified musical/life journey…

The Day I Met Lou Harrison, The Man Who Redefined My Future

In the summer of 1985, I was living in Santa Cruz, California. I was 26 and struggling to figure out how to complete what would eventually become The Elements of Rhythm, Vols. I & II. I had handwritten hundreds, probably thousands of fundamental rhythm pattern combinations and their note value variations, but the book still needed a great deal of refinement and comprehensive structure.

I found the key to that structure one day while browsing through the nearby Aptos Library, where I came upon a small book called A Musical Primer (C.F. Peters Corp. 1971), written by the esteemed American music composer Lou Silver Harrison. In his very small book, Harrison presented the math that I had been using to systematically generate all of the finite building block rhythm patterns that all larger combinations were derived from. 2ⁿ was the key to creating the patterns, and Harrison was the first author I’d discovered in the course of my research to date who was using it.

The idea was simple: n = the number of beats or division of the beat, and 2 = the number of silence/sound combinations that were possible per beat. Duration was an additional variable; what I wanted to create were the OFF/ON, silence/sound, binary basics, like if you tapped a surface and no tonal duration of any significant length was present.

Writing these words now may not seem profound, but at the time, I felt like I’d come across the Holy Grail. A few weeks later, and quite by chance, I learned that a friend of mine actually knew Harrison, who as it turned out, lived less than two miles from my house. My friend felt sure that this iconic composer would be willing to consider meeting with me so I could show him my work in progress. I penned a letter, and couple of weeks later, Lou Harrison replied:

My mind was blown when I opened his letter. I could not believe that he was open to meeting, and I called him shortly after that to arrange it. About a week later, my world changed forever…

It was a beautiful September morning in the redwoods, and as I drove my ’72 Dodge Charger up the hill to Harrison’s house, I could hardly hold my thoughts together. Five years prior, I’d felt much the same when I auditioned in my drums for Frank Zappa, so at least I’d had a taste of what extreme stress felt like. I hoped to show Harrison my book draft and ask his opinion on how it could best be structured, and with that hope, I pulled into his driveway and walked towards a very cool and funky looking house surrounded by interesting lawn artwork.

Harrison greeted me with a jovial small, and I was immediately stunned at the likeness he bore to my father. I mean, I did not see that coming! In some ways, that was an odd but good thing, and we went inside to his living room to have a chat about rhythm patterns…

I explained to Harrison how my book idea had been born from a lesson with Terry Bozzio, who a few years before had shown me a list of 16 basic 2/4 patterns. He said at the time that these were the basics and that I should master them. I took his idea and expanded on it exponentially, and this is what I showed Harrison:

I told him that his own book was the first I’d seen that contained the 2ⁿ math approach, and he acknowledged that its source actually came from American music composer and close friend Henry Cowell. It seems that Cowell was extremely curious about rhythm and had been exploring the systematic generation of basic patterns many years before. He had also written a rhythm manuscript that Harrison believed might have been similar to what I was working on, but he did not know if it had ever been completed, or if it had, where it might be.

What Harrison did know and expressed what that figuring out the basic patterns and seeing them in print “had been a joy.” I’ll never forget those words. This was a man who had transcribed the music of Charles Ives in a similar obsessed and detailed manner, and as he thumbed through my insane collection of handwritten patterns, I’ll also never forget the bemused smile on his face. He understood the obsession and appreciated it.

Time seemed to fly talking with Harrison, and as we began to conclude our meeting, he suggested that I apply a world approach of some sort to my book, similar to David Reck’s Music of the Whole Earth (Da Capo Press, 1997). I think what Harrison had in mind was that I look at world music cultures and explore the universality of the fundamental building block rhythm patterns. I remember expressing doubts that I could tackle such a huge task, and he simply smiled and said, “You have the mind for it.”

We parted cordially, and I drove home in a state of bliss. I’d finally found not only someone who understand what I was doing but who had explored it in a similar way and had given me his blessing of sorts to carry on the work. A year later, I moved to Washington D.C. to use the Library of Congress to find every book published on the subject of rhythm, to see if anyone else had been working on what I was doing.

No one had. I was it. I believed that the future of rhythm pattern theory and exploration was in my hands, literally.

A few months later, I contacted Henry Cowell’s widow to ask permission to read his papers in the New York Public Library collection, hoping to find his lost rhythm manuscript. I took the train to NYC and spent a few days there but had no luck in finding the work that Harrison had referred to.

As I headed home back to Washington, I figured there was a very good chance that what I’d been working on was likely very similar to the collection of possible fundamental rhythm patterns that Henry Cowell could have been working on if he was using the 2ⁿ idea to calculate them. I’ll probably never get the answer to that question, and it would take me another 30 years to complete what I’d started, but I finally did in 2012, when I self-published The Elements of Rhythm, Vols. I & II (Rollinson Publishing Co.). It had taken this long for music publishing technology to evolve to where I needed to create exactly what I wanted, but it was worth the wait.

I’ll always wish that Lou Harrison could have seen the finished product, and I’ll always be grateful for meeting him that day and benefitting from his knowledge and suggestions. He truly changed the course of my life that afternoon, inspiring me to do the heaviest mental lifting of my life and see things through to the end. It was the honor of a lifetime to be welcomed into his home and his world, because on that day, the vantage point from his Aptos hilltop home gave me the perspective to move on with every major project that would follow.

So to those of you with a vision for something beyond than anything you can imagine, I hope you’ll go for it with everything you’ve got. The feeling of completion will transform you, for the bigger and the better. Of that, I am quite sure, because I’m pretty sure that’s what Lou Harrison was really trying to tell me, in the long ago summer of 1985.

– David Aldridge

Kahokiss: The Superhuman Inferno for Otoboke Beaver

I was wandering through Instagram the other night and came across a random post that exploded in my face. I thought I was seeing things when this diminutive Japanese drummer was absolutely destroying the drum set with the rawest, focused energy I’ve seen in years. The last time someone blew up a kit with this kind of energy was the drummer for Fishbone back in 1984, when I saw them at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California.

And then comes Kahokiss, the drummer for Otoboke Beaver.

And you ain’t see ANYthing like this!

Japanese punk rock is not my thing. I have no clue as to what these energy bomb girls are singing. But I don’t care The sheer energy is off the charts! The focus and precision of their direction is hardly random, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Kahokiss’s blistering blast beats.

In this clip, Mike from The Art of the Guitar breaks down what Kahokiss is playing and does his humble best to work up to her speed. She’s clocking in at close to 250 bmp by his estimate. And she’s not hardly breaking a sweat. Kahokiss plays like this is the most ridiculously simple thing she could be doing with her morning. It’s frightening to think what she could do if she was pissed!

I’m quite serious about my respect for Kahokiss’s extreme drumming, because what I see is someone capable of delivering tremendous energy EXACTLY where she wants to like an A-10 Warthog tank killer unloading its 1,350 30mm rounds that almost push the jet backwards as it unleashes its merciless assault. The fluidity of her hands and arms is an exercise is relaxation. And what makes it all ever more interesting is her attitude.

Do you see even a hint of ego here? Of course not, because there is none. She’s having the time of her life letting every bit of energy the universe can send her way get into her body and find its way out. I can relate to this on the deepest level, and I know it when I see it happening. Kahokiss isn’t just a drummer; she’s a live wire conduit!

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A post shared by かほキッス (@kahokisss)

Here’s another perspective of Kahokiss playing “I Checked Your Cell Phone.” Unreal! She’s completely unleashing, and you know damn well there’s a helluva lot more under her skin that could be let out.

I hope someone in the Japanese music press will interview her and present it in English, I really do. Kahokiss joined the band in 2018, and while there was a little more I was able to discover in general about the band, I could not immediately find more information about her.

I suppose that only adds to the mystery and intensity. Now I get that not everyone is going to enjoy Otoboke Beaver’s music, and really, that’s okay. But I truly do hope the drumming community will take notice of a human nuclear reactor whose rods are melting down and burning everything to the ground around them.

Like I said, it’s been a very long time since I heard a drummer who was completely off the charts, who is frighteningly ferocious, and who isn’t anywhere near the apex of her playing capability. This is the kind of raw, unrestrained assault that hits precisely where its being directed is artistry in chaotic motion, fueling the other member of the band to equally go sideways while keeping it all together. It’s like watching four runaway trains about to collide from north, south, east and west but not. They instead merge onto four parallel tracks and scream towards the edge of a cliff, driven by a two-legged inferno who wears colorful print dresses and who could devour anything in her path.

Check Otoboke Beaver out on their website of the same name (www.otobokebeaver.com) and on Instagram (@otobokebeaver) and YouTube (@otobokebeaver22). You can find Kahokiss on these social media sites as well. She’s a force of nature to be reckoned with, and I seriously think she’s only just getting warmed up…

Whisper Drumming and Why You Need to Practice It

I was reading a great blog this morning by Cruise Ship Drummer about YouTube drumming videos at an absurd level. By absurd I mean ridiculous content taken to extremes. So much of the Internet bombards us with louder, faster, stronger, that it becomes the norm and the expectation of what we should learn and how we should practice.

 

We have for at least a decade and will likely continue to be inundated with so much of what we don’t need and precious little of what we really do need. We all want better control, right? This is what I want to address here, but likely not in a way you’re used to hearing about.

 

Now in the time it took you read this far, the typical impulse is to be fulfilled with some sort of instantaneously transforming content or move on. If you stick around and fight the 900 mile an hour sound note world we live in, you won’t transform instantaneously, but I’m confident your perspective will change for the better if it’s not already there.

 

I coined the term “whisper drumming” this morning as I was drinking coffee and streaming the Netflix series “Suits.” Throughout the episodes, I sit my desk with my classic Ludwig Billy Gladstone pad, and I play as slowly and quietly as I possibly can. I play my double strokes rolls without rebounding, feeling every sensation of from delivery to surface impact and all the range of motion in between.

 

I use 7As and then switch to marching sticks, paying close attention to what the tendons in my wrist feel like through all ranges of motion. The tendons are the primary lifter for the German grip (back of the hand flat), and the supination muscles (outward rotation) are the primary lifting tools for the French grip (back of the hand sideways) as well as for traditional grip in the left hand. The pronator muscles are what turn the left inward towards the drum.

 

What we really need to do to develop more control and tune into these muscle groups, as well as every nerve ending in our finger tips, is simple: play at a whisper. But our current drumming culture doesn’t really foster this notion. It’s all about louder, faster, stronger, which quite frankly, is bullshit.

 

So try this quick exercise and see what you think: play a double stroke roll at about 50 bpm, moving the sticks no higher than you see in these two pictures. Even better, try it with two significantly stick weights 7A and marching stick seen here).

Try it for two minutes. As quietly as you possibly can. At a whisper. Then come back and finish reading…

 

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Peter Erskine has long been an advocate for practicing single stroke quarter notes on the ride cymbal for a reason: it simplifies your discover of the sound you’re creating, makes you listen to the duration of each cymbal ping, make you think about the placement of the stick… all that from a single stroke.

 

The world is not going to slow down, and our bombardment of advertising, information overload, and the illusion that we must keep up with it all is here to stay. What we must do to fight it is slow down, become very quiet, and listen. If you practice whisper drumming for even 15 minutes through half of your favorite show, you’ll want to do more of it, because it will give you the control and awareness you want and need to become better.

 

In closing, I’ll leave you with this thought: when I was 15, I used to sit behind my kit and slowly move my hands from the snare drum to the other drums and cymbals, and I would pay attention to and feel every possible millisecond that I could of physical contact with the stick and every part of my body required to move it.

 

This you should practice in silence so you can tune into things at the deepest levels. If you give the method a shot, you’ll not only improve your drumming, but you’ll also receive a tremendous side benefit. You’ll develop a tool to cope with all of the overload, a place to go to where you can escape the madness. You be improving control in more than just your drumming, I guarantee it.

 

As always, thanks for checking thing out. I hope that this blog post in particular does indeed give you some fuel for rhythmic thought.

 

– David

 

Hand Exercise Warmup: 6-stroke Rolls + Paradiddles

Howdy, folks. It’s 102 degrees in Austin right now, and well, I can’t say it’s delightful. However, there’s still practicing that needs to be done, so here’s a simple hand warmup exercise with a video clip that’ll do the right thing for your chops.

It’s a combination of 4 sets of 6-stroke rolls (RLLRRL, RLLRRL, RLLRR, RLLRRL, played like triplets) immediately followed by 4 paradiddles (RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL). Start slow, then work up to around 130 bpm.

The important thing is to:

1. Let the sticks bounce freel
2. Stay as relaxed as possible.

You can find more short clips of my drumming at David Aldridge Drums over at YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUhGP1o0cnLefOoKowozRPQ

I need to update these clips, as many are fairly old, but they still have good stuff to offer. I’m going to be revising my channel with regular updates that I hope will provide you with useful exercises.

If you like what you see, please subscribe. It’s not a fancy channel with high end production, but it’s got practical content that won’t take you long to watch.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Hudson Music and The Elements of Rhythm, Vols. I & II

The world has changed exponentially since I first began work on my binary rhythm pattern theory books, The Elements of Rhythm, Vols. I & II. What started in 1981 with a simple drum lesson with Terry Bozzio at a rehearsal studio in Los Angeles became a three-decades-long journey to figure how to make sense of the origin and evolution of rhythm pattern development.

During that time, electronic publishing was born, and the creation of books was forever changed. What was once thought of purely as the realm of science fiction became reality, with the knowledge of the world becoming available at our fingertips. Some people pulled away from technology, and others leaned forward into it, seeing and making the future unfold before their eyes.

Hudson Music was one such company. Putting things into place during Covid was no easy chore, but thanks to Rob Wallis, the reality of my books becoming available through Hudson Digital and their Hudson Digital Bookstore app overcame the challenges.

In the coming months, I’ll be expanding The Elements of Rhythm website to include tutorial exercises and video clips you can use to explore all that the books have to offer. It hasn’t been possible to do until now, but thanks to Hudson Music and Hudson Digital, I can continue to move forward with technology in a way I only dreamed of thirty years ago.

As always, thanks for checking out my blog, and look forward to more interviews and profiles with some very interesting members of our drumming community in the year to come. We have access to an overwhelming amount of knowledge now at our fingertips, and I appreciate every visit to this site.

I hope you’ll consider adding The Elements of Rhythm, Vols, I & II, to your musical libraries; if you’ve seen the books and want the direct link to Hudson Music, click here:

http://www.hudsonmusic.com/product/elements-volume-1/

http://www.hudsonmusic.com/product/elements-volume-2/

If you’ve not seen the books yet and would like an expanded preview, please visit www.TheElementsofRhythm.com, where you can also find a link to Hudson Music. They have of drumming resources for you to check out, and I hope you will support their continuing efforts to advance drum education into the 21st century.

Thanks, and keep pushing. We made it through Covid and kept on going, ‘cuz drummers never stop…

Drumming and Interval Hand Training/Conditioning

Here’s a post with three suggested approaches to help you develop and condition your hands to keep them working for many years. With just a few minutes a day of dedicated warm-up practice, you’ll feel results very quickly, and you’ll be quite pleased.

The exercise is divided into three parts, Strokes, Weights, and Volumes

Part I are the Strokes: Singles, Doubles, Triplets, and 6-Stroke rolls.

Part II are the Weights: Very light, light, medium, heavy. For this part, I use Regal Tip 2B’s,  5A’s, and  7A’s. I try this exercise first with Regal Tip brushes (Classic model) and then work my way up to a pair of Vic Firth marching drumsticks, graduating through the three different weight sticks mentioned.

If you don’t have brushes, you can substitute 7A’s for similar lightweight effects. I also sometimes use a classic pair of Pro-Mark steel drumsticks to wrap things up in place of using marching sticks.

Part III are the Volumes. You want to utilize Soft, Medium, and Loud volumes for each different set where you vary the stick/brushes weight. Keep loose at all times, no tension. If you feel tension, stop immediately and shake it off, then get back to it.

Part I – The Strokes

Start with Single Strokes, very slowly, to wake up the wrists. Play as loosely as possible so you feel the tendons doing their wrist support work. Focus on pulling the stick back off of the head and feeling the tendons doing the lifting work. Terry Bozzio gave me this exercise back in the early 80s, and I have used it steadily since to warm things up. In fact, it was his exercise that actually inspired me to expand the notion, so I owe him thanks for that.

The idea here is to tune into your muscles and tendons throughout the entire range of motion. It’s not a speed exercise. It’s an awareness exercise that actually carries over into live playing. That’s something I’ll talk about in a future post.

Next, perform slow Double Strokes, and do it two ways:

1. No rebound, just tapping twice and then alternating to the other hand

2. Use rebound and control it very precisely.

Spend several minutes just relaxing with this to keep the wrists and fingers very loose. When you use rebound, really feel the stick bouncing on the head, don’t just take it for granted. The idea is to get more in touch with sensation by using simple movements.

Then proceed to Single-Stroke Triplets for a few minutes. The key is to keep feeling the muscles and tendons moving and to stay aware of that sensation. It’s very easy to go on autopilot after a few minutes of this, but this is exactly what you want to avoid. STAY IN YOUR HANDS!

Lastly, we’ll put single and double strokes together for one of the best conditioning rudiments ever, the Six-Stroke Rolls (RLLRRL). There are soooo many applications of this rudiment that allow you to create fast and fluid combinations, but for now, speed is not a concern. Precision is.

Part II – The Weights

Use at least three different weight sticks to create your warm-up and exercise sets. Brushes first if you have them, and 7A’s or something equally light if not. Work your way up to the next weights, but do include brushes if you can along with three additional weights of drumsticks.

The key here is to keep your hands and fingers as relaxed as possible while practicing. Getting tight serves no benefit. If you get tight at all, stop and shake it off, then resume playing.

Part III – The Volumes

Here’s where you keep from getting bored and have something additional to concentrate on besides motion. The order is very important: MEDIUM, LOUD, then SOFT.

The leap back and forth from the different volume levels with each set of sticks keeps the sensitivity up, which is what really provides the control. The more in touch you are with the different feel of the sticks, the more precisely you can play.

Going from LOUD to SOFT is the critical shift, because you instantly have to relax your hands. The Doubles and 6-stroke rolls are really interesting to play here because of how you need to vary the stick height. It’s physics made fun!

CONCLUSION

Consider using both matched grip and traditional grip with these exercises. If you are familiar with both the French and German tympani matched grips, you can add some interesting and beneficial variation to your hand development.

Try playing 10 minutes with each stick weight group. At the end of 30 minutes, you will definitely feel like you’ve done something good for your hands.

Lastly… I know there are literally hundreds of videos out there that emphasize speed development. There’s never gonna be an end to the discussion about the pros and cons, but I will say this: if you DO want to improve your speed, you first need CONTROL. Try these exercises for a few days, and you’ll be on your way to improving both aspects of your playing.

Enjoy, and as always, thanks for checking things out here.

After Covid, Where Do We Go As Drummers?

I’d like to continue a bit of thinking from the previous post (NAMM 2020 and Sonor Vintage Series California Blue kit) and ask readers how they are feeling now that Covid has been somewhat contained and life has almost returned to normal.

The toll it took on live playing was devastating. Clubs closed, gigs dried up, and to some degree, it was replaced a little by more on-line studying, creation of video content, and a whole lot of home practice.

But where do we go from here?

Are you exhausted from it all? Did you pack things up and move on? Did the prospect of limited live performance change your life radically? I would really like to hear from readers in the Comments section about how you dealt with things and how you are moving forward.

I think it would be of great benefit to your fellow drummers to share, if you felt like it, how you got through things and more importantly, what kept you from giving up on playing. I believe as drummers that we have a unique community; always have, always will, and supporting our drumming goals is a big part of that.

Personally, I went through stretches of extensive hand conditioning, followed by months of no full drum set practicing. I couldn’t handle the isolation and the boredom, and I didn’t have an on-line network of musicians to interact with. Instead, I eventually sat down wrote a 400-page novel and then turned it into a screenplay. That took two years of writing and re-writing, shopping to find agent, not landing one, and then… Covid subsided, and my mind returned to drumming.

It was also very difficult to want to write pieces for this blog, obviously, as you no doubt saw there was very little activity for quite some time. But, sharing interesting drumming information and notions with you is something I really do enjoy, and it feels great to be getting back into things, with much more to come.

But back to your, the reader and the drummer: I sincerely hope you made through Covid okay, and while things will likely never return to what I call the Before Times, where we go from here is still fairly wide open. I hope you caught your second wind, pointed your finger at a new target and goal for your playing, and kicked things into high gear.

I really would like to hear how you pushed yourself and where you’re going if you’d like to share in the Comments section. If not, thanks for checking in to this little blog in the Cyberverse, and keep your energy up and moving forward. The drums don’t play themselves, and we can’t fully live without them. It’s the best teamwork I’ve ever known, and this community is like no other.

Sonor’s Vintage Series California Blue – Time Travel Made Possible

It seems like one hundred years since I set foot in the Anaheim Convention Center in the Before Times. No masks, no hand sanitizers, no fear… and no clue as to what awaited the world just two months later. They say hindsight is 20/20, which makes the year 2020 all the more ironic, doesn’t it? We had no idea…

It was at NAMM 2020 that I found what still remains the most stunning, classy, eye-catching and jaw dropping drum set I think I’ve ever seen. I remember coming around the corner and stopping in my tracks. There at the pristine Sonor booth was pure vintage artistry, a double bass kit showcasing Sonor’s Vintage Series. 6mm, 9-ply German beech shells, falling back to round edge bearings and styling from the 50’s and 60’s. A look that made you look and would not let you look anywhere else.

It’s been almost three years now, but I could not stop thinking about that kit. So you see, this particular blog post is not exactly a product review. It’s purely about being mesmerized by impeccable German artistry and craftsmanship. I would love to have been in planning room when the powers that be got together and someone said, “What would happen if we brought back something from the classic era… and made it… truly classic?”

I believe Sonor first released their vintage series back in 2015, but it didn’t include the finish you see here. Even though these pictures are now three years old, Sonor’s California blue finish still has no aesthetic peer, at least not to my eye.

Like I said, it’s been awhile since I first saw this kit, and unfortunately, the onset of Covid hit hard and took my interest away from my blog activities as I pondered what was going to happen with our world. But the other day, I was browsing through old NAMM photos and found these two, and decided I wanted to share my passion for what I saw.

However… and I am being entirely honest here, I did not notice until tonight (as I’m writing this) one of the best testimonial images I’ve ever seen responding to a drum product. Look closely at the guy in the picture. This was not staged, I promise. Look at the stunned reaction on his face…

Sonor, your design engineers knocked one out of the ballpark with this series. This kit is in a league of its own, and it was the highlight of my 2020 NAMM visit. I hope you continue making this finish for many years to come with this series, and thank you for reminding us that true legacy never goes out of style.

Giving the Kick Drum Some Respect: Playing From the Bottom Up

I learned how to play a gen-u-ine Texas shuffle in my 20’s here in Austin, and about seven years later, I rode a Harley across country from Maryland to California. The only shoes I had room to carry were my steel-toed biker boots. I wore them everywhere for months after settling in Santa Cruz, California.

One night, I was sitting in with a blues band there, and I hadn’t played in several months since leaving the East Coast. Up to that point in my life, I’d always played from the top down, thinking much more about my hands than my feet. I knew how to play a legitimate Texas shuffle (both hands playing the same triplet feel beat), but the thing that it really needed was to focus on the kick drum first and then send my energy upwards.

I figured this out thanks to my biker boots. They were ridiculously heavy, and they limited how much I could do with my kick pedal. I had to really work it, and it made me focus significantly on it. The guitar player counted off the song, and I laid down the beat with much more emphasis on the kick than I’d probably ever really paid.

Suddenly, the dance floor began to fill up. People were moving, the band was instantly energized, and I was quite pleased and able to be much more patient with my playing. A couple of years later, I moved to Los Angeles, and one night I sat in at a club in Santa Monica. Up to that point in the evening, the musical energy had been kind of low from the preceding jam bands. No one was dancing, and it was fairly lackluster overall.

I sat down behind the kit, the guitar player called a shuffle, and off we went. I laid into the kick drum like I’d been doing since Santa Cruz, and all of sudden, yes indeed, the dance floor began to fill up! The band was elated, and the energy went to a much higher level.

I now believe that for most music with a solid groove, the kick drum should be your signature. That dull thud you hear from your side of the stage becomes something very different when it travels out into the audience, and if you’re lucky enough to have a monitor or ear buds of any sort, you can carefully craft the sound and driver that propels the beat.

The snare drum will always loudest, the kick drum second, and the cymbals third in terms of volume. I heard David Garibaldi talk about this dynamic level balancing once at a Sam Ash drum clinic on Sunset Blvd., and his advice stuck. Point being, you don’t want to crush beer cans with your kick pedal to the detriment of the overall sound mix you’re trying to create.

Give it a try the next time you play or practice. Pick any beat you like and focus on creating the sound with the kick drum, really feeling it hit the head and paying attention to it. If you haven’t been doing this, you may be quite amazed at the difference in your playing. Your band members will feel instantly as well.

Lastly, and this is something I enjoy doing in particular, pick someone dancing on the floor and direct your playing towards them. Watch how they react to what you’re doing, even though they have no idea you’re doing it. By giving your playing to them, so to speak, you transform your entire performance attitude to one of no expectation. Instead, you stay in the moment much stronger, and as a result, the song takes on even greater life. If you can make them move their feet with yours, you know you’re doing something right, and the key to that is all in what you choose to focus on within you drum set’s percussive palette.

Joonas Nieminen: A Finnish Drummer with Groove and Finesse

What is hip? I mean really? That’s almost like asking the question found in the beginning of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good–Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?”

When it comes to good drumming, I don’t think we do need to ask. It reveals itself, plainly and clearly. There’s no question when you hear it. The “there” is THERE. You don’t need to go looking for it.

The other day, I had a real hunger for some classic Tower of Power, so I went to YouTube and searched “What Is Hip?” Of course, the classic version popped up immediately, from the original 1973 album… and then I saw cover version posted from a Finnish drummer named Joonas Nieminen… and I don’t really remember why, but I hit Play and gave it few seconds of listening…

Boom. There. THERE. Right there. Noooo question.

I had never heard of Joonas until looking for this song, but I watched the entire clip with respect that increased with each measure. Not one shred of ego. Hardly even a shred of anything other than pure drumming and pure drummer attitude. It was like a breath of fresh air to watch and listen to someone so focused on nothing else but construction of the groove.

Now there are many fine drummers in the YouTube universe, and I hope Joonas doesn’t mind me pointing out his clip and playing, but I feel compelled to because it’s just so right there. The absence of any kind of attitude. No wasted motion whatsoever. Economy of movement 101.

Did Joonas play the classic exactly as recorded? I don’t know, my ear probably isn’t sharp enough to catch every little nuance. To me, it didn’t matter even if he didn’t. The performance of simplicity and focus was what held my attention. The clip is an excellent lesson in these two elements, not to mention good dynamic level balance.

And that snare. CRACK! Every hit was CRACK! Sound was being produced, and this is a very important point. I once heard David Garibaldi speak at a Sam Ash drumming clinic in Los Angeles maybe 10-12 years ago, and one of the points he emphasized was the idea that we have to be our own recording engineer and monitor the volume level of each limb very carefully. We have to consciously produce the sound EACH TIME WE STRIKE A SURFACE.

I only found a few other links to Joonas’ playing and background, which you can seek out by putting his name in quotes followed by “drums” if you like. Longtime readers of this blog know that I used to find people who had something really interesting to offer and write a post like this to bring them to your attention and let you look for more info. That said, here’s the link to Joonas’ YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Joronjalka/featured

I’m gonna be getting back to more of that, along with some long interviews of players you’ll enjoy hearing about in their own uncensored words. For now, click PLAY on Joonas’ clip and check out an unassuming drummer. You don’t need flash when you know how to burn steady, and that’s the real lesson. We may not need anyone to tell what is hip, or what is good or not good, but it sure is nice to hear hands and feet moving in synch with the right stuff. And when it’s there, it’s there.

Joe Zawinul: The Somewhat Long Lost Interview about Drummers and Weather Report

Have a seat, kids, I have a story to tell you, about a once young freelance music journalist and drummer who blew the biggest writing assignment of his life and has been plagued by it since 1993…

/ /

On January 20, 1993, I borrowed by roommate’s truck and boom box and headed over the Santa Monica mountains from the San Fernando Valley to the Malibu residence of one Joseph Zawinul. I’d been sent there by Modern Drummer to interview Zawinul for a column called “A Different View,” where non-drummers were interviewed about their take on us and what they like, don’t like, wish we’d do, etc.

He greeted me with his stern but friendly demeanor, and we sat down in his living room for about two hours. I pressed “Record” on the big-ass boom box, and he spoke. Actually, no, he composed. He wrote the interview. I was just there to push buttons and check my list of twenty questions. It was intimidating as hell to be in the presence of this jazz legend, co-founder of Weather Report, and basically the most respected keyboard player on the planet. That’s all. No pressure. Nope.

So Zawinul talked and I listened. And I learned. His insights into drummers and what he liked/didn’t like were a lesson in how to play and how to be. He covered a wide range of time, from when he first arrived in America in 1959 to the present (1993), and it was probably the most informative two hours of my entire musical life.

We concluded the interview with him saying that he liked my questions (the very few that I felt needed asking after such an in-depth and informative monolog), and I told him I’d let him know when the article would be out. Those were the last words we ever spoke, and something he said earlier in the interview would haunt me for decades. “If you have too much respect, it can get in the way…”

When I got home and finished transcribing the interview, I realized that I had a few more questions that needed clarifying, but I felt extremely awkward about contacting him again. It had taken a few months to even line the interview up, and he mentioned that he was leaving for Chicago to see an ailing family member, so the last thing I felt like doing was (in my mind) bothering him. I’d wait a little while to it… which turned into days, then weeks, then months… and then never.

I blew it. Never finished the article. I’d co-written a previous piece for Modern Drummer about Stanley Clarke with my writing partner and mentor, Adam Ward Seligman, and I’d been given the Zawinul assignment because Adam’s health had taken a bad turn for a time. I was new and green writer and was completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the assignment, as well as the fear of following up. So, I tucked my tail and buried myself away with no solution in sight.

Fast forward to, I believe 2015, the NAMM show in Anaheim, California. I was there doing research about my books, The Elements of Rhythm (Vols. I & II), and I passed by the Modern Drummer booth. Several times, actually, because as had usually been the case since 1993, the haunting thought of not having completed the assignment would often come up out of nowhere. This time is showed up right in front of the booth, so I walked away, took a very deep breath, and approached Adam Budofsky. I told him the story and asked if I could send him what I’d written anyway to see if they might still be interested in using it. He said, “Sure,” so I went home and did that.

I basically wanted to know if I could print it in my (this) blog if they weren’t interested. It didn’t feel right to just put it out there without asking them first. I don’t know if Adam ever received my email, and I never heard anything back, so I retreated to my fail cave and figured I was just going to have to live with this fail for the rest of my life.

Until July 12, 2021. I did a Google search for “Joe Zawinul” and “Modern Drummer,” and BOOM! There it was: Joe Zawinul, A Different View, Modern Drummer, April 1997, published four years after I’d failed to deliver, written by my late friend, Adam Ward Seligman. Adam passed away in 1999, and we’d lost touch, so I never knew the piece was finally completed by the guy it had originally been assigned to. Oddly, things worked out, which leads us to… The Somewhat Long Lost Interview with Joe Zawinul about Drummers and Weather Report.

I finally feel like I can now ethically share Joe Zawinul’s words and insights and have wanted to forever. It’s only taken twenty-nine years, but you’ll get a different view, that’s for sure. I’ve written Modern Drummer a couple of times since to inquire but never heard back. Since there was no contract and no money paid, I figure I’ve done as much as I can to clear the proper way forward to share my afternoon with Joe Zawinul.

Throughout 2020, Covid 19 and the upside-down state of the world pretty much re-wrote reality, and certainly we’ve all had to face our share of fear. I’m breathing freely tonight as I hit these keys, and I’m hoping that getting this rather delayed piece out into the world will remind us to be brave, don’t run and hide, and lean into whatever needs solving. I never thought I’d find a solution, so, there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

So enjoy, but be careful about what you try to bite off and chew in the future. I think smaller bites might have been a much better idea…

/ /

                                                     A Different View: Joe Zawinul

                                                          by David Aldridge, 1993

            “When you talk about drummers, it’s very important who plays bass, because a drummer alone is nothing…when he plays alone, he doesn’t exist. It’s that team between a bass player and the drummer. If you get that, you got a band.”

                                                                        – Josef Zawinul

                                                                       * * * * *

            To the Austrian born keyboardist and co-founder of Weather Report, a drummer is synergy, the sum of the rhythm section parts. Zawinul likes a drummer who is forward leaning, someone who knows how to pump a musical wave to the end, without interrupting the curl. This concept is more than a descriptive notion; it is the Zawinul foundation of pulse. He calls it rolling energy…

            Since 1960, Josef Zawinul has worked with American jazz drummers in bands led by Maynard Ferguson, Dinah Washington, Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis. In 1970, Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassist Miroslav Vitous put the words “Weather Report” into the jazz world’s vocabulary. After a brief continuance with “Weather Update,” Zawinul formed his own Zawinul Syndicate, which is currently enjoying the success of their latest Columbia/Sony release, Lost Tribes. With a musical career spanning more than thirty years, Zawinul has noticed a thing or two about drummers. Perhaps that’s because he considers himself one.

            “I myself was always into drums. I played drums [and other instruments] in an octet in Austria,” says Zawinul. “We played the history of jazz as it moved up the Mississippi River, from Jellyroll Morton to Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Lenny Tristano. I played drums during the swing period.”

            Zawinul came to America in 1959 to attend Berklee College of Music. Through jazz drummer Jake Hannah, (“one of the finest drummers”), he was introduced to and auditioned for Maynard Ferguson. “At that time in Maynard’s band was a guy named Frankie Dunlop, an incredible drummer,” recalls Zawinul. “Playing with Frankie for a few months was really an experience. He was a wonderful time-keeper, he had some slickness which I very seldom heard in big band drummers. [Frankie] was not rigid, he had some really slick ways of bringing in and out a motif.”

            A two-year gig with singer Dinah Washington followed. “During these twenty-three months, we must have had six drummers… Dinah was very peculiar. Lex Humphries was in the band, a really good drummer. Next one we had was Al Jones, used to play with Dizzy. [Al] was a student of the drums, and he studied with Sonny Igoe. He was the best drummer we had, he was perfect for that trio. Beautiful taste and timing, great technique. Taste is the thing, especially when you play in a trio behind a singer. A drummer has a very important job.”

            In March 1961, Zawinul joined Cannonball Adderley’s Quintet and began a four-year tenure with Louis Hayes. He describes meeting Hayes as “another level of forwardness. I always liked that…rolling energy, a driving factor. He had a God-gifted right hand, a phenomenal cymbal beat.”

            “It depends a lot on who the bass player is also. You have some combinations, they don’t work well,” Zawinul explains. “Like in everything. But that combination, Sam Jones [bass player] and Louis Hayes, was one of the premier rhythm duos I think of anytime in jazz music. It became a very good rhythm section.”

            “I felt a feeling, really good. It had such a groove, really, really easy to play. It was in a way, uncomplicated. When [Louis] went to the cymbal, whatever he did on the side, never took away that cymbal consciousness. This is that forward driving. He played 16th notes in such a short way, that not only didn’t it interrupt the pulse, it was the pulse.

            “It was the most incredible cymbal beat. He always put those little hiccups in, and it never left the flow. Later on I will tell you about some drummers, they were very great, but whenever they played a transition, the groove, not the GROOVE, but the FEELING [and the] the SOUND of the groove stopped. When you have that simmering and the band is cooking in a simple way, you are accompanying a soloist, it’s very important to be uninterruptive yet very creative, and that takes a hell of an amount of concentration and invention.

            “I think Louis Hayes was a real young masterful drummer in that sense… plus he had phenomenal memory, which gave him freedom to really improvise nicely and play with the tune. I learned a lot from Louis Hayes.”

            Roy McCurdy followed Hayes in the Adderley drum chair, after leaving Sonny Rollins. “Roy really developed into an extraordinary band player. He was a very good soloist. A lot of drummers, you listen to drummers today, so chop orientated, it’s a theme and variation in music, it’s always something related to the song, not to just show off what you have learned. And what Roy did very well, he could play an extension [of the song].”

            “With Cannonball, Louis Hayes, the concept was, usually during tunes we take fours, you know the good old thing, a rudiment type of thing, all the bands had the same thing, play fours with the drummers. But we give everybody a little shot so they don’t feel bad. Therefore I believe let the drummer play a long solo right in the beginning of the set…you know what I’m saying?

            “Drummers are funny, when I say animals I mean a species, it’s a different type of species, you know, it’s just a thing, it the hardest instrument there is. But Roy was able to play long solos with the melody context, he had another kind of concept, he was more sitting on it, which in the beginning made it not that easy, because we were really BAM! Forward leaning, very forward leaning, but we got accustomed to it, we had then, after Sam, we had a bass player, Herbie Lewis, for a little while.     

            “Because the keyboard player is usually real flexible. I always learned in my music life – therefore I was never worried about who I was playing with, as long as the bass player and the drummer know how to play together, I’m alright, and the basic concept is some urgency. The urgency for me is, it means, the cymbal beat, which is way on top, and the distance to the beginning of the beat, to the BAP!  that backbeat is at the very last moment. That’s very difficult to describe in words – that distance has gotta be like a slingshot effect, between when he hits the cymbal, or any other instrument on the drums, that Boom! that beat, has gotta BAM! it cannot be Bot, it’d gotta be Boom!, have a little anticipation, not even early, it’s just the way you [smacks his hand on the table] slide into it, you know?

            “And that back beat if there one on like say on the snare drum, making it easy to understand, that snare drum beat if it’s too early, you ain’t got nothing, it sounds like all boxed in. Most drummers today play like that, therefore the music is hardly swinging. In my case, I couldn’t play like that. But if I hear a drummer or a bass player I really really like, then I say ‘Hey, get the bass player, or drummer’, you know what I’m saying?

            “So, the problem we had after Sam and Louis Hayes left, was not that the drummer was not on the same level, it was a little different style, a little more sitting on the backbeat sometimes, and it really depended – we had to go through a few bass players. During my tenure with Cannonball Adderley after that, six years was with Sam Jones – I was with him nine and a half years – when we had Herbie Lewis, then we had, we tried out Reggie Walkman, then we had Victor Gaskin, then we had Walter Booker. The last year and a half or so while I was in the band, we had Walter Booker. What happened with all these combinations, I think, the best Roy did was with Walter Booker, Walter Booker is a bass player – you must know about him – because of the person he is, the character, he got this communication talent, he knows how to communicate, he knows how to get around, probably play well with most people. And THAT’S what you got, whenever you speak about drummers, you GOT to have the bass player in there. Then after that we did this thing with Miles Davis, and Lenny White at that time was in Mile’s house a lot, and I liked the way he played…

            “I remember I was in Boston playing with Cannonball, and this kid comes up to me and he’s really, really young, maybe about sixteen or something, and we were working Storyville, and he said he wanted to play something with me. So we went down into Storyville in the afternoon, and this was Tony Williams, man, and it was incredible. And I said,’ Wow, watch out.’ I told Louis [Hayes] about it, ‘You gotta hear this kid’, and Louis said, ‘I heard him, he’s alright’, and I knew already then he was really, really, good. He scared people, Tony, he scared people.

            “I didn’t play much, I only made this record with Miles. But then when Wayne and me started Weather Report, I heard this guy, Alphonse Mouzon. Somebody told me that the guy was tremendous sight-reader. Plus he could really swing, he played with Chubby Checker, he had a good background, a good solid background. And he played jazz, so, we checked him out. He played in a band at the Apollo Theater where I was playing my last gig with Cannonball. So Wayne and me decided we’d get Al Mouzon, and Al Mouzon was in the band for a little while, and he was very good.

            “I don’t really remember that much how he played, and I’ll tell you why. I didn’t have that much time to really pay attention, because the band was in the beginning, that I thought it was my job – and it worked out to be that way – to hold it together. So I was really concentrating on focusing rather than concentrating on a rhythmc-melodic concept where I kind of keep the balls continuous, going. Not meaning that I’m all the time playing, but there’s always these accents. I just yesterday listened to something what we did with Alphonse, man it was good, we were really smoking.

            “But it really came to light when we got Eric Gravatt. Eric Gravette was my favorite drummer. He just had everything, man, he had everything, he could swing, he had the most incredible energy, he was PLAY-ing, man it was a dynamo. He was very small, he played a small drum kit.

            “I found Eric when we were playing with Cannonball in Washington D.C., and he played with another band. I couldn’t believe this guy how he played. Tony was already gone from Mile’s band, so I got him. I called Miles and said, ‘Man you gotta check out Eric Gravatt,’ and Eric went with all his drums to the house, and Miles didn’t even let him in! But he called him to come up there. It was all organized that he comes up there and plays for Miles, and Miles didn’t even let him in.

            “Anyhow, this was a master musician. He was a writer. But sometimes you get somebody so good he will do anything. He wanted to shape the music. In many ways it was good, and in some ways it was not. At times, where there was supposed to be a crescendo, just for the love of it he would decrescendo, and it kind of drove shit around. So after a while, we said, ‘Maybe, we know this man is great, maybe we try somebody else.’ It’s better sometimes you got somebody who is not that good, but he is totally in the flow of the music. And unfortunately that happened. I can tell you what happened. When we recorded our third album, Sweetnighter, I had a song which was called “Boogie Woogie Waltz.” And I played with wah-wah, it was a groove tune, off our third album. Our first album was a fill out, we never played a show together, we went into the studio and recorded the album in three days, the initial “Weather Report” album, just feeling what everybody would do with a few lines. 

            “The second album was a little more involved, we did half of it in Japan, live. For this album, there was a double volume album out of this whole entire first concert we did there. I felt at that time, ‘Okay, now this is enough we have done now, swinging around now, looking for each other, looking for things, very nice musical, but I want to now put more of this rhythm and blues feeling. By that time, I’d been playing eleven, twelve years in America, with some of the greatest people. So we decided to put this tune “Boogie-Woogie Waltz.” For that beat, I wanted to have a funk drummer, it was only for the record. Eric had a small bass drum… and Eric was so hurt by that, that he from that moment on, he become a rebel. And in many ways, it was something to think about because he was really, really good. But on the other hand, you need somebody who is helping you to make this shit happen, not to work against you. So, this was that.

            “So after that, we heard of a drummer in Philadelphia, I think he was related to Wayne, a second cousin, Ishmael Wilburn. A hell of a drummer. He had that big foot beat, like an Al Foster type he had that good beat. He really played his ass off, a great drummer. But the moment he was in front of a lot of people, he couldn’t do it. He was great in studios, he was great at rehearsal and he was great in clubs, You playing in big studio, man – one time, he got so freaked – and Weather Report, started, after that record, we really started drawing – “Boogie Woogie Waltz,” we had a guy, a studio drummer, big fat dude, but he laid down the correct beat, “125th Street Congress” – it was beat, by the way, a lot of rap groups are using this soundtrack, “125th Street Congress” – and I put that beat together in 1972 or something like that, my old rhythm beats.

            “So, Wilburn couldn’t make it, so we got another guy from Cleveland [Leon “Ndugu” Chancellor]. For “Nubian Sundance,” I needed two drummers. So we took two drummers on the road. Heard Chuck Mangione’s bass player, Alphonso Johnson. We wanted a drummer who could really play well with him. Got Daryl Brown from Philly, plenty, plenty potential, he played with Ismael. Daryl Brown was a lighter player, played with Stanley Clarke. but we needed a second drummer. Daryl Brown is a brain surgeon now, he’s a bad dude, man.

/ /

            [At this point in the interview, we shifted the focus to each individual drummer, and Zawinul provided short backgrounds on them. I only asked him two questions, shown in italics, because he knew exactly what he wanted to say about each drummer.]

            Chester Thompson: “We auditioned Chester in L.A. When you’re a band leader, you’re a goddamn coach in an insane asylum, dealing with all those characters. Dom left and Alex became their percussion player. From Peru, great background, played in Puerto Rico, he could read, write, a phenomenal musician. Chester was a wonderful drummer, together with Al.

            “Chester was a perfectionist. We had all these time things, and between Chester and Alex, those two guys, it was really cooking. We played a type of forward rhythm and blues, very modern rhythm and blues, very forward moving.

            “Al Johnson left to join a group with George Duke. When Jaco joined, his style and Chester’s style of playing conflicted. So, I started looking again. Jaco and Chester couldn’t grove together. I heard something in Jaco’s playing that was necessary [for the band]. Sometimes you have to make those tragic decisions. It wasn’t the humanity, it was just a matter of beat, it was just the way they played together, it wasn’t lining up. But when Alex sat down at the drums, it lined up perfectly. So we had Alex playing drums, with Manalo Badrena on percussion. And that was a great band (Heavy Weather).

            Alex Acuna: “Alex had it. He had the folk music character and background which is one thing I put above everything, that folk music vibe. Coming from the mountains (outside of Lima), he had this whole great, great background, this music background. He played classical music, he knew how to do all that stuff. He came from the rich tradition of American jazz drummers, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones. I think Elvin was his favorite. Then Tony, of course, so he somewhat was a conglomeration of all those different people, yet with his own touch to it. And he could swing, and he was powerful, very powerful.

Peter Erskine: “Going into the next section…maybe that was because he was very young and didn’t have the patience yet, and hadn’t learned how to pace himself, to be satisfied sometimes with just playing time, and play little things rather than play and then come back. If those intervals are too short, it hurts the music. And break is the correct word, because it breaks. Whoever said break, whoever found that word…that’s really on the nail, because that’s what it does, and there are very few guys who can do it – and Louis [Hayes] was one of them, and Eric [Gravatt] was one of them – that flow never stops. And in the beginning, that’s what we had to work on…because when you have a quartet, you gotta be really on with the feeling, the time, and he had all that, plenty feeling, plenty chops, he had the correct beat for our band, he had it, he was the right drummer for that particular time.

            Omar Hakim: “Michael Urbaniak recommended Omar Hakim. Omar said he wanted to play with Victor Bailey, and Jose Rossi (on percussion). Omar was not coming from the jazz tradition, so it was kind of hard for him to get that hump, that hump on the back, that forward leaning, he didn’t have that, but everything else what he had was so good that we [Shorter and Zawinul] just changed, we are very flexible. So we changed the music around to the needs of the talent we had. And it was considerable, the talent. Omar was an incredible drummer. He played with a lot of feeling, very intelligent.

            “I analyzed one time, I wrote this song, “Procession.” When I mix a record, I analyze every part, totally. That’s when you really learn about guys, how they’re thinking, what they’re thinking, how they interact with other things happening. That was one entire composition he actually played, it could almost stand by itself, it was so nice, always just a nice groove, it never left the groove, but what he played on the inside, like little snare things, the hi-hat…he was a composer on drums.

            “That’s one thing, for me, that’s the most important thing for the drummer, that a guy plays in the context of the music, but creates a part which can almost stand alone as a part. Not just a continuous [Zawinul sings a pulsing cymbal beat], you know what I’m saying?  It’s there all the time, you don’t never feel that the momentum leaves. Yet he played with some really intelligent things. That’s what for me the greatest virtue is, when the drummer, who can interact, reflect and compose while playing his instrument, and yet being the motorhead, the warhead as I call it. Everybody has the role of a warhead at times, and often I am the warhead to drive that whole thing. But you gotta have the right drummers, and we were very, very fortunate to have the opportunity to have people who want to play and want to grow, ’cause nobody knows it all.

            “The formation of Weather Update (a title used to please promoters) saw the return of Peter Erskine, playing Yamaha electronic drums, improved about four times from the last Weather Report, and he was very, very good then. He had played for a lot of different people, learned his ways around.

1987-The Syndicate, CBS/SONY: I heard Cornell Rochester with Jamal Adeen played bass with Gerald Veasley. You need really two to get one, because the drummer can only play as good as the bass player allows him, and vice versa.

            “Cornell was totally individualistic, could really groove, really great, he could really play. He was a very respectful guy, when they are too much like that, something is amiss. If you have too much respect, it can get in the way. He was one of the greatest soloist I’ve ever heard on the drums, but too holding back…to find that real in the middle, that golden thing, it’s hard.

            Mike Baker: “A tremendous drummer, an excellent singer, ’cause I like when somebody can sing. He could sing and was an excellent drummer, but if there’s anything drummers should pay attention to, it’s not to bash too much on cymbals. They take up a lot of sound, cover up a lot, and by him playing hard on the cymbals, the cymbals washed over into open microphones.”

            Rodney Holmes: “Rodney is from the Bronx, 25 years old, I think he got it all, the finest technician we ever had, most precision drummer we ever had. Plus he can swing, he’s gotta a great feel. I think our band has improved since he got in the band.

            “Gerald Veasley and Mike were both great, yet they couldn’t find that little thing. But Gerald and Cornell had that. The second part of the drummer is the bass player, and the third part of the drummer is the percussion player, and they all gotta make up one.

            Who’s taken your music the furthest?

            “I think Rodney, maybe, of all the guys he might be able to go do that…because he has a technique which is so similar to Dennis Chambers. It’s very difficult to say. Some people react very well, and non-reacting is just as good sometimes. I don’t like necessarily people who when you do something they immediately want to do something also. That bothered me with Omar Hakim, because he had this feeling, obviously, that he always needed to play. And as great as a drummer as he was, and as great a musician he was playing the drums, this is also the difference. Some people are the greatest drummers and some people are the greatest musicians playing the instrument.

            “To take it further, Omar really tried hard to be a member of the band and to be a self-promoter, and that’s a hell of a job. You want to use the band as a stepping-stone, but on the other hand, you sincerely want to be a member of the band and help the band, which he did. But often, I thought he played way too much.

            “So when you asked me who took the music the furthest, it was always the guys who played the least. ’cause Wayne and me are highly rhythmic, and the we play off each other, it was always very rhythmic. So we were already percussion players, but then when you go into a transition, and I want to play some harmonic stuff, often I have to lift my hands up, because Omar was there all the time.”

            Do you use extensively written out charts?

            “Well sometimes, yeah. I’d say…it depends also because we changed so many times the concept. I think when Alex was playing in the band, he allowed the most to happen by not being all over the place. By being in there, and just playing with the music and off the music. Never self-promoting, that’s a great danger. For that period, [he] was great. Gravett was great in that other period, because he was so powerful as a musician, and the way he did his transitions.”

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            In my original cassette tape transcription, I must have somehow missed Zawinul’s final reference to something when he said, “This and too busy, I cannot live with.” Whatever “this” was will remain mystery forever. But with those closing words, Zawinul paused, and I could tell our interview had some to a good ending point. I pressed “STOP” on the big-assed boom box and thanked Zawinul for his time.

            He walked me to the door, shook my hand, and complimented Adam Ward Seligman for being a gentleman. Apparently, Adam had been working on some writing project that took him into Zawinul’s studio a few years before, and he was the first journalist to learn of Weather Report’s breakup. But if I recall the conversation correctly, that news would be delayed until Ralph J. Gleason could formally write about it.

Zawinul had respect in his eyes for my friend Adam, who as I mentioned did go on to finish my ill-fated assignment. He was a true writing professional, and between the two us, I hope drummers and any musicians reading these two interviews can combine them to get a realistic picture of how Joe Zawinul viewed drummers, in a much simpler time and a far saner universe.

Anders Mogensen – New Album release and 20 Questions with a Master Jazz Drummer

Imagine you’re hiking through the Himalayas. You come upon a clearing and find a lone shack, with a man practicing martial arts in the front yard. His style is immediately fluid, dynamic, instantaneous. You easily recognize half a dozen classic schools in his movements, mastered and applied with no effort. He could hold his own with anyone in the world. Yet here he is, in the middle of the Himalayas…

Danish drummer Anders Mogensen is one such badass. A bonafide jazz drumming badass. He’s a time maker, not merely a timekeeper. There is no daylight between the start and finish of his flow. It’s seamless and as masterful as anything you’ve ever heard from American jazz drumming legends. In the true tradition of master artists, he’s a humble one, who lets his sticks and feet do most of the talking, and intelligently so.

While not quite as metaphorically isolated as our hypothetical mystic, Anders may not be known to a lot of drummers outside of Europe. Regardless, with over two hundred and fifty albums to his credit and serving as Director of Jazz Studies at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark, Anders has kept his plate full for many years, serving up master chef versions of diverse drumming styles that he’s also fused into his own unique voice.

I was contacted by his publicist recently and was asked if I’d be interested in doing an interview about his upcoming release as a bandleader, titled The Jazz Gallery. Normally I like to peruse the Interweb on my own, find interesting drummers out there, and then write short pieces about them to give them unexpected press and attention. But lately, the urge to offer more in-depth information is replacing the shorter pieces, so yes, I definitely wanted to share some background on this very talented drummer/composer/bandleader, not only to promote his hard work and efforts, but to hopefully inspire fellow drummers who want to dip their toes into the composer/bandleader world and shape their own destiny.

So let’s get right to it. Here are 20 Questions submitted to Anders Mogensen, a very musical drummer I hope you will want to learn more about. He is indeed an endless student of his craft and is clearly someone whose playing reflects the integrity of jazz in the spirit of the learned masters upon whose shoulders he has built his broad encompassing musical embrace.

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1. When did you first get into drumming, and what was your overall training path in your younger years?

“I was sent to a private classical teacher at the local music school in Holstebro, Denmark, at the age of six. When I was eight, I joined the local marching band. Soon I was playing with marimba orchestras, wind symphony orchestras, symphonic bands and brass bands. Where I grew up, the local music school was very strong with great teachers. So, my formal training was very, very good. Full focus on sight reading and technique.

“At the age of ten, I started to get classical piano lessons as well. Meanwhile my big brother, who played trombone in the various bands mentioned above, listened to Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, VSOP etc., so I was very influenced from an early age about playing the drum set. At the age of 16, I started to gig professionally, playing in local variety/cabaret shows. That made it possible for me to enroll in Berklee at the age of 20. In Denmark, parents do not make a college savings for their kids, so I paid for that myself.

“At Berklee, I got my first real drum teaching. My teachers there were Ed Uribe, Joe Hunt, Ian Froman, and outside Berklee I took lessons from Bob Moses. When I returned to Denmark, I was fortunate to get a lot of work as a touring musicians, and I recorded with saxophonist Bob Berg and The Brecker Brothers.”

2. What tools do you use for composition? (home recording set-up and software)

“I use my piano. I studied classical composition and analysis, and I am still very interested in that. I use those tools to compose along my jazz composition background, mixed up with all the rhythmic knowledge I have. I use Sibelius for scores and lead sheets. If I need to compose a theme over a tricky bassline, I will use Sibelius as a sequencer.”

3. Who were some of your major influences as a drummer and as a band leader?

“Mainly Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette. But I studied the whole scope of drummers, current as well as the legacy. I am also very influenced by Alex Riel (Denmark), Anders Kjellberg (Sweden), Audun Kleive (Norway) and Jon Christensen (Norway). I have also studied various drummers from Brazil, Cuba and Africa, and with tabla players from India.” 

4. When did you put together your first group? What was the configuration?

“My first group as a leader was a project that came out of my debut recording, Anders Mogensen – Taking Off (Storyville Records, 1995). 

(https://open.spotify.com/album/0aFIa5DmePcz4Rl9yKaZbE?si=4A9hI4SOTwiqU7L6nlHowQ)

“It featured two Miles Davis alumni on Saxophone, Rick Margitza and Gary Thomas; Ron McClure – Bass, and Niels Lan Doky – piano. Niels produced the album. With this release, I toured Northern Europe with a band with Rick Margitza, Ron McClure, and Swedish piano wizard Lars Jansson. That was my first project.

“My first real band was Anders Mogensen External Experience. We made two albums: 

Taking off Again (https://open.spotify.com/album/5hxA8xskFNqZ7XIW5aGq7q?si=VBo9jkR0RT-5tYxv4f83ag)

and AM (https://open.spotify.com/album/3woNXRvMZqx2D7RyXyM3XJ?si=igISzphTQ6STXB8bHuu7Qg)”

5. What was your first record date? How many do you estimate you have to your credit?

“My first record date was with Bob Berg, Niels Lan Doky, and bassman Jesper Lundgaard. Unfortunately, it was never released, but it led to my record deal with Storyville Records and Taking Off. 

“I appear on approximately two hundred and fifty recordings. I am proud of all of the recordings but worth mentioning is Jerry Bergonzi Quintet – 7 Rays (Savant), Doky Brothers (along with The Brecker Brothers) (Blue Note) and lately The Modern Jazz Trio with Jerry Bergonzi – Standard Gonz

(https://open.spotify.com/album/4jym5FR0j3jAdcazPDLLDa?si=uFFrt89gR1SXXPx7r19lXg)”

6. What were some of the biggest challenges for your first recording as a band leader?

“I was fortunate to have a producer, so when it came to the selection of music, we had great communication about that. I do not think I would have been that confident if I did not have a producer.  It was recorded in New York City, so I also had to travel – which I love.”

7. Are you involved with the engineering aspect of your recordings, or do you leave that more to the main engineer?

“I do not know anything about that at all. But I am very keen about how it sounds, and I have my favorite engineers that I like to work with. It is very important to trust your engineer, and it takes time to find the right one. Both for the actual sound and the actual personal behavior.” 

8. What are some of the production issues challenges you’ve learned about with respect to recording your own drums to produce your own exact sound?

“It is very important that the engineer knows that he is dealing with a jazz drum sound. Generally that means approximately 80% overhead and 20% support from the closed mounted microphones. If the engineer is good, he or she knows how to get my sound on track. If they are not capable of that, I will find another engineer.”

9. Does your live playing technique differ much from your recording studio technique? If so, can you characterize the differences?

“There is a bit of a difference. Live, I have to adjust to the acoustic volume in the band and the room. In the studio, I will also think about dynamics, but generally I can play louder.”

10. Do you have a regular practice routine any sort of physical conditioning to keep you in shape behind the drum set?

“When I am on the road, I have a practice routine on my practice pad for approximately 1 hour – that is usually as much as I would have time for.  I will do rudimental exercises and maybe focus on certain weaknesses I might have. To challenge myself, I often do rudiments in quintuplets or septuplets. 

“When I am not on the road, I will do a practice routine of about six hours. Here I will dig into Brazilian stuff, Afro-Cuban stuff, jazz coordination, technique and drum transcription. I will schedule my practice so that each topic will be on for forty-five minutes and then move on. I will always start with a serious warm up. Usually with rudiments played very slow.” 

11. In addition to being head of the jazz department at Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, what courses do you teach at the university, and how did you become affiliated with them?

“At Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, I teach drums, ensemble and a rhythm class (for all jazz students). I have been an associate professor since 1999 and Head of the jazz Department from 2004. I had kids when I was only 25, so I needed a steady income, but I have always been interested in teaching.

“I was recruited for this position, which I was and am very honored about. Being able to teach on the highest level of music keeps me in the loop for developing myself! My students are very good at practicing, so I need to practice as well to stay on the top of the beat!”

12. What sort of on-line training content do you offer, and how did you develop it?

“Since 2006, I have been doing DVDs and streaming masterclasses. I have made material for all levels, but within the jazz idiom. Latest I have made Weekly Drum Diary, available on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/weeklydrumdiary,  and YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLgVdyiRMQJlP1muDNp7rDw/featured)

“Every week I present a new 4-5 minute video with a corresponding pdf with the actual exercise in. I enjoy doing this format. I recently did two live masterclasses, which is also a great format.  Interested drummers can sign up for Weekly Drum Diary here: https://bit.ly/weeklydrumdiary“

13. What sets your latest recording (The Jazz Gallery) apart from your previous projects in terms of your own performances?

“The Jazz Gallery is with Ben Kraef (Tenor Saxophone), Andreas Lang (Double Bass) and me. Both Ben and Andreas are based in Berlin. Andreas is originally from Denmark and went to Carl Nielsen Academy of Music. During this pandemic, I started to think about what possibilities we have on the European Jazz scene. I contacted Ben and Andreas, since we have had plans for years, but we were never able to make some kind of gathering happen. We booked a Berlin studio and went in and recorded originals along with Billy Strayhorn’s immortal UMMG (Upper Manhattan Medical Group). We are all very much inspired by the American jazz scene, and both Ben and I have lived in the US. So, it is interesting for me to hear how we, in Europe, play jazz with this kind of sound and approach.  

“It is also interesting for me to travel around and see where we have common ground, to create this kind of music. We all three love this setting (sax-bass-drums), and hopefully, it will remind the listener about Sonny Rollins trio or various bands around Elvin Jones. As a drummer, playing without chords gives one a vacant room where the chords from a piano or guitar would be. In other words, there is much more space for my snare drum and bass drum. Saxophone trios are always fun to play in!”

14. What do you enjoy most about playing with this particular piano-less configuration, and how do accomplish more with less in this case?

“Since this is a chord-less setting, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the drummer. It is very important that the drummer is on top with the form of the tunes to build up tension and release. I have been listening to so many sax trios that I feel very comfortable to record with this kind of instrumentation.”

15. Can you please comment on highlights of the individual tracks that stick out to you?

“‘Three for Elvin’ (Kraef) is a 3/4 swinging blues type of tune. It combines Elvin Jones’ world of triplets with a forward motion significant with the walking bass.

“‘Fredensgade’ (Lang) is a melancholic piece of music. Here showcased with the brushes. It reminds me of a black/white movie from the Fifties.

“‘At Stake’ (Mogensen) is a paraphrase/counterfact on Benny Golson’s ‘Stablemates.’ I love to play ‘Stablemates,’ and I have practiced it for years on the piano. The melody comes out of my improvisation on the tune, along with using traditional counterpoint for the bass line in the A sections.

“‘Aswan’ (Mogensen) is inspired by African music. I read a book about Africans who came to the U.S. way before Columbus! A part of history that I did not learn about in school. But at least I am aware about this now. The groove could remind the listener of drummer Ed Blackwell and his mallet works.

“‘Tit er jeg glad’ (Nielsen arr. Mogensen) is one of my favorite psalms by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen. I chose to change the chords into a more Nordic sounding piece of music and the time signature into 3/4 meter. The groove is definitely inspired by the Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen.

“‘Forever’ (Kraef) is Ben’s beautiful ballad. You can hear Ben’s love for American music but with his personal take on it.

“‘The News’ (Lang) Dark is groove and mysticism. I love this! I do not think the news for that day was too promising.

“‘Freshman’ (Mogensen) is an original of mine. It is a tribute to my son, Tobias, for when he started grammar school. New school, new friends, and it reminded of my own years when you entered new school and got new friends. I recorded it several years ago with Søren Bebe Trio feat. Marc Johnson on an album called Eva. I think this chord-less take is very nice. 

“‘UMMG’ (Strayhorn) is a medium tune. I do not understand why this tune is not being played more. It is a great composition – as everything Ellington and Strayhorn did together.

“Generally, the music on this recording is very strong! It is right down my alley! I hope the listener will appreciate it as much as I do!” 

16. Will current Covid gathering and travel restrictions in Europe allow you to tour with the group? Do you perform remotely using Zoom or other technology to offer virtual performances? If so, how has it been adjusting to the new performance reality?

“As soon as we can get out of this pandemic, we will be going out! I certainly hope that we will be able to travel anywhere. I love this trio! 

“I have made several recordings where I have recorded drums and then different other musicians has added their music to my grooves. I have been part of Michele Brangwen’s Dance Company in New York City. I recorded the drums in Odense and sent the tracks to trumpeter Tim Hagans, who composed music over it, or Tim had some grooves he wanted me to record to work further on. After finishing the music, Michele would make choreography for her dancers! That has been an amazing project to be part of. 

“Lately I have been working on a recording with saxman Walt Weiskopf (member of Steely Dan). We recorded piano and drums in Copenhagen, Andreas Lang recorded his bass in Berlin, and Walt is finishing the recording in Virginia where he lives now. Very interesting to do things like this, but it is a bit lonesome!” 

17. Is there any particular aspect of drum set study you wish you’d devoted more time to in your early years or through your career?

“This is a great question. There is no doubt that I wish I had studied harder in my youth (mid 20’s). When I came to Copenhagen after Berklee, I became the talk of the town. I played with everybody. If I could change anything, I would have loved to go back to the United States to finish up my degree at Berklee or take a Master’s at New England Conservatory. I do not regret anything, but when the question comes up, this is my answer: as I mentioned earlier, I had kids around the age of 25. I have four of them, and I love them above anything else. I have traveled and played jazz music all over the globe, so I cannot and will not complain, but when the question occurs, I would have loved to have worked deeper into the music.”

18. What do you feel are some of the most important pieces of advice you can offer young drummers who want to become bandleaders?

“First of all, practice, practice, practice. Read all the biographies you can lay your hands on – not only on drummers or musicians but general knowledge about all people who you admire. The drummers you admire the most, figure out where they came from. And study them. 

“Then check out the business side of music. It is a very diverse music world we live in. Be consistent. Believe in what you do. And do it 100%. Read and study business books – not only from a music perspective but from businesses in general. I know there is a lot of criticism of how nobody can sell CD’s now a days. But with all the streaming services, you can get your music out to a very broad spectrum of the world and reach your audience in a whole new way! 

“When you do have music to release, do yourself the service and play the recorded music for people you admire and respect. And tell them that you would like an honest answer on how the music is. I was fortunate to have a producer when I was young. That is not a possibility now a days. But you need somebody to judge your music before it is out there, because once it is out there, it will not go away! It stays there forever! You need somebody to be tough on you!”

19. What advice can you offer drummers in terms of developing a critical listening ear to, a) lock in step with the bass player, and b) contribute to the song as a whole?

“You need to record yourself constantly. To make sure that you develop the sound you have inside your head! I usually tell my students to record themself. Then buy a book with empty pages. On the left page, you write the negative critique, and on the right page, you write the positive critique. You do that with all the recordings you do. It is important to have negative critique, but it is also important with positive critique. After you do this many times, hopefully you will have less notes on your left page and more notes on the right page.  You do not need an advanced recording device, just your cell phone or Zoom. 

“Concerning a) and b): that depends on your level and the level of who you play with. As a drummer, it is always important to lock up with the bass player – you are the fundament of the music, the groove, the part of the music that makes people want to dance. When that is in place, you start to listen to the music as a whole piece. Not only a theme, a sax solo, a bass solo etc. It is a very good exercise to listen to music that way as well.

“Listen to a full track, for example, John Coltrane’s Quartet many times. Maybe twenty. Then try to feel how bass and drums build around McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane, and how it all connects.  That is just one band you should do this with. You can do it with all music that you enjoy. Listen, analyze and imitate.”

20. What’s the best performance advice a seasoned musician has ever given you?

“That is very interesting, but I never really got any – directly. In jazz there is a lot unsaid going on that you need to decode! That takes years to figure out. I always take it as a good sign, when you can keep going on the road with an established musician. If they were dissatisfied, they would probably say no to the offer to go on the road. So, I never really got any performance advice.” 

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It really is true that jazz knows no borders, so if you want to hear what mastery from shores not native to the origin of this classic improv art form, give Anders a good, long listen on Jazz Gallery and check out his YouTube channel. There are lessons to be learned from his subtle and true voice, one that is a sure to inspire and educate the player who wants to refine their understanding of the art of minimal. You won’t need a parka and snowshoes to find him, but if you did, it would certainly be worth the hike and the listen.

Jazz Gallery is available on AMM records, findable with this link: https://jazzgallery.lnk.to/Album

Website: andersmogensen.dk

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/andersmogensen1

Robyn Flans: 20 Questions with The First Lady of Drumming Journalism

Few names resonate through the world of drumming journalism like Robyn Flans. In a male-dominated industry since its inception, the drumming world came to know Robyn’s work through Modern Drummer for nearly four decades. She interviewed the top names of the day, and she helped shaped the fledgling world of drumming journalism by being in the right place at the right time with the necessary skills to capture the essential stories and voices of our drumming heroes.

Interviewing Robyn has been a project on my mind for some time. I thought that drummers familiar with her work would enjoy reading about how her craft evolved, and certainly, up and coming drummers need to know where the origins of deep drumming ink came from. I sent Robyn twenty questions and gave her unlimited length to reply. What follows are her responses to a wide variety of topics.

But before we dive in, gotta mention that Hudson Music is about to release Robyn’s much-anticipated biography of Jeff Porcaro, aptly titled Jeff Porcaro – The Man and His Music. It can be pre-ordered  from Hudson on their website https://hudsonmusic.com (as of Sept. 15 2020 ) prior to release and is scheduled for Amazon release on October 9, 2020.

That said, let’s find out more about the first lady of drumming journalism…

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    1. How did you get into drumming journalism? What was your first introduction to journalism in general?

     

    RF: I’ll take the second part of this question first and go way back in time. I always loved to write, and the Beatles changed my life. Engineering a meeting with Paul McCartney at the Beverly Hills Hotel at thirteen years old with a few girlfriends (that’s a whole other story) was a dream come true, and one of my friends and I actually turned it into a story for one of the teen magazines of the times. Don’t even ask me why! So, I was [first] published in 1968 in a  magazine called Teen Screen.

     

    

     

    Then there was a teen magazine called Datebook that gave little credentials to teens and would publish their interviews. One particular night of that same year, a couple of members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were answering the phone lines at a local radio station, and I said to my friend out of the blue, ‘Let’s call and ask them if we can interview them.’ They told us who was handling their press, I called the next day, and we set up an interview for Aug. 9th backstage at the Hollywood Bowl where the band was playing with a bunch of other groups. We showed up with our tape recorder and interviewed them, and when the photos didn’t come out, we had to go back to their next concert.

     

    That became a friendship with [the] band that has lasted through until today. We would find our favorite groups like the Rascals, call up to their hotel rooms, and tell them we worked for Datebook, and when we’d show up at their hotel doors, lo and behold, we were very young. But then again, so were they back then. And we prided ourselves on asking pretty good questions.

     

    But as time went on, I followed my original dream and went to UCLA as a theatre arts major, although I did take some journalism courses and was in a creative writing group. When I got out into the real world, I found out I was not cut out for the emotional dealings of an actor and pondered how I could combine my love of music with my love of writing. And that’s how that began.

     

    In about 1980, I contacted an editor at Billboard magazine named Jean Williams and asked if I could do concert reviews. It was pretty ballsy since I had never done anything before, and she was so great to give this then novice a chance. She told me to bring in clips. I didn’t have any, so I went to some local clubs and reviewed some of the local acts. I met with her and she gave me a shot. The first gig she sent me out on was Chicago’s concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles after they changed labels to Warner Brothers and they had a huge party attached where they bussed press and VIPs up to the observatory for a Bacchanalian feast. It was an amazing first gig – but all that to say it gave me my next idea for your next question…to call Modern Drummer!

     

    

     

    2. What was you first drumming assignment? Scale of 1-5, how difficult was it?

     

    RF: After that wonderful Chicago concert, I pitched Danny Seraphine to Modern Drummer. By then I had a few published concert reviews, and since MD was fairly new, they took a chance on me. And it became a cover story, too, I don’t recall it being terribly difficult, although I’m sure if I went back and read it today I would see that I improved vastly through the years. Danny obviously liked it because we became friends from that day forward, and he in recent years he’s hired me to do most of his bio writing.

     

    

     

    3. Favorite interview (s)?

     

    RF: Impossible to say! So so many of them. Obviously the two interviews I did with Ringo are a couple of the highlights of my life for Modern Drummer. But I have also worked for some other great publications such as People, Country Weekly, Mix and the Ventura County Star where I’ve had the opportunity to conduct some very deep, memorable interviews with such people as Linda Ronstadt, Criminal Minds star Joe Mantegna, Michael McDonald, and Vince Gill.

     

    

     

    4. Toughest interview(s)?

     

    RF: Don Henley for MD because he was very unkind. He was extremely abusive to me – verbally and emotionally — and ultimately pulled the interview because I stood up for myself. Also Charlie Watts, only because when I arrived at the hotel in San Francisco for the interview, he had forgotten I was coming and had been up all night “with Mick and the boys” drinking. He was sloshed. And he continued to drink when we sat down in the lounge to talk and proceeded to test me as to whether I knew any of the old jazz drummers. He wouldn’t begin the interview and basically refused to talk about playing with the Stones. It wasn’t that he was intentionally mean like Henley; it was just the alcohol. In fact, after the sort of non-interview, he insisted on taking me to dinner in the hotel, and I complied since my flight home wasn’t for several hours.

     

    5. How do you conduct your interviews? Record verbatim, take notes over the phone? How do you conduct them now? What would you have done differently after so many years, if anything?

     

    RF: I’ve always used standard cassettes and recorders – even now. I had great Marantz broadcast recorders and little Sony handheld ones. Now they are very expensive because they are near obsolete, but it’s what I’m accustomed to.

     

    When I do phone interviews, I have a device that taps into the phone line,  which goes into the recorder and tapes the conversation. Old school. I never taped over any of them, so I’ve actually been able to digitize them and offer them as audio interviews on my website www.robynflansdrummerinterviews.com .

     

    Haven’t had a chance to put many up since changing websites, but people enjoy hearing the uncut interviews in real time, with people laughing, breathing, dogs barking, phones ringing, etc.

    

    6. Do you play drums? Any instruments? How long?

     

    RF: I played piano for a little while when I was young. And no, I don’t play drums. Just love them.

     

    7. Did you ever study with any known drummers? Any you interviewed?

     

    [Note: Answer intentionally left blank because of above answer to question #6.]

     

    8. How has the drumming world changed in your opinion from when you first started out interviewing people? Attitudes? Professionalism? Student-teacher interactions? Drumming education in general?

     

    RF: I don’t think anything has changed in the “attitude” department, because as Steve Porcaro wrote, it’s really about “Human Nature.” Or upbringing. It’s important to have a good attitude and be professional if you’re a drummer or a plumber, and whether you have a good attitude or are professional or are even in the game for the right reason is who you are as a person, not some world change. There will always be the ones who are in it for the love of the music and those who are in it for stardom or money; those who show up late to gigs and don’t show respect for the love of their job or the person who employs them, and those who know better, those who are cocky and those who are humble, those who are self- centered and those who are selfless.

     

    Drumming education, of course, has expanded due to the Internet and the incredible amount of resources available, both in web teaching and all the drum clips of prior performances that have surfaced. That can also be a negative if person-to-person teaching is replaced completely. I know my kids were truly inspired by their band teachers and private teachers and that the in-person experience can’t be gotten on a computer.

     

    9. Who do you miss the most of those drummers we’ve lost?

     

    RF: Oh Lord, don’t get me started. Jeffrey! His friendship, his groove, his laughter, everything about him, daily.

     

    

     

    My dear friend Eddie Shaughnessy. He became one of my best friends during the writing of his book Lucky Drummer [Hudson Music]. The last several years of his life, I happened to live nearby his home and helped him out a lot, and we spent a lot of time together. Then as things began getting tougher for him, I ran his errands and did whatever I could for him. He helped me out, too. I miss him every day as well.

     

    

     

    Larrie Londin and I were also very close friends. His passing broke my heart. I spent a lot of time with Larrie when he came to L.A. and also his family whenever I was in Nashville, and we gabbed on the phone so much that whenever I called the house and his wife Debbie answered, she would tease as she’d call him to the phone, “Larrie, your girlfriend is calling.”

    I truly have been blessed to have gotten close to so many wonderful people in the drum industry. While those are probably the closest who have left us, – two others come to mind that were also dear friends – Louie Bellson, who I first interviewed back in the ‘80s and continued to do so almost to his passing. And Earl Palmer who was one of the dearest people on the planet.

     

    

     

    10. Who do you wish you could have interviewed?

     

    RF: Buddy and Keith Moon (although I count myself as very lucky to have seen Keith play live a few times with the Who).

     

    11. Why do you believe drumming journalism is important? What matters most? Is this happening in today’s drumming journalism world (print/on-line)?

     

    RF: Not just drumming journalism, but all facets of music journalism with all musicians. Guitar is just as important to the guitar players as drumming is to the drummers. It’s one thing to see them play on the Internet, but to hear what they are about, their techniques, philosophies, about their successes and failures, is important. I have always approached drummers as if they are more than just technicians. They are people, too. I think good drum journalism allows the reader a view into the person as well.

     

    12. Who inspired you as a journalist (in any medium)?

     

    RF: I’ve gone through phases. Mostly I appreciate broadcast journalists as far back as Walter Cronkite. Today I like Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper.

     

    13. How long were you with Modern Drummer? Why did you leave, and what did you do afterwards?

     

    RF: I was an independent contractor with Modern Drummer for nearly 40 years. When my editor Bill Miller passed away from cancer, a new editor took over, and we had some artistic differences. I continued and still continue to freelance. For a period of about six years I wrote quite a bit for a local daily paper called The Ventura County Star, covering local events as well as celebrity profiles and really enjoyed it until, like most publications, their budget cuts last year put an end to that.

     

    For a good while I was enjoying a podcast, first radio and then video, but after a few years, became weary of that. I also started two websites – www.robynflansdrummerinterviews.com where I offer select audio interviews [and] www.robynflansmedia.com where I offer writing services. I still do quite a bit of work for Mix magazine, thank goodness!

     

    

     

    14. What projects are you involved with now?

     

    RF: In addition to the above websites and Mix, I recently finished work on a book on Jeff Porcaro. It should be released some time around fall by Hudson Music.

     

    15. Have you written any books? If so, what are the titles?

     

    RF: In addition to the above and co-author with Ed Shaughnessy on Lucky Drummer, I wrote three books early in my career – Musicmania (Sharon Publications, 1983), a compilation music history, Inside Duran Duran (Starbooks, 1984), an unauthorized biography, and Journey (Cherry Lane Music, 1983), also an unauthorized biography, but to date considered to be very in demand, since it’s out of print and really the only book of its kind.

     

    

     

     

    

     

     

    

     

    16. What advice or pieces of advices would you give to today’s budding drum journalists?

     

    RF: There is very little print journalism left today. I don’t know if I would tell anyone to get into journalism, period! Sadly. I guess the only thing to do is if you are passionate about it, contact whatever outlets there are and be willing to take very little money, because mostly they have become online versions of their former selves since their advertising earnings have decreased, and obviously it trickles down to all those who contribute.

    The only journalism that really exists anymore is broadcast journalism…

     

    17. Did you ever have a nightmare of a technology issue related to an interview (lost notes, disk crashed, equipment stolen or broken)?

     

    RF: In my 40 years, I have probably had a handful of technical nightmares where either my recorder batteries failed or were failing so that the voices sped up like chipmunks or the cassette was flawed, or [like] just the other day, I was on the phone with an audio engineer, and I hadn’t noticed the phone connect wasn’t plugged in all the way, and it did not record his voice. I had to do the interview all over again. It’s a drag when it happens, but if you are apologetic, everyone understands.

     

    18. Do you speak any foreign languages, and have you read any drum magazines in those languages? If so, what were they, and what did you think of the publication?

     

    RF: I speak some Spanish, although not fluently, but it actually did help me in some assignments with the Ventura County Star. I’ve had some of my work published in German and Japanese publications. I cannot read them unfortunately, but they look nice.

     

    19. What were some of the challenges you faced as a female journalist in a male-dominated drumming world? Any problems? Well received? No real issues?

    

    RF: I do think drum journalism – and even music journalism on the whole — is somewhat of a boy’s club, but I’ve managed to carve a niche somewhere in it and gather respect, for the most part. Before social media, though, unless you met me at a NAMM convention, most people assumed I was a male, which, in itself, is sexist. I’ll never forget the expression on Steve Smith’s face the first time in the ‘80s I showed up to interview him. Thankfully I won him over in a matter of minutes, but I knew he was not expecting a female. Since then we’ve become good friends, and he even hired me last year to write the major bio in his beautiful coffee table art/drum book, The Fabric of Rhythm [check status, include publishing info].

     

    

    20. And last but not least: How does it feel to be interviewed?

     

    RF: The first couple of times it was very strange, but it’s gotten a little easier and this format – writing – is much easier than speaking or video because obviously it’s my preferred format.

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Thank you, Robyn, for sharing your story and contributing so much vital writing to the world of drumming. Countless drummers everywhere owe much of what we know about our heroes thanks to you. Best of luck in all your future journalism and writing ventures!

Audiation: Hearing Music in Your Head and How to Make Use of It

“Oh man, now I can’t get that @*&#&^ outta my head!!!”

Welcome to audiation.

Wikipedia gives a good definition of the word: a high-level thought process, involving mentally hearing and comprehending music, even when no physical sound is present. Musicians have experienced this most of their playing lives, but how many of us have really focused on developing it?

I want to suggest that as drummers, we begin to pay great attention to developing our ability to hear drum set and percussion sounds internally. It takes some work, but if there was ever an area where practice pays off, it’s here.

What’s the value? Well, for starters, the clearer you can conceive of a musical idea, the easy it becomes to execute it. I began doing this when I was 9, imagining drum solos and seeing them played on a kit. Over the years, I refined this ability by daydreaming about music endlessly, just like every other musician out there. I just didn’t realize that by doing so, I was helping myself become a better player.

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I write a lot about polyrhythm and odd meters, and I use audiation to practice both quite a bit. Odd meters seemed to come naturally as a kid, but polyrhythms have taken a little more work. If you check out some of my previous posts about 5-and 7-note grouping practice methods, you’ll find some simple two-handed exercises that let you hear 5:2, 5:3, 5:4, and 7:2, 7:3, 7:4.

Using audiation, I can now more clearly conceive of these ratios and improvise in my mind using the drum set and cymbal tonalities. I can then sit down behind the kit and “realize” these sounds with some slow, focused practice. This approach is really nothing new to drummers, but now it has a more formalized name, and believe me, music researchers are fascinated by its potential.

Our instrument is slowly receiving more and more attention from the science world, and this is one esoteric area I believe deserves quite a bit of study. Researchers at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego have technology that lets them map a picture of the brain as you perform. Imagine using audiation to create sounds in your mind and seeing a picture of where it occurs. What might this tell us about how music and language are related?

Point being… from here forward, science will be exploring music perception to a degree that’s light years ahead of what’s come before. If we adapt as drummers and learn more about how we perceive music, it can help us take things further as well.

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Peter Erskine often speaks of the simplicity of playing just a quarter note. Here’s a simple exercise that if done correctly will demonstrate a practical application of audiation:

1. Play four measure of quarter notes on your ride cymbal, medium tempo.

2. Pretty boring, huh?

3. Now, close your eyes and play those same four measure in your head, and perfectly and precisely as you can. Focus on seeing the cymbal in your mind and watching the stick hit the surface. Make it perfect. Okay, eyes open.

4. Not so boring.

5. Close your eyes again. Play four perfect measures of time, and then let four more measures pass in silence.

I think you’ll find the results to be very interesting…

When I do this, two things happen: my mind begins to improvise in the silent four measures without effort, and I feel a stronger connection to all four limbs.

Give it a shot, and see what you hear.. literally.