Live From My Drum Room With Stan Lynch - May 30, 2020

  Here's another one of John DeChristopher's great interviews. This time with long time Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch. There's a great, scrappy quality to those early Tom Petty records, due in no small part to Mr. Lynch. Here he offers many insights into the role of session drummer vs. band drummer, vs. producer, thoughts about his sound etc. It was also heartening to see his now vintage Tama kit behind him, as I had read that he never plays drum anymore, and sold all his kits. Thankful the internet got it wrong again. Anyway, enjoy! 

   

Things I'm working on

 This is inspired by a recent Cruise Ship Drummer  post. I'm always interested to hear what people are practicing. As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy practicing, even after playing for 45 years! 

Maybe before I talk about what  I'm practicing, I'll also talk about the why and how. :)

Obviously, people at different stages of their development practice different things. I used to practice sight reading music, every day, but it's been a long time since I've done that. At this point, my reading ( at least with non-pitched instruments) is either good enough to get through whatever's thrown at me, or if it's super challenging, I either get the music in advance or I practice super challenging in the short term to "ramp up". I'd say at this point, only about 1 in 6 gigs (when we were working) requires any reading beyond looking at a lead sheet and interpreting it.

- I tend not to practice pure technique. At this point, I want everything I look at to have some sort of application. If I am practicing single strokes, for example, I will practice moving round the drums, or playing something with my feet underneath. One thing I have been working on is "push/pull" things with my hands (either off the rim, the so-called "one hand roll", or just in the middle of the drum or cymbal.) I currently put them into beats at various tempos, and I do seem to be getting better control of them with either hand.

-Speaking of the feet, I seem to have spent a lot of the pandemic working on foot ostinatos. A lot of the typical ones I've spent some time on, like left foot clave/salsa bass drums, but also have made up some of my own involving 3 and 5 beat patterns that go over the bar, or even odd groupings within the bar.

-Whenever I hear a feel on a recording that I like or seems unusual/challenging for me, I try and play along with it. I still think this is a huge challenge! If you can stay with the recording for it's whole length without ego-ing out on your own playing and losing where you are, you've probably really learned something!

-Working a lot on beats/ideas that utilize articulations such as buzzes or deadstrokes to create variety.

-I try to improvise short "pieces" often at the beginning of my practice.

-Trading, soloing and playing over vamps. Practicing playing rubato.

-I also try and review my last day's practice by either expanding on it or simply seeing if I can still play it a day later! This really helps with thematic thinking. In fact, at this stage, I'm just thinking about the whole time I've been playing as a 45 year long practice session, with some breaks! :) 

-Also continuing to work on other instruments. One of the cool things about that I tend to work on really different things with each axe. If I'm practicing harmonica, I play 12Bar 3 chord blues. On piano it's mainly Great American Songbook and Jazz standards, learning to play the melodies and how to improvise on the chord changes. On ukulele, it's Pop songs I sing along to. Although I've mentioned this before, it bears repeating that these other instrumental perspectives have helped my drumming immensely!

So, this is what I'm doing. People will practice different things depending on their needs. Assess yours, either on your own or with a teacher, and then get cracking! 

Memories…..

 Just a quick announcement that Cornerstone Records has digitally  re-released the Mike Murley album Time and Tide. The album is  sort of transitional and the handful tunes I'm on are only my 3rd recording, I think.

You can download it here.

…and from that album here's Jim Vivian's tune "Parabola"

Man, it's quite something to listen to something I recorded ALMOST 30 YEARS AGO! Jim, Murl, Dave, and I have all grown as musicians (and people) since then, yet at the same time there's an essence, a kernel of truth, that's been there the whole time. To observe this sort of growth in oneself and others is one of the great pleasures of being involved in music this long. I highly recommend it! :) 

Cymbals: Get to know your palette!

Cymbals are such a personal statement of a drummers sound, so I thought I'd post a few thoughts and concepts  on today's blog.

I've been thinking about this lately as my drumming peer, Joel Haynes, was mentioning to me about purchasing some Funch cymbals and loving them, but having to engage in some trial and error to find the right instrument to "play nice' with his old K Zildjians. I've had the same issue with just my old Ks. I have found that once I muted my 22" K with a bit of tape, it sounds different enough from my 2 20"s to all work together, although I haven't tried it on a gig lately! Have also realized that, even if I have all 3 cymbals in my set-up, I still need a thinner "crashier" cymbal as well. I've probably mentioned this before, but although I'm super fussy about ride function-type cymbals, I've never met a crash I didn't like! 

I feel another important consideration with cymbals is to play them for awhile, to really discover what they sound like and what they can do. Both Ed Thigpen and Elvin Jones have referred to the "colours' cymbals create, both alone, and when played together. So, don't give up on a cymbal before you've discovered what it can do and it's taught you how to play it! 

That said, I still might not have reached my ultimate K set-up, and might have to do more wheeling and dealing. :) 

 

Sound!

What's the first thing we hear when a drummer (or any musician) plays for us? We experience their sound, of course! Yet many teachers, myself included, do't talk about sound on the drum set very much. Why? Well, in a pedological environment, sound can be a tricky and subjective thing to evaluate. I also feel many people think that because sound production on a drum or cymbal is a relatively simple thing, (after, all, don't you just hit the thing?) that there's not much one can say about it. But say about it I will! Let's look at ways we as drummers can improve our sound.

1. Listen! 

This may seem pretty basic, but many drummers don't listen to the sounds they're making. That's why I don't recommend practice pads when an actual drum set is available and practical. It doesn't matter what fancy and impressive things are achieved on a pad because we don't play pads in performance! Also, only play the sounds you mean. Many "accidental" sounds on drum set can include:

- cymbals and/or drums hitting each other after we have played them.

-playing on an odd part of a cymbal or drum out of physical habit, rather than musical need or concept. This can include playing near the edge of the cymbal when riding it, playing toward the outer rim rather than the centre of a drum, hitting rims often, missing intended rimshots frequently, etc. Let me stress that ANY sound of a drum or cymbal is fair game and will be appropriate at times, it's just they have to be intentional! 

2. Tune!

Now, this will mean different things to different people. I would recommend listening to drums and cymbals of players you like and try to determine things you would want in your sound.. Does the player you like have theirs snares tight or loose? Do they tune high or low? What relationship between the top and bottom heads creates the sound you like?  Do they even have bottom heads on their toms and bass drum? Are the drums muffled or ringy? Do you like the toms to dip in pitch? Cymbals bright or dark? Thin or thick? Do you like your drums sound with brushes but not with sticks and mallets? Some of these things will also depend on the type of music you're playing and the sonic environment the style tends to have. In all cases, don't be afraid to experiment with tuning, muffling, and cymbal choice, and if one plays a lot of different styles, they may need for more instruments to be purchased or compromises made. The more you listen and experiment, the more you will develop your personal appetites of what the drums should sound like.

3. Listen Part 2 (in context) 

This is also style dependent. How loud of soft should you play with the band you're with? How does your sound mix with the rest of the ensemble? How does your sound change when you go from playing with a distorted guitar to a muted trumpet, for example?

In conclusion, developing own's sound is easily as important as anything else we practice on the instrument. We ignore it at our peril! 

Now go develop your sound! :) 

Jack DeJohnette - John Scofield - Larry Goldings - Trio Beyond 2006

What is there to say about this? Except that in the current "look Ma, I'm doing circus tricks on Instagram" world we're in, it's beautiful to see high caliber musicians playing improvised music in a completely, honest way!

Andy Newmark: Reflections and current music

Although the internet is a strange place, it undoubtedly has made the world smaller. I recently read a piece that Andy Newmark had written about the great Jim Gordon, which I've reprinted here….

 I sat 5 feet away from Jim Gordon, in the drum booth at Trident Studios in London, as he recorded Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain in 1972. I was Carly’s road drummer and played on a few tracks on her No Secrets album, however I wasn’t cutting it when we recorded You’re So Vain. So Richard Perry, the producer of that album brought in the heavyweights. Jim Gordon, Klaus Voorman, and Nicky Hopkins to record You’re So Vain. Carly’s road band, which included me, was sidelined for half the tracks on that album, except for Jimmy Ryan who played on everything and played that great guitar solo on “You’re So Vain”. Anyhow, I was totally cool with Richard Perry’s decision to bring Jim Gordon in. I was in London for the duration of that album, as road bands often were back then, on call at any time. I saw this as an opportunity to watch Jim up close. I had been listening to Jim Gordon and Jim Keltner ever since Mad Dogs and Englishmen. I asked Jim if he would mind if I sat in the drum booth and watched him play. He was totally cool with that. So I watched Jim do 40 takes (Richard Perry was famous for doing a lot of takes) of You’re So Vain. You see, back then the live performance in the studio had to contain all the magic in the basic backing track. There was no fixing it or replacing parts after the track was recorded. You could repair little things but the vibe and groove had to be all there in the performance. Perry pushed players right to their limit. I liked his style. He had a vision and wasn’t going to stop till he got it out of the musicians. He made great bloody records that all stand up today under scrutiny. He always used the best players on his records. As a player, working for Richard Perry was a step up the ladder in session world. It meant something. Anyhow, I watched Jim like a hawk for 4 or 5 hours, playing that song over and over again. It’s one thing to hear a player on a recording but to see a player playing live is a whole different ball game. Body language reveals so much about where a drummer is coming from. Seeing Jim play up that close, and fine tuning his drum part, was like getting intra veinous Jim Gordon…his DNA being injected into mine. And I got it, big time. I saw what he had and what I didn’t have. But not for long. I really understood where his notes were coming from and went away from that session knowing what I had to do to improve my act. Jim never played a rim shot on 40 takes of You’re So Vain. He hit the middle of the snare drum so hard that the head was completely caved in, in the middle. It was a 6 inch crater in a perfect circle. He hit the exact same spot every time he hit the snare drum. That means all his backbeats sounded as identical as humanly possible. Engineers love consistency from players. I was suffering from total rim shot dependency, playing tight, funky and snappy, New York style, like Bernard Purdie. I am a New Yorker. Jim had that West Coast lazy thing going on. His notes seem to have length. They breathed. Legato drumming I call it. There was all this air around each of his notes. And his groove was so relaxed and secure and comfortable. It was like sitting in a giant arm chair that fit perfect. He made all the other players sound amazing right from Take One. And he made the recording sound like a real hit record right from Take One. I was blown away. The tom tom fills were like thunder. I still copy him doing that today and think about him in that room every time I do it. I put my left hand on the high tom and my right hand on the floor tom and play straight 8th notes (both hands in unison) that crescendo into a chorus. Just like You’re So Vain. His drumming was intelligent and impeccable on that record. There was no click track either and Richard Perry was very demanding when it came to tempo. (By the way, click tracks have ruined pop music today). Don’t get me started. That’s something else I had to improve on. Playing time. I’m still working on that. Jim nailed that track at least 40 times and every take on the drums was brilliant and useable as a final drum track. However Richard Perry wanted to hand pick where Jim played certain fills and all the other cats too. So that’s where a studio musician’s discipline comes into play. You have to play the same track for hours and maintain the feeling and learn every note in your part till it’s written in your DNA. Then on top of that, you have to take instructions after each take from the Producer telling you exactly what to amend or delete in your part. It’s a lot of mental work going on. Not all players are cut out for this kind of disciplined playing, and designing a part. That’s what great records are. Great parts. Jim was like a computer. He did everything Richard Perry asked of him and still kept all the other stuff going in his part, take after take after take. And he hit the drums so damn hard. His snare drum was monstrous and it wasn’t even a rim shot. I was stunned at the power in all his notes. He saw that whole drum part in his head as if it was written on paper and handed to him. And take after take, for maybe 4 or 5 hours with breaks, he played it spot on every time. I got it…big time. Thank God I was replaced by Jim that day. What I got from that experience took my playing to another level completely. I put funky drumming on the back burner after watching Jim and started trying to make my notes real long, relaxed, with lots of air around them, giving each note it’s full sustain value, and even tuning my drums so that the notes would sustain for their full value. And every note was thought out. That’s what Jim did. He didn’t play any throw away notes. Not one!! Not even an unintended grace note on the snare drum. That’s what making records is all about. You have to own and believe in every note you play. Every 8th note on your high hat has meaning and character and tells a story. You can’t just be playing mindless time with a back beat. Drummers who do that sound bored and uninvolved. A drummer has to be involved in every note and put life into each one. This is what Jim did. I know this for sure. It’s a subtle thing but it makes all the difference in a player. Discipline, restraint, and conviction in every note. That’s when real music starts to happen.”

Andy Newmark, November 9th, 2013.

I had never seen this before and was blown away by Andy's candour and humility. What I also appreciated was the description of Gordon at the height of his powers, doing what he did so well. Often, because of his history, Jim Gordon is only seen as a tragic figure,  so I appreciated Andy's writing featuring Mr Gordon's  contribution to music and drums.

I contacted Andy to tell him how much I appreciated this, and he was kind enough to get back to me. We discussed many things, most of it personal so I wouldn't get into it here, but most importantly, he sent me a link to a youtube video of a tune he recently recorded. Here's Side Trip - Featuring Andy Newmark, Philip Lassiter, Andrew Ford, Troy Dexter and Mario Rossi. Check it out!

Ah, it's wonderful to hear a nice spacious groove like that. Not only that, but to hear a drummer in a Smooth Jazz/Backbeat situation where they aren't playing rimshots or have the snare cranked to infinity is extremely refreshing! Anyway, lovely music.

I think it's also important to note that some of the great studio drummers like Newmark, Jim Keltner, Bernard Purdie , are playing better than they ever did. If they aren't as visible, that says way more about the music industry and it's youth obsession rather than any of the great playing they did, and still do! 

Finally, here's a great interview that John DeChristopher  did with Andy recently as part of his "Live From My Drum Room" series. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Newmark tells it like it is. Enjoy! 

Toronto Jazz Festival: Stories From Home

 I've just been featured on the Toronto Jazz Festival's "Stories From Home" series….http://torontojazz.com/stories-home-ted-warren