Influences and aging

Hey,

I recently had a conversation regarding influences with another player and I thought I'd write down a few of my thoughts. In music, there are always new talented players that come along and how they affect you will change as you go through your career. For example, I can still remember where I was the first time I heard Tony Williams, Elvin, and Monk. Partially the reason these experiences are still so clear to me is that I was young and just starting to find out about the music. That excitement I felt was created by this information coming at a formative time when I still hadn't heard very much music, so every time I heard something, it was completely new to me. Cool as this feeling was (and occasionally still is) it's pretty hard to sustain. So as much as I love Brian Blade, for example, I'm not going to hear him in the same way as someone who's just starting to check out Jazz and improvised music. His influence can't be as strong as some of my earlier listening. Plus, at this point in my life, I can't devote all my energy to checking out the latest thing and immersing myself in it to the exclusion of all else.

Plus, with a lot of the newer artists, as great as they are, I'm more likely to hear things that I feel are missing, as opposed to when I was young and just heard the new, cool parts of things.

It's interesting, when I studied at Banff in 1988, I feel I was very impressionable and was likely to get sucked in and completely "blown off course" if you will from any strong player I heard. Originally, when Dave Holland was heading the program he wanted DeJohnette to teach there, but it didn't work out. I think if he had, it might have been problematic for me (ironically) because I loved ( and do love) his playing so much. In fact, for awhile I had to not listen to Jack because I was becoming a very lame copy of him. As it was "Smitty" Smith was there, and it was great hearing him and checking him out. It was also impossible to even attempt to copy him because not only could I not begin to approach what he was doing technically, I couldn't even figure out what most of was he was playing was!!

So enjoy those first glimpses of what's possible on the drums, they will stay with you for a long time!

....And we're back!

Hey all,

The computer is fixed. Thanks to the fine folks at Synergenics in Guelph!

A lot has happened in the last few days, not the least of which is the untimely deaths of Paul Motian and Robert Spizzichino, I will be devoting a whole post to Paul Motian soon but Peter Hum has has some great posts on this. I haven't been this affected by a musician's death since Tony Williams passed, but more on that later.

Here's the two cascara articulation vids I promised. The titles pretty much tell the tale.

Thanks,

Ted

Articulation

Hey folks,

Super quick one today. I will post some video related to this in the coming days but right now I'm having some computer issues which are limiting me. Hopefully they'll be fixed soon.

So quickly...

Take any beat you normally play (say some sort of standard rock beat) and on the back beats try buzzing one of the strokes on the snare rather than playing it straight up, Try it on 2 only, then four only. Then try it on the downbeat strokes on the hi-hat (you'll probably want to take this at a pretty slow tempo).

Okay, try the same thing except use a deadstroke ( pushing the drumstick into the head and leaving it there). Again, try it on different parts of the bar or on the hi-hat. The cool thing about this (at least on a drum) is it will deaden it yes, but also raise the pitch a bit.

Finally, mix and match this stuff. Remember, changing how you articulate any rhythm is a great way to create variety.

Okay here's some footage of Paul Motian's Electric Bebop band. It doesn't really have anything to do with this post, but it's awesome, and you should see it! :)

Cascara part 2

Hey,

here's a few more exercises using the Cascara rhythm. Please note, these aren't supposed to be in any way folklorically correct., although i would certainly hope that you're all trying to work on playing the music of Cuba (as well as other musics of the world) as authentically as you can. I've spent a lot of time working on "world" music (although I hate that term) yet never really have done many gigs playing it. This work , however, has helped my drumming and overall musicality in so many ways.

Okay here's the stuff:

Thanks!

Cascara!

Hey all,

Today I'm going to show a couple of things I did with the Cascara rhythm. Cascara is found in Cuban music. It means "shell" in Spanish, referring to the shell of the timbales this rhythm was originally played on.

The rhythm goes like this:

This rhythm is easily as important as the jazz ride rhythm or the basic rock beat and it's important for us to become very familiar with it.

Here's 2 current variations I've been playing around with:

The first one is the Cascara in the right hand, dotted quarters (played as flams between the rim of the small tom and a rim click on the snare), quarter notes with the hi-hat and the tumbao ( + of 2 and beat 4) with the bass drum.

Note the right hand part on the edge of the cymbal gives it an interesting quality, I think.

Next, I'm doing the cascara in the right hand, filling in the rest of the 8th notes with my left, same as above on the bass drum, and putting the dotted quarters on the hi-hat. This is also an interesting example of "Proactive Interference", which is "forgetting [of information] due to interference from the traces of events or learning that occurred prior to the materials to be remembered". The interference comes from me learning left foot clave which is a close but slightly different pattern. Ah, we're never short of challenges, are we?

Happy trails!!!

20 km Jazz diet

Hey folks,

Here's some footage from a recent house gig I was doing in home my town. (Unfortunately now it conflicts with an ensemble I'm running.) I've been trying to be a part of a weekly regular playing situation for a long time now. It's a great way to work on repertoire and develop something with a band as a unit. Even being guaranteed one night of playing a week helps when the phone isn't ringing and my lowly piano and harp playing have improved quite a bit. (In fact I would have played piano on this version of "Autumn Leaves" but Brent likes playing it in E flat! Pathetic I know, but I'm working on playing stuff in different keys....) Anyway, here's Brent Rowan, Jessie Turton, and myself.

Jasmine!

Hey folks,

This is related to my earlier post ( Q. Who's that great drummer on that recording? A. You.) but I thought I'd mention it briefly. Today I was playing along with the great Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden recording "Jasmine". Now this recording is mainly ballads, 4/4 time, just bass and drums, so there's nothing to playing along with it, right?

Not so fast (literally) Sonny! And I don't mean Rollins, Greenwich, or Clark!

There are many choices to make when playing drums along with this, and because there's no drummer on the recording, they're yours to make. Let's list some of them.

1. Implements. Brushes? Sticks? Mallets? Hands? A combination?

2. How are you expressing the ballad time? 12/8? Straight 8ths? Double time feel? A combination?

3. How are you changing colours between the piano and bass solos?

4. Are you playing empathetically yet strongly during the bass solos? Mr. Haden plays the time very freely, especially when he's blowing and it's easy to get off the rails.

5. Are the dynamics and amount of space in keeping with the spirit of each piece?

All of the above questions (especially no. 5) you will have to answer with the taste and good judgement you have developed through countless hours of listening. This may not get you a gig at a drum festival but it will certainly help you become a tasteful and supportive small group player.

Here's a brief doc on the making of the recording. Check it out, then go buy it and then play to it and raise your level as an aware musician!