Chuck D apparently has more to say.
The outspoken rapper/commentator and his outfit Public Enemy want to record another album. I have to say I support them. This is not only because I am an old-school P.E. fan. It is also because they are being creative with the way they seek funds to produce the record. They are having fans directly finance it through an organization called Sellaband, and are the first major act to do so.
Some ahead-of-the-curve indie artists have been doing this. I play for a brilliant artist named Janet Robin who financed her last record, “Everything Has Changed”, through fan dollars. Kudos to any artist who can pull that off at any level.
While I wish P.E. success and look forward to their album, I must admit I will not bother seeing them live. Unless they have a drummer. Period. How they can possibly not understand that the show would GO OFF with a drummer is beyond me.
I saw them live in college and left during the show. Suggestion: they should hire me. Second suggesion: if I am booked they should call ?uestlove.
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The playing mindset of jazz drummer Lewis Nash is highlighted in this article I have posted. Nash is one of my favorite jazz drummers.
He represents a perfect marriage between tradition and modernism. In fact his traditional foundation enables him to play very adventurous, modern things and still keep a Jimmy Cobb-like hard swing going. Many drummers lose their swing feel the second they “take it out”.
Nash has ears and musicality that guide his technique in a way that has enabled him to play with such a wide variety of jazz artists. Anyone with an opportunity to hear him live will be rewarded with high inspiration.
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Here is an article about a guy named Troy Yocum who is playing drums for a great cause. Troy is a former U.S. Army Specialist who is hiking across the U.S. to raise awareness for military families in need of financial assistance.
This is an under-covered subject in the media so good for him for serving as a soldier and continuing to serve as a citizen.
Troy is playing a small doumbek drum, presumably because it is light. It is interesting to hear, as he is playing military snare-type rhythms on a middle eastern hand drum. Troy is sponsored by Yamaha Drums (why the HELL did an American manufacturer not get behind this?????), Latin Percussion, and Sabian. Go Troy!
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John Bonham had it all: deep groove, huge tone, high energy, genre-busting creativity, and impeccable phrasing. His influence is enormous amongst drummers, but I dare say that this does not come across in much of the modern rock I hear.
It would often seem that young players want to emulate the Bonham hugeness-of-sound, but misinterpret this as being achievable simply by hitting really hard. Hitting hard is all fine and good but Bonham achieved his sound not by wailing, but by getting as huge and wide a tone out of his drums. He knew how to hit the drums and draw a big sound out without having to slam them.
I compare Bonham to the late great Art Blakey in this respect. Blakey was referred to as a “loud” drummer, but he was always in full control of his dynamics. He just had a very wide, sonically rich playing style that some people mistook for plain old loudness. Contrast this with many of today’s young drummers who hit the drums with a very loud transient and yet have a very thin tone!
At some point music will take a turn away from constant over-compression and drummers that have tone and know how to groove will shine again in rock music. Thanks to John Bonham for showing us how it is done!
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Uriel Jones, drummer on many Motown hits, died in March 2009. This was over a year ago but the man is worth celebrating. He had an unbelievably powerful groove, as did the other two main Motown drummers, Benny Benjamin and Pistol Allen. However, the approach Jones had was more muscular than his two more elegantly grooving colleagues.
The impact that Jones and all of the studio musicians he worked with at Motown had cannot be overstated. Firstly, the Motown hits themselves would not have been what they were without the musicians that played on them. This in not meant to convey disrespect to the great singers that sang on the Motown hits. Nevertheless, as drummer Stanley Jordan (who is greatly influenced by the Motown drummers) stated: “you could’ve had Deputy Dawg singing on some of those records and they’d still be hits”.
The power of those hits was in the groove and spirit of the musicians and Uriel Jones was every bit the part of that. I have heard people describe the “Motown sound” as being attributable to everything from the microphones used to the density of the floorboards in the studio. These things have a small role but to gloss over the fact that the Motown sound IS the musicians that played on the tracks is a joke.
I am thankful to Uriel for setting a template of funkiness that rocks. When I play rock music I add funk to the feel. Not in an “R&B drummer playing rock” kind of way, I mean rock drumming on a stylistic level mixed with a funk feel. Part of what helps me do this is plenty of Uriel Jones in the listening diet.
One last thing I would like to say in tribute to Mr. Jones is that he was actively playing until just before his death. That means he lived, lived, and lived before he went to the next level.
He had health issues, but he didn’t just wait to die. He LIVED until he died. Thanks for the example, Mr. Jones, musically and personally.
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