Someone asked Washington about his approach to playing uptempos and, of course, Louis Hayes' name came up (and as Kenny recommended, check out Hayes' drumming on "Easy to Love" from Cannonball Adderley's album Nippon Soul).
It's also Louis Hayes' birthday today (!) so I thought I would share some great footage and a pair of interviews with the Master himself:
Jerome Jennings is a drummer, activist, bandleader, composer, sideman and educator. His debut recording ‘The Beast’ is a reflection of the every day joys and traumas of black life in the U.S. It was named one of the top three Jazz releases by NPR, received a four star rating in Downbeat Magazine, and was nominated for the prestigious French ‘Grand Prix du Disque’ award for Album of the Year in 2016. Jerome’s sophomore recording, ‘Solidarity’, released November 2019 was recognized by NPR as best music that spoke truth to power of 2019.
Jerome is a pertinent performer. To date Jerome has performed, toured and recorded with legendary musicians like Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Gerald Wilson, Christian McBride, Ron Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis (J@LC), The Count Basie Orchestra, Philip Bailey, Henry Butler, and countless others. He has also made recordings and shared the stage with contemporary musicians Sean Jones, Camille Thurman, Jazzmeia Horn, Christian Sands, Charenee Wade, and Bokani Dyer to name a few.
The summer of 2007 Jerome earned a MM from the prestigious Juilliard School in Manhattan NY. Jerome has been the Resident Director of The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra since fall 2017. He passed Jazz At Lincoln Centers Swing University 301 history course: The most comprehensive study of jazz from a non-performance perspective, available. Jazz At Lincoln Center has Jerome Jennings on file as an accredited jazz scholar.
Jerome has participated on several panels including Chamber Music America: Music, Language, and Revolution; Lincoln Center: Freedom’s State of Mind; Winter Jazz Festival: Jazz & Gender: A Discussion Of Community, Culture & Participatory Allies. Fall 2020, Jerome co-curated with Naomi Extra, a series of panels, performances and discussions at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem entitled ‘Jazz in The Era of Black Lives Matter.’
Currently, Jerome is keeping busy teaching, conducting clinics and educational youth out reach nationally and internationally. He is one of the most successful in the field of Black American music education. Jerome has been artist in residence, and have lectured at dozens of Universities, Academy’s, and Camps nationally and internationally including UNC Greensboro, John Hopkins Peabody Institute, Rutgers University, The Juilliard School, Jazz Music Institute (Brisbane, AU), Sydney Conservatory of Music, Xavier College (Melbourne, AU), The Ohio State University, Aspen Colorado, Brigham Young University, University Of Ghana - Legon School Of Performing Arts, Rockport Jazz Workshop, and the Universidad Sergio Arboleda (Bogota Colombia) and The National Taiwan University of The Arts.
And...we're back.
Thanks for checking in and there's no lack of interesting things to share with you all in this month's action packed variety column.
11) Alvin Atkinson offers some tangible concepts on trading fours from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Academy:
12) Steve Fidyk with two brush pieces and some great concepts to share:
13) Another instalment of Quincy Davis's incredible, ongoing Q-Tips YouTube series:
19) Jack DeJohnette (the pianist this time!) offers this composition "Ode to Satie":
20) What am I listening to these days?
Willie Jones III "Forgotten Heroes" - Willie Jones III (drums)
Lonnie Smith "Live at Club Mozambique" - Joe Dukes (drums)
Lou Donaldson "Alligator Boogaloo" - Leo Morris (drums)
Stan Kenton "Contemporary Concepts" - Mel Lewis (drums)
Hank Jones "The Oracle" - Billy Higgins (drums)
Kenny Barron & Dave Holland "The Art of Conversation"
21) And today's Final Word goes to Nadia Boulanger:
"To study music, we must learn the rules. To make music, we must learn to break them."
- Nadia Boulanger
Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, has also proven himself a complete and endlessly versatile musician — "the ultimate modernist," as John Murph of NPR has dubbed him. Blake's gift for composition and band leading reflects years of live and studio experience across the aesthetic spectrum.
I'm pretty stoked about this upcoming solo drum/percussion and multi-disciplinary festival happening in Montreal this coming June 6th and 13th.
Montreal's Architek Percussion ensemble and Suoni Per Il Popolo are presenting the inaugural UnDrum Festival featuring a diverse range of compelling artists including Ian Chang, Susie Iberra, Glenn Kotche, Architek Percussion, Nicole Lizée, Jessie Cox, Islem Ben Fraj, Camille Renarhd, Greg Harrison, Mili Hong, Michel Langevin, Germaine Liu, Susanna Hood and Jason Tait.
Both perforance dates will be streamed live at www.suoniperilpopolo.org
I've been considering and designing my own solo works for drum set lately so I'm really curious and excited to see what these artists will be offering. I'm sure it's all going to be really great.
Here's a couple of cool clips of Susie Ibarra, Glenn Kotche and Ian Chang who will all be presenting solo works during the UnDrum festival:
Architek Percussion and Suoni Per Il Popolo are pleased to present the inaugural UnDrum Festival, streaming live in June 2021. UnDrum Festival features artists who are undoing our conception of the drum solo and expanding the meaning of being a drummer. Each artist uniquely approaches the drumkit by going beyond its traditional roles in popular music. Performances include free improvisation, contemporary dance collaboration, field recordings, electronics, avant-garde composition, and much more. Headlining artists include Glenn Kotche (drummer for Wilco, composer), Susie Ibarra (percussionist, improviser, composer), and Ian Chang (drummer for Son Lux, electronic artist), rounded out by an eclectic and diverse artist lineup. UnDrum will stream live June 6 and 13, 2021 and thereafter be available on demand via Suoni Télé-TV.
For more information visit: www.architekpercussion.com
Please join us for the next episode of Four on the Floor *Live* happening next Tuesday, May 11th at 7pm MST (9pm EST), appearing on Instagram Live IGTV @fouronthfloorblog featuring Colin Stranahan.
Born In Denver Colorado, Colin Stranahan has always been surrounded by music. By his teenage years he was already actively working on the local Denver scene, and has recorded multiple records on the Capri Record label. After receiving the prestigious National Foundation Advancement of the Arts Presidential Scholar award in 2005, he studied at the University of the Pacific for one year as a Brubeck Institute Fellow. Shortly thereafter, he attended the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Stranahan was also one of the winners of the 2012 Thelonious Monk Drum Competition. Now living in Brooklyn, New York, Colin is among the most sought-after drummers in the world working with such artist as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jonathan Kreisberg, Dr. Lonnie Smith,Fred Hersch, Terence Blanchard, Dave Kikoski, Kevin Hays, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and many others.
He is part of a collective trio featuring some of the most talented and praised young musicians in New York City. Together, the Stranahan/Zaleski/Rosato trio has recorded and released two successful albums and are releasing a third that was recorded live at Smalls, released in 2015.
For the third and final instalment of our ongoing collaborative collective series entitled The Three Bloggers, myself, Ted Warren of Trap'd and Todd Bishop of Cruise Ship Drummer! will each offer our individual thoughts on the concept of Technique.
As before, this topic was suggested without any specificity or direction so I'm sure between the three of us we'll come up with a variety of interesting perspectives to consider.
Given the current circumstances and on-going restrictions re: Covid-19, the idea of Technique is something I've given quite a bit of thought to over the past year now since I've had more time to practice. Specifically, the question I've been asking myself has been: "How do I become a better drummer AND musician throughout all of this?"
Here are a few of my thoughts and some things that I've learned:
- In my opinion, developing one's technique as a drummer is a very important and lifelong study.
Specifically, I am referring to developing, maintaining and refining one's rhythmic control and ability with one's hands, feet and overall four-way coordination on the drum set.
I once heard Jerry Bergonzi in a Downbeat interview say something along the lines of:
"You never really master music. Music is the master."
...and I think he's right! But what does this mean?
- I think people all too often confuse the idea of technique (practicing rudiments for example) with that of developing speed and virtuosity for their own sake. In a society and culture that generally celebrates speed and virtuosity it's easy to buy into this. But for me it becomes much deeper than that and I think it's really about developing and expanding your rhythmic/musical vocabulary and, most importantly, your sound on your instrument.
As my good friend jazz trumpeter Prof. Dean McNeill often reminds me:
"Often the things that count the most aren't easily counted..."
- So yes, we should always continually work on the technical side of our instrument but ultimately it's how we apply those concepts in a musical context that matters most.
- I'm often reminded of many significant drummers who, over the course of music history, certainly had adequate technique but not to a level that I would qualify as being overly virtuosic (I won't mention any specific names here...)
So why were those drummers so special and in constant demand? It's because it wasn't necessarily what they played so much as it was how they played (i.e. their attention to their sound and how they made the music feel) and for me this is really the heart of the matter.
Carl Allen recently commented on this during my recent Four on the Floor *Live* interview with him:
"When you are playing there are two questions that you have to ask yourself: how does it sound and how does it feel?"
And he's right!
- Speaking of feel, Steve Gadd is, of course, one of the greatest drummers in the world and his prolific career reflects the way he makes the music feel and the rhythmic dance with which he plays the drums.
However, Gadd is also a master of the snare drum rudiments. My friend Chris Worthington recently forwarded to me this compilation of Gadd demonstrating his brilliant approach to using flam rudiments:
For me, I think Steve Gadd is a perfect example of how technique and musical intention merge and all come together.
- This has all been, admittedly, very challenging for me to put into practice over the past year since we, as musicians, have had our livelihoods turned upside down and haven't been able to play with other people!
- However, for myself, addressing technical issues from a musical perspective (such as sound), playing along with recordings, play-a-longs, composing/arranging new music, listening to music (more on this below) and playing melodies on the vibraphone has really helped give me a musical sense of balance to my practice routine over the past 12 months.
It's all a matter of musical intention and balance!
- Speaking of balance, saxophonist David Liebman puts this all into perspective with a brilliant artistic concept he breaks down into three areas. He calls this The Three H's: The Head, The Hands and The Heart (check out Liebman's excellent book Self-Portrait of a Jazz Artist).
These three areas of one's artistry (no matter your artistic discipline) all need to be addressed and they all work together towards creating a healthy and balanced creative spirit (and as Bergonzi stated before, it's a journey that one never finishes and it's always a work in progress).
1) The Hands
This is the technical and hands-on "muscle memory" aspect of being, in our case, a drummer. This is developing your facility on the snare drum, learning to use rebound, developing coordination, independence, etc. In some ways this is almost like being an athlete, meaning training our hands and feet to react in certain ways, developing control, dexterity and overall skill on our instrument (and your sound!)
2) The Head
This is the theoretical aspect of being a musician and a drummer: being able to understand and think about rhythm, melody, harmony, form, different styles, etc. One has to understand how music works and of its theoretical possibilities and potential.
3) The Heart
This is probably the most subjective aspect but the emotional content of one's artistry is very important as well.
What does your music mean?
Why do you play?
What message are you trying to convey?
These are important questions to ask and not only are the answers unique to every individual, they often take a long time to ask and to answer in an honest way. It's all very personal.
When thinking about this particular aspect, I often return to Charlie Parker's famous quote:
“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.”Great advice from Joe Farnsworth, Charlie Parker, Adam Nussbaum, Dave Liebman, Steve Gadd, Carl Allen, Dean McNeill and Jerry Bergonizi and I think about these things a lot, whether I'm working things out on my drum pad, learning new Brazilian Batucada patterns on the drums or playing along with recordings of Bud Powell.
Furthermore, I've shared this one before but it's really important, in my opinion. Percussionist Evelyn Glennie offers this wonderful TEDx talk that is certainly worth a watch entitled "How to Truly Listen":
