A fantastic and in-depth interview today with Canadian jazz drumming legend Terry Clarke from The Vocal Lab with Sara Ramsay:
I was fortunate to take lessons with Mr. Clarke during my brief time at the University of Toronto, around 2007-2008. Our lessons together were mostly spent perfecting my ride cymbal beat at a wide range of tempos, including extensive work with Allan Cox's excellent play-a-long resource Meet the Bass Player.
We also did a lot of listening together and he generously shared his extensive insight into the drumming of Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Roy Haynes. He also shared a great deal of his unique approach to playing Brazilian rhythms on the drum set.
However, one thing that I really appreciated and made a huge difference during my brief time working him was that I made a point of going to hear Terry play at every opportunity I could! I was lucky to hear him play regularly with a wide range of groups including small groups, quintets, quartets, piano trios, big bands, groups playing original music, odd meters, bands playing standards, backing up vocalists, etc. His ability to shift gears and play at such a high level with a wide variety of musicians and in different situations really left an impression on me.
I also made a point of asking him about these different musical situations in our lessons (of course his work with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, Jim Hall and John Handy came up in our conversations frequently). I really learned a lot from all this and still think about these lessons today.
Anyways...to make a long story short:
*Students: go hear your teachers play frequently and them ask them questions about the music!*
