Here's an interview with one of my personal favorite jazz drummers these days and the current holder of the drum chair with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Quintet - Ali Jackson Jr.:
While Ali is known for his work with Wynton and the LCJO, he plays many different bags and can go any direction he chooses. Here's some footage of Ali Jackson swinging hard with Kurt Rosenwinkel - a gig mostly associated with drummers such as Jeff Ballard, etc.:
More inspiring brush lessons today with one of my favorites, the impeccable Lewis Nash on drums:
Yes, rhythm is indeed his business !
And of course, as a bonus, here's another clip of one of the "founding fathers" of brushwork, Mr. Taste himself, the great Ed Thigpen showing how it's done:
Alright already, my head is getting dizzy from all this serious swing !
Here, Master latin Jazz drummer Ignacio Berroa talks about his drumming experience, influences and more:
Courtesy of the fine folks at Bosphorus cymbals.
Also, another nice interview and some footage here from Ignacio Berroa's band playing at the Jazz Standard courtesy of the Vic Firth website:
http://www.vicfirth.com/artists/berroa.php
I've blogged about Berroa's drumming before, but he is really a drummer worth checking out. I highly recommend his album "Codes" which made waves only a few years ago:
Ignacio Berroa first came over from Cuba to play with Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1980. At the time, Gillespie exclaimed that Berroa was: “The only Latin drummer in the world, in the history of American music that intimately knows both worlds; his native Afro-Cuban music as well as Jazz…”
Things have certainly changed nowadays (drummers Francisco Mela and Dafnis Prieto come to mind) but Berroa was truly a pioneer in latin Jazz drumming during the late 70s and early 80s and is still playing really great these days. I admire the fact that he can play ride cymbal with such a dynamic sense of swing and then switch to clave-based rhythms (and then mix the two!) with such authority.
Someone was smart and caught Jeff Ballard with his trio 'Fly' (with Mark Turner and Larry Grenadier) at a recent gig at the Jazz Standard in New York City:
Here, Max Roach and writer Amiri Baraka talk about music and politics:
Incidentally, a recent performance of Max Roach's percussion ensemble (sans Max) with the World Saxophone Quartet has recently showed up on youtube.com from a recent gig at Birdland:
Behold one of the greatest improvisors of our time, Han Bennink:
I recently spent four weeks at the Banff Centre and Han's legacy is quite rich here. I believe Han was on faculty during the Banff International Jazz Workshop in 2006 and 2007. Last week, one of the resident faculty teachers at the Banff Centre, Henk Guittart, had all the resident artists watch a documentary on the life and music of Han Bennink. I've been a fan of Bennink's drumming since I was a teenager (!) but watching this documentary was a nice reminder about one of the world's most dynamic and imaginative improvisors.
Some really nice piano trio playing here from drummer Duffy Jackson, a drummer I had only previously known for his great big band drumming and a guy who I had only considered in the tradition of such great drummers as Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Louie Bellson, Sam Woodyard, Sonny Payne, Sonny Payne and Butch Miles. I've always enjoyed listening to Duffy drive a big band but these following a clips are a beautiful testament to his overall musicality and a real lesson for all of us:
Compare those with these following clips, showing Duffy in action DRIVING the Count Basie Big Band and showing NO mercy !!!
Incidentally, Duffy's father, the late Chubby Jackson, was a great bassist who played with the Woody Herman Big Band back in the late 1940s and played with the little known (and favorite of mine), the great Tiny Kahn on drums. Apparently, (according to several jazz scholars and Terry Gibbs!) Tiny Kahn was the real composer of the bebop standard "Donna Lee" (not Bird or even Miles, as some have conjectured).
A beautiful solo here today, from drummer Ben Riley here with Thelonious Monk circa. 1965 from a concert recorded in London by the BBC:
Ben Riley will always have a special place in my heart. During my very first trip to New York City in the fall of 1999 (a trek by train from Montreal to see Elvin Jones play a week at the Blue Note) my good friend, tenor saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, showed me around the Big Apple and took me to the Village Vanguard. The band playing that night was the group Sphere featuring Kenny Barron, Gary Bartz, Buster Williams and.....Ben Riley on drums. The group played all Monk compositions and I'll never forget the great music that evening. I remember how Riley started the set with a drum solo and that he was, at first, playing so quietly that I could see his hands moving before I could hear any drums being hit. Thanks for the introduction Ferg !
Another excellent drum & bass pairing today, this time featuring Greg Hutchinson on the drums and Omer Avital on bass:
Nice to see Omer play again. I have many fond memories of catching him playing at Small's during my time in New York City years ago - usually a very, very, very late night set after I finished catching a show at the Village Vanguard down the street.
The act of playing in a rhythm section and accompanying a soloist as a cohesive unit is an art in itself. These cats really set the bar for how it's done. Miles knew that and that's why he hired them !
From a concert recorded in 1960 in Germany, check out the impeccable rhythm team of:
Jimmy Cobb - Drums
Paul Chambers - Bass
Wynton Kelly - Piano
(...and some tenor player)
And on this clip Oscar Peterson sits it on piano and Stan Getz joins Coltrane on Thelonious Monk's "Hackensack":
A few clips here of drummer Jeff Hamilton demonstrating his melodic approach to playing the drums:
Drummer Alvin Atkinson talked about playing like this at length a few weeks ago at a workshop I attended in Calgary. Alvin stressed the importance of young drummers learning the melodies of the tunes they are playing and doing EVERYTHING necessary to replicate that on the drum set.
Alvin really impressed everyone with his ability to change the pitch of his drums by pressing his elbow into the head, thus changing the tension of the drum head. By no means is this the only way to play melodically on the drums, but this technique really works when done well and with finesse.
Art Blakey was renowned for this drum "trick" and Max Roach would frequently have a pitch-bending, tympani-floor tom (activated with a pedal) included in his set-up during the 70s that would also replicate the same effect.
I'll now add that to my long list of things to practice !
One of the unsung heroes of Jazz drumming passed away recently, the tasteful and ever swinging Jake Hanna.
Hanna's resume reads like a who's who of great Jazz artists and I first heard Hanna's great drumming on the Oscar Peterson album "Oscar Peterson In Russia" (Leader Post sports/jazz columnist Rob Vanstone knows ALL about this album!)
Along with Oscar Peterson and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass this is one of my favorite Oscar Peterson records and all of the musicians are in fine form on this one.
During my studies with Toronto Jazz drummer Terry Clarke, I once asked him to describe and talk about his approach to big band drumming (Clarke was THE main drummer with Rob McConnell's Boss Brass and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra for many years). I surprised to hear from Terry that his main influence, in terms of big band drumming, came from studying and listening to Jake Hanna with the Woody Herman big band. We would spend quite a bit of time listening to albums of the Woody Herman band, with Terry pointing out the many interesting things that Hanna did to drive the band and swing the music as hard as he did. I thought that was interesting stylistic connection there between Jake Hanna and Terry Clarke.
Here's some clips of Jake Hanna driving the Woody Herman Big Band circa. 1964:
Some very rare footage today of one of my favorite groups of all-time, Old & New Dreams, featuring the great drummer Edward Blackwell on the tune "Happy House":
I'll always have a special place for Ed Blackwell as he was one of the first jazz drummers that I checked out during my teens. I remember checking out an LP copy of Don Cherry's album "El Corazon" from the Regina Public Library during the early 1990s. The album features Cherry and Blackwell playing duets and I was impressed with how Blackwell combined the bebop drumming of Max Roach with the parade beats of New Orleans and the exotic rhythms of West Africa. There are some great solos on this album with Ed Blackwell playing a log drum !
During my later studies at McGill University, my drum teacher Chris McCann (who had been a student of Blackwell's) would teach me quite a bit about Ed Blackwell's unique approach to the drums. I also gained a deeper appreciation for the band Old & New Dreams and this provided me a great introduction to the music of Ornette Coleman.
Canadian jazz icon Don Thompson is an absolute force, being a master on no less than three instruments: Piano, Bass and Vibraphone (he's actually a very good drummer and a heck of a composer/composer/arranger too!)
I was fortunate to do some playing with Don while I lived in Toronto as he lived in my neighborhood. Don and I played in the Tom Van Seters Quartet and I was always blown away by his energetic and momentous rhythmic feel he generated on the vibes. From what I understand, back in his early Vancouver days, Don was highly influenced by West Coast vibraphonist Terry Gibbs. I think Don Thompson is an absolute genius on any instrument he chooses to play, but for some reason his vibraphone playing really moves me the most.
Featured in another great episode of Daniel Berman's Solos: The Jazz Sessions, here Thompson shows what he does best:
And here is a clip of Don Thompson guesting on vibraphone with the Joe Sullivan Big Band in Montreal:
Dig the great swinging, drumming from Montreal's Dave Laing on drums and Andre White on piano.
I recall Don getting quite excited when I told him I was learning to play the vibraphone.
"Playing the vibes is easy if you play already play the piano." Don explained to me, "You know, Phil Dwyer sounds like Bobby Hutcherson when he plays around on the vibes."
"Well Don, I don't really play the piano" I replied (well I do play "arrangers" piano anyways)
"Oh, well then maybe playing the vibraphone won't be so easy..."
Incidentally, I think Nasheet was once a drum tech for M'Boom, Max's percussion ensemble that his father, Freddie Waits, used to play in. Nice work if you can get it !
Okay, if it's not enough to have ONE bad ass drummer in a band, this group has TWO !!! Check out Nasheet Waits and Eric MacPherson go at it with saxophonist Abraham Burton. Often when two drummers hit the stage, egos collide and the "Weapons of Mass Percussion" ensue. But these guys really pull it off nicely. Inspiring stuff. Any drummers out there want to play some duets with me ?
Thanks to fellow Banff TD jazzer & alto saxophonist Curtis MacDonald who turned me to these cats.
This is a blog about jazz, jazz drumming and all things unrelated. Thanks for stopping by!
A Bit About Me...
Jonathan McCaslin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. Jonathan began playing the drums at the age of nine. He progressed through the Regina Lions Junior Band and the music program at his high school, Campbell Collegiate, soon developing a passion for playing the drums and jazz. Ultimately, Jon's interest in music led him to enroll in the Jazz Studies program at McGill University, graduating with distinction in 1999.
While at McGill Jon had the opportunity to study with some of the finest jazz educators in the country including Gordon Foote, Kevin Dean, Jan Jarcyzk, Chris McCann, Andre White, Michel Lambert and Dave Laing. He also attended the prestigious summer jazz workshop presented by the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1997, where he performed with Canadian jazz greats Hugh Fraser, Don Thompson and Kenny Wheeler.
Jon has also been fortunate to have performed with many of Canada's jazz elite including Charlie Biddle, Brian Hurley, Louise Rose, Alaister Kay, Mart Kinny, Gary Guthman, Mike Rud, Hadley Caliman, Greg Clayton, Chase Sanborn, Andre White, Tilden Webb, John LaBelle, Kevin Dean, Dave Turner, Ralph Bowen, Don Thompson, Dionne Taylor, Jim Vivian, Kelly Jefferson, Ian McDougall, Brad Turner, Jim Brenan, The McGill Jazz Orchestra, Jeff Johnston, Lorraine Desmerais, Steve Amirault, Hugh Fraser, Chucho Valdes, Kieran Overs, The Altsys Jazz Orchestra, Pat LaBarbera, The Regina Symphony Orchestra and The Montreal Jazz Big Band.
In the spring of 2002 McCaslin completed his Master's in Jazz Studies at McGill University where he studied jazz drumming, improvisation and composition.
In January 2003 Jon released his debut CD, “McCallum’s Island”. Featuring his quintet, the CD contains an exciting collection of McCaslin’s original compositions, featuring himself and his band. The release of this CD was followed by a twenty-day tour of Western Canada, performing to enthusiastic, capacity audiences. During March of 2003 Jonathan was the recipient of a fellowship from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and attended the “Betty Carter Jazz Ahead” residency in Washington, D.C. Along with twenty other distinguished young jazz artists, McCaslin was featured with such jazz icons as Terence Blanchard, Carmen Lundy, Winard Harper, Curtis Fuller and John Clayton.
McCaslin’s quintet performed at the 2003 edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival and was nominated for the General Motors Grand Prix du Festival (awarded to the most outstanding Canadian group). From 2004 until 2006, Jon toured North America, Asia and Europe with the high-energy, critically acclaimed music production troupe “Barrage”. Featuring a cast of seven world-class fiddlers and a four-piece band, this dynamic show featured high-energy music and fiddle traditions from around the world set to upbeat choreography and movement.
In 2015, Dr. McCaslin received his Doctorate through the University of Toronto and completed his dissertation on the conceptualization of contemporary melodic jazz drumming. He is currently based in Calgary, Alberta where he maintains a busy performing and teaching schedule across Canada.
