Groove o' the day PLUS : Airto - Fingers

UPDATE: Correction from the comments, it is Fattoruso on drums! I'll put the correct credit in the 2018 Book of the Blog. Until then, you'll have to pencil it in onto your printout. 

Here is a SUPER-ENHANCED groove o' the day— it includes not only the groove for this tune, but the intro, and a couple of brief shout choruses with a lot of fills happening. It's from the album Fingers by Airto, and it's an early fusion samba played either by Airto, or by the Uruguayan drummer Osvaldo Fattoruso, who passed away a few years ago. They both have drum credits on the album, and since I don't have the LP, I don't know if there is a personnel listing for each track. It sounds like Airto; it could be Fatturuso.

...no excuse for not having the LP, by the way; Airto's stuff is massively available used. I've heard this record my whole life, but just never owned it. CTI must have really papered the radio stations with promo copies...

The ensemble figure from the intro happens a few times throughout the tune, and the drummer always plays the same set part behind it, with very minor variations. He cuts loose more on the drum breaks on the shout choruses at the bottom of the page. The main groove for the tune is in the fourth line. You can see that the right hand is very busy with the running 16th notes, in typical Brazilian style. There's also a fast left hand move required— a small tom hit right before a rim click. I can do that move pretty fast, but I haven't tried it with this groove at this tempo. It may be that there's something else happening there— just get the sounds right. The small tom is the main left hand voice through out this tune.

Something has happened with music in the last 30 years— people have gotten really fascinated with subdivisions. You shouldn't sound like you're fascinated by subdivisions. If you listen to a lot of music from the early to mid 70s, there's an overwhelming energy and enthusiasm. I think people should try to sound like that.

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