Transcription by Steve Korn: Baby Dodds - Maryland, My Maryland

Here's something I've been meaning to put up for a long time- a Baby Dodds transcription by Seattle drummer, teacher, author, photographer, and fellow Origin recording artist Steve Korn. He sent me several of these, but the first one I'll be posting is Maryland, My Maryland, a straightforward swinging march from Dodds' famous Talking and Drum Solos recording.

There's a bunch of other great stuff on Steve's site, so be sure to pay him a visit. You can purchase his CDs through Origin Records.

Get the pdf.

YouTube clip of the solo after the break:

Massive Mel Lewis interview

More great stuff from Jon McCaslin at Four on the Floor: extended radio interview of Mel Lewis by Loren Schoenberg, discussing the history of the drums in jazz from Baby Dodds to Elvin Jones. An essential document for all jazz drummers, and anyone serious about the drums, period.

2020 UPDATE: You can now get the interviews on the University of North Texas site. Thanks to Manuel, our man in Augsburg for the notice!

Baby Dodds

One thing I've noticed in recent years is that you can't have a conversation about the drums in jazz without Baby Dodds coming up- he's become kind of a signifier of seriousness about the subject. I can't remember anything that's said about him- people just seem be saying the name to encourage others to go deep into the history, or to remind themselves of something.

Like most people, I can't say he's been a giant influence- I dug up some records when I was in school, and was struck by his fat, swinging sound, but that's about it. Unless you're playing Dixieland, it's not easy to apply his thing real directly- when playing modern music in the 60's tradition, you generally try to avoid those early stylistic things. Ed Blackwell and Charles Moffett come to mind as people who maybe do a similar thing in a hip way. Maybe I hear a little bit of him in Tony Oxley as well.

I take him as a reminder of the soul of the instrument that got maybe a little bit obscured as it moved into its modern phase- the "drumistic" rudimental melodies, military effects, the little two and three pitch melodies, sound/exotic effects, chokes, the strong use of the bass drum, the dramatic orchestration. Without the historical knowledge, modern drumming can sometimes feel like attempting high-level Christopher Guest style comedy without knowing anything about slapstick.

Here's a track from his famous Talking and Drum Solos record:



An interview excerpt and more clips after the break: