Groove o' the day: Bill Withers — Lovely Night For Dancing

This is by 70's session drummer Alvin Taylor, who's fairly little-known, but is on a lot of stuff. Here he's with Bill Withers, on the album Menagerie. The song, Lovely Night For Dancing, is kind of a high-70's, feel-good, throwaway number— Ain't No Sunshine it ain't— but I appreciate it on its own terms, and for the craft of it. Here's the groove Taylor holds for the whole tune almost without variation:

Like a lot of our recent GsOTD, there's not a lot of drummery interest here, but this is almost our whole job. Laying down time is exciting. It's exciting to listen to someone do it well.

Audio after the break:

DBMITW: Bill Withers on BBC

Here's a complete 30 minute Bill Withers concert on BBC from 1973. I'm not sure who's playing drums with him— he gets almost zero screen time, and is severely under-lit. It's not James Gadson, doesn't really look like Al Jackson, and I don't know who else Withers might have been touring with at the time. If you know, please comment...

[UPDATE: Bethany-and-Joe in the comments tells us his name is Fred Casey, who I've never heard of, and about whom I can find no more info.]

All the grooves from Still Bill

Today we've got all of the grooves from the Bill Withers album Still Bill, with drumming by soul master James Gadson:

Notes:
- Swing the 16th notes on "Lonely Town, Lonely Street".
- Bass drum notes in parenthesis are optional or occasional embellishments; snare drum notes in parentheses are ghost notes- play them very lightly.
- Also see my transcription of the drum breaks from "Use Me".

Get the pdf

Transcription: James Gadson - Use Me

I guess we could also file this under Groove o'the day. While I'm getting some longer posts together, here are James Gadson's drum breaks from the song Use Me, by Bill Withers. As you'll notice from listening to the track, you shouldn't play the accents too strongly, and the open hihat notes should just have a little sizzle to them.

Get the pdf

My favorite YouTube video in the world after the break:

James Gadson: soul master

Nothing to say, I was just thinking about the drummer James Gadson. What am I going to add?

Two Bill Withers clips I post anywhere and everywhere I can:





More clips after the break: