Butch Miles on ensemble playing

Big band drumming tips from Butch Miles, from the Oct. 1977 issue of Modern Drummer. They apply to all types of music, of course: 

SUPPORT. If the band has a difficult passage, support them strongly. Let them rely on you for cues and dynamics.

DON'T GET IN THE WAY. There's no reason for you to play something rhythmically difficult if it detracts. Simplify it. You're responsible for keeping the band together.

DIRECT. Learn the entrances for ensembles and cue them in with authority. Always let the band know where they are.

DON'T OVERPLAY. Sometimes a well-placed rim shot in an arrangement has more impact than 10,000 notes. Learn the importance of silence.

KEEP THE ENERGY LEVEL UP. There's nothing that sounds as sad as a band dying in the middle of a passage.

LEARN THE CHART. Get your nose out of the music and be comfortable.

LEARN TO PHRASE. This is an art in itself. You don't have to play every note the band plays. Let them breathe. Learn when to punch, and when to back off. Talk to the leaders of the other sections and ask them exactly what they might want in the way of support in an ensemble passage. They may have some very valid ideas that you hadn't thought of. Don't be afraid to ask.

TIME. Never lose sight of the fact that you're the keeper of the time. That's the first and foremost job of a big band drummer - much more so than that of a small group drummer.

LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN. Learn the nuances, the dynamics of the arrangements. My boss, Count Basie, put it all together when he simply said, "LISTEN". As a big band drummer, you must be listening all of the time; listen to the soloist and support him; listen to the ensemble and guide them — cue them correctly; listen to the dynamics and play within that framework, but most importantly, listen to the overall sound and to yourself in the whole picture. Do you detract or do you support? A tape recorder is a great help. Listen to yourself on tape and be your biggest critic. That tape recorder never lies.

After the break are a couple of clips of Miles playing with Count Basie's band in the late '70's.

Jo Jones in the '70's

I stumbled across this piece about Papa Jo Jones late in his career, at Michael Steinman's Jazz Lives. Steinman was able to speak to Jones and see him perform a number of times during that period, and has some interesting stories and insights:

[...] In person, Jo was animated, inscrutable, vehement. Something in his manner and approach defied easy explanation. It felt as if we were speaking to a character in a play — and only Jo had the script. There was also some element of unpredictability, even of danger, as if he might suddenly get furious at you in the middle of a conversation, as I saw happen with Ruby Braff.

(Ruby, incidentally, told us a wonderful story about working with Jo at Storyville, almost twenty years earlier: Jo would never say, “Let’s play ROSETTA,” but start a rhythmic pattern and tempo on his hi-hat or snare and leave it up to the musician to guess which tune might best go with that tempo. Ruby shook his head in disbelief when he recalled, somewhat in desperation, picking some song that he thought might be fine at that tempo, and Jo saying, “That’s it! You got it!” as if Ruby had telepathically found the answer. “I don’t play with him any more. He’s nuts,” said Ruby.)