“[D]o all the listening you can, to everyone who is on record, or live. Try to evaluate what really makes them function in the setting they're in. Try to add it to your arsenal or repertoire so that when you're in a situation, you have more things to call on. Listen to the music and try to figure out what your instrument does in various situations.
Don't be intimidated by anyone musically, and just do what you do best, and feel good about doing. All you can do is what you do. You can't do what anyone else does. If you've prepared enough, and have listened enough, and are musically sympathetic to a situation, you usually end up doing okay.”
—Harvey Mason, from 1981 Modern Drummer interview with Robyn Flans
Here are some fairly basic funk grooves, which I'm really only posting as an excuse to get you to listen to this track, and the way the drummer plays it. The tune is Slop Jar Blues, from the 1973 Donald Byrd album Black Byrd, with Harvey Mason on the drums.
A couple of minutes in he gets a little heavier with the bass drum. The hihat with the tenuto mark is slightly less open than the open note at the end of the measure:
This figure happens many times throughout the tune, and he plays it the same way every time, with a rather complicated sticking— try RRLB RLBR— B meaning 'both', with the right hand on the cymbal. Or whatever works for you.
But never mind that, just listen to the way he plays— between this and the Ndugu Leon Chancler transcription last month, this is everything you need to know about playing slow funk. At this tempo you have to be very deliberate in your rhythm, especially the fills. There's a certain uniformity of volume— everything's pretty big and solid, though he's not playing especially loud. He's not getting that slamming, hard sound a lot of drummers today somehow associate with being “funky”— none of that “crack” to the snare drum that is so cherished now. A drummer who really got into this school of playing would sound pretty unique today, and people would really be into playing with him or her.
Here's something very great: Harvey Mason playing Breezin', written by Bobby Womack, on George Benson's album of the same title in 1976. As far as I'm concerned there's really no higher artistry in drumming than this— I don't care who you're talking about. And it doesn't matter that this is just a light little commercial tune.
Some observations: The groove is very deep, and of a totally different quality than you hear in current music— it's interlaced these with rhythmic microtensions that are the result of live musicians pulling a groove out of the air. The time is not precisely metronomic: the body of the tune starts at around 83 beats per minute, relaxes somewhat over the first couple of minutes, and by the end has settled to around 80 beats per minute. Later in the tune Mason repeatedly accents on the crash cymbal on the e of 1, playing off the primary riff you hear played by the flute— which is very audacious. Not the type of thing you would normally dare to play over and over on a commercial record. I'm basically in awe of the fills. Not just anyone can be that deep in the pocket when filling. Mason is digging in, but he's not playing loud. It's not a hard sound.
Gabor Szabo recorded the same basic arrangement of this tune in 1971 with Jim Keltner on drums. It may be a hipper overall rendition of the tune, but there's something different going on with the groove. There's more forward momentum: the tempo starts at the same tempo as the Benson version, 83 bpm, but speeds up to around 87 bpm by the middle of the track. The bass and maybe the guitar seem to be driving that, with the drums laying back; the snare drum especially is way on the back of the beat. It's not really a comfortable groove for me to listen to. Keltner plays very simply, with no fills at all. On Benson's version the drums are featured in the mix with the guitar; here they're balanced with the tambourine.
