Groove o' the day: Neftali Santiago — Too Late

Because I don't think your funk is 70s is enough, here's some more Mandrill, with one of the greatest-named drummers ever, Neftali Santiago. And just a great drummer, period. This is Too Late, from the album New Worlds, by Mandrill. It's 1978, Disco is happening, and in keeping with the times, funk drummers are simplifying and cleaning things up a bit. Santiago is pretty freewheeling on the band's earlier records, but here he matches the vamp all the way through. And he still sounds absolutely great.

The great funk hihat accenting debate— which I started, with myself, and no one else is participating in— continues with track; there is no regular accenting the hihat on the beat here. He plays it generally pretty strong and even, but I notice he'll ghost the downbeat every so often; and he'll accent occasionally, usually off the beat, along with the bass drum, or not.

Groove o' the day, plus fills: Mandrill — Tee Vee

There was a period in the 70s when funky music had a kind of unbridled quality you don't much hear any more— there was a lot of screaming, and everyone seemed to be fully embracing having a really good time. I was a kid then, but I got a definite impression of that feeling in the music. Today's song is a good example of that vibe: Tee Vee, by the New York funk band Mandrill, from their album Solid. The drummer, Neftali Santiago, is a complete badass— he's right up there with the Tiki Fulwood and Jerome Brailey for the quintessentiality of his funk. To coin a phrase. Until the orgy of James Brown sampling at the end of the 80's, this was funk, in my mind: slow tempos and fat backbeats. Aside from David Garibaldi, I don't know who was doing the more hyper thing people have been so in love with since the 90s— that style was a part of history, and had to be revived.

Here I've transcribed a representative sample of the type of variations to the groove occurring throughout the song, along with a few of the big fills:

The hihat is played open in all the examples, and all the way through the song. The snare hits are at a fairly even volume— maybe the 2 and 4 are a little stronger, and the 32nd notes a little softer, but do not ghost the other notes. I don't know what sticking you would use to play the fill at 2:51, after the opening paradiddle-diddle, but it's not real important— I do think I have it on all the right drums.

Get the pdf