Transcription: James Gadson - Shout It Out

UPDATE: Text updated after I stupidly (but defensibly!) misidentified the drummer as Ndugu Leon Chancler. When you print out the pdf, scratch out Ndugu's name and put James Gadson.

Here's something great from James Gadson, playing on Patrice Rushen's Shout It Out, from 1977. I've mentioned before: if you try to play and sound like this people will like playing with you, and you won't sound like anybody else. This has a pretty classic 70s fusion/funk groove, with a displaced back beat and an open hihat on 4.

Gadson is playing a five piece drum set with two added concert toms. I transcribed up to the middle of the track, where he switches to the ride cymbal, because that's all I have time to do today. There are a few fairly wild fills on the out chorus; maybe I'll get around to writing out the rest of the tune another time. During the transcribed portion of the tune the fills generally are about building the groove; he plays them at an even volume and he lays them right on the 16th note pulse— you can hear a distinct difference between this and your average drummer's absent-minded 16th note fill.

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Groove o' the day: James Gadson - Shout It Out

Another “enhanced” groove o' the day (that is not a thing), from a Patrice Rushen record, this time with the great James Gadson on drums. The record and tune is Shout It Out, and it's very 1977, very LA. By now you'll recognize the presence of Tom Scott's a-little-too-cute saxophone stylings. I've written out a few bars from the middle of the tune, at the end of a breakdown, so you can see the fill he plays to get back to the groove, a few little fills, and a bigger fill at the end of the phrase:

The tempo is about quarter note = 77 BPM . Gadson plays four tom toms here— probably a normal 5-piece set plus two concert toms— 8"/10" or 10"/12". Ndugu Leon Chancler played a similar set. Since we've been listening to some Ndugu recently, note the difference in approach here: Gadson's fatter, cleaner sound; this is more of a straight funk performance— Chancler is perhaps more of an improviser.

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Groove o' the day, ENHANCED: MORE NDUGU

This is how it goes around here, I get into a certain thing and do only that, and the blog content becomes unbalanced. What do I care, I love Ndugu Leon Chancler's playing. You can take these transcriptions as follow up on the Playing Funk Effectively post— they illustrate some of the things I was talking about there.

This is a short transcription that is mostly groove, plus a few very cool fills, so we'll call it a “Groove o' The Day ENHANCED”, like that's a thing. It's the intro from a tune called Haw Right Now, from Patrice Rushen's Prelusion album. There are a bunch of great LA players on this record.

Chancler does a number of hip things here: the opening fill, the crash on the & of 4 in the middle, the audaciously long fill at the end. All a little unusual in small ways, revealing of the player's intelligence, and COOL-SOUNDING.

I don't know what's going on at the beginning of that ending fill— it looks like it needs to lead with the left, but the last four beats seem to be a mixed sticking with the right hand on the toms, left hand on snare drum. The specifics aren't real important.

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