Transcription: more Serge, more Dougie

What the heck, let's do some more Dougie Wright. The last thing was a little goofy, but today's transcription is for me a minor classic of 70's studio rock drumming. The album again is Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson, and the song is L'Hotel Particulier. We're very much in post-Ringo mode, meaning: fat bass drum and snare drum, light hihat, big, simple melodic fills on the tom-toms.

The dotted-8th/16th rhythm is slightly swung, in an irregular way; on the other 16th note rhythms, and on the fills, the 16ths are straight. Play the hihat very lightly (sometimes it may even drop out) through the breakdown at the bottom of the first page, then play it more strongly, and half-open through the end of the song. Note that in measure 52 there's one note on a third, lower, tom-tom. And there's a typo on the fill in measure 44: the last note should be snare drum and floor tom together— I'll have to fix that for the next year's book...

Get the pdf

Audio after the break:

Groove o' the day: Dougie Wright — En Melody

I spent a lot of time listening to French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg as I was working on my album of his music a few years ago, and came to appreciate a very British, very 70's, session drummer named Dougie Wright, who frequently recorded with him. This is the drum groove from En Melody, from Gainsbourg's famous concept album Histoire de Melody Nelson. You get the feeling here that Serge told the band to do something très extrême, they did this in a couple of takes, and then went off to do whatever musicians did in their off time in those days. It was kind of Gainsbourg's style to do these things almost as if he couldn't be bothered, and the entire album is under 28 minutes long.

As it says, the circled bass drum notes are optional— his most frequent variations in the groove are to play or omit those notes, especially the first one. The 16th notes are slightly swung. There are a lot of sixtuplet fills throughout the song, which no doubt use that same RRL sticking used here.

Transcription: Dougie Wright — La Décadanse

This makes a nice companion piece to the recent Azymuth thing— they're both pretty cheezy, with a lot of big tom tom fills. The song is La Décadanse, by Serge Gainsbourg. I can't find a credit for the drummer, but I believe it's the great British session drummer, Dougie Wright, who was working with Gainsbourg a lot around 1970, when this was recorded.

The tempo is slow, so don't flip out at all of the 32nd notes, 32nd note triplets, and occasional 64th notes. Have fun with it.

Get the pdf

Audio after the break:

Groove o' the day: Gainsbourg

I love 70's studio drumming. I was just re-listening to some old Serge Gainsbourg stuff- I made a record of his music in 2009 and did a couple of  little Europe tours with it- and this groove jumped out at me. We played this on the tour in 2010, but I guess I never listened to the groove that closely, even though I transcribed arranged the tune for the band. The drummer is an English session player named Dougie Wright

The hihat part is played with both hands, natural sticking, I guess (RH on the 8th notes, LH on the e's and a's); it's a little bit reminiscent of Cissy Strut, which uses the hihat the same way. The rhythm of the accents makes a little partido alto rhythm- I don't know if that's intentional; I suspect not. I think it's just a universal rhythm. The bass drum notes in parenthesis are optional.

Get Par Hasard et Pas Rasé

YouTube clip after the break:

I'm huge in France

Apparently a track from my 2009 CD 69 Année Érotique (the music of Serge Gainsbourg) made it onto Une brique dans le ventre, a program on French national TV this month (it starts around 4'50"). Unfortunately, the licensing bastards won't let us view it in the US- "you find yourself in a country in which the diffusion of this program is not authorized", it informs me. If anyone is able to view it, and is adept at ripping video from sites like that (they have Firefox plug-ins for that), please let me know...

This is a good time to mention that purchasing the CD is a great way to support the blog. It's been played on the radio in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, and made a few jazz writers' "best of 2009" lists, supported me through two Europe tours, yada yada yada... if you like the content I'm providing free of charge, please consider it.

Oh, and I also have some extrêmement sexy ladies t-shirts featuring the "soixante-neuf" design from the CD cover. I'm blowing them out, so they're the same price as the CDs. If you would like one, hit the purchase link and specify t-shirt, color (red or black, with the 69 in gold) and size in the "notes" box.

Gainsbourg biopic

The film on the life of French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg ("GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE" Heh.), which was just being released in Europe after my last tour over there in 2010, is about to come out in the US. We'll see if it amounts to anything- the prosthetic nose they slapped on the dude playing the ol' Serge-monster has left me a little... trepidatious...

Anyhow! What an excellent time for me to plug my 2009 Origin CD 69 Année Érotique, featuring his music! It received some good notices and airplay, made several serious writers' "best of 2009" lists, and I built two Europe tours around it. If you're finding the content I'm providing useful, and are looking for a way to support the blog, buying the CD is a good way to do that- it's $15.00 with free shipping. Thanks in advance!

What brought the whole thing up is that Salon has a feature polling some hip/hipster musicians- including China Forbes, of Portland's own Pink Martini- on their favorite Gainsbourg songs. You can go take a gander at it- it's entertaining reading- while playing my own selections in the background...

My Gainsbourg pics-o-the-moment after the break:

Oh, hey

Oh surprise, it looks like my 2009 record, 69 Année Érotique, is still getting some occasional radio play. The first tune here is us playing Serge Gainsbourg's Bonnie and Clyde on good old WFMU (91.1 New York, 90.1 Hudson Valley):



I should mention that if you like the music and want to support the blog, you could purchase the CD (hit that link or the purchase link under "my sites"). It made three different jazz writer's best of 2009 lists, including Larry Appelbaum, the jazz specialist for the US Library of Congress.

After the break is a YouTube clip of the original version of the tune:

Todd Bishop's Pop Art 4 on KMHD (PDX) in 2009

Oh, I guess I should post my own stuff occasionally. Pop Art 4, my group from 2008-2010, is playing a Bastille Day event in Portland tomorrow, and the band sounded so good in rehearsal today I got excited and dug through my archives and made a few YouTube things out of our old radio broadcasts.

Here's Ballade de Melody Nelson, by Serge Gainsbourg, which we played on KMHD (89.1, not 97.1!) in 2009:



Visit popart4.com to read more about the group and our exploits. Oh, and you can always hit the "Purchase my 2009 CD etc" link on the sidebar if you enjoy the music and want to support the blog.

Transcription: Sly Dunbar intros

Here's a project I had been meaning to tackle for awhile- a compilation of Sly Dunbar lead-ins. These are all taken from Serge Gainsbourg's album, Aux Armes Et Caetera, which is like a reggae drumming text book- nearly every track leads with an distinctive drum fill. I highly recommend that you purchase the tracks so you can hear the way he sets up the rhythm section and vocal entrances. And of course, no written notation is going to do Dunbar's playing justice.

Get the pdf.

Audio after the break.