Very occasional quote of the day: Monk on rehearsing

“What do you want to do, learn how to cheat?”
— Thelonious Monk


That's from Russ Musto's 2006 interview with Ben Riley on Allaboutjazz.com-- highly worth reading. Riley had just been asked to join the band and wanted to find out if there was going to be a rehearsal before their first gig at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Groove o' the day: Idris Muhammad on Grant Green's Carryin' On

There's some nice late-60's funk drumming by Idris Muhammad (named Leo Morris at the time) on Grant Green's Carryin' On album. This is from the James Brown tune I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin':

That same little linear pattern in the last half of the measure happens again, with some elaboration, on the Meters tune Ease Back, from the same record. This has a little more of a New Orleans feel:

During the intro play the first measure only, with a buzz roll on the & of 4. The snare hits are at a fairly uniform volume, with a slight emphasis on the 2 and 4 & in the first measure.

Audio after the break:

With Ornette at the Five Spot

Ornette Coleman

Another little excerpt from Scott K. Fish's  November, 1981 interview with Ed Blackwell, from Modern Drummer. Just a little snapshot of the scene at the Five Spot and the neighboring Jazz Gallery in New York in 1960, back in the days when "a gig" meant you played a club every night for several weeks or months.

SF: Was The Five Spot a good scene?

EB: It was a very happy scene. We were there about three or four months and every night it was packed. A lot of people really began to hear Ornette.

SF: Would horn players sit in with the band?

EB: No. The only person that sat in while I was doing the gig was Lionel Hampton. He came in one night and wanted to play the piano. So he sat in and played the piano!

SF: How about John Coltrane? Did he ever come down to check out the band?

EB: Coltrane would come down but he wouldn't sit in. He'd sit down and listen. During the break he and Ornette would talk quite a bit, but he never sat in. He just wanted to listen and he did a lot of listening. The scene was phenomenal. The same people that owned The Five Spot owned The Jazz Gallery. That club was about two blocks away, around the corner. When Ornette was at The Five Spot, Thelonious Monk was at The Jazz Gallery. He had a very good group: Charlie Rouse on tenor, John Ore on bass, and Frankie Dunlop on drums. They stayed there for quite awhile. After Monk left, John Coltrane went into The Gallery and he had a lot of different people playing with him. We used to go around and listen to him. We were off on Monday nights, so on Monday nights I always made it a point to come down and listen to John. Billy Higgins was drumming with John then. He was the drummer before Elvin joined the group.

Here's a little more historical detail about Ornette Coleman's career during this period. 

Completism ad absurdum

x10,000. Go. 

It's kind of interesting when someone runs a common concept to its logical conclusion, forcing you to examine the premise of the original thing. In this case, the Stick Control model of practice materials: applying a variety of sticking patterns to a simple rhythm or rudimental combination, and then combining them using a basic mathematical logic.

Here drummer and scientist Dr. Damian Gregory Allis has taken a Perl script written for generating DNA sequences and adapted it to reel off every single possible 16-note and 12-note sticking combination, in Stick Control format. The end result is over a thousand pages of patterns, which he has made available in several freely-downloadable pdf files [Thanks for the link, Jason! - tb].

Obviously, that's way more than any drummer could (or should) ever dedicate to running conditioning exercises in a single lifetime, and begs a number of thoughts/questions/conclusions:


 1. What the... I... this is- God- what? What am I supposed to do with this when I haven't mastered the first three pages of Stone?


2. Since they are just 8th notes with sticking written in, Stick Control-style exercises have extremely minimal overt musical content; their implied musical content is a couple of steps removed from them, and I've concluded that they are not the best basis for arriving at a true musical conception for playing the drums. It's still a great book-- a primary source-- so I can deal with this approach as a supplement to my usual Syncopation-oriented method. But when confronted with these extra multiple lifetimes worth of materials written in this style, I have to ask if it's the right way to go.


3. I'm noticing that with a number of authors, strictly logical or mathematical sequence has come to be a substitute for musical and educational know-how. Just an observation.


4. This seems comparable to, say, learning French by writing out every single possible subject/verb/object combination in the language. You don't see it done. Even randomly testing yourself with phrases like "the guardrail elucidates the badger" is of extremely limited value. Music and language are dynamic systems- writing out every possibility within a narrow, artificial set of parameters misses the point altogether.


Continued after the break:

Coordination with a dotted-quarter cymbal pattern, in 5/4 -- part 1

Extending this recent series of Dahlgren & Fine/Elvin-style coordination studies a bit further, here's part one of the dotted quarter series, converted into 5/4:

Swing the 8th notes and do the tom moves when you practice this. You know the drill.

Get the pdf.

Ed Blackwell in Africa

Since we're doing a lot with Ed Blackwell lately, here's a little snippet from his November, 1981 Modern Drummer interview by Scott K. Fish, in which he discusses his 1967 and 1968 tours of Africa, and the influence they had on his playing. It's interesting that he felt he wasn't able to retain the specifics of the music he heard, and had to rely on his impressions to bring it into his playing.

Not that he didn't already do something similar; he was exposed to African-derived rhythm and drumming for many years in New Orleans, and it was a mature part of his playing before he ever went to Africa, as David Schmalenberger reminds us in his massive research project about him. But even with that prior exposure, what he heard in Africa clearly made a big impression:

SF: I've read that you felt your trip to Africa freed up your drumming.

EB: It did. I learned that the African drummers play a rhythm in such a way that it's continuous. Individually they were very simple rhythms that would become complex when they would merge. But if you had the chance to walk around the group while they were playing, you could see each cat playing a different rhythm. It was a very simple rhythm that they played, but when you hear the overall thing . . . man! It reminded me so much of the way the guys used to play in New Orleans. In fact, by going to Africa I was able to really dig how much the African culture was maintained in New Orleans as far as their funeral parades. In Africa, when they have funerals, everybody dresses up real colorful and after they're through with everything they have dancing and a big celebration! That was the same thing in New Orleans. They'd march to the graveyard with the body and they'd put the body down. Then they'd come back dancing! Africans, I guess, had the concept that death brings on another life, so it was not anything to be sad about. It's just that the soul is gone to another life. That's the same concept they have in New Orleans. I didn't realize that until I went to Africa and I was able to reflect on the way the funerals were in New Orleans. We had a chance to see a couple of funerals in different places in Africa. The people were just dancing and everything. It wasn't this weeping, wailing and crying. It was happiness. You couldn't tell the relatives of the dead person from anyone else. Everybody was happy.

SF: Did you get a chance to talk with many African drummers?

EB: We had a chance to play with an African troupe from the Cameroons. It was a dance troupe and they were travelling with only one log drummer. We did a concert with them. I had a chance to play with the guy and talk to him. There were two women and two guys dancing, and they were fantastic. They really had the whole show with just that drummer!

SF: Did you start to incorporate African rhythms into your drumming?

EB: Of course. But there's only so much you can retain. I was able to tape some of the stuff on my tape recorder until I ran out of batteries. It was difficult finding batteries around Africa! Some of the things I taped I was able to retain, but after traveling to so many different places, you hear something new and it would just wipe out what you'd just heard. I was exposed to so much stuff that I was able to retain very little . I was able to retain the overall effect of the African drummers as far as how the rhythms would affect an individual, and how to try to relate my own rhythm to that way of playing. But that was all I was able to retain.

Continued after the break, with some audio:

Groove o' the day: Death Wish -- Mike Clark

I told you I mean to do a lot of these this year-- hopefully enough to do a dedicated book of them early in 2013. Today we've got Mike Clark playing with Herbie Hancock on the soundtrack from the Charles Bronson movie Death Wish.  The 70's were a time of very distinctive funk grooves, and Clark-- a jazz guy who found himself caught up in Oakland's funk scene-- was one of the major players responsible for that.

That last bass drum on the 'a' of 4 is optional. You can hear that arranged stuff aside he sticks pretty close to this groove for the bulk of the track, before opening it up towards the end. This would actually be a good candidate for a complete transcription-- let me see what I can do about that...

See also our GOTD with Clark's famous groove from Herbie Hancock's Palm Grease, off of the album Thrust.

YouTube audio after the break, as usual:

How to get real cymbals when you're poor

The sort of thing you're looking for.

2019 UPDATE: The economy has recovered substantially since I originally wrote this in 2012, so if you're ready to spend a little more money on some great cymbals, personally selected by me, head over to my other site, Cymbalistic.com, and check out some of the wonderful Cymbal & Gong brand cymbals I have for sale.

The original 2012 article: This is really a good time to buy used cymbals-- thanks to the wonderful recession, and the proliferation of extremely high-end cymbals, prices for used merely-pro-quality cymbals are as low as they've ever been. Which is why it kills me to see young drummers spending way too much on new student-line junk, which will sound like crap for a few years, and then end up in a landfill. For about the same money they could have top of the line cymbals that will last a lifetime, sound good, and retain their value-- most of it, anyway.


So buy used. Really used.
The best bargains are moderately old, very grungy pro cymbals-- dirty, dull-looking bronze, painted-on logos only a rumor of a memory-- if they ever had them to begin with. You're a musician and you play the things for the sound anyway, right? Then get over this consumeristic, virginity-fetishizing thing of needing to unbox perfectly pristine new cymbals. That only leads you down the overpaying, crappy-but-shiny path.


About those student/economy/budget/semi-pro cymbals
Listen: those aren't actually cymbals. You might be able to use them as placeholders for cymbals until you can afford real ones, but consider their value to be basically zero-- the money you spend on them basically goes away forever. Buying them new is a big mistake; buying them used you should drive and extremely hard bargain-- I would never pay more than about $50 for a used semi-pro ride cymbal, for example. And do your homework so you know the difference between the almost-usable semi-pro cymbals and the true yellow-tinted sheet metal trash.


Buy online
Generally, serious drummers don't like buying cymbals without first playing them, and that tends to drive down used prices online. We're going to take advantage of that.

We're also going to take advantage of the fact that you may be a little inexperienced, and don't know enough to be real picky about your cymbals yet. If you get a reliable brand, in a normal weight for its category, you should end up with a usable cymbal. If you really hate what you get, you can always get your money back reselling them.


Learn how to work the eBay
You will get your extreme bargain cymbals through no-reserve auctions. We can generalize about the value of a type of used cymbal, but the actual final selling prices can vary widely from month to month, for all sorts of mysterious reasons. So get acquainted with the “completed listings” search, which will show you how much things are actually selling for lately. Buy It Now prices, and prices of auctions in progress are not reliable gauges for how much you should be paying right now.


Be familiar with the cymbal brands, lines and models.
Right now the cheapest pro-quality cymbals appear to be 70's and 80's A. Zildjians and 80's Sabian AAs. I've also been surprised to see a few very good deals on 70's Paiste 2002s. It's worth following some of Paiste's discontinued pro lines from the 80's and 90's as well-- the Sound Formula, 2000, 3000, and Dimensions series especially. Paiste's old semi-pro 505 line is also reasonably good, and can be found very cheaply.

You want to know the rough weight class behind the obscure, impressionistic labels companies slap on cymbals ("Stage", "Power", "Rock", "Bright", etc, etc). Getting a great deal only to have the cymbal arrive and turn out to be totally the wrong thing for what you wanted to use it for is the opposite of a bargain; that is, a costly problem. Even if it's no big deal to re-sell the thing, it's still a hassle and a time-waster, and you're paying a little tax on the transaction to those twin vampire squid eBay and PayPal.


Knowing a little bit about gram weights is also helpful; it has become the primary way for cymbal purchasers to know exactly what they're getting at least in terms of weight, since normal categories ("medium", "thin", etc) are tend to vary wildly. Here is a chart I pilfered from the Vintage Drum Forum, who in turn pilfered it from the Cymbalholics forum:

Weight Range Table for 22 Inch cymbals:
extra light ------- 1900-2100g
light ------------- 2100-2300g
medium light ---- 2300-2500g
medium --------- 2500-2800g
medium heavy -- 2800-3100g
heavy ----------- 3100-3500g
very heavy ------ 3500 and up

Weight Range Table for 20 Inch cymbals:
extra light ------- 1570-1735g
light ------------- 1735-1900g
medium light ---- 1900-2066g
medium --------- 2066-2314g
medium heavy -- 2314-2561g
heavy ----------- 2561-2892g
very heavy ------ 2892 and up

Weight Range Table for 18 Inch cymbals:
extra light ------- 1272-1405g
light ------------- 1405-1539g
medium light ---- 1539-1673g
medium --------- 1673-1874g
medium heavy -- 1874-2075g
heavy ----------- 2075-2342g
very heavy ------ 2342 and up 

Even if you're a rock player, please go to a local store and play a few "heavy", "rock" or "power" labeled cymbals before you start ordering them blind online.


Be adaptable
You may not be absolutely wild about every cymbal you purchase this way. That's life. Most of my career (until Cymbal & Gong came along) I haven't been wild about most of the cymbals I've owned, however I acquired them. You just have to play them and get the best sound you can out of them, until you find your dream cymbal. It takes some years of trying to get a sound from OK cymbals to develop the technique to really be able to use great cymbals anyway.


The classic all-purpose set-up
You can never go too far wrong with medium hihats and rides, and thin crashes. For any type of music. So if you don't know what to get, get these:

A. Zildjian or Sabian AA:
20" medium ride
16, 17, or 18" thin or medium-thin crash
13 or 14" New Beat (Zildjian) or medium/regular (Sabian) hihats

Usually the Paiste equivalent of any of these cymbals will be labeled simply "crash" or "ride" or "hihats."


Get lucky and hold out for the right price 
Improve your chances of getting lucky by following a lot of auctions, and don't be in a rush to buy. It way take a couple of months to get the right magic bargain. I would consider the hold-out number to be around $100 (maybe $115 with shipping) for any cymbal larger than 18", or for hihats. Maybe $60-80 for a 16" crash. That's very inexpensive. Stick to your bottom line and don't get too attached to any one auction; there will be many more coming. Be sure to find out what shipping will be; some sellers overcharge pretty egregiously.


Learn how to work the Craigslist
This will be your means for reselling any cymbals that don't work for you. It's free, and people aren't relying solely on a nice-looking ad to decide on a purchases-- they can actually come over and play the cymbal. Since you held out for a great deal on eBay, you will have a lot of flexibility to give them a great deal and move them along quickly-- maybe you can even turn a small profit. Just clean the cymbal up a little bit, take a decent picture.


Damaged cymbals
If you want really low prices, you can consider cymbals with very minor damage or wear to the metal-- significant keyholing, slight edge funkiness (like a very shallow bend, or significant scuffs, "flea bites" or whatever), or slight cracks (meaning < 1/2"). These will lower the price of the cymbal without necessarily harming its playability; I've owned and played a few cracked cymbals for years or decades without the condition or sound deteriorating further. Buying them online we're just hoping to get lucky that the thing still sounds OK; I can't really recommend buying damaged cymbals without playing them first, or at least hearing a decent recording. 

Busy

Busy all day doing tour-related junk, and transcribing charts-- Blood by Paul Bley, Priestess by Billy Harper, following Gil Evans's arrangement, and a couple of Don Cherry tunes I used to play in the 90's. If they turn out OK we'll be playing those along with the Ornette Coleman stuff on my little Europe tour in November.

In fact, what the heck, here are our old recordings of Mopti and Guinea, by Don Cherry-- you can buy those if you want:





Man, my playing has really changed. And yet it hasn't. Oh, and in keeping with the 6/8 theme, you should cruise over to Four on the Floor and see where Jon McCaslin outlines his own favored version of the Afro 6/8 groove, using the more African-style (that's the way I think of it, anyway) bell pattern.

After the break is some bonus DBMITW: