The Evolution of the Drums

[Lazaro Vega]

http://www.m-etropolis.com/wordpress/p/the...-recordings/en/

[JSngry]

Nice overview, but this

The liberation of the drums in jazz and improvised music has been one of the most incredible, yet neglected, stories of the past thirty years.

First Kenny Clarke, then Max Roach in the Forties set aside the steady four-four beat of the bass drum, opting for a lighter, more legato style on the cymbals, roundly punctuated by occasional bass drum “bombs” and/or snare and high-hat accentuations.

kinda bugs me ("bugs" is too strong a word, but it'll have to do) because a guy like Baby Doods was pretty damn radical his ownself (the various solo recordings he made have been some of the more ear/mind-opening listening experiences I've had in the last 10 years or so). Hell, the wole notion of a drum kit was a radical notion. So the notion that "liberation" began w/Max & Klook sorta implies that drumming itself was a form of imprisonment, and I can't say that I can go there with that. Not with guys like Sid Catlett doing their thing still more or less directly tied into the original impetus (although you can argue that it's all tied into the original impetus if at nothing else a "spiritual" level). But "evolution", yeah, that's cool.

Persnickety fit over.

[Lazaro Vega]

That is a trope, isn't it? That the drummer's role was time keeping and it changed to a more equal partner with the front line soloists, primarily by shifting focus from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal facilitating an ability for the whole rhythm section to transform from "Errol Garner and two other guys" to a fully interactive ensemble.

Baby Dodds drove the form -- those solo drum records on Folkways? Right there he's playing the strains and varying his patterns, rhythmically and coloristically.

I think Chick Webb started the popularization of drums in the public mind though from the git they're the quintessential jazz instrument. Traps had to evolve a solo language which took a bit more time than the trumpet or clarinet or piano, but it was a newer instrument.

edit to correct "trope."

Edited January 9, 2008 by Lazaro Vega

[AllenLowe]

to me Jo Jones invented the "more legato style" of drumming, especially per the cymbals -

[JSngry]

That is a troupe, isn't it? That the drummer's role was time keeping and it changed to a more equal partner with the front line soloists, primarily by shifting focus from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal facilitating an ability for the whole rhythm section to transform from "Errol Garner and two other guys" to a fully interactive ensemble.

Well see, I got a problem there too, since there's a helluva lot of ways to be "interactive". Check out Dodd's spoken rap "Playing for the benefit of the band" (on American Music and hear a message that wouldn't at all be out of place in a mid-60s interview with Sunny Murray or Milford Graves.

and along the same lines, this whole "front line vs rhythm section" dichotomy is one that is flase afaic, even if a lot of musicians have fallen for it over the years as well. This music was originally an ensemble music, and at it's best (imo) always has been, no matter what the chronological period). "soloist plus rhythm secion" is a format that works, and one that is often the best that one can due economically and logistically, but it's not what too many people that I know actually prefer.

Truthfully, I don't think it's a matter of drummers becoming "more equal" as much as it is players of all instruments evolving collectively. Yeah, ok, Sunny brought a new role to the drums with Ayler, but wasn't Ayler bringing a new role to the tenor? Wasn't Bird bringing a new role to the alto while Max was doing the same to the drums? And wasn't Baby Dodds doing the same thing, desiging a role for his instrument (one which he, if not invented, defintely went a long way towards codifying) that fit in with what the rest of his peers were doing?

I'm reminded of something that a good friend said once that made me laugh and cry at the same time. We were lsitening to some Prez w/Jo Jones, and this guy, always a Trane-centric savant suddenly blurted out something like, "Man. Lester is SO beautiful, but that drummer, he's good and all, but imagine how much better it would have been if ELVIN had been around then!!!"

Well, ok, yeah, just imagine.

Point being, that drummers have always been equal in this music at it's highest levels. The "roles" might have evolved in terms of "style" but not in terms of "purpose".

[jazzbo]

Jim, as an exdrummer thiking bout being equal in the music. . . .Wow. Grateful.

[Elissa]

to me Jo Jones invented the "more legato style" of drumming, especially per the cymbals -

Amen.

I like the props he gives Andrew Cyrille though. That man can pretty much play as far in or as far out as he chooses and independently keep about 5 rhythms going at once. I remember at the Billy Higgins appreciation, just before he left us - Cyrille played maybe the most beautiful music of the day - and it was fairly straight ahead.

But do you think it's right to say that no major writer recognized that the drums had taken on a role equal to that of any other instrument by '64? I mean, first of all, as far back as Max and Brownie that seems to have been pretty clear, if not much earlier - as Allen says, with Papa Jo. And to say that it wasn't until Graves accomplished it - well that seems a little precarious to me, not least because if you return to say Congo Square in New Orleans, where you might say jazz started, back there the drums were pretty dominant.

Or maybe I'm just really old fashioned?

[BruceH]

Nice overview, but this

The liberation of the drums in jazz and improvised music has been one of the most incredible, yet neglected, stories of the past thirty years.

First Kenny Clarke, then Max Roach in the Forties set aside the steady four-four beat of the bass drum, opting for a lighter, more legato style on the cymbals, roundly punctuated by occasional bass drum “bombs” and/or snare and high-hat accentuations.

And they aren't mentioning Jo Jones becaaaauuuuse......??????

Edit: Allen Lowe beat me to this. I really should read the whole thread more often before thowing my 2 cents in. Whoops.

Edited January 9, 2008 by BruceH

[Lazaro Vega]

I recall talking to Barry Altschul on the air about Sunny Murray and was trying to put into words what Murray did, and Barry said, to paraphrase, "That's the way you play drums if you're playing Cecil's music." Jim has enlightened that point.

By the way, did you check out the You Tube links near the bottom of this entry?