From: ujwb@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Jeff Beer)
Subject: Re: How About Some talk about Hot Drummers!
Organization: Educational Computing Network
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 14:23:04 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.135403.11799@b11.b11.ingr.com> doug@justdoit.b11.ingr.com writes:
>Lets hear some Talk about "Talented Drummers" you listen to! 

Here is my list of Top 10 drum performances.
 
 
1.    Elvin Jones, Impressions, from John Coltrane, LIVE IN PARIS
      Simple as this, Elvin is smokin'.   Always has, always will...
      Elvin owns the grooves he plays because he invented them.

      BTW, for an example of Elvin playing with a rock guitarist, with
      some of the 60s styles ala Hendrix and Santana, check out Sonny
      Sharrock's ASK THE AGES.  Interesting album with Elvin, Sonny,
      former Trane sideman Pharoah Saunders, and Charnette Moffet.

      One thing I always listen to in a drummer is how they play with
      the bass player.  Elvin and Charnette are so locked together on
      this.
 
2.    Rashied Ali, JUPITER, from John Colrane INTERSTELLAR SPACE (Impulse)
      This was recorded just a few
      months before 'Trane passed.  It is very active and busy music, but
      the feeling is relaxed.  Ali is more textures than the chunk-chunk-chunk
      of time playing.  The tempos freely accelerate or decelerate as the flow
      of the music is created.  Thus time is seen to expand and contract, which
      is a very cosmic concept, hence INTERSTELLAR SPACE.   Plus, anytime you
      have Trane on the end, it is going to be heavy.  You figure when
      something as cosmic as the creation of Jupiter occured, there had to be
      some of Trane's drummers involved. :) 
 
3.    Max Roach, Spirit Posession, from Max Roach/Anthony Braxton (Black Saint)
      Just sax and reeds, and Braxton plays sax with pitch tuned like drums,
      to match Roach's melodic concept, and to create very interesting 
      phrases together.  Max always was noted for the melodic quality in his 
      drumming.
 
4.    Eddie Blackwell, T&T, from Ornette Coleman's ORNETTE! (Atlantic)
      Eddie with a strong African groove.  Eddie has that New Orleans parade
      sound, that African feel, and it just keeps moving ahead and
      dancing.  Eddie passed earlier this year, a great loss to drumming.
 
5.    Tony Williams SO WHAT, from Miles Davis At Plugged Nickel (Columbia)
      A textbook case of up tempo playing on the classic jazz composition
      originally from Kind Of Blue.  This is one of Tony's best 
      recordings with Miles.  Trouble is with Tony, playing with Miles 
      and one of the best jazz bands of all time at 17 is peaking 
      too early.  Tony has done some good things other than this band,
      but not much has had this creative spark.  Definitely not his
      current band of young lions.
 
6.    Roy Haynes, MY FAVORITE THINGS, from John Coltrane, SELFLESNESS (Impulse)
      This is the third selection by John Coltrane.   Trane always had
      the baadest drummers.   Roy played with Trane when Elvin couldn't
      make it due to circumstances beyond Elvin's control.  
      But Roy was able to play music on Trane's concept without being
      an Elvin clone, which is pretty good considering how innovative
      Trane was at that time.  Roy was just a complex as Elvin, but
      had a lighter, airier touch.  Roy always had a thing on 3/4.  
      Chick Corea fans will notice that on NOW HE SINGS NOW HE SOBS.

7.    Andrew Cyrille  COMMUNICATIONS from Jazz Composer's Orchestra (ECM/JCOA)
 
      Whew, to say this is a virtuoso performance is an understatement.
      To say it is a tour de force, that would be an understatement.
      This is a large band composition by Michael Mantler for soloists.
      On different movements there are Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah
      Sanders, Larry Coyrell, and Gato Barbieri.  Topping it off is
      Cecil Taylor.  For Cecil fans, this is a must.  For Cyrille fans,
      this is a must.  For drumming fans, this is a must.  You will never
      hear anything like this.  It is time playing, texture playing,
      multiple rhythm playing, energy playing, all happening at once.
      Cyrille has a way of playing that music from the inside, with a 
      very "in your face" approach to the very diverse spectrum of 
      information that stems from the ensemble. 

      They call Cyrille "Mr Inside and Outside" because he can play
      both ways.  He has a new record out called My Friend Louis,
      dedicated to South African drummer Louis Moholo.

      I understand he has a video out too.
 
8.    Rufus Jones, BLUES FOR NEW ORLEANS, from NEW ORLEANS SUITE,
      Duke Ellington (Atlantic)
      This is one of the most incredible pockets on a slow blues.
      It feels sooooo good.
 
9.    Jack DeJohnette, SEGMENTS, from Dave Holland TRIPLICATE (ECM)
      You won't hear a drummer or bassist tighter at playing OUT on "changes"
      tunes.  Segments is a Charlie Parker tune, so they aren't playing free,
      they got to play the changes, such as a 32-bar AABA form.
      Good drummers always know where they are at in the 32-bar form, 
      even if it sounds like it is a free form.
      If you're playing with this band, you better know where you are at on
      your own, because you won't get it from Jack or Dave.
 
10.   Ronald Shannon Jackson,  from Ornette Coleman BODY META (Artist House)
 
      RSJ applied many of the concepts of non-linearity from the 60s and 70s
      free jazz to funk, rock, fusion, and even metal, which previously had
      been highly linear.  You know, one-two-three-four-one-two-three-four
      for the whole damn tune.
      That is how he can play a shuffel with a fat backbeat, yet manage
      to make it elude being 4/4.
 
      Ornette always plays with the drummers, more than with the bass, even
      with someone like Haden in the band.  Without Haden, he is going to be
      even more on the drummer, and on this date, Jamaaladeen is roaming
      freely.   So the name of the game on this album is to watch how
      Ornette and Shannon play on each other.

11.   Philly Joe Jones, from Miles Davis CIRCLE IN THE ROUND (CBS),
      "Blues No 2."

      Even though this is a top 10 list, it is impossible to keep this
      off.  This is from a Miles session where Philly dropped by,
      and they decided to record a blues.  Miles takes the first solo,
      and they get into trading.  They get down to trading half measures
      and the interplay was never so potent.  Philly is just kicken'
      on this number, really tuned into Miles.


	
there you have it.   Jeff
Xref: sparky rec.music.makers.percussion:345 rec.audio.pro:2656