|
|
|
|
WEDNESDAY August 26, 1998 The Big Time Operator mailing list was very busy today! Many posts, most of which were listees having fun with the list and posting "friendly" dialogue between each other. Warren, Regina and Andi seemed to be the most active, along with Jessica as well. It's fun to read the posts, but it is a hassle to go through all the email. I had 180+ messages in my inbox this morning. Well it seems the list is a success, and we have listees from Alaska, California, Canada, Louisiana, Ohio, and Indiana, just to name a few. Tonight we had another gig at The Catamaran. For me it was a turning point for me as far as my drumming is concerned. I believe I've solved the problem to our band's not being able to play together as a tight unit. See, some of the guys in the band don't have a very strong sense of rhythm, so they tend to fluctuate in their sense of timing, and it causes the band to be off a bit. Tonight, I finally figured out a way to get the band in total sync by playing certain rhythmic patterns on the drumset. What's happening is that I play the actual swing groove on the ride cymbal or hi-hat (the standard quarter note followed by two eighth notes, but in swing-time), then on the snare, I play the upbeat of 2 and then 4. So, instead of just playing snare on 2 and 4, you hesitate and play the upbeat of 2 and then 4. It's your standard rock n' roll beat. But in the rock n' roll beat you normally play on the snare, 2 and the upbeat of 2, and then 4. And from there I play all sorts of variations of that pattern on the drums. Most of the guys in the band aren't aware of what I'm doing, except for the fact that they notice the band sounds a lot tighter than usual and that we're not struggling over certain parts in songs that seem to stumble along. Anyway, the bottom line is that this new way of approaching swing is kind of monumental for me. I haven't heard any of the other drummers in some of the other neoswing bands do this. I'm certain of it because I've been studying the drummers in those other bands: Royal Crown Revue, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies. I'm still playing true-to-form swing, but with the very subtle rock n' roll influence in the groove, I can do a lot to make the band sound great! The problem now is, playing drums this way is very taxing on myself, and I am even more exhausted after a gig than ever before. I mean, having to compensate for the shortcomings of some of the musicians in the band with having to play more on my drums, both mentally and physically, is extremely taxing to me. With other musicians I've performed with in the past, it's been very easy for me because of the fact that we ALL share the time and tempo. Problem with this band is that the tempo and time rests completely on my shoulders, and in a big band setting, it's very difficult for the drummer. Yep, this is unfair to me because I'm having to give 120% when the rest of the band doesn't. But at least the band will sound much better in the future, especially when we hit Disney World and get back to Arizona and San Fransisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver... at least now, I have a good feeling the band will be ready and look presentable musically. And I guess that'll be worth it, even if I am so tired. On a lighter note, I had a good conversation with Debbie and a friend of hers, which unfortunately I had forgotten her name. She reminded me about the incident where our school bus (the band's bus) had overheated and caught on fire between Las Vegas and Los Angeles during a mini-tour. We laughed pretty hard about that and I guess it's okay to do so now, but I remember that it seemed frightening and hopeless to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere and you've still got another gig to go to in a few short hours. It was really weird that despite all that, we made it to the gig on time. Anyway, it was nice now that Debbie brought that up, cause it kind of made my day just looking back and seeing how comical the whole scene was. I'd been listening to this Chucho Valdez CD. Chucho is the great Cuban latin-jazz pianist and I went ahead and bought his new CD. For the drummer-percussionist, or pianist, this is absolutely one of the most impressive latin-jazz albums I've heard in a very long time. There's a lot of very profound things happening here musically and I need to study it more to really grasp what they are doing, because there's a lot of subtleties in the playing that make this a work of genius. Chucho Valdez is an exceptionally, wonderfully gifted pianist who can go from this classical romanze piece to afro-cuban to straight ahead jazz. It's amazing the stuff he goes thru on his piano playing. Incredible!!!
CDs Played Today:
Kenny Garrett - Songbook
|
|
|
