[MUSIC]
You caught me listening.
I wanna catch you listening too.
I wanna catch you listening
to a lot of different things.
I've said it over and over here at
The Artist Works drum course that
one of the best ways
to learn is to listen.
And we're all gonna wind up listening
to a lot of the same things.
It's interesting, I think back on
some of the great opportunities,
the chances I've had,
in my music making career, and
one of those included meeting
Jaco Pastorius and joining Weather Report.
And why did Jaco recommend
me to join the band?
Well, he heard something he liked.
I think he heard something
that he recognized.
And I think that when we meet people,
we will often form a very quick,
if not instant,
bond with someone else because
we recognize something there.
And Jaco recognized that I
had listened to a lot of
these things that he had listened to.
And this was born out later
in our conversations and wow,
you know, you like that too?
And back in the day,
a lot of that had to do with
listening to jazz on the television.
Almost every TV show
had a jazz theme song.
And so we had that kind of
common listening interest or
history but it turned out that
it went a lot deeper than that.
But the one thing that helped, and
this was just a fortuitous
kind of circumstance.
When I was in college, when I was
a freshman in college, my housemate,
the wonderful pianist Alan Pasqua,
we've known each other for a long time.
We had gotten hold of
an Edgar Winter album,
and We were just really into it and
we thought it was cool and
it was kind of blues and rock but
had a little hint of jazz and we just
thought it was a really neat thing.
And there was a bass player at the school
and he's an active bass player
now in the Chicago scene,
Eric Hartburg, excellent musician.
And Eric wasn't a fan of this
record that we were kind of into.
And he said, man,
never mind listening to that,
you guys should check out
this album called Cochran.
And it was Wayne Cochran and
the C.C. Riders.
So because Eric had made
a point of mentioning this,
I went to the record store and got it.
And it turns out that Jaco played with
Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders.
It was a very important part of
his formative years of training.
But this album was made
before he joined the band.
Anyway, I really got into it,
and I really dug the drummer.
The drummer's name is Allyn Robinson,
spelled a,
l, l, y, n, Allyn, still playing,
he in New Orleans now.
And I was listening not so
long ago to some recordings that
Allyn had made of him and Jaco.
And I couldn't believe when
I heard it cuz I went,
my gosh that sounds like me and Jaco.
And I realized that a lot
of my R&B drumming had been
influenced by Allyn's
playing on this album.
It was the first one he'd made, he was,
I think, only 19 years old or something.
But there was something in
the way he played the beat and
it made a very strong impression on me,
and that stuck.
And when Jaco heard that,
he recognized it.
And combining that with everything else
that was kind of in my skill set or
in my wheelhouse, in terms of being
able to play large ensemble music and
having a pretty extensive jazz background,
he figured I'd be a pretty good choice.
Cuz Jaco knew a lot of drummers,
but it was his recognizing
something that I think led him to have so
much faith in me.
So number one,
it's a little bit of a game of
chance what you happen to listen to and
what you are drawn to or attracted to.
The more stuff you listen to,
the broader that range of
influence will become, and the more stuff
you'll find yourself attracted to and
you'll just be a more
enlightened musician.
Going back through the albums
that I fell in love
with as a kid, I wanna mention some names.
And in the forum here at The Artist Works
School I'm going to post these names and
provide links but
I just wanted to mention them to you now.
Check out drummers like OC Johnson,
Don Lamond, Baby Dodds, Big Sid Cadlett,
Alvin Stoehler, Shelly Manne.
Of course, Mel Lewis.
Louis Hayes.
That's just eight or nine drummers
just off the tip of my tongue there.
I'd love to hear some suggestions from you
on drummers whose names aren't in that,
you know, that top ten list that always
seems to be cobbled together by somebody.
And I'm not talking about the top
ten lists with John Bonham as
the greatest drummer of all time.
He was a good drummer and
Led Zeppelin was a great band,
I kind of missed the boat on that.
But save your email comments or
posts about I'm a jerk for
not liking John Bonham.
I liked him, but
boy I sure like Don Lamond.
And I so I look forward to sharing some
lengths and getting you all excited.
And I would like to hear from you
about some drummers you think we
should discover.
And I've got some names,
drummers you've never heard of,
who's playing will blow your mind.
There's just so
much great music out there.
So, and women drummers, let's expand
this list in this conversation.
Educate me and
we'll all educate each other,
that's the beauty of this community here.
Okay thanks,
just wanted to talk about listening.
By the way, what do I listen to?
Well, when I was touring with Steely Dan I
was listening to a lot of Bach
when I got back to my hotel room.
And Crusell for
some reason, I really got into that,
and some different chamber music.
Scriabin, got into that for
a minute,
then I dared listen to a jazz recording.
I remember we were in Cincinnati,
been on tour for a few weeks and
it was a Keith Jarrett recording
of his quartet live in Japan.
I think its called Personal Mountain,
I hope I have that name right.
Anyway I'm listening to
it with my headphones and
said out loud to the room,
wow what am I doing out here?
I'm a jazzer at heart and
so it was a good reminder
listening to that.
Listen to all kinds of music.
I've learned more about ideas
in terms of comping and rhythmic
interplay from listening to the music of
Stravinsky and Edgard Varese, Bela Bartok.
Just so much cool stuff out there, so
let's get that listening list going.
Okay, thanks for listening.
[MUSIC]
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