The Importance of Drum Heroes

[XNavyDrummer]

Well said. I may have to quote you on this one.

Best,

Andy

[Randy walker]

nice post but I have to interject one thing about Vinnie, yes he and Steve Smith both idolized Tony Williams. But Tony was self taught and just pulling these things out left and right from an early age, Vinnie is totally into the math part of playing, he took both what Tony had and then what Gary Chaffee had to offer and made it into something that's just unreal.

[five eight]

Some drummers write the book; others just a chapter. Thanks for all the kind words, everybody. Where else could a punk kid like me quote the Bible, John Lennon and Pretty Purdie all in one post except here in the fantastic House of Drumming?

[five eight]

Randy, if I'm not mistaken Tony studied extensively with Alan Dawson in Boston.

[Clintuplet]

Well said.

[Randy walker]

Yeah I might be mistaken.

[five eight]

Tony’s dad played horn in Boston bands with Alan Dawson and in Miles’ words: “He started Tony at nine.” I met Tony backstage at the Caravan of Dreams in Ft. Worth in March of ’87 during his three night stand there. He was a little chubby guy smoking this big cigar sitting on a couch. “Sit down, relax,” he said after I hammered on the dressing room door the first night after the first set. I was nervous as a cat but Tone was gracious as hell. I showed him my Tony Williams scrapbook and he asked me if he could have an article from a British magazine he’d never seen before. It was about the Tony Williams Lifetime and about how Tony’s asshole management and Jack Bruce’s equally anal management had precipitated the demise of the FIRST jazzrock fusion group EVER: the original Tony Williams Lifetime. (If you don’t own Emergency you need to be sent to bed without your paradiddles.) What do you think I said when Tony Williams asked ME for something? I said yes. I said hell fucking yes, Tone, what else can I do for you, sir? (If I met Vinnie I’d kneel on one knee and bow like he was a king.) During Tony’s stint in Ft. Worth I talked with him every night. He knew I was a drummer and was really righteous around me. So was Buddy Rich when I met him.

[PocketPlayer]

I agree, "There is nothing new under the sun"
Whether it is art, mechanics, or cooking...all have been influenced by those preceding before them.

One theory that deals with this states that there is intrinsic knowledge vs accumulated knowledge.
Intrinsic knowledge is found in the founder; the early fathers...Newton, Pascal, etc. Accumulated knowledge is seen in Einstein, Gates, etc.

If you believe in the 2nd law of thermodynamics and entropy--that everything is winding down-- then it might be suggested the ability of those from yesteryear had greater cognitive abilities. They were closer to the origin of beginnings or genesis.

If a guy found a pair of drum sticks at a White Elephant fair, went home and started hitting the couch until he was playing beats, rudiments, etc. he would not understand "what" he was playing, but he would indeed be actually playing some type of rudimental configuration. Yet, this person would still be influenced (unconsciously) by music, rhytyhm, drum sounds through many sources--radio, CD's, TV commercials, etc. The mind has picked up these organized sounds.
This person's gift or talent is to take these unconscious influences and bring them to fruition--seeing drum sticks, taking them home, and making noise with them.

Can one trully isolate themselves from influence and be a total original?

IMO, the genius is one who takes what is available in whatever form and absorbs it into a unique expression which then serves as an influence to others. What drummers have influenced an entire generation? Those are your guys.

Want to learn more... See Howard Gardner's Creating Mind's. Awesome book looking at six key figures from different genres, finding common strands that make them genius. The six figures are;
Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, T.S. Elliot, Martha Graham, Gandhi

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 17, 2003 06:07 PM: Message edited by: PocketPlayer ]</font>

[five eight]

There’s nothing new under the sun.

I see Cobham in Chambers, Bozzio in Minneman, Gadd in Weckl and Williams in Vinnie. These guys’ influences are showing and it’s not a bad thing. Drumming is a tradition and as drummers we must respect that (much the way a noir writer respects constricted genre conventions) and it’s up to new drummers to enlarge the traditions by moving them forward.

I wouldn’t want to live in a world that had Vinnie, but didn’t have Tony. It’s been speculated before that Williams had his own voice and that Vinnie copped Tone’s offbeat sticking patterns and bizarre licks. What Vinnie (and Weckl, et al) have done is picked up the torch and blazed the trail anew. That’s why it’s okay to steal licks from your drum hero. That’s why it’s okay to have a hero! It's okay to grow a mustache like Bonzo, wear a medallion like Ed Shauhnessy or have a badge with your initials on your bass drumhead. Whatever gets you to the light. We all know better than to (if I may use Bernard Purdie's exquisite verb) 'appropriate' the Walk This Way beat and then ask everybody how they like our new moves.

Heroes, to me, are drummers whom I admire and whose high standards are a constant motivation and inspiration. Maybe they’re more an example than a hero, but call them what you will their commitment to the excellence of the craft is stimulating as well as challenging. Heroes/examples/mentors/influences make us want to play better. Their rhythmic styles are often beacons pointing the way for us in the darkness, or at least illuminating the possibilities, the roads less traveled. Years ago I saw a remote beach in the Philippines that looked like it had never seen a footprint or litter or pollution. Words can't describe what an open canvas that represented to me. I felt exhalted and the blood roared in my ears.

You and I may be able to absolutely shut down the best drummers of Lone Ranger, Wyoming or Greasespot, North Dakota but the only yardstick we need to measure ourselves by is The Greats. We should strive for greatness and nothing less every time we get behind the traps, forever pushing our own particular envelope, honoring the tradition. Yeah, I can play a fiery single stroke roll, alas not as fiery as Buddy’s or Max’s or Vinnie's, but that ain’t gonna stop me from trying. Quite the opposite, I'll just try harder. In fact we might have those cats in Greasespot scared to death!

[Derek DeFields]

GREAT post.