New Member via SteveHass.net

Hi everyone, nice board!
I'm John from Chicago and I found this board by reading some posts on Steve Hass' site.
I have heard of Steve and have seen him in recent Yamaha Drum ads in MD, but last night I saw him with John Scofield.
I have never in my 18 years of playing and recording music, seen a drummer who can cover so much musical territory.
Not only technically and musically, but sonicly as well.
They played everything from staightup jazztrio tunes to two beat grooves, second line, rock, funk, r+b and blues.
He played three snare drums, and used a yamaha subkick on the funk tunes with a fairly high pitched open tuned 20" bass drum. I went up to his kit as the techs were breaking it down, and one of the snares was a 12" Erskine drum that sounded amazing. I was blown away by his dynamic range. They went from a blazing funk version ala D'angelo of Unchain my heart, to a jazz trio version of Just You, Just Me. Hass went from funky madman to sensitive, light touch jazzbo, and really playing the style of jazz and trading 8bar solos with Scofield which went on for a few minutes. He then went on to play authentic latin with a left foot cowbell on "What I Say". Again, I'm amazed at his authentic approach to each style. Hopefully through this board I'll find more drum artists like this. I'm a fan of so many different styles of music, it's great to hear one drummer who just does it all without any weakness.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 18, 2005 09:05 AM: Message edited by: Johnadiddle ]</font>

hey John! Welcome to the board!

I'm booking my tickets tmrw for the John Scofield concert (actually its 2 nights) in february, im going to be attending both nights and im sure it will be awesome as everyone has been saying!

Welcome to HOD. I couldn't agree more with your statements about Steve Hass. Glad to see there's other people that enjoy his drumming as much as I do. Enjoy your time here! [img]cool.gif[/img]

I'm very new here myself. I saw the show in Ft Collins.

I can't really think of anyone besides VC who can be so versatile.
Then again, Vinnie, although he could be if he wanted, is not well versed in clave. His drum sound also does lend itself to traditional jazz drumming.
In the new DRUM! they talk about Rodney Holmes being this all around monster. I disagree big time. H is an amazing player, but he doesn't play swing jazz styles nor does he play clave styles. I wonder what these drum magazine people are thinking giving someone this much credit for something they haven't accomplished.

Welcome. Steve Hass is great. I saw him here in Toronto last week with Sco. He can play many styles well. So can many other drummers. I don't think it's fair to say that Vinnie is the only other person in that category...There's hundreds of killer players out there that can play anything.

Well don't just say there are many great players who can do that, and not name some. I don't recall any who can cover that much ground without lacking in some areas. Can you imagine Jim Keltner playing a blazing jazz tempo or a left foot clave bell over a salsa groove? Can you imagine Antonio Sanchez laying down a fat dirty groove ala John Bonham on a rock track? Hass is one of the few, and the only that I can think of that convicingly takes care of it all. Before I saw The John Scofield band in here in Ft Collins, I would have said a drummer like this does not exist.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 19, 2005 05:24 PM: Message edited by: PortJazz ]</font>

Ben Whittman can cover all that. He's also a producer like Hass.
But Haynalator, you're far off. A drummer who is not only comfortable but musically knowledgable in traditional and modern American, Latino, and middle eastern styles is extremely rare.

Even though Gadd is sort of old school with his out dated mozambique that uses on every latin tune, I still like it. Gadd covers tons of ground as well. Even when he fakes his way through things like brush playing, and latin, his musicality seems to make it work. True on Hass though. Like it was said earlier, can you picture Dafnis Priedo subbing for and playing double drums with Bernard Purdie? That will never happen. You're right man, it is very rare.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Flarobstix:
Like it was said earlier, can you picture Dafnis Priedo subbing for and playing double drums with Bernard Purdie? That will never happen. You're right man, it is very rare.

---

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I nearly always agree with your posts, Flarobstix. But I should point out -- just as it is difficult to picture Dafnis Prieto subbing for Bernard Purdie, it is impossible to picture Hass sounding like Prieto. The fact that Prieto has a unique voice on the instrument that carries into all the music he plays doesn't make him inferior to other players that authentically play a variety of styles (such as Hass).

Cheers.

Jonathan, thanks I like your posts too.
Let ME point out that no one is BETTER than anyone. That wasn't my point, and I didn't take the posts from the others that way either. Dafnis is a brilliant player. He could never sound like Hass or vice versa. That's the beauty of it. I was talking about covering ground in music as far as genre. The first time I saw Hass play in NYC was when he was subbing for Dafnis with The John Benitez Trio. It's very hard clave music. Hass did a fine job covering the gig.
My point was that most drummers we know and love only do one or two things very well. Hass can play in Dafnis shoes and in Purdies shoes and still make great music. Where as Purdie could not play in Dafnis' situations nor could Dafnis play in Purdie's situation. Get it? Better has nothing to do with. I think some of the guys on this board just love Hass' ability to cross genres.
Maybe that's why Hass works in all these different circles and has back to back tours and sessions.
Back to the posts though, who else is in that league of versatility?