Max Roach - Masterful, Magisterial and Momentous [From the Archives - Revised]

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Where Kenny Clarke's bombs occurred every few measures, Roach's fall every two to four beats ... Where Clarke played just an occasional snare-drum fill to supplement his ride-cymbal pattern, Roach played so many that his snare drum often was more active than his cymbal ... Roach's ride cymbal sounded different from Clarke's, partly because its tone quality was clearer and more bell-like, and partly because of a different accentuation pattern. [Each of these assertions is accompanied by a musical example in the book.]

[But] the most dramatic difference between these two bebop pioneers was in their respective solos. Roach soloed far more frequently, both as a sideman and as a leader or co-leader, than Clarke did. Musicians use the term 'melodic drummer' to describe someone who develops rhythmic ideas throughout a solo instead of simply showing off technique.

In that sense, Roach is a supremely melodic drummer; his solo in 'Stompin' at the Savoy' is a striking case in point. He often starts his solos with simple patterns and gradually increases the complexity, as in Parker's 'Cosmic Rays'. He is a master of motivic developments and sometimes uses rhythmic motives drawn from the theme of the piece. He also plays solo pieces, including, since the late 1950s, solo pieces in asymmetric meters.”
- Thomas Owens, Bebop: The Music and its Players (1995).

“I was going to the Manhattan School of Music and...paying for my tuition by

playing on 52nd Street with Bird and Coleman Hawkins. The percussion

teacher asked me to play as a percussion major and told me the technique

I used was incorrect...(His) technique would have been fine if I had intended to

pursue a career in a large orchestra playing European music, but it wouldn't have

worked on 52nd Street where I was making a living.

On the one hand, I was playing with people like Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker and emulating people like Jo Jones of Count Basie fame, Sydney Catlett, Chick Webb and Kenny Clarke… the technique I was using then, that I use today, that I was trying to learn and am still learning about today, couldn't be used in European music.”

— Max Roach

“What young drummers had been studying in challenging drum instruction books by Edward B. Straight and George Lawrence Stone began to make sense after we heard Max Roach. The great teachers laid out the raw materials. But we didn't know how to apply them —until we heard Max. When we got into his coordination, the way he used cymbals, the snare and bass drum, the answers to the puzzle began to fall in place.”

- Vernel Fournier

“... Until we heard Max” pretty much sums it up for a lot of aspiring Jazz drummers who came of age in the fast and furious World of Bebop.

Max created a logic, a structure, a formula through which drumming rudiments and techniques could become the rhythmic pulse that would drive modern Jazz in all of its manifestations.

And he did it on such a broad scale for not only was Max the drummer on the Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie recordings that introduced the bebop style of Jazz, but he also played on the Miles Davis-Gerry Mulligan Birth of the Cool albums.

“Max played so well on the sessions that I fell in love with his work. He understood just what we were doing and just laid things in that made them perfect. He viewed the pieces as compositions. What Max did was melodic and quite incredible.” [Gerry Mulligan]

As Burt Korall asserts in Drummin’ Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz - The Bebop Years:

“In many ways, Max Roach lived a great success story, almost movielike in its positive progression. He—and certainly Kenny Clarke before him— changed the manner in which drums were used in jazz and popular music. Soon, everyone yielded to the obvious. Roach was the defining figure on drums—certainly in modern jazz. He had an explosive, wide-ranging effect. …

Max Roach's alliance with Charlie Parker was one of the most fortunate and meaningful in the history of the music. The Bird-Max pairing, on records, tells a story of great mutual creativity.

The twenty-one-year-old drummer had developed a declarative, expanded language on the instrument that, in many ways, was quite new. Kenny Clarke and Roach broke up the rhythm around the drums, particularly on the brutally fast tempi. The ride cymbals and the hi-hat served as time sources. A linear, unimpeded pulse was established in the timekeeping hand—generally the right. The left hand and both feet provided counterpoint and accents—rhythmical ideas to support and play against the primary pulse, the ensembles, and the soloists. Because of Roach's increasing technique, dexterity, and independent usage of hands and feet, the drums assumed multilevel musicality.

The drums no longer played just a limited, circumscribed, timekeeping role in the rhythm section. The drummer became a major participant, much more of a partner in what was done in the small group and big band. Expressing time and a variety of rhythms, color, and personality, Roach and Kenny Clarke before him related more directly to the music and musicians than their predecessors. The instrument was reborn.

Not only did Roach understand the needs of Parker and Gillespie and bebop, he had the technical resources and the vision to make the music work. As he plays, you sense the structure of the tune, its inner and outer movement, its drama, the unfolding of the developmental process. He inventively embroiders material, playing surprising fills and rhythmic combinations, adding to the quality of the music and its sense of thrust.

Unlike some others, who don't really understand music, drum set function, and liberation, Roach never turns his back on the time foundation of all jazz drumming. Nor does he encumber a band or soloist with overwhelming detail. Balance in his performances is very important to him. While moving through a performance, he takes chances with ideas and techniques that can upset and offset the time and continuity, if not well placed and played correctly. But he seldom fails in his responsibility to the music and himself. Roach is simultaneously dangerous and very much in command. …

Parker's Savoy, Dial, and Verve recordings make clear that Roach played a significant role in making the music work. He enhanced the thematic material. His time, manner of accentuation, ideas, and solo commentary were certainly central to increasing the rhythmic substance of this music. He simultaneously was a leading player, setting the pace, and a character actor, bringing background color and dimension to the music.

The new music made certain demands on the drummer that were not a factor in earlier forms of jazz. One of the most notable was using both hands and feet with equal ease and having the capacity to dexterously play different rhythms in each of the hands and feet.

Parker was conscious of the importance of "independence." Only with this kind of facility—well applied—could the modern drummer bring multiple rhythms and levels to music that openly asked for this sort of treatment. He sat Roach down one early evening in the Three Deuces on 5ind Street and demonstrated on drums what he was talking about. He played a different rhythm with each hand and foot and then put them together. He looked up at his drummer, giving him that insinuating smile of his, and asked if Roach could do that.

Roach had been intuitively simulating in performance what Parker illustrated. It was, in fact, a characteristic of bebop to play one rhythm against another. Later he achieved complete independence by studying and practicing exercises—much like the ones in Jim Chapin's book [Advanced Technique for the Modern Drummer] —  that made it possible to achieve this sort of dexterity.

In the early years of bebop, young drummers were both challenged and mystified by Roach's performances. When he dropped in his little rhythmic gifts—behind Parker or Davis, or in breathing spaces during ensembles— he made everyone wonder: ''Where did he get that idea? How did he do that? Why did he do that?" What he played could be as uncomplicated as a revised rudiment, broken up between his hands and the bass drum foot, or something a bit more complicated.

While enlarging jazz's general rhythmic base, Roach revised how the drum set and cymbals were used. He gave each drum, each cymbal, and the hi-hat expanded functions and more subtle treatment. He introduced new or revised sounds and textures suitable to the music played. ...

Roach had still another major virtue. He knew when to be relatively silent and allow the music to take itself forward. He might subtly help move things along but essentially would stay out of the way.

What Roach brings to all three is a deep groove—the sort of feel more characteristic of Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey. Intense without being loud, l£ suggests "2-and-4" accentuation, in the manner in which he plays the top cymbal, or directly defines it, closing the hi-hat on those beats of each measure. The time takes on clarity and a stronger sense of swing.

Soon this means of giving the beat heat and more of an edge would be widely adopted by jazz drummers, particularly after Art Blakey began doing it and made the hi-hat a primary center of his volcanic energy. This technique ultimately permeated jazz percussion to such a degree that it became almost a cliche’. …

Because of "Ko Ko" and other key Parker-Roach and Gillespie recordings, good-time primitivism in jazz, latter-day minstrelsy, and other elements of black show business no longer seemed at all feasible or possible. Because of these innovative musicians, jazz had become a thinking man's music. Things would never be the same again.”

Max Roach is arguably the greatest drummer of the century, and not just in jazz. He is a master musician of the first rank whose ability to lift a band with the propulsive surge of his drumming marked him out as the cream of the handful of truly great modern jazz percussionists. Even when simply playing fills behind a soloist in any of the many settings in which he has worked, his remarkably subtle and intricate drumming can set the music flowing and floating on a complex wave of polyrhythmic activity and rich tonal and timbral colouration. Equally, his solo performances have elevated the art of playing the jazz drum-set to a new level of musical achievement.

In his Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-1965, Kenny Mathieson explains Max’s significance this way:

“Max Roach is arguably the greatest drummer of the century, and not just in jazz. He is a master musician of the first rank whose ability to lift a band with the propulsive surge of his drumming marked him out as the cream of the handful of truly great modern jazz percussionists. Even when simply playing fills behind a soloist in any of the many settings in which he has worked, his remarkably subtle and intricate drumming can set the music flowing and floating on a complex wave of polyrhythmic activity and rich tonal and timbral colouration. Equally, his solo performances have elevated the art of playing the jazz drum-set to a new level of musical achievement. …

Roach took the supposed limitations of the standard jazz drum-kit, typically made up of bass drum, snare drum, large and small tom-toms, ride cymbal, snare cymbal and hi-hat, and turned them into an intricate vehicle for expression. Interestingly, Roy Haynes, another of the great bebop drummers, has recalled that Roach had no tom-tom when he first heard him play and while he admits he was not sure whether this was dictated by musical or financial considerations, he promptly took the tom-tom out of his own kit!

The old four-to-the-bar bass drum accompaniment of traditional and swing-jazz styles gave way in the bebop era to a more fluid style characterised by a shift away from the bass drum as an audible steady time-keeper towards a greater development of the concept of shifting the pulse on to the the cymbals. In turn, this created a flow or wash of sound/time behind and around the ensemble and soloists, something which had demonstrably already begun in the swing era with players like Jo Jones, Cozy Cole, Dave Tough and Buddy Rich, but was taken much further by the bebop drummers.

The increased fluidity and additional responsiveness of this approach, with accents placed in less regimented and predictable fashion and dictated in response to the specifics of what the soloist or the ensemble played rather than a programmatic rhythmic scheme, was crucial to the emergence of the new music. With it came an expansion of the importance of the idea of 'co-ordinated independence', an expression which refers to the less inhibited way the drummer combines and manipulates the rhythmic layers created from the different facets of his kit, with the primary emphasis being on bass drum, snare drum, ride cymbal and hi-hat.

There is, too, the matter of the actual sound of Roach's drums. In the booklet accompanying Verve's very useful Clifford Brown - Max Roach two-CD compilation Alone Together: The Best of the Mercury Years, drummer Kenny Washington relates a story about how he physically destroyed his first juvenile drum-kit in a desperate attempt to tune the drums to capture Roach's sound. What had caught his ear in particular was the fact that 'the high-pitched tom-tom tuning was so musical and gave each drum its own identity'. To this day, Washington concludes, ‘I still tune my drums like that'.”

Later in his career, Max would take his distinctive drumming “voice” into a variety of Jazz contexts, among them the brilliant recordings that he made with Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, co-leading the Debut Records label with bassist Charles Mingus from 1952-1955, tour Europe with Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic, spend time as a member of bassist Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars in Hermosa Beach, CA and, along with Art Blakey, go on to become one of the few drummers to successfully lead their own combos, the most notable of these being the quintet he co-led with trumpeter Clifford Brown.

JOHN HORLER INTERVIEW with Gordon Jack

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights 

reserved.

Gordon is the author of Fifties Jazz Talk An Oral Retrospective and he also developed the Gerry Mulligan discography in Raymond Horricks’ book Gerry Mulligan’s Ark.

The following article was published in the September 2006 edition of Jazz Journal. 

For more information and subscriptions please visit www.jazzjournal.co.uk

© -Gordon Jack/JazzJournal, copyright protected; all rights reserved; used with the author’s permission.

  I only ever achieved a moderate level of competence on the saxophone but it has always been my proud boast that I gave John Horler who has worked with Zoot Sims, Chet Baker, Pepper Adams, Herb Geller and Maynard Ferguson his first paid engagement. It was 1964 and as usual on a Friday evening I had telephoned the union asking if any pianists were available for a Saturday gig in London’s Balls Pond Road, Dalston – my little group only worked in the best locations! John was recommended and we met at the Kings Head pub where we were booked to entertain the guests at a wedding reception from 7 to 11 pm, for the princely sum of £2.50 per man. 

                                      

Pointing at a beaten-up wreck of an upright, the landlord proudly told us that it had been “painted only last week” but a few random arpeggios from our visiting virtuoso revealed all we needed to know – it was a semi-tone flat and missing a number of notes. During an evening of what must have seemed to John like interminable medleys of foxtrots, waltzes, cha-chas and pop tunes of the day, I desperately tried to reveal some hip jazz credentials to him by enthusing about my latest purchase which featured Bob Brookmeyer, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock and Gary Burton. Later while the rest of the band took a break and uninhibited by an instrument that should have been condemned before the war, I vividly remember him playing a swinging version of Brookmeyer’s “Jive Hoot” from the album to the uncomprehending guests. 

John carried on slumming musically with my group for a few more weeks. Despite this unfortunate beginning to his musical career he still talks to me and readily agreed to this interview which took place at his home in West Norwood, South London. 

“I was born in Lymington, Hampshire on the 26th. February 1947 and started classical piano studies when I was six years old, eventually getting a Distinction at Grade 8 from the Associated Board when I was ten. It was thanks to my father who was a professional trumpeter that I became interested in jazz. He introduced me to Art Tatum and I remember we both worked on transcribing Art’s “Embraceable You” soon after I passed Grade 8 so that I could play it on a local radio station. We got the gist down on paper and although I couldn’t play it exactly like Tatum, I heard a tape recently and it wasn’t bad – I must have been pretty good in those days!  I appeared at a lot of music festivals because the piano was all I lived for and it was very exciting but eventually something inside me said, ‘For God’s sake, stop all this!’ I needed a rest although my parents, who were great, didn’t really understand the pressure that I was under from so much performing. 

“My father often had friends around to listen to records and one of them left the Gerry Mulligan Paris Jazz Fair album with Bob Brookmeyer at the house. We all loved it, especially my brother Dave who plays trombone and has been with the WDR Orchestra in Cologne for the past 25 years. We really started to listen to jazz then. We had been dazzled by Tatum’s technique of course but that Mulligan record really ‘clicked’ with both of us and never left us. My grandmother started buying us an LP each month and those records turning up were big events. We acquired all the Mulligan quartet LPs as they came out as well as Brookmeyer’s Blues Hot And Cold and Oscar Peterson’s trio playing Porgy And Bess. Another favourite was Stan Getz and J.J.Johnson at the Opera House with those two classic ballads – “Yesterdays” and “It Never Entered My Mind”. One of the albums that had a particular influence on me was the Brookmeyer and Stan Getz LP recorded in 1961 with the wonderful Roy Haynes on drums. Steve Kuhn was on piano and he was the one who indirectly introduced me to Bill Evans. Instead of a two-handed chord like Oscar would do, Steve played a single note in the right hand which was repeated as a chord in the left. He did that all the time and I thought it was great because I had never heard that approach before. I started to absorb those ideas into my own playing and when I heard Bill Evans I realised where Steve got it from. 

“The first Bill Evans record I bought was Waltz For Debby. I played that LP over and over and funnily enough it was Scott LaFaro who blew me away before Bill – I haven’t heard bass playing like that even to this day. Of course I collected all of Evans's albums after that but I was a little disappointed with the LP he made with Brookmeyer. Bob’s ideas of course are amazing and he can certainly play the piano but the difference in pianistic ability is too great. Bill was almost concert piano standard and Bob is a trombone player who doubles – he does it very well but he’s not in Evans’s league. I believe he went to the date expecting to play trombone and was surprised when he saw two pianos set up. It’s such a shame he didn’t play the trombone with Bill and I’m not really a fan of two pianos playing together anyway.

“I studied at the Royal Academy from 1963 to 1967 and towards the end of the’60s I started working at the Penthouse Club in Shepherd’s Market with Bob Layzel’s band. We backed artists like Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks and I also occasionally got a call to play with Maynard Ferguson’s big band when he was over here. I did a few deps when the regular pianist wasn’t available and Maynard was very good to me and great to work with – although the remuneration wasn’t wonderful! Unfortunately very often when I was there the rest of the rhythm section were replacements too. This created problems with the geography of the music and led to some confusion regarding repeats and where they went back to. It was better when the regular guys like Randy Jones and Dave Lynane were there because one of them would say, ‘OK John, go to letter C now’ so I knew where I was. I remember one piece though where I was supposed to bring in the tempo on piano and I got it completely wrong. Maynard just cued the band in and played my part with me bringing it up to the right tempo with no fuss at all. That’s real class because he didn’t leave me with egg on my face.

“I often worked with Ronnie Ross and we got on very well. He usually used my great friends Allan Ganley on drums and Chris Laurence on bass and we did a number of broadcasts, either as a quartet or a quintet with trombonist Chris Pyne. Ronnie had a big sound on baritone and I was very touched when Sue, his wife, sent me a letter after he died in 1991. She told me that he had really liked my playing and thought a lot of me. I wish I had kept that letter.” (Just as an aside, it should never be forgotten what a superb player Ronnie Ross was. John Lewis, who asked him and Joe Harriott to tour Europe with the MJQ in 1959 once said that Ross was his favourite baritone soloist. One particularly excellent example of his work is a 1963 album on World Record Club (E)T346 with Bill Le Sage, Spike Heatley and Allan Ganley – unfortunately not available yet on CD).  

“By the mid 70s I was starting to get a lot of calls for session work with people like Engelbert Humperdinck, Harry Secombe and even Placido Domingo. Classical singers had started to record standard tunes which they didn’t do very well. I remember Placido who was charming to us incidentally trying “Blue Moon” which he must have attempted about 20 times. Normally you would put the track down so the singer could come in later and add the vocal but he did it live which meant we had to play it 20 times too. I got pretty fed up with “Blue Moon” which has never been one of my favourite tunes anyway. 

In 1976 I did a European tour with Shirley MacLaine and I loved working with her. She was very nice to all the musicians and a tremendous artist – an amazing singer and dancer.

“I played a lot with Tony Coe who of course is a genius which at times makes him a little unpredictable.You just have to accept that he’s ‘Tony’ and as I’ve got more mature and experienced over the years I understand him better. We made an album in 1978 titled Coe-Existence (LAM 100) and we also worked together more recently in Malcolm Creese’s Acoustic Triangle. We aren’t with Malcolm any more but we have a group with a similar line-up with just Alec Dankworth on bass. 

“In 1979 I played with Chet Baker at The Canteen for a week which was one of the most memorable musical experiences I’ve ever had because he was straight and he played wonderfully well. He had a few dots and we actually had a rehearsal with him so you can see how together he was. A lot of musicians came to listen and I particularly remember Henry Lowther being there because he loved Baker. Chet introduced me to Richie Beirach’s music and he sang quite a lot although I preferred it when he just played the trumpet. I must give credit to the rhythm section – Jim Richardson and Tony Mann – who played so well for Chet who was not a powerful player. At our rehearsal he told us that he didn’t want things to be too loud so Tony played brushes for him but when it came to me he switched to sticks. We could stretch out as much as we wanted, which Chet liked because it gave him long rests.” (Baker had very definite opinions about drummers. He once said ‘A drummer has got to be very good to be better than no drummer at all’.) 

“Jim Richardson has the recording from The Canteen and it’s pretty good. When the legalities are ironed out, let's hope it can be released because Chet played so well. He told Poppy my wife how much he enjoyed working with me and he even asked me to do some more dates in Europe with him. A few years later in 1985 I played with him again this time at Ronnie Scott’s but by then he was really out of it. Sometimes he wouldn’t appear and when he did he was stoned – it was terrible really and I didn’t enjoy it at all.” (Thorbjorn Sjogren’s Chet Baker discography lists private recordings of the Ronnie Scott  and Canteen dates. John also worked with Chet at The Canteen later in 1983. These performances were released commercially in 2016 on Ubuntu Music UBU0003.)

“Getting back to 1979, that was the year Bob Brookmeyer came over to do a tour with Jim Hall as well as some dates with Cliff Hardie’s big band. My brother Dave and I got a chance to play with him because we were in Cliff’s band at the time. Bill Holman had written a suite for Bob who also brought some of his own arrangements for us to play and we did three concerts with him which unfortunately lost money. Dave later went to Germany to join the WDR band. Over the years Brookmeyer often played with them and he and Dave became good friends.

“Zoot Sims was booked for two weeks at Ronnie’s in 1980 and I enjoyed working with him. He didn’t seem too happy though because he had a medical problem at the time which meant he wasn’t able to drink. The group sounded pretty good with Bobby Orr on drums and Lennie Bush on bass who are both British jazz legends. There was one tune that gave us all problems with Zoot because we couldn’t agree on the bridge for “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me”. I tried every way with that bridge but my changes never seemed to fit with what he was doing. I went to the trouble of looking up the song copy but whatever I played didn’t suit Zoot - even Lennie who was a tremendous busker didn’t know what he wanted. I was pretty confident in those days and I wasn’t overawed by playing with him so I said, ‘Zoot, why don’t you write out what you want me to play?’ That was all I needed but he never did. 

“Jimmy Rowles had written a whole bunch of chords for him to give to pianists when he was touring. Being an ‘ear’ player Zoot didn’t know everything Jimmy had written and occasionally there would be a discrepancy between the chart and what Zoot played. I was never quite sure if he wanted me to follow him or play exactly what was written – you have to be a mind reader sometimes. I remember telling him how impressed I was with one of his solos on a Mulligan CJB live recording. One night he turned to me and said, ‘Here’s something I know you’ll like’ and he counted us off into “The Red Door'' which he had played on the album. Even though we had our problems he was just fantastic. 

“I also played with Pepper Adams at the Pizza Express in Dean Street followed by a TV show in Liverpool. Pepper was a great soloist and a very nice guy who had a fondness for Guinness. We had long chats and although I don’t recall all the things we spoke about, he did tell me that he wasn’t totally happy with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band because he didn’t get too much solo space from Thad. I saw the band at Ronnie’s and it did seem like a lot of trumpet solos with very little from Pepper. 

“I’ve played a lot with Pete King over the years. We started working together around 1980 and at the time I think we had one of the best groups in the country.  We did an album in 1982 (Spotlight ESPJ520) and one of the numbers was a free duet called “New Beginnings” which was the title of the LP. That idea started one night on a gig when I joined in on his cadenza to “My Old Flame”. He turned round and said, ‘Keep going’ and we used to try that quite often in those days. We did another album in 1983 called East 34th. Street which featured two of my tunes – “Evans’s Song” and “3/4 Peace” (Spotlight SPJ 424). 

“As far as free playing is concerned it depends on the musicians but as I get older I find I am not so keen on it anymore because the idea of just playing anything doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sometimes though I play a phrase with someone like Tony Coe. He can hear and then embellish it before moving into something else which can be rewarding. I remember hearing Brookmeyer and Jim Hall doing some free things which had form and a theme where they just played lines without chords. It was successful because they are both such fantastic musicians. 

“1982 was the year I played on the movie soundtrack for Yentl with Barbra Streisand. Michel Legrand had written the music and he conducted a large orchestra with four keyboard players including the magnificent classical pianist Howard Shelley. His part was completely black with dots and I remember looking at it feeling glad that he had to play it and not me. We had a problem because when Barbra came into the studio she said the music was too high for her. We were given a few minutes to transpose everything down a minor third and I remember Howard did brilliantly even though he had the hardest part. 

“1983 was the first year I recorded with John Dankworth (Sepia ERSR2012) and after the session he said he would like me to start touring with him and Cleo Laine. I was very flattered but I was doing a lot of free-lance work and I was a little concerned about losing my connections if I was away for too long. It all seemed very exotic because they were travelling the world then and Cleo of course often worked in America. I took a chance but when the schedule came through the first dates I saw were at Hull and Tunbridge Wells! Anyway, I joined and I’ve been with them both ever since. John usually has a quintet with Mark Nightingale, Alec Dankworth and Allan Ganley although occasionally he expands to a big band. We sometimes play one of my originals – “Around In Three” which Cleo recorded in 2005 as “Once Upon A Time” with her own lyric (QMT 10108).    

I’ve also played with Tony Kinsey off and on since the mid 70s and I’ve been involved in quite a few of his recording projects. The great Alan Branscombe who was one of my favourite pianists was there before me and when he died Tony asked me to take over.

“I’ve sometimes accompanied Herb Geller when he is in the UK and he is a really nice guy and a wonderful player. It’s all a bit ‘eyes down’ with Herb though because he plays a lot of originals and some really obscure standards so you’re reading all the time which can be hard work. It’s nice if the leader lets the guys busk something they know so they can relax a little. 

“I don’t listen to many new jazz records these days because I prefer the ‘old masters’ like Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Getz, J.J. Johnson, Jim Hall, Mulligan and Brookmeyer. Mulligan’s CJB played some of the best music I’ve ever heard incidentally. I also like Jim McNeely, Richie Beirach, Chick Corea, Victor Feldman, Wynton Kelly and early Herbie Hancock. Obviously I’ve listened to Tatum and nobody can do what Peterson does in his particular genre. I listen a lot to modern writers like Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ravel, Debussy and Alban Berg as well as classical composers like Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven. I also like the Rachmaninov piano concertos – that ‘over the top’ stuff doesn’t seem so ‘over the top’ as I get older and more romantic! I think it’s good for jazz musicians to be aware of other forms. Bill Evans introduced Miles Davis to Ravel for instance and if you look at the structure of some of their pieces you can see where they absorbed European harmonies into their own material.

“I must just mention some of my recent recordings. Alan Barnes and I have worked together quite a lot over the years and our duo CD – Stablemates - which we did in 2004 on Alan’s own label turned out very well (Woodville WWCD107). I also recorded a duo album with Ken Peplowski in 2001 titled Ellingtonian Tales on Mainstem MCD 0021 that I’m very happy with and my latest trio album – The Key To It All – is currently being mixed and re-mastered and should be available soon.”

The last word here should come from one of John Horler’s former colleagues - Bob Brookmeyer. He was quoted on the cover of one of my favourite Horler CDs - Gentle Piece, which John recorded for the Spotlight label in 1993 with Dave Green, Phil Lee and Spike Wells (SPJ-CD542). As always with Brookmeyer his comments are concise and succinct – ‘I find a quiet dignity and a sense of deep feeling in John’s music. The touch, the musicality and the well-thought out presentation provides ready access to his thinking and the support is always sensitive and helpful.’ 

Gretsch Drum Night At Birdland [From the Archives]

 © -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Anyone who has been a casual visitor to these pages know that I have a bias toward Jazz drumming, what I think of as the heartbeat of Jazz.

Among the current crop of Jazz drummers, Kenny Washington has long been among my favorites principally because he plays a style of drumming that I also favor - the Philly Joe Jones approach to drumming.

Kenny is a student of the music so much so that he refers to himself as The Jazz Maniac.

Whatever he chooses to call himself, Kenny knows what he talking about, particularly when it comes to Jazz drumming as his following notes to the Roulette LP Gretsch Drum Night At Birdland will attest.

Since he wrote these insert notes to the EMI/Blue Note CD reissue of this LP in 1991, many of the musicians referenced in them have passed away. Oh, and Gretsch is once again making Jazz drum kits.

Kenny’s respect and enthusiasm for the drummers featured on this album are infectious, but considering the iconic status that each of them have assumed in Jazz lore, he’s certainly in good company.

“Imagine being able in see four master drummers at the lop of their games all an one great stage! This all took place April 25. I960, it was billed "Gretsch Night" at the "Jazz: Corner of the World", Birdland. The CD that you are now holding is the only time these percussion personalities ever recorded together. Of course the idea of percussionists playing together is not new: It goes back to the motherland Africa where people played drums for entertainment as well as different kinds of communication. In more modern times, it's interesting to note that throughout the history of Jazz there are not that many recordings of drummers playing together on record. The first recordings that made the public take notice were the 1946 Jazz at the Philharmonic drum battles between Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. There were a few studio recordings that came out in the 50s which included such greats as Mel Lewis, Osie Johnson. Charlie Persip, Louis Hayes. Don Lamond and a few others. Although these recordings are good, they didn't do justice to these masters. In fact, they were a bit over arranged, and the record company seemed to boast more about hi-fi sound rather than music. The man really responsible for seeing the possibilities for recording drum ensembles was An Blakey, fusing Latin jazz percussionists with jazz multi-percussionists. These were ideas that were no doubt inspired by Dizzy Gillespie's fascination with Afro-Cuban sounds in the 40s. Art recorded with legendary conga drummer Chano Pozo on a James Moody record date for Blue Note in I948. He also recorded a drum duet with Sabu Martine: on a Horace Silver record date. Blakey recorded no less than six albums with different drum ensembles. It is indeed Art who is the ringleader of the "Gretsch Drum Night" session here.

Without gelling too deep into drum equipment, Gretsch was a drum company who endorsed these percussionists. Owned by Fred Gretsch, this company was the drum set for Jazz drummers. There were other companies to be sure, but none of them had that sound like Gretsch. A lot of top drummers of the day used them. When I was a child of seven. I would read publications such as Downbeat and I would see pictures of Gretsch endorsee's like: Max Roach. Tony Williams. Philly Joe. Elvin and Art. I remember my father getting mad at me because before lie could read the magazine I'd cut out the pictures of my idols and hang them on my wall! Gretsch still exists nowadays but. they have next to no interest in Jazz drummers. They have very few Jazz endorsees if any. Even more of a pity is that they don't make their drums like they used to (it was so good while it lasted).

Putting four drummers on stage together can he a horrific experience. There's always the tendency for drummers to want to outplay each other. Also, it can do a number on your eardrums. On this CD. you'll hear friendly competition done in a musical way.

Art Blakey [1919-1990] was horn in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. He was basically self-taught on the drums, but took a few informal lessons from his idol Chick Webb (if if you listen to early Blakey big band recordings you can hear how he imitated Webb right down to the tuning of the snare drum). He played with one of the pioneers of big band jazz, Fletcher Henderson for about a year. Art then joined the legendary Billy Eckstine band from 1944 until the band’s demise in 1947. Blakey became associated with the bebop movement, recording and performing with such greats as Charlie Parker. Fats Navarro and Dexter Gordon. Blakey organised the Seventeen Messengers, which were scaled down to a octet for a Blue Note record date in 1947. In 1955. Blakey and pianist Horace Silver formed a cooperative as the Jazz Messengers. Front that point until his death, Blakey had many classic Messenger groups and helped to groom musicians for the future of Jazz. I should also point out that An took the Bebop innovations of drummers like Kenny Clarke and Max Roach to another level. With his raw gutsy solos and his hard-driving swing. Blakey changed the role of modern Jazz drummers.

Joseph Rudolph Jones (1923-I985) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He started playing drums and piano at an early age. He got serious about the drums in his late teens, About thai time. Joe became one of the first black streetcar conductors in Philadelphia. He commuted to New York to study with swing drummer Cozy Cole. In 1947, he came to New York permanently working as the house drummer at Cafe Society. He gained experience working with Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron and many others. Around this time he got the name Philly Joe so as not to be confused with veteran Count Basie drummer Jo Jones. A year later, he made his first recordings with the Joe Morris band playing rhythm and blues. Later on he worked with guitarist Tiny Grimes and his Rocking Highlanders, wearing a kilt no less. His best known association was with the classic Miles Davis Quintet from 1955 to 1958. After leaving Davis, he became the most sought after session man, recording for Prestige, Riverside, Blue Note and a host of other labels from the late 50s into the 60s. He lived in Europe from 1969 to 1972. When he returned to Philadelphia, he formed his group Le Grand Prix. In 1981, he formed Dameronia a group put together for the sole purpose of playing the music of pianist-composer, Tadd Dameron. Philly Joe took the best from masters like Max Roach. Sid Catlett, Jo Jones. Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey and made it his own. His playing had everything; technical virtuosity, slickness, humour and most of all he could swing you into bad health.

Charlie Persip (1929) was born in Morristown, New Jersey. He's a master of both big and small band playing. He's best known for his work with Dizzy Gillespie (1953-58), Persip along with a few others helped to dispel the myth among white contractors and producers at that time that black drummers couldn't read music. Charlie has always been a fantastic musician who didn't put up with a lot of nonsense. Punctuality is usually the rule with Persip, but he once overslept for an early morning recording session. When he finally got to the session, the rest of the musicians were rehearsing. The minute he finished setting up.  they put the music in front of him and rolled lite tape. He sight-read the music as if he hail been playing it for a year. The producer couldn't believe what he had just witnessed and later wrote Charlie a letter Mating stating that he had never seen that kind of musicianship in his life, Incidentally, that session was a Bill Potts' The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess. Persip was much in demand for studio work recording with everyone from Jackie and Roy to Eric Dolphy. These days Charlie is the principal drum instructor for JazzMobile. has his own big band which he calls Persipitation and has even written a very good hook titled "How Not To Play The Drums".

Elvin Ray Jones (1927-) was born in Pontiac. Michigan, the youngest of the illustrious Jones brothers. Elvin began his professional career as the house drummer in saxophonist Billy Mitchell's band at the famed Bluebird Club in Detroit. This engagement gave him a chance to play with all the great jazzmen who came through town. Elvin’s style of drumming met with some resistance from musicians and critics alike. The innovations of Kenny Clarke and Max Roach in the 40s seemed like the logical step from what drummers before them like Jo Jones and Sid Cutlet! were doing. When Elvin came on the scene, he was outrageously different from anything that came before him. His time feel and use of complex polyrhythms were something that had never been done before. I might also point out that he completely revolutionized 3/4 time playing. Elvin would plav over the bar lines putting accents on the (and) of two rather than playing on the downbeat of one. This made his time much smoother and sort of made it float along. Philly Joe wax actually one of Elvin's earliest fans. He knew right from the beginning thai Elvin had something special. He used to send Elvin in on jobs and recordings he couldn't make. The two of them even recorded an album together for Atlantic. The world caught on. and he toured and also recorded with J J Johnson, Barry Harris, Donald Byrd. Harry Edison among others. Elvin joined the Joint Coltrane Quartet in 1960. He was a perfect match for Trane's journey into modality and his open form style of this period. After leaving Coltrane in 1966. he spent a brief time with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Since that time Elvin lias been leading his own groups.

The other musicians on this dale contribute short but strong solos. Tlte frontline consists of an interesting instrumentation of aim trombone.

Sylvester Kyner better known as Sonny Red, hailed from Detroit. At the time of this live session, he had already recorded one album for Blue Note as a leader. Seven months after this recording he was signed to Riverside Records where he made four dales as a leader. He is best known for his recordings as a sideman on Blue Note with his junior high school buddy Donald Byrd. Red was a player who could cover all the bases. He could play gut bucket blues, but had  a strong harmonic conception, played lyrical ballads and was a 'from scratch' improviser. You never knew where he would go next. Red died in 1981.

Charies Greenlea toured and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie's Bebop Band of the 40s. He went on to record with Archie Shepp and played off and on with Philly Joe Jones in the 60s. I first met him in the seventies when he was playing with the C.B.A. (Collective Black Artists) big hand.

Ron Carter was twenty-three at the lime of this recording made and was commuting back and forth from New York in Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where he was in the process of getting his Masters Degree. It's interesting to hear him playing with these drummers. There are very few recordings of Ron playing with Blakey or Philly Joe. It's too had because listening to this CD, you'll hear that they play well together. Persip was instrumental in getting Ron on a lot of studio dates when he first came to the Big Apple. He was also part of Persip's group The Jazz Statesmen. Then as now. Ron is still taking care of serious bass business.

Tommy Flanagan, also a product of Detroit, can fit into any situation. A year before this date, he had recorded the now classic John Coltrane "Giant Steps" session. During this period, he was working and recording with Coleman Hawkins. Art Farmer. Clark Terry and many others. I had the opportunity to work with Tommy's trio for two years. He is truly a joy to play with,

I've sketched out some notes to help the listener to identify the drummers. On Wee Dot and Now's The Time there are only two drummers - Philly Joe Jones and Art Blakey. The way to tell them apart is Philly Joe's drums are tuned higher than Blakey's (incidentally Joe is using Persip's drums and cymbals).

Wee Dot is a JJ Johnson composition that Blakey recorded for Blue Note six years earlier live at the same club. It is he who starts with a 8 bar intro and plays through the melody. Philly Joe steps right in accompanying Red for seven choruses. Dig how Joe uses his left hand behind him. Art plays behind Creenlea's short trombone solo and Flanagan's piano choruses . Philly Joe plays the four bar exchanges with the horn as well as the extended drum solo. Art is keeping time on the ride cymbal. The roles then reverse, Joe plays time and Art solos. Check out how Art goes from a whisper to a roar on his solo.

Charlie Parker's Now's The Time starts with a four-bar intro from Philly Joe. You can hear at the ninth bar of the melody how they both punctuate the melody together. Check out how Art plays one of his dynamic press rolls to begin Greenlea's solo. At the third chorus of the solo. Philly Joe steps in with a typical conga beat that he plays between his two toms for almost two choruses. Philly Joe lakes charge during Red's solo. I'm sorry, but there's no one that could swing harder than Philly Joe at that tempo. There's a tape splice right after the fourth chorus of Red's solo that switches us back to Blakey's accompaniment. During Flanagan's solo, you can hear Philly Joe trying in step in musically as if he's saying "May I cut in on this dance?" There's another sudden splice, and there's Philly Joe again showing us how slick he was. Philly Joe plays a full chorus drum solo with backing from Blakey’s ride cymbal. Art's solo reminds us of the Chick Webb influence. Art sure had a big drum sound.

Another drum set is brought out on the stage of Birdland and we hear Art, Elvin and Charlie for the next tune El Sino. Art and Elvin play the theme together. Sonny Red has the first solo backed by Art. Persip accompanies Creenlea's solo. Talking to Persip, he told me that he and Elvin were roommates at the time. He felt that listening and talking to Elvin was a big inspiration for him. It helped to free up his whole rhythmic conception. It's Elvin that plays brushes behind Tommy and Ron's solos. Few people know that Elvin is a master of brushes. The four-bar exchanges start off with Art, Charlie and Elvin in that order. There's a drum interlude right after the last exchange which is a Blakey rhythm phrase played by the three before each of the drum solos. Elvin has the first solo. Persip is next, playing everything sharp and clean. He always had chops io spare. His bass drum work sounds as if he's using two bass drums, although he's only using one. They repeat the interlude once more, and the hums lake it out.

Tune Up is actually the next number but because of time considerations on the conventional LP Roulette decided tn start from the 8-bar drum exchanges. Reissue producer Michael Cuscuna and I were disappointed that there were no extra session reels. We had hoped thai we would be able fix the edlts and restore the music to its original form. What you hear is all that appeared on the original LP. The 8-bar exchanges start with Philly Joe, Charlie and Elvin in that order. The first extended solo is by Philly Joe. Persip takes over with a 6/8 time feeling. Later he shows off his independence by actually playing four different rhythms with each limb. Elvin is the next soloist playing a quasi-free solo. Next the percussionists pull out their brushes starring with Philly Joe. As he's playing you can hear Art egging him on. Philly Joe was a master showman, and you can hear that he had the audience in the palm of his hands. It's too bad there's no film of this performance. Charlie and Elvin both tell their stories with the brushes before the ensemble comes in with the melody of Tune Up.

The session reels say that the last piece is titled A Night In Tunisia. Again because of time considerations they cut all the horn solos. The three percussionists start with intricate Afro-Cuban rhythms. The first soloist is Persip. After the ensemble playing Persip is heard again. Elvin takes another extended solo. The Afro-Cuban rhythms come back before they switch to a 6/8 time feel and then the big finale.

Like saxophones or trumpets, drummers can also play together and he just as musical. The proof is here to hear.”