lin
k
The video is short and not at all a hagiography. Credit due is paid up front. What I really like is that it gets to what I've been trying to say here previously regarding Bonham. The musical notation in the video makes several points quite clearly, if you can keep up.Deal with it.
25 comments:
It's not hagiography if it's true.
Not being a musician myself, I wonder if the players actually understand what they are playing in that way. I assume they play it that way becuase after trial and experiment, each song ended up just being the way they found it to sound and feel best. I expect that if they saw this video, they might say: "Yea, whatever you say, man, but we just played it that way becuase it sounded right. I mean lots of great artist can't even read music, and certainly can't explain the music theory behind what they do. That does not diminish it at all. I would be impressed if they thought it out like that, and then executed, but I doubt that much music is created that way outside of classical or highly formulated pop.
I don’t know whether Bonham could read music. Page certainly could — that was a requirement for being a session musician. But to your point, Michael Faraday could not do complex math including algebra, yet he discovered and accurately described many physical laws that were later “translated” into math, most notably by James Clerk Maxwell.
That Canuck skipped right over the fact that Bonzo had dual bass drums which made triplets easier to accomplish.
Mean ol' Ginger Baker was also a jazz drummer, also had dual bass drums, so once again, announcer dude kind of skipped right over an obvious precursor.
But other than that it was a nice video. I liked the French subtitles. "Leur batteur Jacques de Bonhomme." And it also reminds me why my study of drumming ended while I continued learning other instruments - drum notation looks peculiar to me.
Do most session drummers read music? Is that true? I am asking. I thought Buddy Rich could not read music.
Bonham was a great drummer. Too bad he drank a bit too much, we lost him too soon.
Great video.
bagoh20, I suspect you are right. And that does not take anything away from it if it did go down that way. I know Buddy Rich did not know music, yet did a lot of sessions work and was a genius on his own. Jazz is about improvisation, and so is a lot of rock.
And Bonham did study other drummers, so he is naturally going to adopt styles and techniques they had and incorporate it into what he was doing.
@Sixty: John Bonham most emphatically did not have dual bass drums.* One reason he was so phenomenal was that he caused so many shin cramps for imitators. I know because I was teenaged imitator. Keith Moon often did play with double bass drums, and Ginger Baker started it, so bass drum triplets were easier for those pikers (ducks). Besides, the incredible Mr. Baker was/is an asshole of the first water.
Evi, I agree, he drank like fish and swam in vodka.
___________________
*Bring me the broomstick in the form of a photo of him with 2 bass drums.
That Ginger Baker biopic was hagiography. He beat the filmmaker on camera.
I often hear the retort that Buddy Rich was the all time best drummer. Fine. He failed to be in a band like Led Zeppelin.
One ironic aspect of the short video is that he makes Charlie Watts out to be too simplistic. Yet, Watts was an accomplished jazz drummer before he joined the Stones. It's like Watts decided "This is rock drumming and this is jazz drumming and never shall the two meet."
That's overly rigid thinking.
Do most session drummers read music? Is that true? I am asking. I thought Buddy Rich could not read music.
Evi, by "session musician" I'm meant the sort of musician who would show up everyday to play other people's music. This was especially true when studio time was more costly. Jimmy Page was that guy before he was even a Yardbird.
Holy carp - you are right - I really need to shut up around here - I am misremembering stuff right and left. I was thinkin' of Moon, of course, and now I shall slink off into the corner.
@Sixty: Moon used to do double bass drum rolls — see for example the last minute of “Bargain.” That would be neiarly impossible for a one footer.
I've always like the song "black dog". Perhaps the drummer was a tad late because he was a tad drunk. Or. like the narrator says, it was all on purpose. Either way it works. Rock on, man.
Buddy Rich.
Around five minutes in he demonstrates his virtuosic snare drum roll. That smoothness is what sets him apart from all other drummers.
What is it with drummers and, shall we say, unhealthy life styles?
chick, I know what a session musician is, but didn't Buddy Rich do sessions work before he got big on his own?
"Rich also served as the session drummer for many recordings, where his playing was often more understated than in his big-band performances. Especially notable were Rich's sessions for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, on which he worked with pianist Oscar Peterson and his famous trio featuring bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis.[9] In 1968, Rich collaborated with the Indian tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha in the studio album Rich à la Rakha by Buddy Rich and Alla Rakha."
Sixty - that stuff at the 5 minute mark is crazy nutz awesome.
This guy is good too.
From Wiki:
When asked about Rich's ability to read music, Bobby Shew, lead trumpeter in Rich's mid-60s big band replied: "No. He'd always have a drummer there during rehearsals to read and play the parts initially on new arrangements... He'd only have to listen to a chart once and he'd have it memorized. We'd run through it and he'd know exactly how it went, how many measures it ran and what he'd have to do to drive it... The guy had the most natural instincts."[26]
So, he cheated. And the producers paid two salaries. Hal Blaine made the point in "The Wrecking Crew" about how his ability to sight read made his own career.
kookoo washing machine for Zappa.
As we age,we mellow.
Well huh, I had never even heard of Terry Bozzio, having given up on Frank Zappa after Uncle Meat, but that boy can make some racket!
It looks as though he has done well enough not only to purchase every drum ever made but also, in his later years, some clothing. Good for him!
without Frank, Terry would be Terry who? Frank gave him the platform, and in the drum world, Terry is really something.
It's hard to believe John Bonham died at the age of 32. Would have been nice to see him age in his craft. One of the best.
Great stuff. That's what I love about Lem's...the variety of insights.
Showing the notes was essential for someone like me. The last example was amazing. Someone can certainly walk and chew gum at the same time.
I usually just skipped over "Moby Dick."
I first heard of Terry Bozzio in "Missing Persons." I admit I was more interested in Dale. Whatever happened to her?
Dale was found guilty of cruelty to cats.
Post a Comment