Advice on school project - jazz drummers

[Matt]

I’m getting ready to graduate college this December. I’m a business major, but I’m getting a minor in music, which requires me to take Intro to Music History, which I am currently in. We have a project due next week. It is a score project, in which we are supposed to take ten examples of musical scores on our choice of music style, and organize them into a folder and write about how each one is significant, or contributed to the development of the style. Examples in class included such styles as operas, piano concertos, etc. Most of the other students in the class are music majors, and are probably really comfortable doing their projects on oratorios, arias, symphonies, and other styles that I don’t really understand or listen to. One example of a previous project, however, contained transcriptions of jazz saxophone solos. So, I asked if I could do something about jazz drumming from past to present. This should help me out a lot, since at least I get to do the project on something I am somewhat familiar with. However, I haven’t studied much into jazz until a couple of years ago, and I could really use some advice from some of you drummers that have been serious about jazz for a long time and know a lot about the history.

I went through my stack of about 42 issues of Modern Drummer magazines that I have collected over the past few years, and was able to find a lot of transcriptions that I can draw from to use in the project. I also have the book “Beyond Bop Drumming,” which has some transcriptions in it. I need to pick 10, either from this list, or from somewhere else that is readily available. I don’t have time to try to transcribe anything that isn’t already done. Here is what I have so far that seem like good candidates:

Chick Webb:
Harlem Conga

Art Blakey:
It’s Only a Paper Moon
Wail March
This I Dig of You (I’ll probably use this since I actually did the solo for this one myself)

Elvin Jones:
Black Nile
All or Nothing At All
Monk’s Dream

Gene Krupa:
Gene’s Blues

Jeff “Tain” Watts:
various short excerpts

Joe Morello:
Sounds of the Loop

Louie Bellson:
Skin Deep

Max Roach:
Blues for Big Sid
Decision
Delilah
Parisian Thoroughfare
The Drum Also Waltzes

Philly Joe Jones:
Blues for Philly Joe
Four
Workout

Roy Haynes:
Matrix
My One and Only Love

Tony Williams:
Nefertiti
All of You
The Theme
Gingerbread Boy
Agitation
several other short excerpts

Billy Higgins:
various excerpts

Ari Hoenig:
I Mean You

Bill Stewart:
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You

Jack DeJohnette:
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
Picture 3

Lewis Nash:
Sounds of Joy

Steve Gadd:
Old Devil Moon
Rock Skippin
Basically Blues

Bob Moses:
In the Fall

So, my question to the more experienced on this forum – can some of you recommend a few from this list (or another if there is a transcription available online), and tell me a little bit about why they stand out to you as being significant in further progressing the art of jazz drumming?

I know there are some of you here that really know your stuff, and any tips I can use on this project are greatly appreciated! I am kind of new to a lot of this, and there are many tracks on that list that I have not even heard, but I’m working at getting better at this stuff. Thanks!

[Matt]

Alright, maybe that whole thing was a bit too much of a question...

Maybe some of y'all can still help me. Let's say you could only pick out a handful of jazz recordings (any that you choose - not just from the list) that are clear examples of ways that jazz drumming has developed throughout the music's history. Are there any in particular that you would choose, and what sticks out to you most about the drumming?

[DrumEatDrum]

Do you have to have transcriptions? And does it have to focus on drum solos?

I'm thinking you want to spread out the time line of your recordings so that you're not so focused on the last 40 or so years.

Start with an early 20s guy like Zutty Singleton or Cozy Cole.

Then go to Gene Krupa, and Papp Jo Jones.

Then go into the bebop of guys like Philly Joe and Tony, Elvin, etc.

This way you're covering clear changes in styles of jazz over the years.

Any that's my 2 cents, feel free to not use it!

[Matt]

Yes, thanks, that is the kind of thing I need to know to do this right. And yes, I do have to have transcriptions. For the other students, this probably won't be too hard, since they can go get scores from the music library. For what I'm trying to do, I just have to use what I can find from online, magazines, or books that I have, and I pretty much listed all the ones I have in print. I know there are many others online, though, if I knew specifically what to get. I'm quite sure that no one has ever done the project on this subject. And I'm not sure, but I would think that both solo and comping examples would be acceptable and appropriate, as long as they are good for demonstrating certain elements in the drumming and in the music.

Also, I am already leaning toward a certain few tracks that I have listed, such as the one by Louie Bellson to demonstrate his innovative use of the double bass setup, or one of the most common Max Roach solos to demonstrate some of his innovative solo vocabulary. I will probably use the Art Blakey solo transcription of "This I Dig of You," since it's the only one that I've actually done myself. Also, the Chick Webb transcription looks good because it is from 1937 and demonstrates the use of the cowbell and woodblock on early trap set. I still need help picking all the rest of them though, and I haven't had time yet to really evaluate them.

[Deltadrummer]

I think your buddy is on to something here. It seems that it would be easier to start with specific sub-genres within jazz and then take two drummers from each style to show what they are doing to develop the language. or take ten and one drummer from each of ten styles of sub-genres.

New Orleans Baby Dodds, Zutty Singleton
Swing Cozy Cole, Gene Krupa
Bebop Max Roach, Kenny Kirkland,
Hard Bop Art Blakey, Philly Jo, Elvin Jones
Post- bop Tony Williams, Jack De Johnette

gives you ten. A lot of guys will over lap into two of three sub-genres, so you could use that as well. Show how Tony, Elvin or Philly Jo played in a hard bop style as opposed to a bebop or a post-bop style. There's also hot jazz, cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, fusion, Third Stream jazz, Smooth Jazz, Latin jazz. There are many sub- genres that you could use. You could even do ten sub-genres.

Then all you need to know are the conventions of the style, which you could find here on DW, and you can show how specific drummers innovated, used and developed them. I would stay away from solos and talk more about how the drummer supports the band, though you could bring in solo work with in a band context, such as trading fours.

[wy yung]

I’m getting ready to graduate college this December. I’m a business major, but I’m getting a minor in music, which requires me to take Intro to Music History, which I am currently in. We have a project due next week. It is a score project, in which we are supposed to take ten examples of musical scores on our choice of music style, and organize them into a folder and write about how each one is significant, or contributed to the development of the style. Examples in class included such styles as operas, piano concertos, etc. Most of the other students in the class are music majors, and are probably really comfortable doing their projects on oratorios, arias, symphonies, and other styles that I don’t really understand or listen to. One example of a previous project, however, contained transcriptions of jazz saxophone solos. So, I asked if I could do something about jazz drumming from past to present. This should help me out a lot, since at least I get to do the project on something I am somewhat familiar with. However, I haven’t studied much into jazz until a couple of years ago, and I could really use some advice from some of you drummers that have been serious about jazz for a long time and know a lot about the history.

I went through my stack of about 42 issues of Modern Drummer magazines that I have collected over the past few years, and was able to find a lot of transcriptions that I can draw from to use in the project. I also have the book “Beyond Bop Drumming,” which has some transcriptions in it. I need to pick 10, either from this list, or from somewhere else that is readily available. I don’t have time to try to transcribe anything that isn’t already done. Here is what I have so far that seem like good candidates:

Chick Webb:
Harlem Conga

Art Blakey:
It’s Only a Paper Moon
Wail March
This I Dig of You (I’ll probably use this since I actually did the solo for this one myself)

Elvin Jones:
Black Nile
All or Nothing At All
Monk’s Dream

Gene Krupa:
Gene’s Blues

Jeff “Tain” Watts:
various short excerpts

Joe Morello:
Sounds of the Loop

Louie Bellson:
Skin Deep

Max Roach:
Blues for Big Sid
Decision
Delilah
Parisian Thoroughfare
The Drum Also Waltzes

Philly Joe Jones:
Blues for Philly Joe
Four
Workout

Roy Haynes:
Matrix
My One and Only Love

Tony Williams:
Nefertiti
All of You
The Theme
Gingerbread Boy
Agitation
several other short excerpts

Billy Higgins:
various excerpts

Ari Hoenig:
I Mean You

Bill Stewart:
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You

Jack DeJohnette:
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
Picture 3

Lewis Nash:
Sounds of Joy

Steve Gadd:
Old Devil Moon
Rock Skippin
Basically Blues

Bob Moses:
In the Fall

So, my question to the more experienced on this forum – can some of you recommend a few from this list (or another if there is a transcription available online), and tell me a little bit about why they stand out to you as being significant in further progressing the art of jazz drumming?

I know there are some of you here that really know your stuff, and any tips I can use on this project are greatly appreciated! I am kind of new to a lot of this, and there are many tracks on that list that I have not even heard, but I’m working at getting better at this stuff. Thanks!


Oh man, this is a HUGE subject. That one list is enough to keep you in the house for weeks!

If I were you I would simplify this subject entirely. There was enough growth in drumming simply to cover the various changes in jazz, let alone specific solos. I'd look at the tranformation of the drumming as time went on and how a few of the greats approached it. From Zutty to Elvin itself is a massive change. Plus I think the way drumming supports the music had more of an effect on what happened later than any particular solo.

Whatever happens, I wish you luck. I'd like to read it!

[Matt]

Thank you guys for all the helpful advice and ideas. My teacher actually gave the class an extra week on this project, and it's due tomorrow morning. Naturally, I took the extra week to do...everything but this! Nothing motivates me to do projects like waiting until the night before to finish them, right?

Anyway, I figured I'd give an update on my choices so far, and post it here in case anyone's got some good advice while I'm putting this together. These are not necessarily in chronological order yet, although I think it's kind of close.

Gene Krupa - Sing Sing Sing - first recorded extended drum solo (?)

Chick Webb - Harlem Congo - solo demonstrates 4-on-the-floor bass throughout, hi-hat is absent, early swing, cowbell and woodblock used (carried over from early drumming styles), good use of rudimental techniques but relatively straight-forward compared to later styles

Louie Bellson - Skin Deep - pioneering the use of two bass drums, although it did not widely catch on in jazz

Art Blakey - This I Dig of You - I'm including this one since I did the transcription myself, which kind of makes me look more knowledgeable than I actually am. :) Constant 2&4 hi-hat throughout, 3-beat phrases that cross barlines

Max Roach - Blues for Big Sid - creative approach to soloing in a way that treats the drums more like a melodic instrument. Max Roach transcriptions are very easy to find, so I'm definitely open to ideas if y'all think there is a more meaningful example of his playing.

Joe Morello - Take Five - Playing and soloing in an odd time signature, very effective use of space in solo

Roy Haynes - Down Home - Okay, I'm thinking of including this one just because a Mr. Dan Piero has already done an excellent job of taking care of the analysis work on this one - I found it here: http://tuneblog.tumblr.com/post/131791299/roy-haynes-solo-transcription-and-analysis. Once again, Roy Haynes transcriptions are easy to find, so I'm open to better suggestions.

Vinnie Colaiuta - Upside Down - My personal favorite drummer (not that I can play anything remotely close to him). I'm using Terry Branam's transcription for this. Terry is a member here, and does an excellent job with transcriptions, which often are used in Modern Drummer, books, and probably other publications I don't know about. This is an example of..well, it's Vinnie Colaiuta. The most obvious thing that sticks out right away is all the quarter note and eighth note quintuplets.

Jeff Hamilton - A Night in Tunisia - Here is an example of a drummer building upon what guys like Max Roach did with melodic drumming, but taking it all the way to the point of literally playing a melody on the drums. I found this great transcription by Mr. Rodrigo Villanueva, with an analysis already done, at http://www.rodrigovillanueva.com/.

So, I think what I've got will work alright. That makes 9 choices. I still have to pick one more. After lots of searching, downloading, and scanning, I've actually got tons more examples saved on my computer. Any suggestions? It can be anything from my original post, or anything else as long as I can find a good transcription, and as long as there is a recording available I can listen to, either on iTunes or a comparable service, or YouTube.

Ken, thanks for categorizing some of those drummers for me. I think that you and DrumEatDrum had a good idea about organizing this that way. I will probably somewhat do it that way. Unfortunately, I had a really hard time ever finding transcriptions of some of the really early drummers that were mentioned, such as Baby Dodds, Zutty Singleton, and Cozy Cole. Most of the rest of those guys are potentially great examples, though.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this. I have a lot of respect for many of you guys on this forum that really have studied seriously for a long time, and are always so willing to help other people out.

[Deltadrummer]

Looks great Matt. I like the overall diversity of drummers while still maintaining a sense of continuity and depth. Adding the Jeff Hamilton is a nice touch, wonderful drummer. I would think about adding the Agitation transcription frmo BBD. Again, John Riley gives you quite a bit of in depth analysis. Tony Williams is a drummer I wouldn't neglect.

[Spadger McTeagle]

Don't forget Buddy Rich

[DrumEatDrum]

I like the new list much more than the old list.

You really spread out the time line from the begging up through today's players.

[Matt]

Thanks everybody! The last selection I added to the list was Elvin Jones' playing from Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum. Here is what I ended up turning in for my project. I know, a lot of the analysis is pretty short and shallow, but like I said, I procrastinated too much. I think I'll get an alright grade, though, since this isn't really a high level class. It's just the introduction to music history class, the first class out of about three that music majors take. It's the only one I need to get my music minor when I graduate (in about a week and a half!).

I only uploaded the written part of the project. I did not include any transcriptions. You can probably find most of these transcriptions by just searching online. However, there were a few that I scanned from Modern Drummer magazines, and many of the rest were taken out of documents that I found online created by other people, and I didn't want to post those up out of respect for the people that put the transcriptions together and published them. I will be happy to help someone find a transcription that I might have, though, if anyone wants to message me privately.

My score excerpt project for Intro to Music History (http://www.box.net/shared/p5tbtafnqp)

[Deltadrummer]

Elvin's always a good addition. Was that in lieu of Roy Haynes?

No matter what you do, there is something that is left out. :)