Your favorite brush song/player

beefythedrummer

Senior Member
Looking through my favorites on Youtube, I found this video of Steve Gadd I added a looonnngg time ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtX62PAdzQ
Being I'm an uneducated young'n I'll make this the answer to my question of favorite "brush song," because I don't know any others.

So share your favorite players or songs of the brushing persuasion, and if I like it I'll send you a pair of brushes for Christmas lol jk.
 
Anywhere Joe Morello played brushes with Dave Brubeck, is great. Ed Thigpen with Oscar Peterson, there are so many great drummers out there that play brushes. Buddy Rich was a great brush player too, you just had to find the tracks. Ed Shaugnessy, Roy Burns, Louie Bellson. Steve Smith did an amazing brush demonstration on YouTube as well. My list would be too long!
 
It is impossible for me to choose a single song. All I can advise is you check out the jazz catalogue. Great brush players are many and include people such as Shelly Manne, Joe Morello, Sonny Payne, Buddy Rich, Jo Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Jeff Hamilton, Paul Motion, Ed Thigpen, Big Sid Catlett, Peter Erskine, Jimmy Cobb and a myriad other players too many to name.
 
I remember reading Peter Erskine's account of getting a brushes lesson from Philly Joe Jones.

After awhile Erskine asked, "Do I have to hold my hands up like that?"

And Jones said, "Yes, because you have to look pretty when you're playing the brushes."

I don't remember where I read that.

Philly Joe Jones on "Billy Boy," that, to me, is almost the last word in making the brushes sing and swing.
 
Man, just too many to choose from. I guess my favorite would be Louie Bellson, with Max Roach being a close second. Others I really enjoy are: Buddy Rich, Tony Williams, Steve Smith, Elvin Jones, Sonny Payne, Gene Krupa, Joe Morello, and Roy Haynes, just to name a few.

I LOVE listening to a drummer with great brushwork, and I think that brushwork is very much unappreciated these days.
 
Jeff Hamilton is full of win with brushes................ and otherwise but especially brushes

Indeed. That duo of him and Steve Smith doing "Salt Peanuts" is just killer.
 
I really like Gadd.

There are tons of brilliant drummers out there using brushes, I'd love to see a few videos I may not have seen. I saw a really cool one once with Max Roach and just a snare doing brush work.

I agree they are very underused, particularly outside of jazz where they seem to be the most common.
 
I'm a little surprised this thread went this many posts with no mention of Clayton Cameron, the brush MASTER. Jeff Hamilton is an amazing brush player too!
 
These records have some of my favorite brush performances:
McCoy Tyner - Reaching Fourth w/Roy Haynes
Ahmad Jamal - Live at the Pershing w/Vernell Fournier
Miles Davis - Milestones w/Philly Joe Jones
Elvin Jones - The Ultimate
Thelonious Monk - Plays Duke Ellington w/Kenny Clarke

I'm also fond of Joey Baron's brush playing on several Bill Frisell records. And Jeff Hamilton is definitely one of the great living guys for this.
 
this is a really cool video with jeff hamilton and russ miller on the brushes:
http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/russmillerhamilton.html

if you're just getting into brushes now, i would recommend taking a listen to bill evans' "sunday at the village vanguard". paul motian's brushwork here really stood out to me personally, within the jazz cannon.
most of the brush masters are already listed above and it's going to be a long time to be able to enjoy all their recordings, so i suggest the village vanguard as a good start.
 
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