Fred Below: They Didn't Teach Blues Music in School

Scott K Fish

Silver Member
Fred Below: They Didn't Teach Blues Music in School

SKF NOTE: This is another in my series of Modern Drummer backgrounder interviews. I wrote on the transcript that I edited this interview on June 11, 1981 for use in the Blues Drummers segment of my History of Rock Drumming. The interview itself took place around that time, perhaps as soon as the day before I transcribed it.

This is the full transcript, published here for the first time. You can see from the first page alone, shown at the end of this post, how heavily edited was this backgrounder interview.

For me, this was an exciting interview for a couple of reasons. Fred Below had been an inspiration to me for many years. And it was surprising, because it was not stereotypical of blues drummers, to hear Fred Below outline his musical background and his influence in shaping the forms, the phrasing of Chicago blues. That is, Mr. Below was key in moving blues players from "haphazard" odd number phrasing to the standard blues phrasing of 8 bars, 12 bars and so forth.

Enjoy
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Fred Below with Louis and David Myers

Scott K Fish: I know you played a lot with Muddy Waters, Little Walter, The Aces, Howlin' Wolf, and some with Chuck Berry. What kind of an input did you have on thos sessions?

Fred Below: Well, the sessions I did when I came in was in the '50s. The early '50s. I began to work with Little Walter on the records, and then, through.... by me working with Little Walter I was able to meet a lot of the other blues artists. Well, when I entered into the blues I wasn't familiar with the tunes that they were doing.

SKF: You were coming from a jazz background, right?

FB: I was coming strictly from jazz. And so therefore, I had to learn what they were doing. So, I had to learn from just by going around and meeting some of the players like Junior Wells, Dave and Louis Myers. And Louis and David Myers was the ones who taught me how to play the blues.

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Scott K Fish Blog: Life Beyond the Cymbals Click Here to Read Full Fred Below Interview
 
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