RIP Ndugu Chancler

Living Dead Drummer

Platinum Member
I was just informed about the passing of my friend Ndugu Chancler. He and I met at a NAMM show some 4 or 5 years back. We quickly became friends and started having regular social meetings over coffee.

As a musician who's worked more than half his life at getting "the big prize" I've become a bit jaded. Therefor I've had very few "religious experiences" when watching others perform. One of these moments came the first time I watched Ndugu play. It was one specific moment at a privet event. While performing with a trio, he did a drum fill. But it wasn't a fill. It was nothing. It was a pause in the song, when he simply accentuated a one bar rest. Yet in my head I heard a flurry of notes around the drums that wasn't really being played. It was the most emotional thing I'd ever felt watching another drummer.

I'm sorry to see you leave, but glad to have called you my friend.
 
Damn it. One of my biggest heroes. I've been listening to him and writing a lot about him in the last couple of years.

A couple of great quotes from him from his '83 MD interview:

I think the most important thing is your attitude. There were, and still are, a lot of musicians who have more technique than I have, or more talent. But inside the talent is a way of not only knowing how to manipulate it through the ranks to get the maximum out of it, but there is also an attitude that you must project to make people feel you as a person. I very much wanted to get along with everybody, and wanted to add as much as I could to whatever situation.

And:

I think a drummer's success and notability are based on sensitivity as a musician—not as a drummer. I don't even approach myself as a drummer. I'm an orchestrator. The drums are just the instrument I use to orchestrate—paint the picture.

It is very important that you don't lull the people to sleep with one volume or one style. I think the great drummers are the ones who can give you peaks and valleys in their performance. That's very important. Dynamically we're playing an instrument that naturally can be played loud and hard, but the beauty of the instrument is when it's played soft. Just as you can get your point across loud, you can get it across more so soft because you can draw more attention, number one. Number two, dynamics and accentuations are part of music, period. For drummers to think that they can't do that means that they're not total musicians.

It's very important for drummers to vary not only their speed concept, but their volume concept, because those things are synonymous. If you play everything fast— your fill-ins, your beats, a lot of intricate things— you don't give the people time to breathe. If you play everything loud you don't give their ears rest from the volume, so you slowly numb people to what you're doing, which is unfair. So I think that's half of being a drummer. We're not at a point where anybody's playing anything so drastically different. It's just that the style they're using is different. That's all.
 
Thats beautiful Living Dead, just beautiful. Rest in peace Ndugu Chancler. I remember watching a clinic he did and 'getting him' more than I ever had before. I remember being amazingly impressed by his groove. This was back when I was far more into chops than a gorgeous groove. I thank him for helping expand my horizons.
 
Oh for f's sake. Ugh.

Thanks for sharing your story Nick. I reckon LA's a tough place to get a piece of the pie and I imagine his friendship meant the world.

The man was GROOVE AF.

RIP

*Thanks for the quotes Todd.
 
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I finally got to meet the man and we talked about my first clinic I saw with him over 30 years ago and he remembered it. It was an honor to get to finally speak with him. RIP Ndugu.
 
Most probably know by now but in case you don't, Ndugu's passing has been confirmed.

I wanted to return to this thread to cite one of my favorite Ndugu performances, Weather Report's Tale Spinning'. The story is that Joe Zawinul hired him for a session after hearing him play with Carlos Santana. That "session" ended up lasting a week and produced the aforementioned album.

Check out Man in the Green Shirt. I love the flow he creates with percussionist Alyrio Lima, in typical WR fashion.
 
Yeah that was awesome Spleeeen, hadn't heard that before...comes in blazing right from the go!! Rest in peace
 
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