Davo-London
Gold Member
Why oh why do Jazz drummers feel obligated to spend an entire performance trying to obscure where the beat is?
I saw Brad Mehldau last night. Brad was absolutely wonderful. His bassist was rock solid. His drummer was awful. I mean mind-numbingly, painfully, drive-you-up-the-wall awful.
At every opportunity he would break the beat, he would do polyrhythms, he would stop for a crotchet on beat 2 and come in on beat 3 giving the impression he was at the beginning of a bar. He would play the bass drum like it was snare, maybe hitting the bass drum12 times/bar - this was at such a low volume thankfully you couldn't hear it. He had three rides, 2 of which sounded like trash cans and the bell sounded like a tin box. He played with plastic brushes, which were dull and didn't create that atypical sound.
But the biggest crime of all was at a peak of a song, with the keys and bass at full tilt, he didn't join in - content to just playing counter-beats and forever changing the tones so that there was never ever a sense of groove.
This should be made a criminal offence.
Davo
I saw Brad Mehldau last night. Brad was absolutely wonderful. His bassist was rock solid. His drummer was awful. I mean mind-numbingly, painfully, drive-you-up-the-wall awful.
At every opportunity he would break the beat, he would do polyrhythms, he would stop for a crotchet on beat 2 and come in on beat 3 giving the impression he was at the beginning of a bar. He would play the bass drum like it was snare, maybe hitting the bass drum12 times/bar - this was at such a low volume thankfully you couldn't hear it. He had three rides, 2 of which sounded like trash cans and the bell sounded like a tin box. He played with plastic brushes, which were dull and didn't create that atypical sound.
But the biggest crime of all was at a peak of a song, with the keys and bass at full tilt, he didn't join in - content to just playing counter-beats and forever changing the tones so that there was never ever a sense of groove.
This should be made a criminal offence.
Davo