M
Matt Bo Eder
Guest
This reminds me of being invited to "jam" by a guitarist. And they play eight measure of a blues riff then go off on a guitar solo over your drumming. Nothing sounds dumber to me than this scenario.
"Serving the song" is great, but there is also an aspect of servitude to it. Sometimes people will praise you for playing simply because it makes them look good, and gives them more room to express themselves. I'm not a huge fan of that attitude. It's like "know your place, drummer, and that place is making me sound as good as possible."
I think a "jam" is a different situation compared to working in a cover band getting paid to provide the hits for the clientele. But I would think it probably sounds just as bad if everybody were taking a solo at the same time, which I guess that's why they call it a jam. But the idea of the jam is to meet other musicians and potentially network for future gigs, so if you as a drummer don't at least correctly demonstrate your true role to the music, then you could be stuck in jam situations for a long time, no?