Getting a sound - A charley Minugs sound!

ryanlikealion

Senior Member
I have played the drums for about 15 years now.

I have recently started playing in a Jazz band - playing free music really. They are going to be recording the music on an amateur film next year and want my drums on it. They have strongley hinted that they are going for a Charley Mingus type sound - and yes i doubt they'll get that.

Im sure i'll have a lot of fun working on jazz techniques etc and improvising but I'm baffled as to what equipment i need to get for this. Any ideas?
 
Well lets see a 14x18 or 20/8x12/14x14 and a 5 or 5.5x14 would cover it nicely. Possibly 6ply maple or 3ply Mahogany(rering) would work well. A 22 ride solid yet wet a 20 with some rivets placed high and a nice pair of 14 would finish it off nicely ofcourse all Turkish brass hahahaha!!! Coated emperiors all the way around and some ambassadors on the bottom. A clean, shinny gloss white reso on the kick with a script saying "Long Life Mingus" would be a great touch. After all he was a great musician, composser, arranger who has never gotten his due especially when the subject turns to bass players. In my opinion he was the best bassists I ever heard, without him the Jaco's and Browns of the world would have been very good but that inventive side from them just might have been different. Check out some of his orchestral charts and you'll realize this mans talents are right there with Duke Ellington and his arraingments rival Fletcher Hendersons.
Mingus could have been his own worse enemy but when he was in his music world he was a talent of extrodinary abilities. Plus, that guy could play some Bass too!!! Doc
 
Any old jazz kit will do- crank the drums, no muffling- and get yourself a big live medium-thin/medium rivet cymbal. This is one of the rare occasions when nylon tipped sticks might be in order- you want kind of a bright, aggressive sound out of the cymbals. Who knows if the producer will even go for it, but that's basically the sound. It's really going to be up to the horns and the writer/arranger to make it "sound Mingus"- you won't be able to do anything with it if they aren't happening. I have a feeling they're going to ask you to play this type of groove or a fast gospel 6/8.
 
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