Here's something to watch
Now I'm NOT talking about watching it for technique - but he's covering the purpose there ..how it's an integrative approach -i'ts bridging with other instrumentation
you have history laying keys...right?
remember when everyone was working on synthesizing rhodes sounds and one of the things they had to account for (and cheesier patches didn't do right) was the hammer sound?
it's sort of like that.
I'm not saying that's the only function by a long shot, but it's just an example of the way drums integrate.
It's really orchestration
I think a lot of harmonic concepts can be translated rhythmically
like OK, say you are playing homophonically to make big, declarative chords everyone is on it, not adding harmonies and playing right on the triad - that's sort of like playing right on the beat...linear clear, this is what's happening
vs, say in a fugue where you WANT the voices to be more interpreted as independent melodic lines that evolve a harmony (which a lot of organists will kind of mess up if they panic and start "reading vertically")
Then ther are times when you might be filling in little spaces to add a sense of dynamics and motion...kind of like the Bach ornaments (I mean that's really literal, you know that whole school of thought that the ornaments fill in for dynamics on pre-pianoforte clavier)
of like tritone subs..you know how there's that sort of anti-theory simplifying approach you hear sometimes like "the tritone is the whole point, the rest is window dressing" - so maybe you have 4 bars where there's a certain feel/theme like a military march, or maybe a samba or whatever where you need to get to that snare roll or keep the clave but you can color it however as long as you maintain the markers for that theme
even in repertoire..like think about how the string section is playing the same notes every string section is playing, but 1st chair sets the bowing to interpret the music against the total orchestration (I need a sharp attack here b/c this is where the exposition is, I've got to pull back on a strong downstroke here to stay off the legato horns)
So I mean listen to the technicals I guess - that's not for me to say
but then also make sure to put that down and listen to the musicality - jazz is super-interactive.
(I have a love-hate with recorded Jazz. I mean it gives us access to some seriously historic performances, but for me , it's still just sort of shadows in a Platonic cave -- and again, this is for me YMMV but I find it a live music and when it's really rolling the ensemble isn't just intracting with the bandmates but with the audience too. I always think it's funny when a bass player throw in a musical pun, quotes something from a different context..and they notice that you notice and they start playing AT you..."OK, OK, but do know this one?" or they pull some deceptive cadence that makes your jaw drop and you go "oh man I never expected you to resolve to THAT - I just didn't see that coming" and they feel the audience do that and they just bloom it back in as they bring you home to the theme.
I mean that's like real concrete, literal broadbrush interactions, but I find it happens a lot in lot less concrete fashion - "vibe" "energy" I hate using those words b/c they can come off trite, but it's kind of really a thing too
eh, anyway , that was some serious word vomit bullshit - maybe I should drink some wine and make up a bunch of descriptions about tannins and whatnot "it's fruity and playful, yet not ostentatious. I'm getting notes of old leather boot, warm Coors and...and...ah....my older brother's armpit from when he would headlock me as a child")