Pollyanna
Platinum Member
Mrmike said:This just re-affirms just how great someone like Bill Bruford is. One of the few to make the cross over from rock to jazz convincingly.
I admit bias because BB is a big fave of mine but it took Bill Bruford years to be broadly accepted by the jazz world, probably not helped by his penchant for doing imaginative, kooky things like playing electronic drums as a melodic instrument in jazz tunes Whatever, Bill was never keen on fitting too cleanly into genre because his interest lay mostly in the areas lying between jazz and rock, tho not the standard fusion style.
Bill always tended to have a light touch for a rock drummer and his strokes got lower and lower as his career progresses (his mic'ing must have been excellent) so there was probably less of a jump to jazz than for Neil.
I have nothing against him personally, but I think everyone is right on the money about his inability to swing. Some folks just can't.
If Neil can achieve what he did in the video without a lot of experience, I suspect that with practice he'd be fine - he's a monster. Do you feel than anyone can swing if they put in the listening and playing time? Or is there something intrinsic within people that decides their swinging potential? My guess is that the answer is both.