LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - MAX ROACH

Max Roach is considered one of the pioneers of bebop, that great phase in jazz where the groups were small and the tempos were blistering. Max was known for being a melodic drummer, who had tight control and a very listenable soloing style. He was also great at creating a little motif, or idea, and really running with it and developing it.

Roach was one of the first drummers to move away from the constant drone of the 4/4 groove on the bass drum, and moved that time to the ride cymbal. This allowed the other players to be a lot more flexible in their playing. Roach helped make drumming music and not just time. The drum set became a complete musical instrument, capable of  expressing the full range of human emotion.

Here's a great video showing how he creates little motifs and develops them throughout the solo. Great stuff! Enjoy almost 11 minutes of Max Roach soloing:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - PAPA JO JONES

Also known as Jonathan David Samuel Jones, he was one of the most influential jazz drummers ever. He was an influence to great drummers like Buddy Rich. Here he is:

He joined one of the most influential big bands ever, Count Basie's big band, in 1933, and stayed with that band until 1948. He was one of the first drummers to promote the use of brushes on the kit, which I also think is a great thing. If you have a tendency to disregard playing with brushes, don't! You are missing out on a whole other huge way of expressing yourself on the kit.

He also was instrumental in getting away from the march-like four on the floor with the bass drum, and moving toward syncopated work on the cymbals. He also used the suspended cymbals, which came to be known as the ride cymbal, and he was instrumental in developing that great ride cymbal jazz pattern, which is still in use today!

Let's take a listen to some of Papa Jo's great drumming:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - BUDDY RICH

What else can I say of Buddy Rich other than he was a complete beast on the drums. Many drummers today are still trying to figure out some of his licks. This is a guy who started playing the drums at 18 months old in vaudeville shows. I don't know how much an 18 month old can do on drums, but it is safe to say that he began playing drums relentlessly from that age, and his eventual chops prove it.

Buddy was mostly a big band drummer, and his style was based in power, although he had incredible dexterity, touch, endurance, groove and technique. Basically, he had it all. There is an album called Krupa vs. Rich where they engage in a number of drum solo battles. I can always tell when Rich is playing, because there is such clarity, precision and technique. Words are not the best way to describe Mr. Rich...have your mind blown by watching this:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING

I'm going to start a small blog series on the legends of jazz drumming, starting in chronological order. One of the early greats of jazz drumming was Gene Krupa... this guy...

Gene had a highly energetic and flamboyant style, as you can kind of tell from this photo. He was mainly known as a big band drummer. Some people credit Mr. Krupa with inventing the 'rim shot,' which means hitting the rim of the drum and the drum head at the same time.

Krupa was part of another innovation: he played Slingerland Drums for quite a while, and urged the company to produce tom drums with tunable top and bottom heads, which are still a standard drum set component.

Now, let's take a little look at Gene's flamboyant drumming:

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Tim Kurteff-Schatz