I forget the exact context, but Pound once speculated that if the rhythm was good enough, drums were enough by themselves. No other music needed. But then Pound also declared that he believed in absolute rhythm, whatever that was.
Carrol
On 10/24/2011 11:44 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
> Drummers are always a pain in the ass. They tend to fuck up, or control
> most music. They play loud to drown out other players, they dominant
> what they shouldn't and their solos tend to the asshole-spirit. Drummers
> need Stalinist containment by brut force. Nearly every band leader knows
> this...as you can tell if you really listen to the records. Duke
> Ellington, Count Basie, the bebop crews, the cool crew, even big John,
> who moved the beat to the massed piano of McCoy Tyner rather than Roy
> Haynes.
>
> Every once in a while you have to go over to the drummer and hit them in
> the head with a baseball bat. Shut the fuck up.
>
> The classic example is Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Blakey ran it
> like a military combat troop. I love Blakey, but really man, back the
> fuck off. Jazz isn't drum hammers. It's brushes with an occasional kick,
> dock, dick like Philly Jones. Get it? What Miles did was threaten to
> kill the drummer and thereby invented the Cool.
>
> On the other hand, what made Compared to What, depended on the clock
> work tic toc of the drummer like machine clicks. Beautiful.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzvlivbptXk
>
> Every Sunday in lower Sproul the drummers hammered away where I could
> hear them three blocks away and be reassured Berkeley was still Berkeley.
>
> Every family wouldn't be complete without the assholes. Trust me, they
> are used to abuse.
>
> In my view drummers are a personality disorder symptomatic of hearing
> loss. They live in the beat and that is their psychosis. I do
> understand, it's the time of existance throbbing in the mind, hammering
> away at the universe. But enough is enough. Dude.
>
> Here is Charles Mingus, Moanin':
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__OSyznVDOY
>
> Capital as The City of Frenzy.
>
> CG
>
>
>
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