Issue No. 11: Generations of the BEAT

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Letter from the Editor

We live in a very fortunate time to have so many generations as well as so many different subsets of drummers with us today. From the traditionalists to the producers who chop them up (and some who do it all) we are extremely excited to delve into the Generations of the BEAT with insightful discussion from musicologists, the musicians who rely on these drummers, and the drummers themselves.

Elvin Jones once relayed to Rick Mattingly in his book The Drummer’s Time: Conversations With the Great Jazz Drummers that, “We live in a world where everything is categorized and locked up into little bitty compartments. But I have to insist that the drumset is one. This is the way it should be approached and studied and listened to, and all of the basic philosophies should be from that premise. If you learn it piecemeal, that’s the way you’re going to play it. You have to learn it in total.”

As such we will be looking at the history of drummers and the generations of the beat as just that — one lineage branching off in countless directions. Be sure to engage with us along this journey as we will be coming at you from many different angles including live performances, interviews, analyses, and more. We look forward to seeing you out at the shows and discussing with us online!

Eric Sandler (@ericsandler)
Editor-In-Chief @ The Revivalist
eric@revivalistmusic.com

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Issue No. 11: Generations of the BEAT

*This list will be updated with every new article in the issue, so bookmark this page to come back and check for new articles often!

Billy Hart is Building a Rhythmic Foundation

Feature Article

It’s alright if you don’t know the name “Billy Hart,” because at the end of the day, you’re still one of his biggest fans. No one plays the corner quite like Hart—having built the rhythmic foundations to some of jazz most important records. His discography reads like a sacred text, reciting the names of the great prophets at each turn. Before finding himself in the booth properly, he was already performing with Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Jimmy Smith, and Wes Montgomery, all in the confines of his Washington, D.C. enclave. But as soon as he began to record, he never stopped, amassing one of the most prolific portfolios in music history…READ MORE

Andrew Cyrille & Cecil Taylor Break Free of Structure

Feature Article

In the 1950s, the 11-year-old Cyrille began playing the drums on a whim, volunteering to join a drum bugle corps in Brooklyn. Cyrille and the corps played at dances and parties around town, in the heyday of bebop music, which seemed to consume everyone. He studied classic jazz musicians such as tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, trumpeter Kenny Dorham, and pianist George Shearing, and swing and big band musicians like drummer Gene Krupa and tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins…READ MORE

Documentary: Different Drummer: Elvin Jones

Feature Media

Before we delve into Elvin Jones’ life and career from a musicologist’s standpoint, it is important (when available) to hear from these musicians themselves and those they worked with. Luckily in the case of prolific drummer Elvin Jones, film producer and director Ed Gray decided to make a documentary entitled Different Drummer: Elvin Jones in 1979 for PBS…READ MORE

Lenny White’s Early Definitive Recordings: Bitches Brew & Red Clay

Feature Article 

Few drummers so strongly represent a time in music more so than New York City native Lenny White. Coming out of Jamaica, Queens by 18, the left-handed drummer was picked up by serial bandleader and educator Jackie McLean with whom he gained his initial chops. Within two years White had already got the call to record the formative Miles Davis album Bitches Brew — alongside fellow drummer Jack DeJohnette — a record that would go on to become a staple of the jazz canon and ultimately jumpstart White’s fusion of jazz and rock, a style that he would come to help define…READ MORE

Mark Whitfield Jr.: Internalizing the BEAT

Feature Interview

Mark Whitfield Jr. comes from a dynasty of incredible musicianship and that has most certainly left a mark on his life as a musician. Beginning on the drums before even he could remember, Whitfield Jr. grew up shuffling around gigs with his father always eager to hop on stage and hold down the beat. Mark will be at theGenerations of the BEAT Festival with his quartet for the first time on March 24^th and he’s turning 23 that day too! Check out what he had to say about the upcoming festival, advice for developing drummers, and his experience growing up in a musical dynasty…READ MORE

Michael Feinberg PresentsThe Elvin Jones Project ft. Billy Hart

Feature Interview

If you get into a room with some of the most amazing drummers alive, who is the luckiest person in the place? I’d say the bass players for one and that is exactly where Michael Feinberg will find himself this weekend at the Generations of the BEAT Festival. Leading a project of his own origination in tribute to the late-great Elvin Jones is one feat, but Feinberg didn’t stop there. Bringing in one of the baddest drummers alive in Billy Hart has proved to bring the Elvin Jones Project to a whole new level…READ MORE

Lenny White: A Kaleidoscope of Music

Feature Interview

Before there was this obsession with jazz and hip-hop, there was a different intersection of music happening on the streets on New York, LA, and other cities around the nation. 24 hours after Jimi Hendrix played his first notes at Woodstock, Miles Davis called his musicians — Lenny White included — into the studio for what would become the ‘Bitches Brew’ sessions and that would be the beginning of a sound and approach to music that White would come to define. The marriage of these rock and jazz aesthetics brought us groups like Return to Forever, Tony Williams’ Lifetime Band, and many more innovative groups and recordings. Read along as we delve into the roots of this style, White’s impact on the history, and where he sees the music going today…READ MORE

Getting Personal with Jeff “Tain” Watts

Feature Interview

A veteran of both the music and film worlds, Jeff “Tain” Watts is one of the most renowned drummers playing today based on both the scope and quality of his work. Appearing on literally every Grammy-winning record won by both Branford and Wynton Marsalis set him aside as one of the best, but for Watts that was only the beginning. We got Jeff to take some time away from his busy schedule preparing for the Generations of the BEAT Festival to discuss his role in Spike Lee’s ‘Mo’ Better Blues,’ his role as both a sideman and bandleader, as well as getting down with some of his Pittsburgh pride. Read the interview and check him out on Saturday at the festival!..READ MORE

E.J. Strickland: A Different Energy

Feature Interview

E.J. Strickland will be bringing his dynamic quintet to the Generations of the BEAT Festival for a set that is sure to bring the heat. We caught up with Strickland to discuss his unique development as a musician, his various methods of composition, and more. Be sure to catch the E.J. Strickland Quintet at 8pm on Day 1 of our drummer festival this Saturday 3/23/13…READ MORE

Terri Lyne Carrington Presents Money Jungle at Dizzy’s

Feature Interview

Fresh off of her Grammy-award winning ‘Mosaic Project,’ Terri Lyne Carrington went straight back into the studio to create another project of equal quality and substance. ‘Money Jungle’ was originally recorded in 1962 by Duke Ellington, Max Roach, and Charles Mingus. Just over 50 years later Carrington brings back the raw tension evoked by Ellington, Roach, and Mingus with her own trio filled out by Christian McBride and Gerald Clayton and featuring additional guests Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Tia Fuller, and more…READ MORE

Milford Graves: Music, Medicine, & More

Feature Media

Milford Graves may not be a name that you recognize, but Graves is most certainly a force to be reckoned with if you’re involved in music medicine, therapy, education, or any number of combinations. Graves is known by any number of names and sounds including the “jazz scientist,” (for his work as an acupuncturist, herbalist, martial artist, and music therapist), Professor Graves (for his longtime teaching position at Bennington College), and the drummer with Miriam Makeba, the New York Art Quartet, Sun Ra, Paul Bley, and many more…READ MORE

Marvin Gaye: A Funk Brother Alum?

Feature Article

If it weren’t for playing the drums, you may have never heard of the name Marvin Gaye — well, at least maybe not as prolifically on Motown at least. In the early years of Motown Gaye had lost himself as a frustrated student, armed serviceman, dishwasher, and vocalist. By 1959, Marvin was recording as a part of Harvey and the Moonglows on Chess Records, but the group quickly disbanded with Harvey Fuqua and Marvin moving to Detroit to work with Gwen Gordy at Anna Records. While Fuqua continued to write songs, Marvin continued to sing while also being employed for a time at the label as a janitor and office organizer…READ MORE

Stevie Wonder: “The Greatest Drummer Of Our Time?”

Feature Article

Stevie Wonder is the prototype of the modern day one-man-band. From Shuggie Otis to Prince to Lenny Kravitz to D’Angelo, the 22 time Grammy Award winner is the zenith of celestial DIY music. From 1971’sWhere I’m Coming From to 2005’s A Time 2 Love, Wonder has written, produced, arranged and played nearly every instrument on every song, with very few exceptions. While a majority of those instruments are an assortment of keyboards and synthesizers, Wonder’s prowess on the drums is especially unique…READ MORE

Tony Williams: Live From 1971 & 1972

Feature Article

By the late-1960s Tony Williams was widely regarded as a pioneer among drummers. Interested in exploring more of his own influences and ideas in addition to the Sly Stone, Jimmy Hendrix, and James Brown aesthetic that Miles Davis was exploring at the time (circa 1969), Williams left the Second Great Quintet to put together his own group, The Tony Williams Lifetime. Rounding out Lifetime — or the “organ trio on steroids” as Lenny White describes it — were John McLaughlin on electric guitar and Larry Young on organ, both of whom were equally as innovative with their own instruments and compositions as Williams was with the drums (though this lineup would change numerous times over the years)…READ MORE

Hans Schuman Preserves & Accelerates with JazzReach

Feature Interview

As Founder and Executive-Artistic Director of JazzReach, Hans Schuman has been the man behind educational programs in over 75 communities since the organization’s inception. Dedicated to the promotion, performance, creation and teaching of jazz music by way of “widely acclaimed live multi-media educational programs for young audiences, captivating main-stage concerts for general audiences and informative clinics and master-classes for student musicians and ensembles,” JazzReach has become a staple of the jazz community supported by both fans and artists alike. This Sunday 4/14/13, Chris Dave and the Drumhedz will be performing a benefit concert for JazzReach at the Highline Ballroom. Check out more about the concert and cause below as we discuss with Schuman…READ MORE

Kendrick Scott: In Command, Out of Control

Feature Interview

With Kendrick Scott’s latest Oracle record, ‘Conviction,’ topping the charts and making its way into iPods and computers around the world, we took some time to discuss the implications behind the meaning of the record as well as Kendrick’s entire perception of the drums as an instrument and more. Take a listen to the record, check out some of insight below, and grab yourself a copy today!..READ MORE

“Papa” Jo Jones & The All-American Rhythm Section

Feature Article

Coming into prominence in the Big Band era of jazz, “Papa” Jo Jones, as he was known, was a timekeeper at heart. Locked in with guitarist Freddie Green and bassist Walter Page, they were collectively considered the “All American Rhythm Section.” Joining Count Basie’s band around 1934 and staying with him until 1948 (with a 2-year hiatus in between with the military), Papa Jo imparted a legacy that would resound long after his passing making him a key influence for drummers today…READ MORE

Chris Dave & The Drumhedz Live at the Highline Ballroom

Feature Review

When looking at the stage at Manhattan’s Highline Ballroom, you can see Chris “Daddy” Dave’s drum kit shining from a distance. There are only two people on Earth that can be identified simply by observing the drum kit and nothing else: one is Neil Peart of Rush, and the other is Dave. His kit was more of a rhythm laboratory, adorned with four snares, a hi-hat with holes covered with a tambourine, spiraled crashes, bongos and a suspended floor tom…READ MORE

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