Monday, October 10, 2016

ARE YOU GLAD TO BE IN AMERICA?


Revelation March- from James Blood Ulmer's- album- "Are You Glad To Be In America". G. Calvin Weston and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums.

 Ronald Shannon Jackson
 James Blood Ulmer
G. Calvin Weston

Still trying to get comfortable with Finale. This is a just  7 measure phrase that repeats 5X.

The year is 1980.

            (PDF)

Two Sevens Clash & Paper Planes

Red Angel Dragnet




The year is 1982.

The band is The Clash.

The city is NYC.

The album is Combat Rock.

The song is Red Angel Dragnet.




The basic beat minus the hi hat embellishment is like a Cha Cha Rockers Reggae.
The intro lick has two interpretations- 16th note triplet or 16th notes starting with a buzz. 
At last my first complete drum transcription: (PDF).

This album is from the early 80's which was chock full of drum centered compositions. This can be traced to a source double album every drummer back then seemed to be influenced by- "Music & Rhythm". Still one of my favorite albums,
In particular Malcolm McLaren was influenced by this album and basically used the Burundi drum recording from this album to template the sound for Bow Wow Wow (why has no one ever transcribed any David Barbarossa beats ?) and Adam & The Ants. But the big beat sound of the early 80's can be heard on all sorts of tracks from that time-Talking Heads, Paul Simon, Big Country, etc,

Going back to The Clash- Combat Rock- this album has many great tracks in the percussion, Music & Rhythm world music vein then in vogue.

M.I.A. channels the same political angst/one love vibe that the Clash did. The Clash track Straight to Hell from Combat rock was sampled by M.I.A. and Diplo and forms the basis for Paper Planes. Diplo must have an affinity for The Clash as witness through his collaboration with Santogold and his Major Lazer work.




Paper Planes drum track:


An interview with Topper Headon from Mike Dolbear.com- click here.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Digable Planets- Rebirth of Slick

1992- Digable Planets- cool like dat

click on pic/then skip add- (sorry its not cool- it's vevo)
 skip the freakin' add!

Here is the drum part:

  (PDF)

Now you must acquire a taste for free form jazz



When Elephants Dream of Music...

Pirote & Lulu from Bob Moses's seminal (1983) release When Elephants Dream of Music. Cover art is Bob's beautiful water painting which also captures the beauty of the artist's musical compositions.



Could not find this track available on YouTube so do yourself a favor and purchase this amazing album. Below is the track "Trevor" also on When Elephants Dream of Music. The compositions are a lush, rich tapestry and may be considered like Gil Evans' work or  Bobby Previte's  (Claude's Late Morning) album from the same time period (1988) as big band music for people that don't like big band (no offense to Buddy Rich). Or a gateway to big band music.


Bob's groove on Picolo & Lulu is a sparse, tight Miles/loft funk insistent rock type beat:

                                                                       (PDF)

Wolrdwide Funk

DeJohnette's- The Ripple Effect (2005)

 

Jack DeJohnette - keyboards, drums, percussion
Ben Surman - keyboards & audio remixer/reimaginer
Foday Musa Suso - kora
John Surman - recorder, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone
Marlui Miranda - vocals

The sparse source version of Worldwide Funk is on the Jack DeJohnette/Foday Musa Suso duo "music from the hearts of the masters" release from 2006.


To my ears this track shows how similar the grooves of Tony Allen and Jack DeJohnette are. For further proof of this check out Tony Allen's amazing drumming on Ernest Ranglin's Modern Answers to Old Problems- on the track Outernational Incident:


Here is Jack DeJohnette's groove:
(PDF)



Sunday, October 2, 2016

More Jack!

Essential mid 1970's classic  Jack DeJohnette goodness.

The year is 1976. The artist is the late great Collin Walcott.




Collin Walcott is probably best know for his work with Oregon and CODONA.

CODONA: CO= Collin Walcott; DO= Don Cherry; NA= Nana Vasconcellos

The passing of percussion great Nana Vasconcellos earlier this year brings a coda to CODONA. Solace is John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette are still alive and well and as creative as ever.

Believe it or not- there is no link available to Cloud Dance on YouTube at this time, so you will just have to do yourself a favor and purchase it. A transcription of the tune is available at the excellent blog JTA- The Jazz Trancript Authority

The drums come into the song late, which  is where the transcription starts. Delicate, crisp and airy DeJohnette.

(PDF)