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.
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:
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:
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.
The artist is Harknox. The year is 1999. The song is Fire Like This:
Full disclosure, this track is featured (probably the best feature) in the film Me, Myself and Irene (view at your own risk)- I will not aid and abet by providing a link or clip. If you want a good laugh I am sure you can do better than this.
The transcription has 32nd notes that should probably be played as single strokes. To make it easier to read I indicated them as double stroke 16th notes.
I promised to post some Beefheartian drum transcriptions and promptly procrastinated. WTF-almost 50 years after Safe as Milk was released, the fist ever posting/publishing of a Beefheart drum transcription, albeit a rough transcription at best. First five measures are the introduction, the last measure is the main rhythm of the song which John French describes as a quasi conga line rhythm derived from the guitar lines. The transcription is from John's demonstration in the "corny/out of context" film Captain Beefheart: Under Review.
