The History and Evolution of Jazz Drumming Willow Castor-Reese

Music always seems to be changing as the progression of time moves forward. New beats, new genres, new grooves, and sounds seem to be added every year. Along with the different known genres of music out there, all of them started from a source and rudimentarily grew over time. In a band, everyone has a role they must play in order for the spirit of music to come alive. Not one band member makes up everything. One can think of the structure of a band in the same way a puzzle set works. It will never be complete and whole if not all the pieces are put together. Each band member is linked together in the music they are creating.

Time is a very important thing in music. It keeps everything flowing regardless of how difficult the time signature in a piece of music may seem. The role of a drummer in a band is responsible for keeping time and without someone to keep things in place, no control may be contained. The drummer is the foundation of control and time in a band, they are the structure support, in the same way a hamburger bun keeps the meat and all the extra tasty things intact.

The drum kit has evolved over the decades starting in the early 1900s. Some people prefer to think it has improved and changed in an improvisatory manner, which means many features of the sit were improved upon which effected the sound of many beats and grooves. For example, there is a feature of most drum kits today known as a, Hi-Hat. It has two small cymbals, one laying on top of each other with a pedal to open and close it towards the bottom. The cymbals rest on a metal pole.

The purpose of the Hi-Hi-hat is to be used as a rhythm keeper. Before Hi-hats were invented, drummers would use wooden percussion blocks and sometimes take use of a Cowbell as well. The role of the drummer fluently changed during the early 1900s. At this time, drummers didnt really play an improvised style until many years later. Jazz has many different sub genres and in the early days of development, drummers mostly just played rhythms that flowed along and matched the music. Fills were not used as much due to the music, which kept drummers on a restriction.

The 1940s saw a small, but dramatic change to jazz drumming. A famous alto saxophonist named, Charlie Parker, one of the main influences on the be-bop movement, introduced a new approach to jazz drummers. During this decade, the role of the drummer changed to being more interactive and melodic with the rest of the musicians. As a side note, Benny Goodman, a famous swing band leader started becoming more recognized with his work in the swing style jazz that was starting to become a more popular type of music. The 1950s and 1960s saw the biggest changes to jazz drummers in terms of playing more melodic and dynamically with their music. Drummers such as Paul Motian of The Bill Evans Trio, Connie Kay of The Modern Jazz Quartet and Sam Woodyard of The Duke Ellington Band were still involved in their time keeping roles, but in a way that allowed them to play more interactively and expressively. Also during this time the music of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, along with others, began to demand that the drummer play a very interactive role in the ensemble, even abandoning the role of time keeper altogether and creating a palette of interactive rhythmic texture, stemming from a place of spontaneous improvisation within the moment, reacting to the overall emotional and musical entity known as Free Jazz, which is now an outdated term used to describe other sub-genres of jazz such as West Coast, Cool, or Jazz-Rock Fusion.

As the 1950s and 1960s approached the rock and jazz fusion slowly began to rise. Bands such as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Cream, The Rolling stones, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Elvis Presley, and many other names, were highly influenced by jazz rhythms and riffs. A lot of guitar rhythms that were used by the Beatles were actually ones of Muddy Waters, a famous blues and jazz artist that made high profile during the 1940s and 1950s. If one wanted to trace back the rock and jazz fusion styles of drumming, it would be a good idea to listen to the drum work of Lenny White, Billy Cobham, Tony Williams, Al Foster. These drummers were well known for their playing style of cooperating the feeling and rhythms of jazz and rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHJXjos0b_0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rorTZyGlLFA

The two links above are of jazz drum solos. The first link directs you to a solo played by Al Foster. The second link directs you to a solo played by Billy Cobham. These two drummers are well known in the jazz drumming world and are famous for their work with jazz-rock fusion. Both of these solos are a good representation of the differences between rock and jazz drumming.

Rock drumming is very different from jazz drumming in many acute senses that many people seem to unaware of if not listened and studied closely. Rock is a very driven and intense style of music. Drumming in rock tends to be loud and very forward. A lot of rock drum beats is a combination of the bass drum and snare drum. The bass drum sound tends to be loud because of its qualities of size, which allows for a deep and low sound. This complements the snare drum sound, allowing for a very rough and driven sounding groove Jazz drumming is a style that is very laid back. Its the completely opposite of rock drumming in terms of fundamentals including sound, groove, speed. Jazz drum beats are focused on the complementing between the hi-hat and ride cymbal. One would rarely hear much of a bass drum being played because it produces a very loud and low sound, which normally is not a style heard much in jazz. The brass section of the drum-kit, referring to the ride and crash cymbals, is the driver of jazz drumming. The snare drum and bass drum are played as well, but not as much. Theyre added to the playing more so in a quieter way. A typical jazz drum-set tends to be rather small with very little add on pieces. A standard kit will compose of a bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, one crash cymbal, one ride cymbal, floor tom, and rack tom.

This picture is what a typical jazz drum set will look like. That is a fourpiece drum set, which is referring to the bass drum, floor tom, rack tom, and snare drum.

In jazz drumming, its rather common to see a drummer playing with brush sticks. A brush can produce staccato and legato sounds which is normally played quietly, which jazz drumming tends to be played in a mellowed down tone. A drummer will normally use two brushes, but different combinations of sticks can be used, such as a simple drum stick in one hand and with a brush in the left or hand. The right brush is controlled with a combination of wrist and fingers, with all four fingers remaining on the handle. To produce a sound, you must lift the fan off the head, since a brush will not rebound like a stick. For left-hand traditional grip, the index and middle fingers are positioned on top of the brush handle, while the ring finger acts as a bumper underneath. The fingers stay in contact with the handle at all times.

The fundamentals of jazz drumming have not taken a dramatic change in terms of following the basic principles. It differs so much in style from other style of drumming with the idea of using different pieces of a drum-kit to guide the music being played. Cymbal work is more expected of drummers because of how well it complements the bass players tone and rhythm.

Bibliography and Sources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le0vF0AznOw Jazz Drumming Instructional Video

http://www.pd.org/topos/perforations/perf25/drumming.html http://www.pas.org/experience/oralhistory/mellewis.aspx Radio Interview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_drumming http://www.nationaljazzworkshop.org/freematerials/fidyk/Steve_Fidyk_History_ Drum_Set.pdf