The Jazz Drummers Workshop
Socorro Henson
"I think it's the same, in all music played by all humans," said jazz drummer Cedric Easton, who works at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York and who gave several workshops on rhythm at Creative Strings Workshop, a six-day improvisation workshop that I attended last week in Columbus, Ohio. Though harmony and melody tend to get all the attention, rhythm goes to the heart of any kind of music.
"If there is anything that would help you play others styles of music, it's rhythm," Cedric said. And what can help give us good rhythm? Cedric gave us a number of basic concepts, talked about the evolution of rhythm in jazz, referred us to some good resources for learning and teaching better rhythm and then led us in some simple exercises meant to help us feel the rhythm.
In fact, the best way to improve rhythm in an ensemble is not for everyone to try to follow one another. Instead, its individual members should work to hone their own sense of rhythm and beat, and to be 100 percent accountable, he said. "Deal with you, and by default it will affect the group," he said. It is important for every member of a group to rely on their own sense of the beat, not depend on others, because in order to relate to something, you have to be firmly planted.
Drummers tend to be very thorough with their fundamental metronome work, he said; in fact, some listen to a metronome on in their earphones instead of music, so they can instantly replicate particular tempos (120 beats per minute! etc.). (Remember Whiplash?)
Some of the books that drummers use to perfect their rhythm can be useful for any kind of musician. Here are the books and methods that Cedric suggested: Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer by Ted Reed; and Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments by Louis Bellson, which looks at swing rhythms. "If you understand swing, you will understand American music," Cedric said. He also mentioned the classic for drummers: Essential Rudiments (the first 13 are the original ones, and the most important to master, he said).
Our ultimate aim is to "be together" or to have a "tight band," but in Cedric's estimation, that doesn't always mean being completely together. He doesn't like to refer to something being "before" or "after" the beat, or as "rushing or "dragging." Instead, he thinks about the distance between beats. "I perceive a beat as very wide; I'm playing somewhere within it."
To prove this point, Cedric had us try a simple exercise. Using a four-beat measure, Cedric told us to clap on only certain beats for several measures, for example, beat three. Then he gave us the beat, and our job was to internalize it, and clap just on those beats he mentioned. What happened? Well here is the video:
Apparently this is what happens with most audiences: people put about the right amount of space in between beats, but they place the beats in slightly different places. "Everyone interprets time slightly differently," Cedric said. He introduced us to the idea of "flam," which is an actual drum rudiment that involves an almost imperceptibly fast grace note before a beat, but which he was using to describe that effect: when a group musicians each place the beat slightly differently.
The same thing happens even in a lot of well-respected jazz: the beats don't always line up perfectly.
Cedric said that, before quantized music, a little bit of that "flam" effect was okay. Being so immersed in acoustic music, I actually did not know the term "quantized," so Cedric explained: when music is "quantized," a band's recording is digitally revised to put everything exactly on the beat, as auto-tune does for pitch. In essence, it's auto-tune for rhythm. Popular songs started being quantized in 1979. Recordings "from Jelly Roll Morton through 1979," as Cedric put it, were not quantized, and that "flam" effect is almost always perceptible.
Another exercise he had us try was simply to listen to a piece of music and lightly clap the rhythm of the melody. Sounds simple enough, until you try it! Here is the melody he gave us (find the tune at 1:19):
After clapping the melody, try clapping the the bass, then the drum. Incidentally, clapping to the melody is a pretty fun way to learn -- "Now I'm practicing, and I'm enjoying something at the same time!" he said.
We ended the session with a few different exercises for feeling the beat, which are in the video below. The first exercise has to do with feeling the tension between the elements of three and two in a 6/8 time signature. In the second, students simply had to walk to the beat of the music that was playing, and then listen and repeat the rhythms that Cedric clapped. You are welcome to try both exercises along with the video:
July 9, 2017 at 12:55 PM This post was a delight to read. In most standard jazz groupings the tempo comes from the bass player, not the drummer. The drummer does, of course, contribute significantly to rhythmic "feel." In addition, a lot of gig venues (e.g., restaurants) do not allow drummers at all because they take up too much space and they're considered too loud, and the owners have had one too many complaints about drum solos. Unfortunately, on the "semi-pro" (i.e., amateur/hobbyist) jazz scene, bass players often tend to be among the most self-taught and often you can tell they have not put in the effort with the metronome. It's rather frustrating actually.
July 11, 2017 at 10:26 PM Everything that Cedric said also struck me as true for orchestral playing -- everyone in the orchestra must take responsibility for every beat, for counting everything. It's not actually the conductor that creates good rhythm, tho the conductor is certainly a factor.
Tony Moreno is a remarkable musician and human being. His brand new release Short Stories (Mayimba Jazz) is a testament to the will of the human spirit. As you will hear, the drummer lost his studio, drums, music, memorabilia from his mother the accomplished pianist, harpist and ethnomusicologist Nina Dunkel Moreno in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Through an outpouring of love from fellow musicians and friends, a keyboard was the beginning to the drummer resuming his career in music and the all new compositions throughout the striking double album feature a core band of fellow NYJW faculty members trumpeter Ron Horton, saxophonist Marc Mommaas, pianist Jean- Michel Pilc and Ugonna Okegwo on bass.
During the course of an hour long conversation I discuss with the drummer the influence of his mother, the new album, his mentor and father figure Elvin Jones, jazz drummers on the scene today and jazz education. Special thanks to Antje Hubner of Hubtone PR for coordinating this interview.
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The quintet for the Andy Milne and New Friends concert featured pianist and lead composer/arranger Andy Milne, drummer/percussionist Tupac Mantilla, trumpeter Mike Olmos, bassist Todd Sickafoose and saxophonist Ben Flocks. All ensemble members were also faculty, having varying teaching commitments in the Workshop throughout the three weeks.
The SJW Mentor Fellows concert was the culmination of their two years at the Workshop. The SJW Mentor Fellows Program is a highly selective two-year immersion program that includes the duties of teaching, playing regularly, facilitating jam sessions and workshop activities, and more. Past Mentor Fellows have blossomed into invaluable new players and teachers on the jazz scene.
For campers and faculty, this night was one last hoorah for the Mentor Fellows. The whole night, you could see campers hanging on every note with the enthusiasm of a home team in the bleachers. The Mentor Fellows had quickly become their heroes, and those heroes were now graduating and moving on to fulfill their undoubtedly promising careers.
The Workshop kids benefited enormously from this kind of immersive community. It was incredible to see the sheer access they had to faculty and Festival guests and, moreover, how much the faculty, Mentor Fellows and Festival guests encouraged campers to come learn, listen and jam themselves.
By the time of the Friday Jazz Camp Showcases, some of the campers performed their allotted 10-minute performances with an energy that could catch your attention like a Festival performance. That is, some of these kids could really play. And watching them could be scary.
Still, though, competition did not seem to be the point of all the superlatives and awards. The vibe was more along the lines of mutual acknowledgement and celebration. Surely enough, campers still applauded thunderously for each other in peer categories, whether they won something or not.
The first two weeks, faculty members facilitated Faculty Jam Sessions at the CoHo stage from Monday through Thursday night, to which faculty, students and even Festival headliners jumped right into the fun. Sometimes the stage was so crowded with musicians, microphones and instruments that it seemed impossible to navigate. Nonetheless, they remained shoulder-to-shoulder, fervent with energy to play and listen. For three weeks, this space was theirs and they were theirs. As Workshoppers faced out from the amber curtain held up by SJW/F lanyards, people flocked at either entrance of the CoHo to hear them jam, not leaving until midnight.
I will help you achieve your drumming goals, beginning by working on music of your choosing. Learning your favorite songs can be a great way to start to understand the instrument. However, I also stress the importance of learning all aspects of the drums. I think that this quote from Tony Williams, who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, is significant: