Developing musical solo ideas.
Sooner or later as you develop as a big band player you will almost certainly be required to demonstrate your ability as a soloist.
In a previous edition we talked about using fills to set up the horn figures, but the time will come when you look at the chart and you’ll see the words, ‘Solo 4 bars’, ‘Solo 8 bars’, maybe even ‘Solo 32 bars’ and possibly the biggest challenge of them all ‘Open solo’. So where to start? What to do? What you can’t do is merely keep the groove going and add a few more fills than usual. Whereas this might suffice in other forms of music in jazz and big band you will need a more fully formed facility. In addition to which you need to think creatively; to be able to compose ideas and improvise on the spot.
This all may sound a bit daunting but it really isn’t.
Here’s a really simple exercise to create a solid foundation for playing 4 and 8 bar breaks.
Start at a medium tempo. 120 bpm is ideal. Play 4 bars of swing time feel and follow that with four bars of improvisation. Make the four bar solo as simple as you like. Eight note triplets in single stroke sticking will do to begin with. What’s important is that you play the correct number of bars. Repeat it until you can feel four bars elapsing without having to count every beat.
The most important thing when a 4 or 8 (or similar duration) solo is required is that you start and finish in the correct place and maintain a consistent tempo throughout.
You can add colour and variety to this straight away and here’s how;
Using any good rhythmic source material (Syncopation by Ted Reed is ideal).
Think of the notation interpreted with triplet subdivision. Then, without changing the single stroke triplet sticking play the ‘melody’ on a tom or cymbal (with bass drum support when using cymbals) and immediately you will have added a further dimension to what started out as a very simple break.
Once you have it nailed at 120 try raising the tempo in increments of 4 bpm. As the metronome gets closer to 200 bpm create space by leaving out some of the triplets. This will leave you with quarter notes, swung eighth notes, off beat eighth notes and rests. Good soloing needs light and shade. Shifting through the layers of time, from one subdivision to another, will enable you to achieve this. If you just stick to one subdivision without variation this can very quickly become uninteresting for the listener.
Good soloing should flow freely and musically with a strong feeling of syncopation. Don’t allow your rhythmic ideas to get ‘boxed in’ by bar lines.
An easy way to develop this is to play three beat phrases in 4/4 time.
Start by using three rhythmic motifs, quarter note, two swung eighth notes and eighth note on the ‘and’.
You can vary your ideas by changing the sequence of the rhythmic motifs.
Using this modular approach to rhythmic ideas will enable you to take a compositional approach to creating solos rather than merely playing licks. Also you can enhance your technique by working on this type of idea as follows;
a) Count up the number of notes in your chosen rhythmic figure.
b) Find a sticking or sequence of stickings with the same number of notes. Expand and contract the familiar sticking pattern to fit the rhythmic figure. I call this concept rhythmic rudiments and it has enhanced my own playing enormously since I came up with it about ten years ago.
Early examples of jazz drum soloing show influences of rudimental style drumming on the snare. The development of tuneable tom toms added a whole new dimension to the tonal palette. The early solo pioneers integrated the new tom sounds into drum solos, most famously Gene Krupa . This was often colloquially referred to as Jungle drumming. (There’s nothing new under the sun!)
One of the things I particularly like to do is to draw inspiration from music history and then add a modern twist to it. The Krupa style of floor tom soloing consisted for the most part of syncopated rhythms over a driving four to the bar bass drum ostinato.
My take on this is too free up the bass drum and incorporate it into the hand parts in a linear style.
In conclusion a good drum solo should be strong on musical content and rhythmic interest.
Whether it’s a two bar fill or an open ended ten minute solo your playing should consist of musical ideas which are complete, coherent and flow seamlessly from one to another.
Having great chops is nothing to be ashamed of either, but always use your facility in a musical and creative way. Pre learned ‘muscle memory’ type solos are unlikely to adapt well to the musical context of a specific composition, so get creative and get improvising. Having an improviser’s mindset will improve your playing in every musical context you can think of and allow you to unleash your creativity without limits.
Five key figures
The Latter Day Masters
Butch Miles (1944-)
I owe Butch Miles an enormous debt of gratitude. Of all the drummers who managed to get remotely close to Buddy Rich in the ability stakes (and there haven’t been more than a handful in music history) Butch Miles was the first I saw and heard, and his playing was a huge inspiration. He fired up the mid 1970’s Count Basie band with a hard driving swing that lifted the ensemble and inspired some of the greatest musical achievements of its later years. Butch’s fallings out with Buddy have been widely documented but it is less well known that Buddy recommended him for the Basie gig in the first place. A non-stop swinger in bands of both large and small Butch was also a member of the Dave Brubeck quartet for a period and remains active to this day.
Top tracks
‘The Heat’s On’ Count Basie ‘Montreux ‘77’
‘Ya Gotta Try’ Count Basie ‘Prime Time’
‘Drum Thing’ Count Basie
Duffy Jackson (1953-)
Butch Miles’s successor in the Baise band, Duffy Jackson stands out as one of the most swinging and utterly exuberant big band drummers of more recent times. Being the son of Woody Herman bass player Chubby Jackson, Duffy’s rhythmic credentials were established from a very early age. His father’s close working relationship with Dave Tough and Don Lamond certainly stood him in good stead. For me it is his work with vibes legend Lionel Hampton as well as recordings as a leader in his own right that showcase his compelling swing to best effect. Particularly noteworthy is a Hampton recording in Japan, which has some of the most driving and yet swinging (these two qualities sometimes do not go hand in hand) ride cymbal work you will ever hear.
Top tracks
‘Minor Thesis’ Lionel Hampton ‘Made in Japan’
‘Valve Job’ Lionel Hampton ‘Made in Japan’
‘Haemoglobin’ Duffy Jackson ‘Swing Swing Swing’
Peter Erskine (1954-)
Undeniably one of the most significant jazz musicians of the past quarter century, Peter Erskine and big bands have a lot of history. Erskine was holding down the drum chair with the musical colossus that was the Stan Kenton Orchestra when he was just 18 years old. His maturity on the recordings from this period is simply startling.
For many years the recordings Erskine made with Jaco Pastorius have rightly been considered to be amongst the most significant latter day period big band music, but for me it is his work on Bob Mintzer’s superb 1980s big band albums that stand out the most. Erskine’s drumming is the perfect foil for Mintzer’s writing, which for my money ranks among the most well crafted big band composition of recent years.
One of the most musically aware, sensitive, listening drummers you will ever hear in a big band rhythm section. This made him the only viable choice when trumpet player/composer Kenny Wheeler recorded his seminal ‘Music For Large and Small Ensembles’ in 1990. Just don’t mention ‘Whiplash’.
Top tracks
‘Pete is a Four Letter Word’, Stan Kenton Orchestra, ‘Fire Fury and Fun’
‘Liberty City’, Jaco Pastorius Big Band ‘Twins Live in Japan 1982’
‘In the Eighties’, Bob Mintzer Big Band ‘Camouflage’
John Riley (1954-)
Known to drummers the world over for his hugely successful and influential books on jazz drumming in small group contexts, John Riley is one of the great big band drummers active today. He occupies Mel Lewis’s former Monday night hot seat with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra at New York City’s legendary Village Vanguard club, where I have been fortunate enough to hear him at close quarters. A musical and swinging player he is also highly adept technically but uses this facility solely for the good of the music, and his seemingly effortless extreme up tempo ride cymbal work is a masterclass in exactly how it should be done. A great player and a great educator as well, his knowledge of the history of jazz drumming is nothing short of encyclopaedic.
Top tracks
‘Treasure Hunt’, Bob Mintzer Big Band, ‘Only in New York’
‘Once Around’ Vanguard Jazz Orchestra ‘Thad Jones Legacy’
‘Mel’ Vanguard Jazz Orchestra ‘Lickety Split’
Jeff Hamilton (1953-)
One of the most popular, successful and in demand big band drummers of recent times, Jeff Hamilton first came to my attention on Woody Herman’s 1978 recording ‘Road Father’. His swing concept immediately stood out as being the perfect mix of laid back swing and forward motion, to the point where he managed, as I told him a few years later, to make Woodchopper’s Ball (Herman’s 1930s signature blues riff) sound interesting. In many respects Hamilton is very much a modern day Shelley Manne or Mel Lewis. Completely at
home in settings from a trio upwards his style seems to suit any size of band without any need for modification or adaptation and his playing remains consistent and identifiable in whatever context you happen to hear him. However, for me it his work in the big band he co-leads with brothers John and Jeff Clayton which best exemplifies his style and class in the big band driver’s seat.
Top tracks
‘I Be Serious About Dem Blues’ Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra ‘Heart and Soul’
‘Eternal Triangle’ Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra ‘Live at MCG’
‘Max’ Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra ‘Shout Me Out’
