Friday, 10 March 2017
The Wisdom of Crowdfunding and a Life Changing Few Quid
As a great many of you will be aware I recently took my first step into the world of crowdfunding. At the time of writing the campaign has been running for a little over a week and a half. The response has been amazing and I am sincerely appreciative of everyone who has either contributed or helped to spread the word. Even just sharing a link to my page is a massive help.
Like everyone else I had watched the growth of crowdfunding sites and have contributed to several projects, usually jazz musicians recording exciting and innovative new music which otherwise might not get a hearing. I recently made a small contribution to a great young jazz artist who has composed and recorded some exceptional music, and it was this project in particular that prompted me to give it a go for myself.
Like most musicians I do not have vast reserves of cash washing around which I can spend to indulge my creative whims, and this is very often the key hurdle to developing new work. Indeed, a fellow drummer who is one of the most revered players on the scene (himself a successful crowdfunder) told me a couple of years ago that he "couldn't afford to retire". In spite of what you might think we're not all mansion dwelling millionaires. Most players are working all the hours God sends in order to sustain themselves and support their families.
So, what to do? For a long tme I have fielded many requests about potential projects; from recording new big band music, recording old big band music, putting on concerts, producing a multi media training pack for big band drummers and so on. Perhaps as a result of my growing profile as an educator in the last little while there has been considerable interest in the prospect of doing an instructional DVD. As you will probably be aware the last option was the one I chose to pursue, and you may well be wondering why.
The answer is simply that I have spent several decades developing and refining a whole range of techniques and concepts for drummers, and although nothing is ever completely unique in our world my ideas are quite unlike anything else I have seen out there, and having seen the benefit to so many students over the years I thought it was probably high time I distilled the best of it into something that might be of use to present and future generations of drummers. Just like everyone else I can't be in more than one place at any given time so it seemed like a logical next step. Also given the huge interst in drumming I have witnessed in China it is my intention to have a Mandarin soundtrack option too. Does anyone know a bilingual drummer with a good speaking voice??
It's not the first time that I have funded a project via an external source. In the dying days of the pre Blair Tory government some bright spark thought it might be a good idea to get rid of some of the enormous cash surplus that was washing around (remember the 'war chest' anyone?) by allowing indviduals and community organisations to apply for small amounts of funding up to ( as I reacll) a maximum of £5000.
The initiative was called Arts for All and it changed my life completely.
A four thousand pound grant enabled me to take the big band into the studio and make our first album. The timing was perfect as the band had been playing regularly for about two and a half years, was sounding great and had established a repertoire of its own. Without that funding the first album simply would not have happened. At the time it was pivotal as the CD release was the key to stepping up a gear from the Sunday lunchtime London jazz gig circuit to better venues, festivals and radio airplay. Perhaps more significantly the whole emphasis of my professional life began slowly to shift, and something that we did for fun on a Tuesday morning or a Sunday afternoon began to become the Magnetic North of my career, and the path to all kinds of opportunities I couldn't have forseen when we decided to 'get together for a blow' on a wintry Tuesday in early 1995.
Apart from a small touring grant a couple of years later I never sought any further arts funding. My belief is that if a small injection of public finance is enough to get a new project off the ground and if it can subsequently go on to be self-sustaining then that is a close to perfect scenario.
That's the way it was back then before the internet took over the world. Even twenty years ago though things had come a long way from the days when your fate as a performing artist was in the hands of a rich, fat man with a big cigar. Small independent record labels and self-starting musicians had gradually liberated jazz from the increasingly commercially driven agenda of what we used to call major record labels. The closed shop of old had become an open market but was as nothing compared to the opportunities and freedom available to creative people in 2017. Back in the 90s without the support of Jazzizit records and the Arts Council I could not have got off the starting blocks, but now I can and so can you.
Having spent several months working on my proposal prior to launching, this whole process has been thought provoking to say the least, and it led me to reflect not for the first time upon the power of the internet and specifically its impact upon me personally.
For me the first game changer was Youtube. Having released the first two albums and played a huge number of shows the band had become a fixture on the UK jazz scene but the reach was decidedly limited. When it was still in its infancy over a decade ago I digitised some old VHS tapes of live performances and put them out there to see what might happen. Over a period of time, by no means over night, I began to connect with more and more people around the globe, especially in the USA and much more recently a series of drum instructional videos produced to promote the band's 20th anniversary concert has had tens of thousands of views and left me inundated with requests for individual lessons and drum show appearances from Stafford to Shanghai.
So the internet gave me the opportunity to reach a wider audience, but it was social media that enabled me to retain that audience. Now, through the contemporary phenomenon of crowdfunding anyone with an idea they would like to bring to fruition can involve the end user from the earliest stage of the production process, and this is exactly what I have done. From a producer or executive producer credit to having some influence on the content of the finished production this endeavour is to some extent a collective effort.
In the simplest terms, for someone like me crowdfunding creates the opportunity to offer an audience the facility to buy into a proposed future production, and in the event that insufficient people do then it's up to me to have a rethink and come up with something that the audience actually wants.
This strikes me as a very positive development and gives me good reason to be optimistic about the future of our creative and cultural well-being. Also it helps a little bit to level the age old playing field where familiy wealth and or connections all too often trump talent and merit.
My thanks to everyone who has helped with this both by pledging support and helping to spread the word. truly I couldn't do it without you, but wihout you there wouldn't be a whole lot of point.
The crowdfunding page can be found here.
Friday, 3 March 2017
We Do Play Requests......
As many of you know I took my first steps in the world of crowdfunding earlier this week and the response so far has been little short of remarkable.
The content of the dvd is something I have been working on for many years and the trick now is to distill ideas, concepts and techniques into a finished product that will be as beneficial as possible to drummers of every stripe. Invariably in clinics and personal tuition I find myself stating that very little of what we do is actually 'genre specific' and that there are a relatively small number of key criteria in playing from which everything else stems.
So, drummers, in order to best reflect the truly democratic nature of crowdfunding I am only too happy to consider suggestions (legal and decent please 😆) with regard to topics for inclusion.
We do play requests, so feel free.
Crowdfunding campaign is here......https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pete-cater-drum-instruction-dvd-music-jazz/x/15946557#/
The content of the dvd is something I have been working on for many years and the trick now is to distill ideas, concepts and techniques into a finished product that will be as beneficial as possible to drummers of every stripe. Invariably in clinics and personal tuition I find myself stating that very little of what we do is actually 'genre specific' and that there are a relatively small number of key criteria in playing from which everything else stems.
So, drummers, in order to best reflect the truly democratic nature of crowdfunding I am only too happy to consider suggestions (legal and decent please 😆) with regard to topics for inclusion.
We do play requests, so feel free.
Crowdfunding campaign is here......https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pete-cater-drum-instruction-dvd-music-jazz/x/15946557#/
Friday, 17 February 2017
We Can Be Heroes
The earth has now travelled around the sun one hundred times since the birth of Buddy Rich, one of my most significant influences as a drummer.
Recently I was invited by Not So Modern Drummer to contribute some personal reflections on Buddy Rich, and the text is reproduced by kind permission.
This piece addresses the question of formative influence and how a little motivation can go a long way.....
Recollections; Buddy Rich part 2
Recently I was invited by Not So Modern Drummer to contribute some personal reflections on Buddy Rich, and the text is reproduced by kind permission.
This piece addresses the question of formative influence and how a little motivation can go a long way.....
Recollections; Buddy Rich part 2
Sunday, 22 January 2017
Big Band Drumming Part 4
Here is the final part of a series of four articles on big band drumming first published in 2015
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’
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’
Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Fifty Years In The Making
"Isn't it time you produced an instructional DVD." I was asked a few weeks ago.
Yes. It is.
Simple as that.
Having been playing more than fifty years and teaching for more than thirty of them I have amassed what I consider a reasonable amount of knowledge. Having grown up in the perfect environment to teach myself and constantly reevaluate what I was doing I have become fixated with looking at the instrument from as many perspectives as possible.
Now I'm going to share it with you.
The list of names who have inspired me to develop as a musician runs in to many many hundreds, and by taking their playing apart I have developed a personalised arsenal of approaches to hand technique and making music on the drum set.
I'm not going to hold anything back. Knowledge is for sharing and I intend to share everything I know. Some of the ideas may work for you, maybe others possibly not, but that's the way it is. No single individual has all the answers but I guarantee some fresh ideas you will not have seen or heard before.
Here's a clip from my 2015 series for Rhythm magazine.......
This is not an exercise in personal career advancement as some projects can be. I'm totally happy with my international percussion celebrity status as it currently stands.
As is now the custom and precedent I shall be going down the crowdfunding route.
The first step will be to produce the educational content consisting of two major sections, hand techniques and drum set concepts.
Should the funding goal be successfully met and surpassed we will stretch fund towards live performance footage featuring the Pete Cater Big Band. Plans are also in place for a drums off play along audio resource featuring some legendary big band repertoire.
The level of donation will range from pre-ordering the first volume of the DVD (unlimited numbers) to one executive producer opportunity, your name over the title ('Joe Bloggs presents Pete Cater etc etc etc').
Along the way we plan to offer limited edition books, exclusive unreleased bonus footage, one to one lessons, masterclasses and even a private performance by either the big band or my 7 piece, The Ministry of Jazz. You can play drums if you like. I don't mind.
Incidentally don't be expecting similarly initiatives from on a regular basis. It is my intention to do this once and once only, so I need to get it right!
The funding incentive is now live and the link is here......
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pete-cater-drum-instruction-dvd-music-jazz/x/15946557#/
Thank you for your support.
Yes. It is.
Simple as that.
Having been playing more than fifty years and teaching for more than thirty of them I have amassed what I consider a reasonable amount of knowledge. Having grown up in the perfect environment to teach myself and constantly reevaluate what I was doing I have become fixated with looking at the instrument from as many perspectives as possible.
Now I'm going to share it with you.
The list of names who have inspired me to develop as a musician runs in to many many hundreds, and by taking their playing apart I have developed a personalised arsenal of approaches to hand technique and making music on the drum set.
I'm not going to hold anything back. Knowledge is for sharing and I intend to share everything I know. Some of the ideas may work for you, maybe others possibly not, but that's the way it is. No single individual has all the answers but I guarantee some fresh ideas you will not have seen or heard before.
Here's a clip from my 2015 series for Rhythm magazine.......
This is not an exercise in personal career advancement as some projects can be. I'm totally happy with my international percussion celebrity status as it currently stands.
As is now the custom and precedent I shall be going down the crowdfunding route.
The first step will be to produce the educational content consisting of two major sections, hand techniques and drum set concepts.
Should the funding goal be successfully met and surpassed we will stretch fund towards live performance footage featuring the Pete Cater Big Band. Plans are also in place for a drums off play along audio resource featuring some legendary big band repertoire.
The level of donation will range from pre-ordering the first volume of the DVD (unlimited numbers) to one executive producer opportunity, your name over the title ('Joe Bloggs presents Pete Cater etc etc etc').
Along the way we plan to offer limited edition books, exclusive unreleased bonus footage, one to one lessons, masterclasses and even a private performance by either the big band or my 7 piece, The Ministry of Jazz. You can play drums if you like. I don't mind.
Incidentally don't be expecting similarly initiatives from on a regular basis. It is my intention to do this once and once only, so I need to get it right!
The funding incentive is now live and the link is here......
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pete-cater-drum-instruction-dvd-music-jazz/x/15946557#/
Thank you for your support.
Friday, 30 December 2016
The Trouble With Stardom
2016 has been a memorable year for all sorts of reasons.
Personally, ever the nonconformist, I've had a great year, just like 2015 before it, and plans are in place to keep forging ahead in 2017. So ambitious it makes you sick.
As we head towards the beginning of yet another journey round the sun this January 1st I am minded to think of just how many well known faces have taken their last curtain call in the preceding twelvemonth. This is quite possibly the single most hot topic de nos jours; social media is littered with asinine comments along the lines of "2016, go and do one". As surely as the route of the orbit is predetermined we know that it will be the beginning of the last go round for a great many more; some household names, others known only to their immediate family and circle of friends. Whichever category you fall into you might consider resolving to make 2017 a year of achievement. It doesn't matter what, and indeed you may not yet know what it is you seek to achieve, but keep your eyes and ears open as much as you can and before too long your goal will make itself known. This seemingly uncommonly high celebrity death rate should serve as a salutory reminder to all of us to stop putting things off, be a 'doer' not a 'talker', and if you are harbouring unfulfilled ambitions try to do one small thing every day to take even the tiniest step towards achieving your goals. Make a list. Keep a diary. Chart your progress. It's easy.
Another strategy I began to deploy far later in life than I should have is to take as much responsibility as is reasonably possible for what is going on in your world. Obviously precious things like good health and prosperity can not be absolutely controlled, but there are a great many areas in which we can take charge a little more. Now and then I will get the occasional student who has every excuse in the book why they haven't advanced as players or in the industry: not enough time, nowhere to practice, not enough money, not living in the right area, not knowing the right people and so on. Believe you me I've heard them all and more besides.
As the years have passed I have slowly realised that we have more control over our destinity than we would perhaps like to admit to. The easy cop-out is to blame circumstances and other people, rather than actually grasping the nettle (not always easy) to make changes. We live in a peaceful nation which offers both huge opportunity and a safety net if you're unlucky enough to suffer misfortune. Here in the UK the sky really is the limit, arguably more so than anywhere else in the world. That's worth bearing in mind. If you can make it here you can make it anywhere, to paraphrase Mr Sinatra. I'll come back to him later.
The days when a self-selecting elite had supreme control in all sorts of areas of society may finally be heading towards the dustbin of history where they belong. All my professional life I have been a busy, working musician and I managed to establish myself without the advantages of family wealth or nepotism. After a delayed, slow and haphazard start (another story altogether) I managed to make some reasonable headway in the industry and by my mid 30s was busy as well as having a successful band which had forged a decent reputation on the UK jazz scene.
Then everything changed. I started to harness the opportunities provided by the internet explosion. It didn’t happen overnight, it was very definitely a few small steps in the first instance. Some videos that had been captured a few years previously found their way on to Youtube and I started to connect with new people in the UK and further afield.
The launch of the lamented Drummer magazine (another loss in the past year) presented me with the opportunity of a feature interview as I was doing a project that was deemed 'trendy' at the time. Further web surfing alerted me to the existence of the UK National Drum Fair; a visit to which reunited me with my old friend Ian Palmer, who asked me to participate in a spectacular concert the following September. The same day Jason Keyte confirmed an offer for my big band to appear in concert in East Anglia the following April. On that occasion another old friend Jack Parnell was in the audience, and a recommendation from Jack led to a most fruitful business relationship with Derek Boulton who set me up with a tour headlining theatres across the UK.
All this because I bought my first computer aged 38.
The road to world domination started with a dial up modem.
You may not be seeking worldwide fame and wealth although I hope some of you are, (one friend is determined to win an academy award; talk about aiming high!) If you are then please don't be misled by reality TV; the deal is that you have to be able to do something, ideally to an extremly high standard. Otherwise, when you have the mansions, the cars and enough bling to sink a ship, if the money won't stop rolling in what on earth are you going to do now that all your goals have been achieved?
This is what is so great about being a player. No matter how far you advance in the industry there's always something left to achieve. Every day someone else is coming up with the latest new idea (as you should be too!) and the possibilities continue to grow exponentially. Quite a while ago I realised that this is what truly motivates me, and having risen to a position in the industry where I am able to share this knowledge with fellow players the world over is truly the most delicious payback for a fair amount of hard work invested up front with no guarantee of a return.
To put it another way there's no such thing as 'good enough'. You try your best on any given day and hope to improve upon it next time around. Truly we are only as good as our last performance, although in the interests of positivity I prefer to be as good as my next performance.
The recent sad passing of George Michael, amongst the latest in an uncommonly large number of well known faces to have passed during the course of this year, actually got me thinking whether international superstardom is all it's cracked up to be. I neither met him nor worked with him though a great many acquaintances did so. He wrote a significant number of iconic pop songs which I neither especially like nor dislike. During my 'professional apprenticship' in the mid to late 80s these songs were much covered in the line of work and many of them will be forever associated with holiday camps, cruise ships, and provincial pantomimes, and playing them was never objectionable.
Since Michael's untimely passing much has been made of his deeply admirable clandestine generosity and philanthropy by stealth. Without doubt there are many more revelations still to come and it is deeply to his credit that all of this giving was done from behind a veil of secrecy. Contrast that with the self regarding alignment to fashionable causes displayed by international irritants such as Bono and Geldof with tiresome regularity. Their conceit in the supremacy of their own opinions and the regularity of same makes me think of the wonderful and sincerely missed AA Gill's description of a well-known Britsh actress as a 'three flush floater'. The 'luvvies' as the popular press delight in dubbing them, do love to hand down virtuous commandments from the ratified and gilded seclusion of the hills of Primrose and Notting. Sometimes I can't help wishing they would use their influence in a more positive way, perhaps away from the glare of publicity. Either that or just stick to acting. Yes, you Benedict. Your opinions are of no greater worth than a cab driver. Probably a whole lot less come to think of it. Don’t do good in order merely to look good, or worse, make a pitch to join Vicky B on the honours list.
Fame is one of those qualities like expertise; it’s almost invariably bestowed upon us by others rather than self proclaimed (unless you can afford a great publicist). Working overseas recently brought an interesting insight.
"Let me introduce a famous drummer", said the CEO of an internationally renowned musical instrument company in a hotel bar a few months ago. I was amused and flattered but at the same time intrigued by how some of the people present behaved differently when they thought I was some sort of a 'big deal'; the same people I had passed by every day for a week in the lobby or the taxi line without raising an eyebrow were suddenly hanging on my every word. Funny thing, perception.
The obituary columns of the media have been littered over the years with obsequies for those who have risen to the top only to find themselves unable to deal with the consequences of stardom. I hesitate to refer to these consequences as pressures as there are many who take worldwide acclaim in their stride, but fame is one of those things in life for which nothing can prepare you. Writing songs or practicing your instrument in your bedroom will help you hone your craft but there is no training course that can prepare you for suddenly being of interest to complete strangers.
If you haven't already done so I suggest you read the open letter to George Michael written by the then 74 year old Frank Sinatra. Sinatra's words are witty, insightful and kind but the subtext is ineluctably clear throughout and it is simply the old adage,
"Be careful what you wish for".
It's also worth adding that if you wish for it, don’t pretend it happened by accident. One acquaintance who has achieved a little notoriety in his chosen field is a frequent social media bore claiming that the recognition he has received is some sort of happy accident, which as anyone who knows him even slightly knows is complete nonsense. He's been planning this for years. The only people who achieve fame completely by accident are almost invariably the victims of something terrible.
Similarly another very talented friend had a brush with success in the afterglow of somebody else's limelight. When the limelight faded my friend was left with a sense of entitlement which manifested in all sorts of ways from professional gamesmanship to talking loudly on aeroplanes. Everybody thought he was a great guy, I saw past the facade.
If you are feeling ambitious about what 2017 holds for you, and I hope you are, don't let your ambition be a source of embarrassment. And when you finally hit one of your targets perhaps you might do us a favour and go easy on the 'humbled and grateful'. You're talented, you worked hard and you reached your goal, but don't forget that although the drinks may be free at Club Tropicana sometimes there's a price to be paid elsewhere. Make sure you are ready. It might be your year.
Personally, ever the nonconformist, I've had a great year, just like 2015 before it, and plans are in place to keep forging ahead in 2017. So ambitious it makes you sick.
As we head towards the beginning of yet another journey round the sun this January 1st I am minded to think of just how many well known faces have taken their last curtain call in the preceding twelvemonth. This is quite possibly the single most hot topic de nos jours; social media is littered with asinine comments along the lines of "2016, go and do one". As surely as the route of the orbit is predetermined we know that it will be the beginning of the last go round for a great many more; some household names, others known only to their immediate family and circle of friends. Whichever category you fall into you might consider resolving to make 2017 a year of achievement. It doesn't matter what, and indeed you may not yet know what it is you seek to achieve, but keep your eyes and ears open as much as you can and before too long your goal will make itself known. This seemingly uncommonly high celebrity death rate should serve as a salutory reminder to all of us to stop putting things off, be a 'doer' not a 'talker', and if you are harbouring unfulfilled ambitions try to do one small thing every day to take even the tiniest step towards achieving your goals. Make a list. Keep a diary. Chart your progress. It's easy.
Another strategy I began to deploy far later in life than I should have is to take as much responsibility as is reasonably possible for what is going on in your world. Obviously precious things like good health and prosperity can not be absolutely controlled, but there are a great many areas in which we can take charge a little more. Now and then I will get the occasional student who has every excuse in the book why they haven't advanced as players or in the industry: not enough time, nowhere to practice, not enough money, not living in the right area, not knowing the right people and so on. Believe you me I've heard them all and more besides.
As the years have passed I have slowly realised that we have more control over our destinity than we would perhaps like to admit to. The easy cop-out is to blame circumstances and other people, rather than actually grasping the nettle (not always easy) to make changes. We live in a peaceful nation which offers both huge opportunity and a safety net if you're unlucky enough to suffer misfortune. Here in the UK the sky really is the limit, arguably more so than anywhere else in the world. That's worth bearing in mind. If you can make it here you can make it anywhere, to paraphrase Mr Sinatra. I'll come back to him later.
The days when a self-selecting elite had supreme control in all sorts of areas of society may finally be heading towards the dustbin of history where they belong. All my professional life I have been a busy, working musician and I managed to establish myself without the advantages of family wealth or nepotism. After a delayed, slow and haphazard start (another story altogether) I managed to make some reasonable headway in the industry and by my mid 30s was busy as well as having a successful band which had forged a decent reputation on the UK jazz scene.
Then everything changed. I started to harness the opportunities provided by the internet explosion. It didn’t happen overnight, it was very definitely a few small steps in the first instance. Some videos that had been captured a few years previously found their way on to Youtube and I started to connect with new people in the UK and further afield.
The launch of the lamented Drummer magazine (another loss in the past year) presented me with the opportunity of a feature interview as I was doing a project that was deemed 'trendy' at the time. Further web surfing alerted me to the existence of the UK National Drum Fair; a visit to which reunited me with my old friend Ian Palmer, who asked me to participate in a spectacular concert the following September. The same day Jason Keyte confirmed an offer for my big band to appear in concert in East Anglia the following April. On that occasion another old friend Jack Parnell was in the audience, and a recommendation from Jack led to a most fruitful business relationship with Derek Boulton who set me up with a tour headlining theatres across the UK.
All this because I bought my first computer aged 38.
The road to world domination started with a dial up modem.
You may not be seeking worldwide fame and wealth although I hope some of you are, (one friend is determined to win an academy award; talk about aiming high!) If you are then please don't be misled by reality TV; the deal is that you have to be able to do something, ideally to an extremly high standard. Otherwise, when you have the mansions, the cars and enough bling to sink a ship, if the money won't stop rolling in what on earth are you going to do now that all your goals have been achieved?
This is what is so great about being a player. No matter how far you advance in the industry there's always something left to achieve. Every day someone else is coming up with the latest new idea (as you should be too!) and the possibilities continue to grow exponentially. Quite a while ago I realised that this is what truly motivates me, and having risen to a position in the industry where I am able to share this knowledge with fellow players the world over is truly the most delicious payback for a fair amount of hard work invested up front with no guarantee of a return.
To put it another way there's no such thing as 'good enough'. You try your best on any given day and hope to improve upon it next time around. Truly we are only as good as our last performance, although in the interests of positivity I prefer to be as good as my next performance.
The recent sad passing of George Michael, amongst the latest in an uncommonly large number of well known faces to have passed during the course of this year, actually got me thinking whether international superstardom is all it's cracked up to be. I neither met him nor worked with him though a great many acquaintances did so. He wrote a significant number of iconic pop songs which I neither especially like nor dislike. During my 'professional apprenticship' in the mid to late 80s these songs were much covered in the line of work and many of them will be forever associated with holiday camps, cruise ships, and provincial pantomimes, and playing them was never objectionable.
Since Michael's untimely passing much has been made of his deeply admirable clandestine generosity and philanthropy by stealth. Without doubt there are many more revelations still to come and it is deeply to his credit that all of this giving was done from behind a veil of secrecy. Contrast that with the self regarding alignment to fashionable causes displayed by international irritants such as Bono and Geldof with tiresome regularity. Their conceit in the supremacy of their own opinions and the regularity of same makes me think of the wonderful and sincerely missed AA Gill's description of a well-known Britsh actress as a 'three flush floater'. The 'luvvies' as the popular press delight in dubbing them, do love to hand down virtuous commandments from the ratified and gilded seclusion of the hills of Primrose and Notting. Sometimes I can't help wishing they would use their influence in a more positive way, perhaps away from the glare of publicity. Either that or just stick to acting. Yes, you Benedict. Your opinions are of no greater worth than a cab driver. Probably a whole lot less come to think of it. Don’t do good in order merely to look good, or worse, make a pitch to join Vicky B on the honours list.
Fame is one of those qualities like expertise; it’s almost invariably bestowed upon us by others rather than self proclaimed (unless you can afford a great publicist). Working overseas recently brought an interesting insight.
"Let me introduce a famous drummer", said the CEO of an internationally renowned musical instrument company in a hotel bar a few months ago. I was amused and flattered but at the same time intrigued by how some of the people present behaved differently when they thought I was some sort of a 'big deal'; the same people I had passed by every day for a week in the lobby or the taxi line without raising an eyebrow were suddenly hanging on my every word. Funny thing, perception.
The obituary columns of the media have been littered over the years with obsequies for those who have risen to the top only to find themselves unable to deal with the consequences of stardom. I hesitate to refer to these consequences as pressures as there are many who take worldwide acclaim in their stride, but fame is one of those things in life for which nothing can prepare you. Writing songs or practicing your instrument in your bedroom will help you hone your craft but there is no training course that can prepare you for suddenly being of interest to complete strangers.
If you haven't already done so I suggest you read the open letter to George Michael written by the then 74 year old Frank Sinatra. Sinatra's words are witty, insightful and kind but the subtext is ineluctably clear throughout and it is simply the old adage,
"Be careful what you wish for".
It's also worth adding that if you wish for it, don’t pretend it happened by accident. One acquaintance who has achieved a little notoriety in his chosen field is a frequent social media bore claiming that the recognition he has received is some sort of happy accident, which as anyone who knows him even slightly knows is complete nonsense. He's been planning this for years. The only people who achieve fame completely by accident are almost invariably the victims of something terrible.
Similarly another very talented friend had a brush with success in the afterglow of somebody else's limelight. When the limelight faded my friend was left with a sense of entitlement which manifested in all sorts of ways from professional gamesmanship to talking loudly on aeroplanes. Everybody thought he was a great guy, I saw past the facade.
If you are feeling ambitious about what 2017 holds for you, and I hope you are, don't let your ambition be a source of embarrassment. And when you finally hit one of your targets perhaps you might do us a favour and go easy on the 'humbled and grateful'. You're talented, you worked hard and you reached your goal, but don't forget that although the drinks may be free at Club Tropicana sometimes there's a price to be paid elsewhere. Make sure you are ready. It might be your year.
Friday, 23 December 2016
You Never Forget Your First
With Christmas seemigly in jeopardy at the time of writing, here's the story of a game changing gift from the early 1970s.
A little while ago I was sitting with some distinguished friends in the instrument industry and discussing the somewhat changeable climate for those who depend on manufacturing or selling drums for their living.
I made the following observation;
“We live in a time when there are more drum sets in the world than ever before, and that number is increasing every day”.
The point being that drummers have got more choice in terms of both range of options and availability of product thus making it ever more challenging for manufacturers to keep coming up with new lines that will get some traction in the market.
It wasn’t always the case though. My late father was a good and busy semi pro player all his life. As a teenager he grew out of the first drums (no name snare and bass drum plus one small suspended cymbal) and sought to upgrade. Youngsters of the day were regularly fobbed off by the instrument shop staff with extremely scarce professional equipment on display; interest in a Dominion Ace would be met with “Reserved, awaiting collection” or “in for repair”. The Gig Shop in Birmingham was the most notorious offender, where a quasi-Masonic cabal got first dibs on anything worthwhile that came in to stock.
That left one primary avenue for hopefully finding some drum treasure, the classified ads of the local paper, and eventually after countless tram rides across inner city Birmingham Dad eventually stumbled upon a four piece Ajax set in gold sparkle (‘glitter gold’ as they called it then) and this became his first professional quality drum set. Not until the late 40s did British drum manufacturing really get back up to a speed anywhere close to satisfying the demand for product.
By today’s standards this seems ridiculous, where copious quantities of drums from shiny new to pedigree vintage are just a couple of clicks away. If your budget allows you can start a collection; have a different drum configuration to suit every musical circumstance and more snare drums than there are days in the month. The days when working drummers had one set of drums and that was it are behind us.
Even in my early days as a player good used equipment was relatively scarce and would get snapped up in a moment. I had inherited my dad’s practice kit as a starting point.
This consisted of a Windsor single tension bass drum measuring about 22 x 8, with a matching (grey paint) single headed tom approximately 10 x 7. An Ajax 12 x 10 tom in blue pearl stood in for a floor tom, the snare was a truly vile Olympic Discus which resisted every attempt to make it sound even half way decent and a riveted 20” Ajax ride cymbal was the cherry on the cake. No hi hats, these didn’t arrive until my 9th birthday in the shape of a pair of 14” Zyns.
The arrival of the hi hat cymbals marked a turning point and it was clear that my development as a fledgling player merited something a little more sophisticated and robust if I was to advance significantly further on my quest for worldwide recognition. I had fallen head over heels for a chrome over wood Gretsch ‘Name Band’ outfit in the window of Ringway Music but clearly that was out of reach, and so regular trawls round the music shops of the city, primarily Yardley’s, George Clay, Kay Westworth’s and the afore mentioned Ringway. Dad wasn’t a fan of Jones and Crossland or Woodroffe’s for reasons I never found out. The easy option would have been a brand new Premier or Beverley, good quality and in plentiful supply, but my dad’s generation all aspired to the great American brands with Ludwig at the top of the tree with Rogers, Slingerland and Gretsch in equal second place. Anyone who was around then will confirm that Ludwig was the brand everybody wanted to be seen to be playing; Ringo, for the pop drummers, Joe Morello for the jazzers. Not even Buddy Rich’s affiliation with Slingerland from 1968 onwards could assail Ludwig’s stranglehold on the top end of the market.
But as the 70s dawned the stardust began to fade on the Ludwig brand. The reason? Quality control.
All of a sudden the crown was up for grabs and it was Rogers who seemed to have the traction and almost overnight became the brand of choice.
Meanwhile the Cater tradition of scouring the small ads in the Birmingham Mail in search of decent drums had proved fruitless. Up to £120 was only yielding rather so-so pre international Autocrats and the occasional gaudy Rose Morris. Used Ludwigs, Haymans, more recent Premiers and British Rogers were over budget, so my dad played his ace. Without a trade in he was able to get a healthy discount on a silver sparkle Rogers Starlighter and handed down his 1964 oyster blue super classic to me.
That set of drums defined my early days as a player. Most of my early adventures in the world of music were done to the sound of the Ludwigs. My first proper recording session in a proper studio (BBC Maida Vale studio 6, December 1979) which resulted in me winning the Jack Parnell drum award in the BBC National big Band competition. I thought that was it; and that my passage to the upper echelons of the British drum industry was assured; (and so it was, but it didn’t begin to happen for another 27 years). Incidentally, my performance from the ensuing gala concert was left out of the subsequent Radio 2 broadcast, so in the interests of completeness here is my 16 year old self.
https://soundcloud.com/petecaterbigband/back-to-the-barracks
Interestingly my first visit to a television studio was done on my dad’s Rogers. The reason being that the Ludwig was in residence at the NEC Birmingham. I was cutting school to play a 15 act international circus and earning more than my headmaster was. A baptism of fire, but my unshakeable confidence stood me in good stead, albeit with rather too many fills. A subsequent return to the small screen shows the Ludwigs proving their worth. Follow the link and the keen eyed among you will note the addition of a second floor tom. All my big band heroes of that period (start with Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson and Butch Miles then work your way down) featured the second 16 x 16 and I was determined to emulate the drum layout of the players whose playing I also sought to emulate.
https://youtu.be/kRSNM7qBjMg
Finding the additional drum in matching oyster blue was a virtually impossible task. Irrespective of it being far and away the most ubiquitous finish on drums exported to the UK, odd drums and add-ons were all but unheard of. Eventually an orphan floor tom turned up, badly re-wrapped in plain black, so for a while the second floor was mismatched, decades before Bill Stewart did something similar.
Unbelievably after considerable research by my dad some original 1960s oyster blue wrap surfaced. Eddie Ryan, then based at 90 Long Acre, Covent Garden, was the saviour. The shell was stripped of all its fittings and dispatched. Furthermore there was sufficient wrap left over to build me a canister throne so my oyster blue Krupa/Buddy set up was complete.
By this point several of the original mounting blocks (with the thread tapped into the metal itself) had failed and were replaced with the later hook and eye design, in addition to which was the somewhat predictable addition of a second cymbal arm on the bass drum for the inevitable 8 inch splash. Imitate then innovate as they say. Mission half accomplished, so to speak. A barnstorming tour of Germany with the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra followed, as well as a return to Golders Green Hippodrome marking a second successive victory in the BBC National Big Band Competition. The broadcast was recorded on my eighteenth birthday and the drum feature can be heard here.
https://youtu.be/XN92aNCn72E
Note the slightly unusual snare sound. I achieved this by using a split bottom head for several weeks without realising!
As I’ve said elsewhere the career prospects for an aspiring 18 year old straight ahead jazz/big band drummer were practically non-existent in the big-haired, shoulder-padded early 80’s. Truthfully there are more opportunities to play that kind of music at a professional level now than there were then. Call it the Rat Pack/Buble effect for the want of a better expression. In spite of which my very small degree of notoriety brought me to the attention of Sabian cymbals and the UK distributors of Slingerland, and for the first time I had the much sought after ‘deal’.
Other than a summer spent playing in a Mecca ballroom residency, the Super Classic was being used increasingly infrequently and my remaining time in the MYJO showcased the Slingerland with the Ludwig being relegated to more mundane tasks, which is silly really because the Slingerland wasn’t a patch on it. Incidentally, drum solos of the era were often of a duration that would have left Ken Dodd in awestruck admiration.
Still the wheel turned further still and I had woken up to the needs of being a working professional player, and as all young pros should, the importance of playing according to what the industry requires. I augmented the Ludwig with a couple of Roto Toms briefly but the writing was on the wall and in late 1984 I acquired a used Yamaha 9000GA in natural wood which I wish I still owned, in sizes 10 x 8, 12 x 8, 13 x 9, 16 x 16 and 14 x 22. Thus dawned a whole new era in my playing as I stepped out into the wider professional world leaving the Ludwig at my parents’ house where it resides to this day.
A little while before my affiliation with Premier and thereafter the British Drum Company, I took the super classic out on a Dave Brubeck tribute show and it played as well as ever. It’s a family heirloom brim full of significance and personal history. It was my first proper, grown-up drum set and will stay with me forever, and hopefully get a play one day again soon, because there’s nothing quite like your first is there?
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