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Sunday, August 07, 2011

The Hawaii 5-O fill

That's the term I use for that universal 8th-grade-style fill down the toms effectively applied, ever since it was coined by Ralph Hardimon regarding a concert tom run of mine when I was in Santa Clara Vanguard's pit in 1986 (for you non-corps people, the pit is the non-marching concert percussion section that sets up along the front sideline). The piece is "The Hut", from Pictures at an Exhibition- it starts at 7:00, and the fill is a few measures after- my most exposed stuff on the show was during this piece- the concert toms are all me on that one:



When he said it I recognized it instantly, but listening back to the actual theme, with John Guerin on drums, nothing like the fill actually happens until late in the tune, at 1:13, so maybe he was just talking about a general vibe:



Other examples after the break- share your personal favorites in the comments:

Zigaboo Modeliste hits you with it nice and sudden at the beginning of the edited version of Good Old Funky Music:



In sixtuplets, on the People's Court theme, @1:00. I don't know who the drummer is- the only info I can find is a faint rumor that it's Danny Gottlieb, but that seems unlikely to me. Maybe Carlos Vega or somebody.




Here's a silly one from Frank Zappa's Society Pages, leading into the chorus:



It's not exactly a rare concept, so I'm sure everyone will have their personal favorites- leave yours in the comments, with YouTube links, if you can find them.

1 comment:

  1. Todd -- my guess is Steve Houghton for "The People Court".

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