Title track from Earth Beams, a great record by George Adams & Don Pullen, with Dannie Richmond on the drums— all three are Charles Mingus band alumni. Richmond was a key partner in that relationship for a long time, and is one of my favorite drummers.
This is really fundamental to what a jazz musician is— the groundedness in blues, the way they handle the jazz musical environment. Not about chops, or even pure groove— in the details the time and rhythm can be a little squishy, though the overall feeling of drive is there, and overwhelming. You can tell players who just live in that playing environment. Polish is not the point.
Here's another one, a gospel 5/4, which you didn't even know was a thing. It's so deep it took me a minute to realize they were playing in 5.
This is what anyone would call modern playing, but it's defiant to analysis— by me, anyway. I can't approach it looking for vocabulary. The point is the total playing entity.
2 comments:
now that's what i'm talkin about!
I was lucky enough to see this band at my very first jazz festival in 1982, when I was 14 years old.
I was already a big Mingus & Dannie Richmond fan, but it took me a moment to place the drummer on stage with his Sonor Phonic Rosewood and Paiste cymbals in the context of Mingus.
Then I sneaked backstage and tried to talk to Don Pullen and Dannie Richmond in my poor high school English.
Dannie had two beautiful girls on either side of him, both of whom towered over him by at least a head; he wasn't very tall.
In retrospect, I may have been a bit pushy and embarrassing, but I learned more about attitude and jazz in that moment than I would have in a few years of college.
Dannie was very nice to me, and I think he was surprised that a German teenager was so interested in his music.
He is and always will be one of my biggest influences.
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