jazz info?

Question

I play the drums(mostly i play rock), is it hard to play jazz drums? Whats a good jazz song with good drum solos? Info please!

Answer 1

Interesting question here.
I am a jazz-drum teacher and if you are a GOOD rock drummer, that is a fine start and it is not necessarily hard to play jazz drums. The main thing is mastering the different "feels", for example the difference between straight eight notes and "swing" eighth notes, as others mentioned.

You must have mastery of your hands and feet, separately and together. You will be, after all, playing 4 different instruments at once! But if you are a GOOD rock drummer, you already can do this. Now do as other posters mention and listen to jazz drummers. Steve Gadd is very good and I love his work with Steely Dan. He was EVEN MORE ROCK oriented while with Chuck Mangione. Mangione's other great drummer, Joe Labarbrea, also came from a rock tradition! Dave Weckel has instructional books and videos available, but he is VERY advanced and his material is challenging even to an experienced jazz musician! Start more basically with someone like Carmen Appice, Bobby Rock, Joel Rothman, Bernard Purdie or Paul Chambers. But most importantly, LISTEN! YouTube and GarageBand.com are great places to start listening for free!

Answer 2

There are lots of very good answers already given and I just want to add a few thoughts...

Playing drums with a jazz combo isn't necessarily hard, but it requires a different mind set. Rock drumming mostly accents the 'off' beats (in a 4/4 meter, that's the 2 and 4 beats), while jazz typically plays all four beats on a ride cymbal and accents on snare or toms for the melodic rhythm of the piece. Start off doing swing numbers and listen to the stylings. I would recommend any Count Basie recording with Butch Miles - he epitomizes that sound.

Again, instead of using the snare drum for beats (as in rock), jazz uses the ride cymbal. I guess I should be more specific on rhythm patterns and techniques, but I am not a drummer. But I have played with some really great ones and this is what they do.

So, get off the snare and high-hat and learn to love the ride cymbal. Any help?

Answer 3

Try not to think of music as being hard or not. It's a creative process. Takes time to learn to play other genre's. I have a friend in his second yr. at Berklee who's alreay played with some top notch players and has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival twice now. the kid is only 21.. He's studied with the best.. Take some lessons from a local jazz drummer.. Reading is very important if you want to make it a career.. I think someone here mentioned Steve Gadd.. He's great.. I also like Dennis Chambers, Steve Smith and Dave Weckl(spelled wrong).. Go to you tube and you can watch these greats play.

Answer 4

Pick up a copy of Steely Dan's Aja. There is a lot of really great jazz drumming in that.
Steve Gadd has done a lot of great work as well.
As I hear it, jazz drumming is much more about texture than power. Part of this texture is silence. A good jazz drummer knows what not to play as well as what to play.

Answer 5

if you're starting jazz, swing might be one of the best to get used to first. just the style feels a little more natural. I don't have many suggestions, as I play Saxophone, but i'd say swing is less complex usually. but if you play rock, then you may be used to straight 8ths. rock is actually a form of jazz, though not many people link them, so they shouldn't be too much different.

Answer 6

I'll start off by giving you some names that might bridge the gap from rock to jazz for you.

Steve Gadd is real good and flexible, but listen to what Lenny White was throwing down with Chick Corea's group Return to Forever, instead.

Also, definitely check out Tony Williams, expecially his group Lifetime which is well-documented on the 2-disc set titled Spectrum. He can also be found on Miles Davis' In A Silent Way.

One boxset that will hip you to jazz musicians playing rock music is Davis' Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. This set contains prime Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra) and Jack DeJohnette (Charles Lloyd Quartet).

DeJohnette and White can also be found on Bitches Brew.

Ginger Baker, of Cream fame, has done his share of jazz albums.

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If you're looking for more straight-ahead jazz drums some good picks to research would be:

swing/early jazz: Chick Webb

swing/bop: Jo Jones

swing/bop: Kenny Clarke

hard bop: Art Blakey

hard bop/post-bop/avant-garde: Billy Higgins

hard bop/post-bop/avant-garde/fusion: Tony Williams

hard bop/post-bop/avant-garde: Elvin Jones

bebop/hard bop/post-bop: Roy Haynes

hard bop/post-bop/fusion: Billy Hart

hard bop/fusion/soul-jazz: Idris Muhammad (Leo Smith)

avant-garde/free/post-bop: Andrew Cyrille

bop/hard bop/post-bop: Max Roach

bop/hard bop/post-bop: Chico Hamilton

post-bop/free funk/avant-garde: Ronald Shannon Jackson

bop/hard bop/post-bop/avant-garde: Ed Blackwell

swing/bop: Joe Morello


Of course there's a bunch more, but these are some of the most prominent in my mind at the moment.

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Best solos? To me its all down to personal preference. Just start consuming as many recordings as you can and you'll quickly start to come up with your own list without anyone else's help. That said here's a few I like:

I really like the drum solo Hamilton plays for the entirety of "Caravan" from the album Chico Hamilton Quintet (1956) on Pacific Jazz. Its wonderfully melodic, but the CD is out of print.

Joe Morello's drum solo on Brubeck's "Take Five" is one of the most famous out there.

Max Roach (melodic - anything from his group with Clifford Brown) and Roy Haynes (cross-rhythms/polyrhythms - Out Of The Afternooon) both have a ton of solos on a huge amount of albums that are incomparable.

Art Blakey's typical solos, full of swing and bombast, can be found on most of the albums with his seminal group the Jazz Messengers.