SPOTLIGHT GERALD HEYWARD ||| SCOTT DONNELL Scott Donnell: How did major, charttopping artists decide they needed your style of playing? Gerald Heyward: As soon as they heard it, they knew. It became a prerequisite; they needed a church drummer to be legit. They needed drummers that had studied at church, stylistically. They’d say, “Can you send somebody like you?” SD: Talk about the style or genre of church drumming. GH: It’s actually not focused on styles, but it touches so many genres, from Rock and Jazz, to Funk. If you come out of church, you’re prepared! You’ll end up playing all of those styles in church and that’s what church-style is. Lots of up-tempo, different fills, backbeat, on top of the beat, we don’t know we’re studying it at the time, but we are. SD: Do you feel like you have an automatic brotherhood with all drummers that play in church? GH: It’s less of a church thing and more of a drummer thing, in general. It’s more about a drummer’s DNA. We all have that commonality. I can tell you’re a drummer just by talking to you, not by talking drums, 48 EDGE 10 ||| 2012-2013 Gerald Heyward’s Gospel OF R&B DOWNLOAD IT NOW WWW.DRUMCHANNELDOWNLOADS.COM AND Hip Hop <strong>Drum</strong>ming A Gerald Heyward might arguably be the godfather of Gospel-style Pop drumming. He’s worked with such R&B and Hip Hop luminaries as: Beyonce, Destiny’s Child, P Diddy, Blackstreet, Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown and A countless others. His transition from solely playing in church to also being an in-demand mainstream player has become the norm for these genres, but it wasn’t always this way. Once the likes of Usher, Jay-Z and other top-selling artists heard what Gospel-trained drummers could bring to their live shows, they demanded a new level of musicianship and flair that only Gerald and his predecessors could provide. This is the gospel of Hip Hop and R&B according to Gerald Heyward. A but other things you say; it’s a kinship. The only musicians that practice together are drummers. We’re all connected as drummers. We like to show each other things. You don’t see a bunch of keyboard players getting together to trade licks! SD: Do you feel responsible for passing the torch to the younger drummers coming up? GH: I’m an older guy now and I learned from guys older than me, guys like Jeff Davis, Joe Smith and Bobby Walker. The crew that’s coming up in church now will be in the working world soon, but they’ll always come back to church. The guys that learned from me, like Teddy (Campbell), Nisan(Stewart) and Aaron (Spears) are already passing their knowledge down to the next crew. SD: Which drummers inspire you? GH: My first concert was Billy Joel with Liberty DeVitto. Liberty taught me about showmanship. When I saw him, it changed my life. That’s when I started working on my move of hopping up and down on the throne. Then there was hearing Gadd on Steely Dan’s, Aja for the first time, and Vinnie changed my way of thinking about A the drums, too. by Scott Donnell SD: Who are some of the young church players that have caught your attention lately? GH: There’s a guy from Brooklyn we call, Junior. Then, there’s Josh and Little Mike from Texas, also Brandon and Big Sed from Trenton (New Jersey) and Jamal Moore (Aaron Spears’ brother). I’m inspired by all of their playing. I love ‘shedding’ with these guys, it keeps me fresh. SD: Tell us a little bit about ‘woodshedding.’ It started with gospel players, right? GH: Woodshedding is just practicing; it always has been, but now they call it ‘shedding.’ It’s so you can see your place, in terms of chops. A bunch of us come to learn, but there are always guys that come to ‘kill’ and, basically, show off. They call it “chopping heads off.” Some guys are there to prove themselves. One night, we were all there, Chris Dave, me, Teddy Campbell, Aaron Spears, Mike Clemons, Doobie, Jeremiah Parish, Dana Hawkins and Little John Roberts. The young guys said it was the best day of their lives.
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