That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

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Part I: All That Jazz: A Tour of the Basics
Great drummers help make great jazz bands. Seated behind horns and given
fewer solos than most of their bandmates, drummers can seem anonymous.
And yet, drummers are the engines who move the music ahead. They keep it
swinging and interact with various lead soloists, spurring them on to new creative
highs.
In the following sections, I take you through the evolution of drums, from the
earliest drums to drums in current times.
The earliest drums
Drums used in jazz today grew from ancient roots. Rhythm was the essence
of African music. Architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe visited New Orleans in
1821, and in his journal made drawings of cylindrical African drums played
at Sunday celebrations by slaves gathered in Congo Square.
Evolution of the modern drum set used in jazz began in the theater. Prior to
that, drummers in marching, concert, and jazz bands focused on a single
percussion instrument: bass drum, snare drum, or cymbals. Drummers in
early New Orleans jazz groups led by Buddy Bolden and John Robichaux
(see Chapter 5 for details on them) used marching drums, although they
sometimes played two drums at once by hand. When they played gigs in
cramped theatres, drummers were forced to play bass and snare drums
simultaneously, because there wasn’t room for two or three people.
In 1909 William Ludwig, founder of Ludwig & Ludwig drums, patented the first
modern bass drum pedal. His durable metal, spring-loaded thumper met the
demands of ragtime and jazz drummers who played faster and harder. The
pedal was the single most important advance that gave drummers the ability
to play powerful polyrhythms anchored by booming bass drum beats.
Drums from the 1920s to the 1940s
By the time Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, and Jelly Roll Morton made their
seminal jazz records of the 1920s (see Chapter 5), drummers led by Baby
Dodds were playing kits that included many items:
� Bass drum with pedal: 28 inches in diameter, a holdover from marching
bands. Big bass drums were standard into the 1930s.
� Snare drum: Throughout jazz, dating back to New Orleans brass
bands, the snare drum was the key instrument in the drummer’s arsenal.
Depending on how it’s tuned, the snare fits in the middle-to-high range of
a group’s sound. The drummer uses his snare to keep time with just a few
combinations, or he fills in more elaborate textures with rolls and other
fast patterns. Good drummers use snares and cymbals to provide empathetic
support for vocalists, horn players, and other lead performers.