Charlie Smith hat außerdem mit Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Taylor, Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Artie Shaw, Herbie Mann, Dwike Mitchell, Willy Ruff, Al Cohn, Percy Heath, Henri Renaud, Milt Jackson, J.J. Johnson, Thomas Vaughan, Joe Holliday, Louis Jordan, Roy Eldridge, Carmen Mc Rae, Johnny Hartman, Hank Jones, Oscar Pettiford, Cy Coleman, Beril Booker, Slim Gaillard, Terry Timmons, Big Maybelle, Hots Lips Page, Lee Wiley, Charlie Mingus, Herb Ellis, etc gespielt. In den sechziger Jahren zog er nach New Haven, Connecticut. Er verstarb 1966 mit 38 Jahren.

Obwohl Charlie Smith ausgezeichnet mit den Sticks umgehen konnte, war er berühmt für sein Spiel mit Besen. Deshalb gibt es fast keine Aufnahmen von ihm, auf denen er nicht mit Besen spielt.

Alex Sanguinetti with Charlie Smith's CDs

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Roy Haynes Brush Solo on "Lullaby of Birdland"

Roy Haynes is one of my favourite drummers. He played with virtually all the great Jazz players. At 21 he started playing with Lester Young's group and already then he had a fresh touch and a new approach. He was famous for his "Snap Crackle" sound, Mingus used to say that he didn't play the time, he suggested it.
Mel Lewis used to call him: the first "out" drummer. Both very good descriptions.
He was one of the first who stopped playing the hi-hat in  2 & 4.
His style is very clear and precise, and he always lifts the band with his lively pulse.   He is a "Master of Surprise".  With his very organic coordination he is now more active than ever, leading his own group and also playing as sideman in different bands.

This solo was played on an album he made with Sarah Vaughan, with whom Haynes played several years as a regular member of the band (1953 to 1958). The tune, "Lullaby of Birdland" (1954) , is played with brushes. Please note his use of straight eighths and sixteenths and how those notes, at the end of the solo, change to triplets. All these concepts have been  introduced very much by him to the art of drumming. The structure of the tune is AABA and the drum solo is over the last A section. The composition of the solo is exquisite.

As usual I recommend you to listen to the original record (Sarah Vaughan, 1954) to appreciate the "nuances".

These are a few of my favourite Roy Haynes' albums

Discography:

* Master Takes, Lester Young, 1949

* Summit Meeting at Birdland, Charlie Parker, 1951

* Sarah Vaughan, 1954  (you can find  the entire period of Roy Haynes with this singer in " The Complete Sarah Vaughan
   on Mercury  Vol. 1" )

* Discovery! At the Five Spot, Thelonious Monk, 1958

* Screamin’ the Blues, Oliver Nelson, 1960

* The Blues and the Abstract  Truth", Oliver Nelson, 1961

* Straight Ahead,  Oliver Nelson, 1961

* Out of the Afternoon,  Roy Haynes, 1962

* Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, Chick Corea, 1968

And any other...

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Art Blakey's Solo on "Off Minor"

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Tony William's Solo on "Society Red"

Tony Williams was one of the biggest innovators in drumming. He irrupted in the scene a little after Elvin Jones but his style was very different. Also, that particular moment was one of great social and artistic changes all around the world.

He introduced many innovations including a completely new approach to technique, the use of metric modulations, superposed meters, flams, etc. His style was of unparalleled musicality, always fresh, inspired, full of surprises. Already in his teens he showed a high degree of maturity. At 15 he was a „first call" drummer in Boston, at 16 a member of  Jackie Mc Lean's group , and at 17 started playing with the Miles Davis Quintet.
He played and recorded with every major player in the scene. Unfortunately he died prematurely in 1997, at 51 years of age. The news came as a shock to the music community. Even today is hard to imagine the scene without Tony.

The solo I transcribed is from the tune  „Society Red" included in the record „The Other Side of Round Midnight", by Dexter Gordon. It is part of the film score to Bertrand Tavernier´s  „Round Midnight" (1986) (a must see, by the way).
This is the typical Tony Williams of his later years. The tune is a 12 bar blues. In the first four bars, the horn section (Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon), play a riff and the next 8 measures of the form are played by Tony.

Some important details are that the cymbals are really long notes, that the flams must be played very open, that the triplets at the end of the solo are played in singles, that the sixteenth note triplets of bars 3 y 5 are very open, almost like quintuplets. I didn't put any dynamics on purpuse, it's essential to listen to the original.

If you don't have any Tony Williams record in your collection yet you are "missing something". I know that once you get one you'll like to have all.

Here are some recommendations

Discography:

Every record with Tony Williams is recommendable, so I'm giving you just a few suggestions.

*All the albums with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock or Jackie McLean.

*Lifetime

*Turn it Over

*Believe It

*Foreign Intrigue and the entire last series he recorded for Blue Note Records, for example: Angel Street, Civilization, Native Heart, Tokyo Live, etc.

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Home Video and Sounds

Intermediate Level Lesson: Modern Tango

By Alex Sanguinetti

In this lesson I am going to show you some rhythms which can be used for playing Modern Tango. This style started developing in Argentina under the influence of Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992), who, with fresh creativity, altered the traditional style completely without losing its essence.

In the old Tango, the quarter note pulse is predominant, almost like in military marches (ex. 1, 2 and 3), while the rhythm in Piazzolla’s music is based on a sequence common to a number of Latin American rhythms (ex. 4), however including some peculiarities, which, along with new harmonies introduced by Piazzolla, allow for greater flexibility and open up more possibilities.

In order to understand how these examples integrate in the music, it is absolutely necessary to listen to and play with records in this style. Below you will find a short list of recommended records from Piazzolla’s very extensive discography. I made this list thinking of the international student and named records which are easier to get around the world, although, thanks to Internet, this and other material is not as hard to find as it used to be. I also included a brief list of movies with music composed by Piazzolla that I think you will enjoy, he made music for about 40 movies, countless shorts, etc.

Percussion:

Very few percussion instruments have been used in Modern Tango. I mostly heard güiro, replacing the typical violin scratch that is so characteristic in this type of music, and also timpani. Other instruments have been used but really not very often.

Note for more advanced students:

Of course you can create an incredible amount of variations, depending above all on the improvisational concept you apply. In general, the kind of variations we can use are related to our control of these concepts and to those of the band we are playing in (please write if you would like me to go more in detail on this subject, not only applicable to tango, but to all styles of music and musical situations).

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  Examples 1, 2 & 3. Traditional Tango. Example 3 should be used as variation and not as basic rhythm.

Example 4. Basic Modern Tango Clave.

Example 5. A more sophisticated possibility for Modern Tango Clave.

Examples 6 & 7. March type concept applied to Modern Tango.

Examples 8 & 9. Hi-Hat rhythms are featured a lot in this style especially in introductions. 

Example 10 . More hi-hat patterns. This is very much in the style of "Libertango".

Examples 11 & 12. Still more hi-hat rhythms with a little different flow. On 12 play cross-stick (clave sound) with your left hand on the snare.

Example 13. Typical pattern played by early Piazzolla’s drummers. The fills are bombastic and mostly in crescendo for dramatic impact. In this case, as in all the rest play the bass drum soft like if you would do when playing Jazz. The bass drum between brackets means optional.

Example 14. This is the pattern I find myself  mostly playing around.

Example 16. A more advanced possibility introducing the hi-hat played with the foot.

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Home Video and Sounds

Ein paar Tipps von Alex Sanguinetti

1. Bau Dein Schlagzeug so auf, dass Du stets guten Sicht- und Hörkontakt zu den anderen Musikern hast.
2. Spiele am Anfang einfach, um eine gute Basis zu schaffen, einen guten "Groove" für das entsprechende Stück zu legen.
3. Wenn einer der anderen MusikerInnen aus dem Takt kommt, spiele den Rhythmus einfacher um wieder Klarheit zu schaffen.
4. Versuche, diese Regel zu beherzigen: Was man nicht singen kann, kann man auch nicht spielen.
5. Es ist ungeheuer wichtig, die Form des betreffenden Stückes zu kennen.
6. Wenn ständig Sticks, Becken oder Felle in die Brüche gehen, stimmt etwas mit Deiner Technik nicht ganz.
7. Lerne an welchen Stellen Du besser nicht spielen solltest.
8. Lerne Notenlesen, das ist wichtiges Handwerkszeug für Schlagzeuger.
9. Fange bei Übungen immer langsam an und steigere erst das Tempo, wenn Du die Übung sicher spielen kannst. Ich halte es aber auch für nützlich, immer mal wieder zurück zu kommen und eine Übung langsam oder sehr langsam zu wiederholen. Das bringt viel Sicherheit und Instrumentenbeherrschung.
10. Versuche, besonders wenn Du Anfänger bist, die Lerninhalte einzuschränken, aber diese wenigen Themen ganz auszuloten.
11. Versuche Dich viel aufzunehmen, beim Üben, bei Konzerten, und höre Dich mit ehrlicher Selbstkritik ab. Höre auch soviel CDs etc. wie möglich. Immer wenn ein bekannter Schlagzeuger in Deine Stadt kommt: Gehe hin und höre zu! Das ist eine der besten Investitionen, die Du machen kannst.
12. Arbeite daran, möglichst viele verschiedene Sounds aus Trommeln und Becken herauszuholen.
13. Teile Deine Übezeit unter allein üben, mit Gruppen spielen und mit Platten spielen auf.
14. Wenn Du übst, konzentriere Dich auf Ziele. Habe immer ein Ziel vor Augen, bevor Du zu üben beginnst.
15. Übe immer in verschiedenen Tempi und Dynamiken.
16. Lerne Besen, das gibt Deinem Spiel eine neue Dimension, hier ist eine ganz andere Technik erforderlich.
17. Übe immer im Tempo, egal welches es ist.
18. Übe besonders, was Dir schwer fällt, nicht so sehr, was Du schon kannst.
19. Um voranzukommen ist es wichtig, mit immer besseren Musikern zusammen zu spielen.
20. Je mehr Du kannst, umso leichter und schneller lernst Du dazu.
21. Studiere die Tradition und Geschichte des Schlagzeugs.
22. Während Du so langsam vorankommst, wist Du merken, dass alle Situationen im Leben irgendwie einen Gegenpart in der Musik haben. Deshalb ist es sehr wichtig, jede Gelegenheit etwas Neues zu lernen, zu nutzen. Lese Bücher, besuche Museen usw. Und beobachte aufmerksam, was um Dich herum passiert, Du wirst sehen, dass sich alles irgendwie in der Musik widerspiegelt. Die Musik und das Leben sind nicht voneinander zu trennen.

Video and Sounds

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