Steve, I was going to save talking about Bobby for a little later, but now is as good a time as any. Before Bobby created/formed Blood, Sweat & Tears, he taught a select few students out of his apartment in Manhattan. The guy that taught me how to play drums was Bobby Columby's Ace student. Lou would come back from a session with Bobby and I would get it all second hand, but while it was still fresh in Lou's mind.

Bobby Columby invented the fusion drumming style. To this day, few drummers are as fluid and powerful a drummer as Bobby was. He was exploring and experimenting on the drums at the time and he infected Lou with it and through Lou, me! That's why I referred to Bobby as my drumming 'grandfather.' To this day, I still sound like Bobby and play Bobby licks all the time. I can't help it. It is what I was taught, what I practiced as a young drummer. I was surrounded by prodigies. It's what forced me to work harder. I was always busy trying to keep up with guys who were worlds better than me and who were simply born gifted. You either get real good, real fast in that kind of highly charged, positive, competitive environment, or you spin off early. I toughed it out. If it wasn't for the ignorance of youth, too much $ at too early an age, the 60's and Heroin, I would have been a working professional musician all my life. That was the plan anyway. I was signed by the time I was 17 to Elan Associates. I'm a 60's drug casualty.

Bobby Columby is at the bottom, inside the foundation of, everything I play. I have him to thank for an awful lot. One 'freaky' kind of note... I look like Bobby's twin brother! The physical resemblance between us, especially our faces, is freaky. If you walked into a club and saw me playing back in the day, you would have looked twice. More than once I had people insisting I was Bobby and that I was just messing with them. Because I learned from him, his style, I move like him on the kit as well. The lean, the whole nine yards. I've always had a freaky thing with Bobby Columby that way.

Here's some Bobby: My drumming Mentor/Guru

Enjoy...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK62tfoCmuQ[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q52A_M1At1A[/ame]

John

Right On, That 2nd clip with the jam is great. I think you are right, BC was the first guy I heard as a kid doing fusiony/jazz fills.

I could not figure em out back then. Not sure I can now either.

Thank you Shuffler

Bobby was a 'tastefully' busy drummer. He didn't so much 'invent' fusion drumming as much as he had 'developed into' a fusion drummer. His own evolution playing drums had simply grown into what is called 'fusion style drumming' today. An even mix of Jazz and very 'Funky' Rock grooves.

Guys like Dave Weckel are great 'technical' drummers, but Bobby's playing was full of feeling, very natural and completely original with him. I guess they had to call it something. But it was all just Bobby being Bobby on the drums. It's just the stuff that came out of him when he played.

The key to a lot of Bobby's licks/runs (what he's doing with his hands) is fast, strong single-strokes with highly syncopated accent patterns that make it swing hard. That approach is something TommyP will be familiar with being a life-time student of Buddy Rich. Bobby used a lot of that fast, strong, highly accented single-stroke stuff. Nobody had to tell me that Columby got that stuff from Buddy. I could hear it as I was learning it. That part of Bobby's approach was pure Buddy Rich. Ditto Bobby's use of cymbals, nothing on the kit went unused.

Bobby's use of the bass drum was strong and rhythmical. One of the things I learned from Bobby long before it was called a, 'Bonhan triplet' I was taught to play triplets, rack-bass-floor. Bobby got that from, Tony Williams. Years later... John Bonham got to put his name on it. But he didn't invent the thing.

The Tony Williams flam-tap lick was another thing I got from Bobby, through Lou. I still use it today.

To cop one of Bobby's runs, listen to the bass drum rhythm first! Bobby would use an ostinatto on the bass drum to anchor whatever he was doing with his hands. That's the whole 'key' right there. If you don't nail the bass, you won't nail the lick. To sus out the hands, listen for the pattern he's using. In a solo, Bobby would; state the groove-pattern/repeat it/elaborate on it/then re-state the basic pattern. The ostinatto on the bass would tie the whole thing together. I'm trying real hard to give you some insight into him as a player. I hope it all doesn't sound too confusing.

Bobby Columby is simply 'another drummer' I highly recommend listening to.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VXGekIQ974[/ame]

John

Man you guys move too fast, all respect Bobby Colomby, but we sure got done with Papa Jo in a hurry.

1. Any body here read RiffTide? I just finished it, and it is quite a piece of work. I wonder how badly the editor might have gnarled up some of the transcriptions in some hopeless pursuit of coherence. That said, you certainly get some taste of the temper, great leaps, lateral jumps, long held grudges and sweetness of spirit that seemed to occupy just about every sentence he spoke.

2. Because of RiffTide I went back and re read the chapter in Drummin' Men devoted to Papa Jo. There is much more historical data there which helps untangle some of the RiffTide allusions.

3. I think that one of the wonderful things about Jo Jones, that is a rare achievement for our trade, is that he really did play time as a flow. I like this particular quote:

"Jo Jones discovered that he could play the flow of the rhythm, not its demarcation.” – Martin Williams

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.ca/2009/06/jo-jones-1911-1985.html

Isn't that a sweet description?

Patrick

Pat - by all means, spend as much time on Papa Jo as you wish. I idolize that guy.

John

Here's the Morello stuff I promised.

I think I was 15 when I heard Dave Brubeck's, 'Take Five.' It was a monster cross-over hit and it was being played several times a day on all the AM rock stations in New York City. I had been playing for three years at this point so I was really able to appreciate Joe's playing. Brubeck was fond of composing in time signatures that are considered odd-ball even by jazz standards. 5/4 for Take Five, 6/4 for Blue Rondo Ala Turk, 9/8...? 9/8! Now who plays in those weird time signatures? The answer is; The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Joe created some of the most memorable grooves in those PITA to count time signatures. Grooves which have become Classics. Joe was just an amazing and very talented drummer. I loved him and spent many hours trying to follow in his footsteps as he played on my stereo.

No more words. Joe speaks for himself...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htbaJFEAXQ&feature=related[/ame]

Drum-bums... please watch Joe's left hand here carefully. Brilliant finger control at work! When he goes for speed, he opens the fulcrum up instead of pinching it. His technique is a thing of beauty. Perfect, just perfect.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsKq3HD0EFc[/ame]

Enjoy,

John

John...great back story about Bobby.I understand he stopped playing and got a job as a record company exec.I don't know the truth of it,but he was and I'm sure,still is a gifted drummer.I just listened to BS+T's cover of "God Bless the Child",and it's still a lesson in dynamics,and style.

I have a Joe Morello story,that I think I may have posted,on another drum forum,but I don't think I posted it here.Anyway,I was getting back into playing,after one of my former band members,decided to get the old band back together and record some new music.

I needed some sticks,so I remembered driving by a place that had recently opened on Staten Island called Percussion Paradise.Coming home from work,I stopped in the place to pick up the sticks,and maybe shoot the breeze a bit.

A young man named Anthony owned the place,so we talked for a bit,then out of the corned of my eye,this guy comes out of one of the studios,and starts what can only be described as "playing the room".Literally,he was playing the walls,counter tops,cymbal stacks,drums and everything that he encountered.

As I gradually,began to believe what I was seeing,firstly,I couldn't believe,how great it sounded,and secondly, how much the guy doing the playing looked like Joe Morello.But it couldn't be Joe Morello,I mean after all,this is Staten Island,and Morello was a drum god of mine since high school.

So I say to Anthony,"I feel like a jerk saying this,but is that Joe Morello"?

Now Anthony has a huge grin on his face,and just says yep.So I meet Joe,half stammering and I'm still gobsmacked ,that this man is shaking my hand like we were old friends.Then I find out that Jim Chapin also teaches there.,and I begin to wonder if this is Candid Camera,or maybe a Twilight Zone episode,papallel universe thing.

Anyway,I was only able to take a few lessons from Joe,and see him in a clinic with Danny Gottlieb,due to a change in my work schedule.But he was a great guy.Humble,a great teacher,and an amazing drummer.

You just never know who you're going to meet,or where you're going to meet them.And I never got his autograph,or a photo with him.It just wasn't my thing,which in hindsight was just plain stupid.

Steve B

THANK YOU, Steve! Great anecdote! You lucky, lucky dog! Lessons with Joe Morello, dude, I'd be trembling just to pick up a set of sticks in front of him. How were you even able to play in front of him? I may be a candy-a$$, but I would have been way too self conscious to play up to my ability with a guy like Joe in the room. Talk about feeling out-classed!

The man had perfect technique. More than a lot of other drummers, I always watched Joe's hands like a hawk when I got to see him on video or TV. Sadly, I never got to see him 'live.' Brubeck's band was just one I never got the chance to hear live. I got to hear just about everybody else because of all the great jazz clubs that used to exist in Manhattan. But Brubeck was one that got away. I would have loved to watch Joe play live.

Again... you lucky, lucky dog!

John

John,thanks,it was a memorable few short weeks.I don't kmow how I was able to play.I was just getting back into drumming,after a 12 year layoff.Life just kept getting in the way.I was only fairly comfortable with a few rudaments,and some basic rock and jazz beats.My timing was at very first...all over the place,but I settled down after the initial nervous terror subsided.What was suppose to be an hour first lesson,turned into two,with no extra charge,as his next student cancelled at the last minute.When He found out I was an NYPD detective,the tables turned and he was the one being entertained by some of my cop stories.

I to feel lucky,and honored,to have been able to learn just a few things from a legend.

Steve B