Levon Helm

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Levon Helm, one of the greatest and most unique drummers in the history of American music. Levon’s drumming had a delightful, inimitable earthiness to it—it could be joyous, driving, and buoyant, but it could also be stately, dignified and sad. In short, his playing displayed a wide range of emotions, which is not always easy for drumming to do. Once you heard his wonderful singing, however, which was so full of feeling, it made sense that his drumming would naturally follow suit. Indeed, as music critic Jon Carroll once wrote, “Levon Helm is the only drummer who can make you cry.”

I’d like to think that Levon’s style has had somewhat of a positive influence on my own drumming. I especially remember a period, when I was playing in my first rock band, when I was listening a lot to the live Bob Dylan/Band album “Before the Flood,” and was enamored with his brilliant playing on it. I loved how he played with such a layered sound, with his cymbals and snare drum chattering along together as he propelled the Band. The beat was fat and wide, but there were so many little nuances, so many embellishments that he employed that were thrilling. I used to try to emulate that feel in my own playing, probably with mixed success, but at the very least it opened my eyes to the variety of textures that one could achieve in playing this music.

Just the other day I listened to Muddy Waters’ Woodstock album, which featured Levon’s drumming, and I smiled to hear his great take on the blues. I now need to go and re-watch The Last Waltz and revel in his wonderful singing and drumming once again. And from there I'll need to move on to “Music From Big Pink,” and “The Band”…

Here's a nice clip of Levon singing and drumming on the rollicking "Ophelia" from The last Waltz:

RIP, Levon. You were a beautiful soul.

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas: The Ultimate Collection

When I was in high school (circa 1989, I believe) I bought a copy (on cassette, of course) of Martha and the Vandellas’ Greatest Hits. It’s possibly the first Motown album I ever owned. About three or four years ago I figured it was finally time to get an upgrade from the ol’ cassette, so I obtained a wonderful CD compilation called “Martha Reeves and The Vandellas: the Ultimate Collection.” Upon listening to it I was blown away by how great it sounded, and I remember thinking at the time, “If I ever get around to starting a blog, this is kind of stuff I’d love to write about.” Now that I’ve finally started this little blog, I remembered my thoughts from back then, and I decided that I’d make this collection the subject of my second post.

I suppose what I have to say is not just about this collection in particular, but about the Motown sound in general, and most specifically the contributions of the wonderful house band at the Motown studio in Detroit. These guys churned out flawless tracks day in and day out for years. I can recall reading an interview about ten to fifteen years ago with a well-known producer (I can’t remember which one) who said that whenever he needed inspiration before recording rhythm section tracks, he would listen to a bunch of Motown recordings. “Why is that?” the interviewer asked. “Because,” the producer said, “those rhythm section tracks are PERFECT.” I can’t think of a better demonstration of that perfection than this Martha Reeves collection.

Martha Reeves was (and IS—I had the good fortune of seeing her perform just a few months ago in Portland, Oregon, and she sounded great) a wonderful singer, and she pushes these tunes along with class—I particularly like her brash vocals on “Live Wire,” “My Baby Loves Me,” and “Heat Wave.” But with all due respect, the real star on these recordings is the band: there were a lot of players involved at Motown, but the core unit consisted of Earl Van Dyke on keyboards; Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina on guitar; Benny Benjamin, Uriel Jones and Richard “Pistol” Allen on drums; Eddie “Bongo” Brown and Jack Ashford on percussion; and the legendary James Jamerson on bass. And their sound, especially on this CD, packed a wallop. These are some driving numbers: “Heat Wave,” “Dancing in the Streets,” “Nowhere to Run,” “Ready for Love,” “Quick Sand,” and “Wild One” are all incredibly exciting. And I especially love the shuffles: the Motown drummers were masters of the swinging R&B shuffle, and this compilation showcases some great examples of their prowess in this area. I’ve heard that a lot of the drum tracks for the shuffle tunes at Motown were performed by “Pistol” Allen, because he was particularly adept at them; whoever it was, the drummer who played on these shuffles was one badass, swinging cat (sidenote: some trivia about Pistol Allen—that’s also him playing the killer fast gospel drum groove on Jackie Wilson’s (non-Motown) “Higher and Higher”). “Heat Wave” is a killer, as are “Come Get These Memories,” “Jimmy Mack,” (this one has a groove as well as some snare fills that are tasty beyond compare) and the ferocious “Ready for Love”; but perhaps my favorite of the shuffles is “In My Lonely Room”—it swings like a mother, and the drums play this cool fill on the choruses (technically, it’s just the second and third notes of a triplet repeated on the snare and sometimes the toms) that knocks me out every time I hear it. Incidentally, check out the intro to that tune, which showcases 8 bars of beautifully strummed guitars (accompanied by vibraphone), before the rest of the band (including a swinging, brassy horn section) enters and kicks it into high gear.

Anyhow, for anyone who is a fan of Motown in particular, or 60’s soul music in general, or just likes well-constructed, beautifully played and sung pop music, I highly recommend this collection. It showcases the Motown band in all their glory, and you can’t get any better than that.

First post (and a shout out to SK!)

Okay, I thought I'd give this blogging thing a shot. I'm not sure how often I'll get around to posting things here, but from time to time I'll try to post some stuff that I find interesting, and perhaps someone other than myself might even find (at least) some of it interesting as well (although I'm not placing high hopes on this!). I'll probably end up mostly posting about a lot of my favorite music, or about music that I've been playing myself (I'm a drummer). Perhaps I'll spend 90% of my time talking about my favorite drummers. I'm not sure yet. I'll also probably talk about books I've been reading, or my favorite authors, or various religious or philosophical topics that interest me (this in between blogs about the cool drummers, of course). We'll see how it goes.

I should mention that my inspiration for starting this blog came from my good friend, Sonia Kim. She's in the process of constructing her own incredibly awesome blog, called the SK Chronicles, that should be unveiled to the world at any moment now. If you want to read cool stuff about dogs, you'd best skedaddle away from my page and get thee to her blog straightaway!

For those who stop by here, feel free to let me know (before the afore-mentioned skedaddling occurs) what you think. Thanks!