The Secret Service

When you are backing a singer or a soloist it's like being part of the Secret Service. You don't see secret service agents staring at the wall and looking bored EVER! No, because their mission is CLEAR; they are to protect the President AT ALL COSTS, even if it means sacrificing their own lives. Mind, heart, intuition, breath, EVERYTHING is focused on the protection of the President.

IT IS THE SAME WITH MUSIC; EGOLESS SERVICE TO THE MUSIC AND TO THE MUSICIANS. Bradford Marsalis remembers what Coltrane's drummer ELVIN JONES had to say about this.

"a lot of younger musicians were hanging around with Elvin Jones, and they were talking about, ‘Man, you know, you guys had an intensity when you were playing with Coltrane. I mean, what was it like? How do you play with that kind of intensity?’ And Elvin Jones looks at them and says, ‘You gotta be willing to die with the motherfucker.’ They started laughing like kids do, waiting for the punchline, and then they realized he was serious...."

The AWARENESS needs to be resilient and flexible enough to maintain awareness on the execution of an instrument and feel (holding your own), while at the same having an awareness of the entire band as ONE UNIT (giving your all).

I tell my students that it is the drummer's DHARMA to be the OCEAN for JESUS to walk on. This requires a balanced ego, massive intuition, dedicated practice, and LOTS OF LISTENING AND RESEARCH. Peter Erskine says in the new DRUMHEAD magazine,

"Imagine, the rhythm section is a bright blue background and the soloist cuts a brilliant red diagonal stripe across it, it makes no sense for us to turn red"

RHYTHM SECTION = OCEAN
SOLOIST = JESUS WALKING

The Freedom to Create: Having a setup

David Lynch wrote a book called "CATCHING THE BIG FISH." It's Lynch's equivalent to THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS. There is a chapter called "HAVING A SETUP." This chapter talks about how crucial it is for an artist to have a studio, a place that is prepared with the tools and square footage to put your ideas into the ACTION and CREATION. He says,

It's crucial to have a setup, so that, at any given moment, when you get an idea, you have the place and the tools to make it happen.

I'm posting this quote today out of pride, because my band, the Evangenitals, just put money down on a lockout studio in Silver lake. In addition to being able to rehearse 24/7, I will also be able to teach drums and tabla there. Most importantly I/WE will have a setup, a place to execute ART. (double meaning?)

One thing about drummers is that their "PROCESS" can be insanely annoying to neighbors who don't understand why you would want to practice straight eighth notes on a snare drum for one hour straight :) The crux of my mission statement is through music to facilitate "THE EXPANSION OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS IN EVERY LIVING BEING." Coltrane himself said it's about UPLIFTING PEOPLE.

That was my heartache about the drums; "out of context" when you are trying to rope a complex pattern into music, the process can be ugly, loud, and hard on the listener. Now that I have a studio with 24 hour access 7 days a week I can play as loud as I need and experiment with every possible dynamic and idea (screaming into megaphones etc :)) without the danger of invading someone's sanctity. That is a beautiful thing. That is freedom. The freedom to create. FIND IT!