LIGHTNING GROK BLOSSOM

Thoughts I had tonight while contemplating,
"What makes a drummers different from each other
and different from computers?"

OK there are infinite number of patterns possible.
So even if you were to play your entire life for 24 hours a day
you would be lacking thoroughness almost one hundred percent.
In other words James Tate's "The Oblivion Ha-Ha."

This is one possible antidote to ego-driven virtuosity.
Speed and complexity can be sad and kinda pitiful
if the delivery is too earnest
or if light speed is forgotten for a bit.

This is where dimensionality comes in.
Conquering seems to happen by staying where you are
rather than strong-arming  knowledge
into an attainable intellectual realm like what zoos do to animals,
that infinite lust; water-bottle-wielding mirage chasers.

Knowledge needs to be grokked
at the level of silent intuitive action
while letting go of ownership.
Dropping through and into infinite knowledge
cross referenced through the rainbow-origin
of all emotional states and spiritual illuminations,
(Milford Graves talks about playing different emotions
on different limbs: feeling-polymeters)
That center of the wheel omniscience.
Time Itself blah blah blah.

But in addition to knowledge
there is context, timing of delivery,
stand up comedy rhythms.
Harold Bloom, to paraphrase,
said the common denominator of all bad poetry
is that it is too sincere.
This is a naivete of context.

Aka your spilled milk is funny
if there is a meteor about to land on you.

Aka Brubeck's "Take Five" would be thrilled
to cross dress as a waltz for a night.

Aka the intelligence to quote "Stars Wars"
in "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

OK so there is vocabulary
and then there is poetry and fucking magic.

Awareness, sensibility, and fearless intuition
make infinity applicable instead of useless.

These are what allow your whole voice to blossom
toward the tangible. Lightning and thunder etc.


Below is the video where Professor Graves
talk about different emotions on different limbs.

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

Homage to Sugimoto

I am obsessed with how water is perpetually seeking horizontal. When I came across photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto I was completely blown away by the simplicity and power of his seascape images. The chalk drawing on a brick is an Homage to his seascapes.

I tell my drum students that it is the role of the drummer to become the ocean for Jesus to walk on. Drumming is about finding true horizontal and radiating that through consciousness, breath, silence, and an ocean of sound that is in total selfless support of the music.