Drums
The Drums, Various Artists. Impulse ASH 9272-3.
I can remember seeing the new Miles Davis group at the '72 Blues and Jazz Festival. I was pretty high at the time, and during one of those cosmic moments of revelation I decided that music was nothing more than The Beat: everything else flowed from and was subordinate to The Beat. That was the only way to explain what Miles Davis was up to, so maybe Dick Clark was right after all.
So now Impulse Records has released a three volume set entitled The Drums, with just about every important jazz drummer you could think of somewhere on this LP. The cuts span thirty years of music and all major jazz forms, from a 1943 Lester Young session to the most recent Keith Jarrett release. It's a real primer in the history of jazz as well as a thorough compilation of jazz drumming techniques and styles.
Jazz is a music of evolution. While one critic is complaining that the art form is dead, a dozen others are digging the newest sounds and dissecting the latest trends in what has to be the most vital American music form. Rhythm sections, indeed the entire concept of time keeping, have gone through many changes as jazz continues incorporating new elements to keep it alive, vital, and new, The beat goes on, whether in a stiff four-four or an implied, abstract backbeat. Styles range from laid back to frantic, from plain and straight ahead to colorful and exotic.
Enclosed with the three albums are some very readable liner notes by Bob Palmer. Palmer has done a fine job of assembling the information in a way that gives the listener a real feel for what's happening on the records, including quick biographies of the different artists, comparisons of styles, and an overview that ties all the disparate elements together into a swinging, comprehensible package. Palmer is not obsessed with dates, emphasizing lineage and stylistic evolution instead.
The programming of cuts on the different sides is refreshing. Instead of sticking to a chronological, predictable ordering, Impulse has grouped the tunes according to their "feel". So on side five you find a three-minute drum solo by Baby Dodds from 1946 next to Archie Shepp's hotly percussive composition "The Magic Of JuJu". Side six, on the other hand, while highly percussive, is much gentler, dwelling on color and texture as much as rhythms. Highlights include Paul Motion's fluid work with Keith Jarrett (highly reminiscent of Ornette Coleman's sound), and Barry Alstchul's vividly pretty jungle piece with Sam Rivers, entitled "Hues of Melanin".
Side Three opens with the hard-chargin' Buddy Rich and his big band, and doses with the propulsive, spectacular Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, searing with Gabor Szabo. Greased lightning! High energy treats all the way.
Side four is Coltrane country...with two darkly exotic performances by Elvin Jones, Alice Coltrane with the free-swinging Rashied Ali, plus a sizzling performance by Milford Graves with Albert Ayler's "Ghosts".
Sides one and two highlight different stars of the early sixties, who mostly play in a clean, straight-ahead groove. These sides are full of tasty solo work, models of brevity and inventiveness. All very relaxing and soulful.
Three-album releases are rarely worth the money, but this is a happy exception Since it's pretty much a sampler of Impulse items, the price is attractively low. Impulse records is making a concerted attempt to invade the record market with good jazz, and for those of you who need a good introduction to this colorful and diverse music, this is it.
For aficionados, this is the perfect springboard to an artist-by-artist collection representing different styles of jazz. It's too easy to be a purist and ignore other perfectly valid styles, and this collection is surely a mind-expanding experience. What I hear most from these different people is the incredible diversity of our planet, from the poly-rhythmic jungle sounds of West Africa, to the briliant hues of South America, and the raucous beat of urban black America; all these elements and more comprising the synthesis simply called jazz, America's only indigenous art form.
This is an album worth owning and growing with. As your appreciation of jazz increases, the excellent liner notes and star-studded personnel lists will acquire more meaning. All in all, The Drum is a great way to turn yourself on to some fine and funky stuff. I'd give it about a ninety-six.
--Jim Dulzo
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