{"id":8672,"date":"2022-02-15T08:53:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T08:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=8672"},"modified":"2022-02-15T08:53:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T08:53:53","slug":"jeff-ballard-jazz-man-talks-of-before-and-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2022\/02\/15\/jeff-ballard-jazz-man-talks-of-before-and-after\/","title":{"rendered":"JEFF BALLARD, JAZZ MAN, talks of before and after"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JEFF BALLARD, JAZZ MAN, <\/strong>talks of before and after<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Norman Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jeff Ballard (left)\u2014drummer, bandleader, educator, and intrepid spirit\u2014plops himself down into the chair onstage with a smile and a dark beer. Less than an hour after arriving by plane in Barcelona, he\u2019s ready for a full day of activities: a performance with a student big band under the direction of Majorcan composer\/arranger Toni Vaquer, as part of the Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival; a master class at the Conservatori Liceu, a leading European music institution; and a 90-minute Before & After listening session in one of the conservatory\u2019s performance\/lecture rooms, open to all Liceu students and a few members of the public. As the exercise is explained\u2014\u201chow Jeff interacts with the music is what we want to hear\u201d\u2014he tilts his head back and snores. The students all laugh. \u201cThat was me on the plane coming here,\u201d he says. For a man at the start of a busy day, he\u2019s in good spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After almost a year and a half of quarantine with his family in Bordeaux, France\u2014and a recent move to Florence, Italy\u2014Ballard was busy through the latter half of 2021. When not performing as part of Brad Mehldau\u2019s long-running trio, he\u2019s been touring with a trio built around his 2014 album\u00a0Times Tales<\/em>, with alto saxophonist Miguel Zen\u00f3n and guitarist\/singer Lionel Loueke. (shown right) <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s also looking toward a full schedule in 2022, co-leading a new quartet with bassist Larry Grenadier that also features guitarist Charles Altura and alto saxophonist Logan Richardson. Later in the year he\u2019ll be piloting his new ensemble, Fairgrounds<\/a>, with Loueke on guitar and vocals, Kevin Hays on keyboard, and Reid Anderson on bass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ballard begins the event speaking about the ambivalence he experienced during the 2020-2021 lockdown. \u201cThere were two sides. The horrible side of not being able to play as much. I think I had seven gigs in a year, you know. Normally a year for me would be at least six months on the road! It was really something else not playing. I remember a couple of moments standing outside of my house and thinking, \u2018What am I?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I had a nice scene set up in the house in Bordeaux, where I had the drums all ready to go. I could practice and record stuff. What I ended up doing was actually taking a rhythm that I got from a dear brother of mine, Lionel Loueke\u2014a rhythm from Benin\u2014and spent a whole year trying to learn that. I still don\u2019t own it, but it was so inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a few hours a day to play, but I have two kids who were also at home. I wasn\u2019t such a regular clock-punching kind of guy, but I became one. When my little girl had to take a nap, I just ran downstairs and played. That was always around two-ish, after lunch, and that was fruitful to a degree. It made me much more efficient than I would have been. I had never been home so long in my life ever. I ended up spending a lot of time with the kids and that I\u2019ll not trade for anything. I have a nice hookup with the kids now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was Ballard\u2019s first Before & After with JazzTimes<\/em>. \u201cBe gentle with me,\u201d he requested. With much energy and humour, he addressed most of his answers directly to the more than 70 students in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The questions that followed addressed tracks Ballard had recorded thus far in his career and how his relationship with those pieces of music might have altered since. When speaking about Back Bay Shuffle by Terry Gibbs, he recalled that nineteen sixties line up of Gibbs on vibraphone; Al Porcino, Conte Candoli, John Audino, Ray Triscari, Stu Williamson, trumpets; Bob Edmondson, Frank Rosolino, Bobby Pring, Tommy Sheppard, trombones; Joe Maini, Charlie Kennedy, alto saxophones; Bill Perkins, Mel Flory, tenor saxophones; Jack Schwartz, baritone saxophone; Lou Levy, piano; Buddy Clark, bass; Mel Lewis, drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first heard this, I was thinking maybe Kenny Clarke because of what he plays on the hi-hat when the band is coming in. There\u2019s an older way about it. If I\u2019m listening to the drummer right now, I\u2019m listening to the shape of the swing [vocalizes a swing pattern]. But then I heard his interaction with the horns and Mel [Lewis] would do that. Mel plays linearly, you know. He\u2019s playing with the line of the horn [vocalizes a melodic line] and the band is playing along. He\u2019s weaving inside that stuff. He\u2019s one of the best big-band drummers that ever stomped the planet. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s hear some more of that. Is that Terry Gibbs? It flattens out. There\u2019s a little different shape to that swing, which is more modern, in my view. It\u2019s not so short. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Did Mel Lewis fit into your drumming world when you were starting out?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big time. Early for me was big-band drumming\u2014it was Count Basie for breakfast, lunch and dinner, playing in the garage, or listening in my room to Sonny Payne from 1958, \u201959, \u201960. I was just living that, dreaming that, pretending I was that. During my sophomore year in high school, I was playing along with these records and I\u2019d bring them to the band I played in at school. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father had a live record of Terry Gibbs and man, that was the greatest shit you ever heard. It was so good. Mel was the drummer, with Frank Rosolino and the Candoli Brothers, and it was just super-fun to play along because I could play the parts. It wasn\u2019t so much wild improvisation or the subtleties of improvisation that later became interesting to me. That record, and also to find Thad Jones\/Mel Lewis big band [records] was the greatest stuff for me. Mel was from New York and he was coming from real old school and he knew all those old-school guys and was the champion of that. He modernized those roots, let\u2019s say.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next track Ballard was asked to reflect on was. Donny McCaslin\u00b4s \u00a0<\/strong>\u201c54 Cymru Beats\u201d (from\u00a0Future Fast<\/em>, Greenleaf Music) which featured McCaslin (right), on tenor saxophone; Nate Wood, electric guitar; Jason Lindner, electric keyboards; Tim Lefebvre, bass; Mark Giuliana, drums. Recorded in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s probably Mark [Giuliana] playing drums on that\u2014\u201cBig Foot\u201d Mark. Totally. There\u2019s a couple of descriptive words that come to mind: precision, extraordinary precision, and a certain organic quality to the way it\u2019s played. Early Mark Giuliana had a thing going on with the typewriter [makes typewriter noises]. It\u2019s not digital but it\u2019s pretty damn precise if you want it to be, and Mark likes that analog quality, super-precise but there\u2019s a round, warm quality. Also the fact that he enjoys risk gives a kind of organic quality to his playing. I love Mark, he\u2019s a good friend.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s Donny [McCaslin]. He is a few years younger than I am and we\u2019re both from Santa Cruz, California. It took me a second because there is this thing that Donny has and I couldn\u2019t quite hear it until he got to his altissimo range, and then I heard Donny\u2019s voice. I thought it could have been Chris Potter for a moment because Potter can have a biting edge to his sound, a certain urgency and energy, and Donny has that too. They both can also play beautifully and poetically but their main go-to is that edge. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we try to hear when we say, \u201cWho\u2019s that playing?\u201d is their voice, right? It\u2019s like an old friend\u2019s voice on the phone\u2014it\u2019s absolutely the same. Hank Jones sits at the piano and it sounds like the way Hank Jones plays it, and then Chick Corea gets up on that piano\u2014same piano, same room, right after Hank\u2014and it sounds like a totally different instrument. I can get drums to sound like me that are not my drums, you know.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s incredible is that when you get your sound together, you\u2019re reinventing that instrument. It can sound like that, like it never sounded before. [To students] That\u2019s great news because that means there\u2019s room for everybody. I didn\u2019t go looking for my sound, not consciously, like, \u201cI\u2019m going to do this and this, and it\u2019s going to be my sound.\u201d It just happens. You\u2019re attracted to a certain type of timbre. Donny\u2019s got the edge to his sound or Mark\u2019s got that big-foot quality in his playing, and they\u2019re into this kind of music.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interviewer moves on now to Hampton Hawes and a recording of Rhonda (from Here and Now<\/em>, Contemporary) with Hawes on  piano; Chuck Israels, bass; Donald Bailey, drums. Recorded in 1965. Journalist and Jazzman listen together to the full track before Jeff reflects on his feelings for this music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u00b4s one of my favorite drummers on the planet. This is Donald Bailey. No one plays like him. Donald Bailey is a rare bird. [To students] Anybody heard of Victor Bailey? Electric bass player who played with Weather Report and passed away not so long ago. Super great. Donald was his uncle, and they\u2019re both from Philadelphia.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald could play anything\u2014harmonica, trombone. He was kind of a homemade guy: His snare drum was at this angle [uses hands to describe unorthodox setup], his tom-tom like that, the floor tom was like that, and the bass drum was up like this and he had this big fluffy beater. Donald Bailey played with Jimmy Smith, grooved it to death. He\u2019s playing with Hampton Hawes here. He played a long time with Carmen McRae. Soulful guy\u2014soulful, soulful.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His cymbal work said it all. The strange places he puts them. If I\u2019m listening to these guys like Mark or Donald or whomever, I\u2019m listening to their placement. How they sit on the beat, or how they cut up the space. It could sit flat or sharply. It could sit with a nice round feel, a big fat backbeat type of thing. Its shape. I was talking earlier about Mel Lewis\u2019 beat. Talk about shape, guys who swing like that or Billy Higgins or Ed Blackwell\u2014these guys have a straight kind of jam. It\u2019s the same with Donald\u2019s beat. I think of it as a soulful swing. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So Donald Bailey\u2019s (left)<\/strong> got a really peculiar thing and he\u2019ll lay bombs in the most wrong spots. He\u2019s going [vocalizes an offbeat pattern] and that is not supposed to swing at all. But it\u2019s swinging the shit out of it. It\u2019s like what Paul Motian might do too, you know. It\u2019s not supposed to work but when they do it, it\u2019s like that is\u00a0the\u00a0coolest thing to do.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack DeJohnette once described his playing like watching a clothes dryer and you see the clothes going around. Sometimes they\u2019re in a clump, sometimes spread out evenly and there\u2019s this red shirt that pops up now and then and goes across all of it. But what Duck plays keeps this circle in the middle, always happening. That\u2019s his beat. That\u2019s his groove.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was living in northern California for a while, so I got to see him a lot and I\u2019m honored to say he was a friend. Quick funny story: He was playing with Frank Morgan at a jazz festival, and Duck [Bailey\u2019s nickname] shows up and in his kit, he\u2019s got one of those early synth drums. Silly stuff. And Frank is a bebopper.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was watching backstage and the concert starts and they\u2019re playing and it\u2019s all great, and then they started \u201cCaravan.\u201d He had that synth drum right there and he starts to play and then he hits the pad to trigger it and it goes [vocalizes loud repeating pattern like a stuck CD]. It was a malfunction of some sort and he\u2019s hitting it again and again, and it\u2019s stuck, and Frank turns around and says, \u201cWhat the hell is going on?\u201d Finally, he just pulled out the cable to stop it, and then played a great intro<\/em>. He wasn\u2019t afraid to try something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Audience were next played a recording of Jo Jones\u00b4 drum feature on \u201cCaravan\u201d (from Jazz at the Philharmonic Allstars performance at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Holland; YouTube video), with Roy Eldridge, trumpet; Herb Ellis, electric guitar; Don Abney, piano; Ray Brown, bass; Jones, drums. This had been first recorded in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I want to mention Jo Jones (right) <\/strong> because of the material that he plays. [Listens for another minute<\/strong>] Yeah, that\u2019s Jo Jones. At the beginning I heard that bass drum and thought, \u201cOh, Buddy Rich.\u201d Then the technique came after, and Jo Jones is not on a Buddy Rich level of technician. [Turns to look at screen<\/strong>] We should watch this because if no one knows this, this is a must-see. So, let\u00b4s re-start this,..,..<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is \u201cCaravan,\u201d yeah?<\/em> [To students<\/em>]<\/strong> So Jo Jones is like a walking encyclopedia of drumming. There are some guys that changed the way the instrument is played, and Jo Jones is one of those guys. He\u2019s part of the original Count Basie band and his way of swinging was super-sophisticated. You could compare Basie with Duke Ellington\u2014Duke is about the arrangement, the orchestrations, the invention, and the beat, and Basie\u2019s about all of that but he\u2019s really about the beat. Here\u2019s this sound of this band that\u2019s coming out of the Midwest where it\u2019s more cool and chill and the music that came out of that was guys building riffs behind the melody, vocalist or soloist. It was kind of hangin\u2019. Whereas on the East Coast you\u2019ve got Fletcher Henderson and other guys writing out all the parts for people to play, right? My idea is if you\u2019re playing this music and adding things in this jam-session type of way, you\u2019re groovin\u2019. The main protagonist in this thing is always the invention of melody. But just as important is the<\/em> beat, the groove, and how you can help it\u2014I get that feeling from Jo Jones.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Watches more of video]<\/em><\/strong> He has a routine, and if you listen to a lot of his solos you\u2019ll hear all this stuff. So here you have some Jo Jones-isms and he\u2019s very graceful and it\u2019s not, like, closed-eyes playing [mimics a grimacing drummer playing with effort]. He\u2019s open, he\u2019s cool. He\u2019s not: \u201cI\u2019m going to play the greatest, dig into the deepest well, keep reinventing.\u201d No, he\u2019s playing his thing. Look at that face. C\u2019mon! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Continues to watch as Jones plays snare with hands<\/strong>] 1957 \u2026 the bass drum is going \u2026 some changes in tonality. Look where he places his hands. Not just on the drums, but where he\u2019s playing it. This sounds different than that, right? This is Jazz at the Philharmonic. That\u2019s Norman Granz producing these concerts. [Video ends; awed silence.] <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was almost a master class by itself. <\/strong><\/em>I mean, look how modern that was. To me, it\u2019s super-modern<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iraker was a Cuban band, founded by pianist\u00a0Chucho Vald\u00e9s<\/a> (left)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(son of\u00a0Bebo Vald\u00e9s<\/a>) in 1973 that delivered\u201cCheker\u00e9 Son\u201d (from\u00a0Cheker\u00e9 Son<\/em>, Milestone), featuring \u00a0Paquito D\u2019Rivera, alto saxophone, flute, baritone saxophone; Carlos Averoff, tenor saxophone; Arturo Sandoval, Jorge Varona, trumpets; Carlos Emilio Morales, electric guitar; Chucho Vald\u00e9s, electric piano; Carlos Del Puerto, electric bass; Enrique Pl\u00e1, drums; Jorge Alfonso, percussion; Armando Cuervo, percussion, vocals; Oscar Vald\u00e9s, percussion, lead vocals. Recorded in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not so sure. I know this piece actually, somehow. But I can\u2019t remember. What\u2019s wack about this is that it\u2019s got so many different songs going on at the same time, a whole bunch of different tunes all in one big pot. Even the way they\u2019re soloing and improvising\u2014there\u2019s a moment of some Miles, that Bitches Brew-ish type of world, there\u2019s some Chick, there\u2019s some Herbie, some Hermeto Pascoal. Another one this could be is Airto Moreira. This also reminded me of guys from northern California, and some cats from Oakland\u2014people I know. It\u2019s a weird mix. \u201cBillie\u2019s Bounce\u201d was in there. That bassline, that\u2019s another one. I have to surrender on this one. Give me another<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this Irakere? Right on, man, thank you. I know that band pretty well, actually, but that wasn\u2019t a tune I\u2019ve lived with. This band for me was so great because they brought some funk and some jazz into the Afro-Cuban rhythm world, which I appreciate more now than before. Before I was more into the rhumba type of Cuban beat, which is a whole other bag.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/strong>This was somewhat of a breakout tune for Irakere but it doesn\u2019t necessarily show off Enrique Pl\u00e1 (right)<\/em><\/strong> , who is just a wicked badass. He\u2019s another one who kind of reassembled this instrument and made it do some things it hadn\u2019t done before, for sure. Him and Changuito [Jos\u00e9 Luis Quintana] and younger guys too\u2014El Negro [Horacio Hern\u00e1ndez], Steve Berrios, Ignacio [Berroa], those guys\u2014Cuban cats that modernized, brought it up to date. They grew up in this time, hearing Irakere. And this lineup includes the beautiful piano player with huge hands, Chucho Vald\u00e9s. Wow, a force of nature. Yeah, that was a killing band. That band and Los Van Van are big on my listening list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith Dobson with Bobby Hutcherson recorded
\u201cLove\u2019s Mirror Image\u201d (from Sasha Bossa<\/em>, Quartet). Dobson, piano; Hutcherson, vibraphone; Jeff Carney, bass; Eddie Marshall, drums. Recorded in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds like Bobby. [Listens to entire tune with eyes closed]<\/em><\/strong> Beautiful. I was listening hard.Yeah. I was enjoying it. First thing I was thinking about was the very last thing they did: not overdramatizing the ending. Many times bands will be like, \u201cHere it comes!\u201d Or they wait, ritard a whole lot. Or they have this big, long cadenza like it\u2019s the time to get the rest of the crap out of your system or something. I have a high regard for tunes that just \u2026 encounter the end, you know. It\u2019s not a big windup, it\u2019s not a free kick. It\u2019s part of<\/em> the game and it lands like it should.<\/em> [To students<\/em>]<\/strong> Let it tell you how it would like to land.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed that a lot in that Clifford Brown\/Max Roach band. The way they finished a lot of their songs\u2014very plain, just finished the tune, it just has the right sort of little lateness to landing, and if someone\u2019s got something to say at the end they can say it. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s fragile, don\u2019t touch it, but just don\u2019t strangle it, don\u2019t wrestle it to the ground.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So my first guess is Bobby with Ron Carter, and I was thinking Billy Hart but I can\u2019t fully commit to saying it\u2019s Billy, and I\u2019m sorry I couldn\u2019t figure who the piano player was\u2014I couldn\u2019t identify his voice or what he was playing. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh Smith, no shit. That was Bobby. Who\u2019s playing bass? Jeff Carney doing a ton of Ron Carter. These are all cats from my area. You got me, man. I didn\u2019t even recognize it. I would never have recognized Jeff. I thought maybe it was Ron on a weird day. [Laughs] Jeff Carney is a friend, he was the man about town. And Eddie Marshall, wow. He played with Bobby McFerrin. He\u2019s another very impressive guy. Eddie was one of the first guys I took a lesson with and was the first drummer I saw play with all four limbs doing something differently, modern jazz drumming instead of big-band drumming that I was coming out of. He showed me a lot of what Tony Williams was about. And I never heard Smith from the outside like that!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith is a very important guy for me, man. He took me under his wing. I was 16, playing in a high-school band and also in this community college band, and Smith and his wife Gail came to this college, giving a clinic, and I sat in and he said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come and sit in on my gig?\u201d This is in northern California. He had this gig that was in a club where they had music seven nights a week, and on Tuesdays, just he and a bassist played. So on Tuesday nights I would bring my drums and we\u2019d drive together about an hour to get to the gig, cranking up the music, and we\u2019d listen to Miles and whatever. I was learning a lot just by osmosis, just by hanging around this great, natural player\u2014unbelievably natural, and he sang so well. He\u2019s passed away now.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Here I was 16, 17 years old and started playing these gigs we called \u201ccasuals\u201d\u2014a wedding or a convention or some sort of function. In Boston they\u2019re called \u201cgeneral business.\u201d We played some Stevie Wonder tunes for people to dance to, and he and his wife would sing. He also would do some great Donny Hathaway songs, and he knew all these standards. It was a school for me. It was the greatest school.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students here need to know how local cats can be the most important teachers. Seriously,<\/em>absolutely. Smith was huge. The club he\u2019d play at, Garden City [in San Jose], was part of a route that touring groups would play in northern California. They would play a club in San Francisco, for example, and then would play Sunday night at Garden City, and then they\u2019d come down to Santa Cruz, my hometown, and play at this place called the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on a Monday night. Kuumbwa is where I got to see Dexter and Freddie and Paul Motian and all these guys. Smith was a huge part of the local scene. He would cultivate young players and have them play in his bands and he just stayed local. He probably could have gone to New York and made more of an impact, in a bigger sense. Instead he went the family route. His son, Smith Jr., plays all these different instruments very well, and his daughter is Sasha Dobson, who\u2019s a great singer. She\u2019s doing stuff now with Norah Jones. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interesting fact about Eddie Marshall is that he\u2019s the great-grandson of \u2026 oh, what\u2019s his name? He was the dude who played in Fletcher Henderson\u2019s band and was the guy that brought the sock cymbal up to the hi-hat before it was the high hat\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chick Corea, a name that frequently appears on these pages released, in 2013,\u201cGalaxy 32 Star 4\u201d (from The Vigil<\/em>, Concord Jazz). Corea, synthesizers; Tim Garland, soprano saxophone; Charles Altura, guitar; Hadrien Feraud, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums; Pernell Saturnino, percussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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chickI\u2019m a little unsure. There\u2019s a lot of Chick-ism in there but I was thinking if it would be Chick it would have a little more bite, a little more \u2026 I don\u2019t know what to say. When the note speaks, it can speak or it can SPEAK. Like the velocity of it becoming what it is. Brad [Mehldau] has that too but it\u2019s a different tonality, a different timbre. So that was making me kind of hesitate to say it\u2019s Chick, but then there was a lick of Chick\u2019s or a sound of Chick\u2019s in there. I\u2019m leaning with that, but I can\u2019t commit 100 percent. And I don\u2019t know that piece.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What made me ask you to stop was that I\u2019m really trying to hear their voice and if I\u2019m listening to it, I\u2019m not listening to his lines only, I\u2019m listening for the vocal quality of the instrument. Even if it\u2019s an electronic instrument, somehow the voice does translate into that. Then I\u2019m listening to the sound of the drums and I\u2019m guessing, is that Lenny [White]? Is this a Return to Forever kind of thing that I don\u2019t know? I\u2019m a little bit at a loss. Why don\u2019t you reveal it?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, Marcus! Killing. Look at that. Right on. I would never have guessed that was Marcus\u2014never, ever, ever, ever. Because I don\u2019t hear him playing that way. I hear him being much more rebellious, more ridiculously explorative, you know. I heard some timbale lick and he\u2019s quite knowledgeable about Afro-Cuban drumming, so it makes sense it\u2019s him, knowing that now.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 But the sound, and that sort of precision \u2026 with Marcus Gilmore I hear more touch involved, and I associate more of the element of touch in Marcus\u2019 playing than I heard here. It sure sounded older than it is. I thought Return to Forever, which is the \u201970s, come on. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another seminal release within Jeff Ballard\u00b4s life-time has been Chano Dom\u00ednguez has been \u201cFreddie Freeloader\u201d (from Flamenco Sketches<\/em>, Blue Note). Dom\u00ednguez, piano; Mario Rossy, bass; \u201cPira\u00f1a\u201d Israel Suarez, caj\u00f3n, other percussion; Blas \u201cKej\u00edo\u201d C\u00f3rdoba, vocals, handclaps; Tom\u00e1s \u201cTomasito\u201d Moreno, dance, handclaps. Recorded in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I know Chano could do this. Chano Dom\u00ednguez. (right)<\/strong> That would be my guess, because he knows some blues and the whole intro was some pretty cool blues, but it was slippery and loose. But it wasn\u2019t like a Ray Charles kind of slippery loose blues. There was some other thing, extra notes in there. And then it had this live mix with people talking. And no drum kit\u2014just caj\u00f3n. It\u2019s got the culture of flamenco in it, so I put two and two together. Yeah, swingin\u2019! This is \u201cFreddie Freeloader,\u201d Freddie\u2019s blues.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I lived in Barcelona for a little bit, I started playing some caj\u00f3n and I loved that instrument. [To students<\/strong>] Look, with caj\u00f3n, you\u2019ve got low\u2014graves. [Hits imaginary caj\u00f3n between his knees, explaining the instrument\u2019s range] Y agudos. High. Ooh! Aah! You break it down to those two fundamentals, basic DNA. You can do anything with that. Then the only other thing you need is place, where you place it [sings rhythmic pattern, accenting and shifting placement of caj\u00f3n hits]. It changes how it dances, right? So it\u2019s tonal place. You\u2019ve got low and high and you got place. The caj\u00f3n can give you all that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of amazing. Invention, you know, is a mother\u2026 Lionel was telling me about pulling out the wires from a screen window and using those for guitar strings, and if it broke you tied it together and you played around that knot, and that was his first guitar and he got something that came out of all that. The Africans who were enslaved and brought over to North and South America, as I understand it, were not allowed to play music together in most places. They could sing while they were working but they were not allowed to play instruments. No drumming, for sure. So they disguised the instruments, or created ones they could hide in plain sight, like the caj\u00f3n. They\u2019re sitting on top of a \u201cchair\u201d\u2014which would be a box\u2014and then when the Man was walking by, they\u2019d just stop. Caj\u00f3n is that kind of a thing, you know. An invention by necessity.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff Ballard was being interviewed by Ashley Kahnthe Grammy-winning American music historian, journalist, producer, and professor. He teaches at New York University\u2019s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, and has written books on two legendary recordings\u2014Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane\u2014as well as one book on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. He also co-authored the Carlos Santana autobiography The Universal Tone, and edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do, having spoken of the before and after, let\u00b4s bring you right back to the here and now, to listen to jazz on the radio. In fact if, as we do, you like many kinds of music you might wish to join our friends and colleagues,\u00a0 Steve Bewick and Gary Heywood-Everett, for a broadcast of their Valentines Suite of romantic jazz. This will include some old favourites from Chet Baker, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday, with some new contenders from John Leighton<\/a>, Jill Torvaney<\/a> and Jim McJannet<\/a> and more besides.If this sounds interesting please share it with your friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join Steve and Gary at www.mixcloud.com\/stevebewick\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The primary source for this article was\u00a0 first published in Jazz Times, attributed to Ashley Khan.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our occasional re-postings Sidetracks And Detours are confident that we are not only sharing with our readers excellent articles written by experts but are also pointing to informed and informative sites readers will re-visit time and again. Of course, we feel sure our readers will also return to our daily not-for-profit blog knowing that we seek to provide core original material whilst sometimes spotlighting the best pieces from elsewhere, as we engage with genres and practitioners along all the sidetracks & detours we take.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was collated by Norman Warwick, a weekly columnist with Lanzarote Information and owner and editor of this daily blog at Sidetracks And Detours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman has also been a long serving broadcaster, co-presenting the weekly all across the arts programme on Crescent Community Radio for many years with Steve, and his own show on Sherwood Community Radio, and regularly guest on BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio 4.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a published author and poet he was a founder member of Lendanear Music, with Colin Lever and Just Poets with Pam McKee, Touchstones Creative Writing Group (where he was creative writing facilitator for a number of years) with Val Chadwick and all across the arts with Robin Parker.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Monday to Friday,<\/strong> you will find a daily post here at Sidetracks And Detours and, should you be looking for good reading, over the weekend you can visit our massive but easy to navigate archives of over 500 articles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The purpose of this daily not-for-profit blog is to deliver news, previews, interviews and reviews from all across the arts to die-hard fans and non- traditional audiences around the world. We are therefore always delighted to receive your own articles here at Sidetracks And Detours. So if you have a favourite artist, event, or venue that you would like to tell us more about just drop a Word document attachment to me at <\/strong>normanwarwick55@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a> with a couple of appropriate photographs in a zip folder if you wish. Beiung a not-for-profit organisation we unfortunately cannot pay you but we will always fully attribute any pieces we publish. You therefore might also. like to include a brief autobiography and photograph of yourself<\/strong> in your submission. We look forward to hearing from you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sidetracks And Detours is seeking to join the synergy of organisations that support the arts of whatever genre. We are therefore grateful to all those share information to reach as wide and diverse an audience as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

correspondents                                Michael Higgins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Steve Bewick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Gary Heywood Everett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Steve Cooke<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Susana Fondon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Graham Marshall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Peter Pearson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hot Biscuits Jazz Radio                      www.fc-radio.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AllMusic  <\/strong><\/a>                                          <\/strong>https:\/\/www.allmusic.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

feedspot                                              https:\/\/www.feedspot.com\/?_src=folder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazz In Reading                                  https:\/\/www.jazzinreading.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazziz                                                 https:\/\/www.jazziz.com
<\/a>Ribble Valley Jazz & Blues                https:\/\/rvjazzandblues.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Adams                                         Music That\u00b4s Going Places<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lanzarote Information                        https:\/\/lanzaroteinformation.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all across the arts                                 www.allacrossthearts.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rochdale Music Society                     rochdalemusicsociety.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lendanear                                           www.lendanearmusic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agenda Cultura Lanzarote<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Lanzarote Art Gallery                  https:\/\/lanzaroteartgallery.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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songfacts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/SongFacts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Ballard , jazz man, is a drummer, bandleader, educator, and intrepid spirit and here talks of the before and after of the music he loves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8688,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8672\/revisions\/8688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}