After having watched the episodes on guitar and bass, I wasn't going to bother with the drums. But I decided in the end to give it a go. When it started with Buddy Rich, I thought I might as well forget the rest as all modern drumming starts with him. However there was something about the early jazz drumming that led me to remember the Saturday nights at the Dunmow Jazz Club in my youth. The drummer always had a solo when the rest of the band could take a break.
It was when Stewart Copeland talked about Earl Palmer that I was glad I had watched the programme. Earl was the drummer on "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino. I agreed with Copeland that this was the first ever rock and roll recording in December 1949. The introduction of the backbeat was all down to Palmer and is the basis of all rock drumming to this day. Listen to Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music" ("it's got a backbeat, you cant' lose it").
It was good to hear Sandy Nelson, (on "Let There Be Drums") one of the few drummers to lead instrumentals into the charts. I didn't realise how Ringo Starr was admired by the drumming fraternity. He is credited with much creative work on recordings by The Beatles.
But like the other two episodes in the series, once we were onto heavy rock, I was lost. I even fast forwarded through the final part about drum machines.
No comments:
Post a Comment