Drummer and Missy's Place

[dbleagl]

NPR gives the drummers some, from Neil Peart to Clyde Stubblefield


http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/01/npr_gives_the_drummers_some_fr.html



For its recent "Beat Week" series, National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" strung together five consecutive days of interviews with drummers from across the spectrum of popular music. The interviews, archived on NPR's web site, offer insight into the individual players' styles, as well as their place in the overall pantheon of percussion.

It's a diverse, wide-ranging group. The first installment profiled Clyde Stubblefield and John "Jabo" Starks, who shared drumming duties in James Brown's band from the mid-1960s through the early 1970s. They explain how they, while sharing the stage behind Brown, largely defined funk drumming.

Next up in "Beat Week"? The quintessential straight-ahead rock drummer, Neil Peart of Rush, who has never been accused of being the least bit funky. A master technician – New Orleans fans will have a chance to see him in action when Rush headlines the Smoothie King Center on May 22, 2015 – he expounds on how jazz drummer Gene Krupa may well have been the first rock drummer. "Without Gene Krupa, there wouldn't have been a Keith Moon," Peart said. "He was the first drummer to command the spotlight and the first drummer to be celebrated for his solos, because they were very flamboyant. He did fundamentally easy things, but always made them look spectacular."

The series also chronicled the contributions of Zakir Hussain, a master of the Indian tabla hand drums who has enjoyed a long association with members of the Grateful Dead. Percussionist and bandleader John Santos explained the rhythms used in Afro-Cuban Santeria ceremonies.

Finally, Bobbye Hall, a "liner note legend," describes how she contributed tambourines, triangle, bongos, congas, etc. to countless recordings over the past 40 years by everyone from Bob Dylan to Carole King to Janis Joplin. She is the percussion equivalent of the backing vocalists featured in the 2013 documentary "Twenty Feet From Stardom."