DRUMMER CAFE

So I saw Norah Jones perform.   I'm not a big fan of her kind of pop music, but I don't hate it.   And in seeing her band play, her drummer Andrew Borger really stood out to me.  

Given the relatively straight-forward nature of the songs, it would've been easy for a drummer to play a relatively straight-forward beat.  But Borger always seemed to opt for something slightly (forgive me) "outside the box".   Snare and kick drum hits weren't necessarily on the expected beat, hat splashes mingled their way in and out in a totaly non-disco way, etc.  He put lots of things in unusual places.   But managed to do so in a way that never interfered with the feeling that he was "driving the bus".   His parts were alway rock solid, wholey served the song, and grooved really well.  He just had a way of coloring the beats that made it more interesting than most I'd heard in that genre.

He also had a chance or two to stretch out in a more improvisatory jazz way and was excellent in that regard as well.

A couple of other things he did that seemed notable:  A couple of more low-key tunes were played on cajon instead of kit.   For a couple of more small ensemble countryish tunes he held a snare between his knees and just played that with brushes.   He had a set of cajon/bongos where a second rack tom might go that were used to great effect with some mallets on one tune.  

In the end, I was thoroughly impressed with his playing and highly encourage people to check him out.

Yep I love that stuff. Check out some old Zombies with Hugh Grundy. Cool stuff.