Awesome point, Irishthump!! I was going to make a similar mention days ago but thought better at the time. I'm from the Jim Blackley school of thought. You totally reminded me of him. Anyone heard of Jim?
www.jimblackley.comHe's essentially one of drumming's older masters...not part of any hip current scene, however, many of his current/recent students are big name players who fly into Ontario, Canada for their monthly lessons. Others aren't. Either way -he's incredible, but he AIN'T cheap!
Anyway, to get to my point....or rather 'Jim's point' -essentially that rudimental drumming may have it's place, however, it shouldn't necessarily be the main concern of the 'jazz schooled drummer.'
Before continuing, I should mention that the forward intro to his 'Syncopated Rolls For The Modern Drummer' is copyright from 1961...so I would assume 'jazz' is essentially his reference to not just purely jazz but in general to all popular music of the time. Most of it being jazz!!
This as opposed to the 'other' school -the marching or rudimental drummer.
Anyway, I've had Jim's 'Roll' book for 10 years and love it. No shiny B.S. involved...strictly 'wax on, wax off' type stuff. His students are some of my absolute favorite players. VERY musical drummers and most seem have their own unique signature. That's not a matter of coincidence.
It's true- too many strictly applied rudiments and ignoring more of the naturally felt, looser feel stuff (sorry -not a good description on my part) can leave you sounding like 100,000 other cats. Weckl even had to address that problem in his own playing. He went to Freddie Gruber who I would expect is much like Jim.
Anyway, it seems to me the simplest way to avoid this trend is simply by not making rudiments the core of your practicing existence. Rudiments seem often to be the easiest recipe to rhythms and motion on the kit and players can end up sounding too much like others, just to lesser and greater levels of expertise.
RLHubley made a comment recently about the importance of 'listening.' As Jim says; (quote) 'being completely familiar with the composition and hearing the bass line, chord line, and melody line with clarity, is the key to sound musical performance.' (end quote)
For alternatives to the strict rudimental thing, I'd encourage anyone to check out Blackley's materials....I believe there might be samples on his web site. Not sure how deep he goes into his theories there though.
I'm not trying to tell anyone 'how it is' by ANY means...don't take it this way. It's just another frame of mind that, in my opinion at least, is worth considering for those of us who spend a lot of time with rudimental study.
Jeeeez I'm long-winded!!!
