Centrum.

I totally agree

Yeah it’s a good one!

His book is a treasure!

I agree totally ❤

I agree. He was a hustler to the core!

Thanks for this comment! 😄

Excellent clinic, I think. Mel is so knowledgable & articulate here.

Williams feathered with a concrete feather.

Thanks for mentioning that Sir!!

I went up to Mel once in abar to tell him how much he influenced me and he told me to " beat it asshole" ! Oh well. Still a great big band player.

Did they dig into the head when they feathered like Mel said to do?

Buddy & Louie did the same thing. Can u imagine the foot control they must've had to "feather" a 24-inch bass drum? And Buddy used a 26 toward the end & wanted to go to a 28 but he died B4 it happened.

Bruce Thomson ... Mel is so old school, just like Buddy Rich. They lived in a time where young guns like Steve Gadd were taking the studio work from guys like Mel. Mel was a studio guy in the 60s, he worked a lot in NYC studios, but he never wanted to play rock music. He has a lot of opinions on what is correct, but not an open mind. Don’t let Mel’s over confident old jazz drummer opinions turn you off to listening. Give him a listen and you can get some real wisdom from Mel about playing jazz. His stories are classic and his drum lesson is really giving us a look at why old school jazz sounded the way it does. Plus, I love his cymbals!

I use a 1960s Speed King took it apart and greased it recently first time in decades works better.....

Hey Mark, great to hear from you. Will you be in Adam any time soon? Regards to all there. Hug L

Dizzy Gillespie was also meant to have said something along these lines. That's really interesting that Basie said the same thing- that he had that same feeling and awareness of the bass drum.

Totally agree with you, being honest, humble, simple, not pleasing other, not laughing for nothing not talking for nothing are great and super rare qualities these days ...

Famous story about his distinctive cymbals being stolen at a NY restaurant. I don't believe he ever got them back.

Pretty funny too that Gadd and Lewis grew up about an hour away from each other in Western NY. Has Gadd ever gone on record in reply to Lewis' critiques? To me personally, Mel is a purest and obviously playing by a different set of rules for a different style of music.

I believe it was from "20 Years at the Village Vanguard"

Lot of memories, thx Lucas & Cees. Marco you where there?

I had a great lesson many years ago where the teacher asked me to damp my drums until they sounded good to me whilst he played them. I added damping ring and a bit of moon gel, plus a bit of blanket in the bass drum - just to kill the ring. Then he sent me to the end of the hall we were in. Then he pulled off the rings and gell and pulled out the blanket. I was convinced. Moral is, never tune the drums to sound good to your own ears on the stage :-o

Very true. Great comment.

The right tools for the job. I play in a lot of different situations so I have a couple sets of cymbals as I do drum kits. I have 2 jazz kits with smaller drums (18" bass drums) and two larger kits for rock/blues/country. I have a gorgeous set of K Constantinoples that are my go to jazz set and a set of regular K and K Customs that include the newer K Sweet Crash (17") and K Cluster Crash (18"). These were designed to be very versatile and fit all kinds of styles. In fact, they were perfect for some big band gigs I did right alongside my Constantinople Bounce Ride. But they are just as at home in a high volume situation with a 70s classic rock band I play with. I can hit pretty hard in that context but here's the deal; I've developed a technique utilizing Moeller and Gladstone that allows me to play "balls to the walls" without jeopardizing the health of my bronze. That same technique allows me to play at a whisper with the jazz group I play with regularly. I'm able to draw the character of those K Cons and the drums without the tone being thin. It's all about control at the extremes of the dynamic range. I stopped dissing players of other genres years ago when I stopped being a Jazz-Hole and learned to be a damned drummer and musician first. I enjoy playing with a quiet trio one night, a grooving rhythm and blues band another, playing authentic classic and modern country, "driving the bus" with a big band or "righteously rendering" with a loud guitar band. It's all an absolute blast!

Cmon now you have to share that story!

It's not really Mel's way, it's just how jazz drums are supposed to be. Listen to most jazz drummers from his age, and they all used the same principles. Same type of cymbals, same tuning on their drums mostly, and they all played the bass drum like Mel said to. Jazz is very distinctive from a drum perspective, and many drummers get it wrong all the time. It's why Art Blakey, Papa Joe Jones, Mel, Buddy Rich, Roach, and everyone else sounded so good. They all used the same principles, but inflected their own personality on top of those principles.

That's all subjective, many people like what best fits their style. I think many modern cymbals sound amazing

@@ethancundiff6422 Agree with you. Today there are so many choices there is something for everyone. It's mind boggling!

True, and I don't even use feathering that much in jazz and I don't really know who does. This is post-bop too so I don't know why he says "you're all wrong" when he asks the rhetorical question about if everyone feathers 4 on the floor or not. I played in a dance band on cruise ships for about 3 years and would feather on some songs but would also just deliberately play more modern grooves on most of them. Hoping he'll get into some good stuff, im 20 mins in and realizing how linear we think in 2019.

@@DrummerJacob you talk BS

Well, I certainly do always feather, as all Jazz drummers mention this, and i also got the difference demonstrated in a clinic , so who am I to argue with this. My only point is that this could have been demonstrated in 5 minutes. Likewise for the overly long Zildjian cymbal rant

You try to improvise a 2.5 hour clinic without rambling on about things you find important. Mel noticed a lack of feathering with young swingers- which contributed to mediocre feel. 30 mins is a bit much but if it bothers you enough to comment, go watch a Steve Gadd video where he’ll spend 0 mins talking about feathering.

Shelly??

I think you meant Mel

WTF

when liberals were STILL acting like normal people and political correctness was an unknown concept. I am glad I lived those years in my youth !

@John Strozzi Life was definitely not boring then. Today is just more hyper and basically annoying.

A super cynical Michael Caine

pacman lp I bet GADD would get a kick out of Mel's comment. GADD is open and was probably influenced by Mel. Gadd's sound was open early on, but later found he had to adapt to the times to work.

Elvin is probably my favourite jazz drummer and his wife was supposed to have,for a while I suppose, tuned his drums so high that he had to play everything almost in reverse! haha!

"really upset me"? How good are you?

Why? Is it important that everyone agrees with your opinion? Mel voices some strong opinions that other people don't agree with. That isn't unusual for people who are very good at what they do. They have strong opinions and little interest in how they come across to others, fitting in with popular consensus or being politically correct. Very many great musicians are like this. This attitude and their achievement may not be totally unrelated.

Stephen Pitchford : I thought it was different. Steve’s resume certainly speaks for itself. Had Mel come up when Steve did, he may have made similar choices - and vice versa.

He’s talking about things some have lost sight of and that we all should understand, like second line.

@@Riddim4 If only beginners would understand Jazz, pulse, swing and feel the way Mel Lewis is showing in this video, it would be great. I know some "supposed" good drummers who can't even feather the bass drum with the HH on 2 and 4 at 70 on a metronome. Some others who can't hold steady time on the slow blues version on Peter Erskine Jazz Essentials app (great one, by the way)... He doesn't "hit" the drums, just plays them beautifully... So if ever a beginner begins with these concepts, he will be good forever.... Thanks for posting !!!!

BATTEUR MAGAZINE : feathering is generally not very audible and thus often missed. Those who are serious about the instrument and the music will seek out the nuances. It’s easier now to seek out info than it’s ever been. Then we have use it, musically.

I totally agree @@Riddim4 I meant to answer to P-A Tollbom ;-)

BATTEUR MAGAZINE: mea culpa.

Sure that is what he said? I can't find the segment where he said this, now, the video is too long... but didn't he say it was stupid to play rock on K Zildjians and break them? He said Gadd was a good drummer but not a great drummer because he allowed the drum sound being controlled by the engineer... that is how it came across to me.

@@SAHBfan 1:21:35

Riccardo Pearlman you might want to check your definition of dogmatic. Lewis never aspired to be an every drummer for every need kind of guy. Jeff Hamilton told me by contrast Shelly Manne would take heads off drums etc to satisfy the recording session. Lewis was an enigmatic drummer. It looks easy , it sounds easy, it’s not easy. Really no one played like Lewis. That’s what you should take away from this.

@@drewconlin9452 Not really my point. And the definition is fine. I agree Mel is a fantastic player- but I suggest people divorce his dogmatic thinking from the content of his playing. You can learn a lot by listening to his playing. His philosophy was, by comparison, toxic and shitty. Lewis was clearly both unwilling and unable to cope with what followed the peak of his generation. He clearly preferred thinking the music died after his heyday rather than to try and unpack what was happening around him. Buddy Rich was the same story. Angry. Toxic. Asshole. Not only is it sad to see how miserable these prodigies became, but it's sadder still to see how modern jazz of the past 20 years has really become a progressive art form again and might be something Lewis might have been able to embrace. Given what he had to say about someone like Gadd, I am willing to bet Mel Lewis would have some unbelievably shitty things to say about the likes of Tony Williams, Jack Dejohnette, and even someone like Bob Moses. No reasonable listener, or student of Jazz needs to hear that shit. Better to just listen to his drumming and learn what he brought to the game.

@@RiccardoPearlman I bet you swing real hard

wrong

schramschram: perhaps, but anatomy and physics may suggest otherwise at times.

Well are you playing in a swing band? That was Mel’s specialty and the focus of the clinic. The clinic wasn’t about playing commercial music or fusion, then perhaps they would’ve hired another drummer who muffles the drums to give insight into that world. Everybody’s getting triggered with the Gadd comments but he was mainly calling him stupid for destroying old K’s by playing too heavy.

Out of touch with what issues? Because he doesn’t want Gadd’s balls in his mouth like 90% of half-assed drummers? Mel swung hard as fuck and supported the band MUSICALLY, a concept that many fusion/pop drummers are oblivious to.

Absolutely. Ironic considering how it was working class music in the beginning. That’s why younger musicians in the 50s/60s like ornette or albert tried to bring back that old, open attitude

@@thetopface "working class music" ???? - it was black music - it was dance music - it was urban music - it was american music but hardly "working class music" - if you think in that terms you might call blues from the 1920s to 1940s "working class music" for american blacks and country music from the same period "working class music" for american whites. And jazz musicians usually looked down on both styles (even the R&B of the 1940s and 1950s)

2009framat what are you talking about? Jazz 100% arose from a black working class background. What university taught jazz before the 30s? It became a complex, idiomatic music before it was even accepted by the black middle class. And yes I would also say blues and country are working class. Jazz has always been HEAVILY influenced by the blues, and there are many different cultures that belong to the working class.

Usually blues and country musicians were seldom professional musicians (maybe sometimes semi-professionals) and US-polish, -german, -italian, -irish etc. "working class" audiences did not care for jazz - so it was mainly not "working class" music but music (mainly) for afro-americans from (mainly) afro-americans and not "working class" music from working class people for working class audiences. That is what I am talking about.

I do not "glorify" the "working class" like you do although I am "working class" and my family is/was.

I love good drummer not great drummer.

Not sure about this?

huh? guess it depends on what is a great drummer. Id prefer to be a great musician. Yeah Gadd is!

@Simone Di Sarro i agree ...from Brazil

Simone Di Sarro I agree, just quoting Mel