Short Is Sweet

It's almost too good to be true... a drum battle between Art Blakey, Max Roach and Elvin Jones captured on video. Three giants who were not only a huge influence on the development of jazz, but who indirectly also helped change the course of rock drumming, thanks to the awe in which they were rightly held by some of rock's finest players.

But the video has a salutary moment for all drummers. While all manner of percussive ingenuity is being unleashed on stage, the camera pans across the audience and there, centre screen, is the face of a woman... who looks bored witless.

Someone once told me that people usually applaud at the end of a jazz solo because they're so relieved it's over. And that may apply even more to drum solos — of any kind.

Perhaps the best advice for drummers is: Keep calm and don't carry on.

An Image Problem?

My good friend and chronicler of the Swinging Eighties David Johnson (shapersofthe80s.com) has suggested that I might consider this picture as a more appropriate image for my blog. I'm certainly an Animal-lover and would put the percussive Muppet up there with Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon, Jon Hiseman, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey and Tony Williams.

But it was another world-class drummer, the great John Marshall (drummerworld.com/drummers/John_Marshall.html), who told me that Animal's drumming was actually performed by Ronnie Verrell, a formidable jazz musician who played with the orchestras of Ted Heath, Syd Lawrence and Jack Parnell.

Almost every drummer worth their sticks has a bit of Animal inside them. But they also want to be taken seriously, you know. So I may not be changing the picture just yet...