More Gore. I came across Art Gore’s playing a couple of years ago, and had an instant affinity with it. He’s not on a whole lot of records, but he’s really great, and is worth seeking out and giving a really close listen. He’s living and teaching college in Cincinnati, so if you live in the region you can even go study with him. Here he’s playing a funky Latin feel on Sais, from Lonnie Liston Smith’s record Cosmic Funk. The primary attraction here is his nice deep touch on the cymbal, and his melodic sensibility in how handles the toms and bass drum. And there’s just an obvious engaged intelligence at work here— I don’t know how to quantify that.
Learn the basic groove— similar to a Mozambique— check out the variations he does, and the fills, and the double time feel in the last page. The cymbal part is played mostly on the bell, and it really drives the entire performance— I haven’t even attempted to capture the way he accents it, but listen to it closely. There are three tom toms, with the floor tom tuned much lower than the other drums, so it blends with the bass drum. Even where the left hand repeats, he doesn’t predictably play the same spot in the measure on the same drum all the time.