Hot on the heels of that “too perfect” post, here’s a great example of what I’m talking about in terms of playing with an edge: Roy Haynes trading 8s with Chick Corea on Rhythm-a-ning, from Chick’s album Trio Music. I guess we could call this the high late phase of Roy’s career— he’s playing a big, live drum set, very aggressively and spontaneously. I don’t know why everybody doesn’t play this way— with this kind of energy.
The tempo here is about quarter note = 290, give or take. Right in his wheel house for killing it— it’s about the same tempo as some things on Pat Metheny’s Question & Answer, and Matrix on Chick Corea’s Now He Sings Now He Sobs. That’s Roy’s tempo. The transcription begins at 3:19, and then I’ve just written out the drum solo breaks.
Like I said, big drum set: I think there are three tom toms, two crashes, a swish cymbal, plus two timpani. He’s very economical in terms of orchestrating on the instrument— lots of diddles, some singles, lots of bass drum and cymbal in unison. Usually he only plays one thing at a time, no independent parts, ostinato parts, or vestiges of ostinatos, as we might see in other people’s playing. None of this requires any particular chops.
In the second 8, on measures 14-17, he may be playing those unaccented notes on the shaft of the hihat stand— there’s a different sound there.
It’s a free download, but if you’re not a regular contributor on Patreon or PayPal, think about sending a couple/few bucks:
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Everyone should own this record, but here’s a link for it on that exploiter site, Spotify. But go to a store and buy it new.