Here’s Stewart Copeland playing with Stanley Clarke at a jazz festival in France in 2012. Since I’ve been critical of things things he’s said, and played, in a context he called “jazz”, that was swill, I thought we owed him a fair listen. For some reason. I’m just a scrupulously nice guy.
So, he’s really doing what he did in Sting’s employ, with The Police, and I’m glad to hear that he can still play like that. Not that many people have that distinctive a sound. His snare sound has gone through several generations of being copied, to all kinds of horrible effects, but it still sounds good when he does it, it sounds like him. That’s reassuring.
He’s playing musically, clearly listening, and supporting what is happening. It’s good he’s not trying to do more than he can do, or do something he’s not good at. The tune is well selected for him to sound good, I like his playing here.
That being said, there isn’t a tremendous amount of cooperation happening, we’re just slamming out the arrangement. The situation has got to be restrictive to the other players— Copeland has a very narrow range to work with, never above or below a certain threshold, he never turns anything loose for more than a couple of measures. There is opportunity to go bigger— the other players certainly could— but he’s maxed out. Which is fine, not everybody has to be Dennis Chambers, you’d just like to hear something happening at the other end.
With rock drummers playing settings like this, their touch kind of wipes out the other instruments. Not that this is a high-nuance setting, but it’s a little like taking a Matisse painting and slapping in a big ass 50mm black outline around everything. The outline’s already there, you don’t need to triple it to make the point. It’s in the touch, but also the way they play time.
Like, here’s McCoy Tyner’s group, less electrified, but slamming… and playing the tune they got the vamp from in the other thing:
There’s a balance there, we don’t need the bass drum and snare drum loudly telling us where the quarter note is at all times.
Stewart Copeland’s sound is so recognizable, this is also a good time to talk about style. It’s tempting to use the word, but it’s not really appropriate, any more than it is with Elvin Jones or Steve Gadd. Whatever is happening that’s making the drumming sound like Stewart Copeland, he is playing a musical job here, and thinking like a player. An example of a stylist would be Sting, as a vocalist— he does Sting things to make his singing sound like Sting.
At any rate, this should be a grand rebuke to all the skilled but anonymous sounding people out there, get your act together, sound like something. And good to see Stewart Copeland can still play to the extent he could.
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A lot of people who know way more about drums than me love this guy’s playing, but i think he sucks. He likes to push ahead of the beat a little or something and for the pseudo-reggae shit he’s playing it doesn’t work at all. Im sure his cymbal work is creative and all, but it doesn’t fucking groove.
Not everything needs to groove or have pocket in a more conventional manner. Certainly, an unorthodox, progressive pop-rock group like The Police, who are being magpies wih various styles didn’t need a tight R&B, funk, rock and roll, or blues groover as a necessity. That said, I do think a lot of the reggae influences he gets praised for bringing into rock drumming (as the primary innovator) were actually already kicking around on the Brit punk scenes, but he did do his own take on it.
I mean, like I said, people who know more than me love it, so I’m sure there’s something there, but it just doesn’t work for me. They’re just one of those groups where I find myself tensing up instead of tapping my foot. I feel the same way about the west coast ska knockoff bands like Sublime. (and sure the police are better than that, but i have the same issue with it).
Sometimes certain types of feels just don’t sit well with people. In all fairness, perhaps Copeland’s complaints about Billy Cobham are coming from the same place. Cobham’s a more accomplished drummer than Copeland, but for whatever reason he just doesn’t vibe on Cobham. By the same token., Copeland is a million times more accomplished than me, but his playing still just doesn’t hit me right.
I think his time is like a saxophonist playing sharp, it creates some energy, but it’s not what you’d call pocket– or good intonation. It works in rock & roll, like with Keith Moon. I think what he plays works well for what it is, I don’t hear it as him doing ersatz something else.
Thanks for this Todd. I think he sounds great. Especially in this situation where he stays, as you said, in his wheelhouse. I wonder who wrote the tune because the bass line is pretty much a straight lift of “Can’t Stand Losing You”. 🙂
Nice of you to give him some positive recognition though the post certainly qualifies most of it. 😉
Let’s all keep in mind that Steward Copeland and the police hit the scene as a New Wave Punk band. They performed at CBGBs. That is the general style the band was going for. Like the Minutemen of that era, they were sort of a punk rock outlier and certainly better appreciated for it. The success he and the band experienced probably encouraged him to dive deeper into the assertive idiosyncratic playing he is known for. That said, I do think the band and SC grew as musicians, changed sound, grew stylistically and became more dynamic. But they always were a rock band with a heavy Punk Rock/New Wave origin.