Season Of Mists And Mellow Fruitfulness

Hank Roberts, bigger research projects, and upcoming shows.

Photo by Bradley Bambarger

Cellist Hank Roberts has been a part of the NYC scene since the late Seventies. I wrote about Roberts in my article about Joey Baron; he’s been a hero since hearing him with Bill Frisell as a college student. Last Saturday, the Hank Roberts Sextet played at Barbès in Brooklyn, and later this month we head up to Ithaca, NY for a concert at Cornell University.

Hank first assembled the sextet in 2016 to work on an extended composition of his called G, later retitled The Science of Love and released on Sunnyside Records in 2021. In addition to Hank Roberts and myself, his Science of Love group includes my long-term friends and collaborators Dana Lyn on violin, trombonist Brian Drye, Mike McGinnis on woodwinds, and pianist Jacob Sacks.

Save Mr. Roberts, I met all these folks right when I moved to NYC in 2002, and they’ve been close musical friends ever since. Check out their links: they’re all composers and bandleaders. Their music should be heard.

Even though we’ve been working on the Science of Love for years, I always need to prep for an HR6 show. As I’ve been learning, the best way for a drummer to prep for a gig is to simply know the music, then listen and play. I also checked in with a few classic recordings for ideas and inspiration. I could have listened to anyone, since all good drummers— all great musicians— do the same thing, but this is where I went:

Billy Higgins carved out a space for himself in every group he was a part of, not with volume or virtuosity but with sound. His bright, buzzing ride cymbal and chattering snare drum were a perfect fit for every band. If you were to notate Higgins’ drumming, you’d notice how much he played. He was, in a way, a very busy player! But he was never thick, dense, or heavy. Rather he was transparent, flexible, open, neutral, ready to respond, just about the perfect drummer for any group.

Any Higgins will do, but I studied Ornette Coleman’s “Focus On Sanity” from The Shape Of Jazz To Come (Atlantic), recorded in 1959, just over thirty years after Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives. Like Roberts’ Science of Love, “Focus On Sanity” is a multi-movement work, with an intro, outro, connecting themes, and contrasting tempos. It’s a compositional triumph for Coleman, and Higgins brings it all together seamlessly. This track also features the drum equivalent of the giant squid: the elusive ‘feathered bass drum’. Higgins’ soft 4/4 on the bass drum is clearly audible during Charlie Haden’s bass solo!

Drummer Kenny Wollesen is one of our finest musicians. An accomplished percussionist and instrument builder as well as a virtuoso drummer, Kenny has long been one of my musical role models. On the brief “Pretty Flowers Were Made For Blooming”, from Bill Frisell’s Blues Dream (Nonesuch, 2001) Wollesen, with the simplest gestures, swings a seven-piece band with the force of Sam Woodyard and the sensitivity of a classical percussionist.¹ Everything Kenny plays has taste, style, and soul.

Finally, while thinking about suites, sectional works, et cetera, I tried to get a little closer to one of the pillars of the classical percussion repertoire, Stravinsky’s L’Histoire Du Soldat (1918). I like a performance by members of the Columbia Symphony Orchestra (a studio group assembled by Columbia Records) conducted by Stravinsky himself. If I understand correctly, this is the great William Kraft playing percussion. This must be a gold standard of recorded performances— Kraft (if that’s indeed who it is) makes the drum solo that concludes the suite sound improvised. Stunning. Readers, please chime in if you know who this is!

Bravo Billy Higgins, Kenny Wollesen, and William Kraft!

---

Fall is here, school’s back in session. Time to set some big goals.

The goal of this Substack is to chronicle the activities of all the drummers, our past and living masters, and tease out the connections between genres. Jazz is the center of the work, but I’m always looking to widen the scope when appropriate. The list of topics I want to write about gets longer every day (Tom Rainey, Dave Tough, Donald Bailey, Dennis Chambers, instrumental hits with drum features, an overview of drum teaching ideologies, singing drummers in jazz, R&B, and rock, the Poinciana beat through the Sixties, etc etc). All of this will get written, I have no doubt.

However, this is very much an expressive experience. I’ll risk sounding new-age or worse by saying that for me, the muse must sing, I have to feel the pull of the music and the story.

But the music speaks for itself, and doesn’t require explication. It doesn’t require me. If I’m going to be of service, I need to have something I want to share with you about the music. Often, general knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject, with some history and recommended listening, is sufficient and helpful.

So, while I learn a lot and have so much fun writing what I think of as ‘one-off’ articles, shining a light on a single subject, I want to go deeper. I’ve received so much support in my work that I’ve set some larger, more immersive goals to share with my readers.

Here are the big topics I’m slowly studying:

• The history and main branches of the AACM, specifically the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, and Henry Threadgill. I’m working my way through the Art Ensemble’s early discography, the Mosaic Braxton set, and Threadgill’s Sextette albums, but I have much further to go. This is deep, widely-rooted music. The records are like the mushrooms we see: they’re pretty and tasty, but the real action is underground. I’ll be posting as soon as I’m ready, but this could be a while.

• The mid-20th century drummers of New Orleans. Like the AACM, this is a vast subject, involving a lot of reading, a lot of listening, and a field trip I’m planning for December. And, like the AACM, there’s an intriguing cloud of mystery hanging over the story of New Orleans music in general, and the drummers especially. I’d like that mystery to remain in place, while I share with you the listening I’ve done and what I’ve learned. Specifically, I’m examining Earl Palmer, Vernel Fournier, John Bordreaux, Smokey Johnson, James Black, and Idris Muhammad, drummers who helped shape the vernacular music that came to dominate our culture. Hanging behind these players, an almost spectral presence, is Ed Blackwell, who, with Ellis Marsalis, was a strong influence on the whole New Orleans music scene.

• An overview of Afro-Cuban music in the 20th century. This is even bigger than the previous subjects, but not so huge that I can’t share what I learn along the way. Authors Ned Sublette and Chris Washburne have already contributed much, Jordi Pujol has assembled essential boxsets of Chano Pozo and Arsenio Rodriguez, I’m surrounded by this living tradition here in Brooklyn…. I’ll be able to write about this subject if I hang in there.

So there are the three things I’m studying, which really means just listening, reading, and writing.

---

New album coming out in December. Cover by Espen Freiberg, courtesy Loyal Label.

Much afoot otherwise.

This weekend I head to Maine, playing in Portland and Kittery with The New Old Timers. Years ago, saxophonists Jeremy Udden and Petr Cancura started playing old time music and bluegrass tunes, music not usually associated with the saxophone. Our bassist, Aryeh Kobrinsky, is a composer who tunes his bass in fifths, like the late great Red Mitchell, and our repertoire is comprised of folk tunes, fiddle tunes, an odd cover by the Everly Brothers and Neil Young, and original compositions that connect with these traditions. I learn so much from this band.

In October, Ember, my trio with saxophonist-trumpeter Caleb Wheeler Curtis and bassist Noah Garabedian, heads to Columbus, OH. We’re still riding high from our August album release and encounter with trumpeter Steven Bernstein and pianist Orrin Evans at Nublu. Watch for further updates about our activities.

Later this fall, I’ll be traveling to Spain to check in with Sunset, one of the great jazz clubs. For my gig, I’ve assembled an all-star trio featuring tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry, one of the leading lights for my generation, and Mr. Michael Formanek, a friend, mentor, and collaborator. From there I head to London to play with pianist Barry Green and give some classes at his school. It’s an honor and privilege to travel overseas for the music, many thanks to Barry Green, Bill McHenry, and Michael Formanek for making it happen.

Coming back, I join the Mark Morris Dance Group and The Look of Love, the Mark Morris/Ethan Iverson collaboration, in Orange, CA, before heading off to the Guimares Jazz Festival with Landline+1, the cooperative composition band with saxophonist Chet Doxas, pianist Jacob Sacks, and bassist Zack Lober, and joining us on trumpet is Suzan Veneman.

I also have a new album coming out. Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal, the group I formed way back in 2012 featuring saxophonist Loren Stillman, guitarist Brandon Seabrook, and bassist Eivind Opsvik, found our way into the Bunker in 2022 and recorded a suite of music that I’d been working on for years. No overdubs, no edits, just pure music and a dream come true for me. That album will probably be out in December, and we have shows planned for January.

That’s it, that’s all, much study, many projects, all respect and deep gratitude.

Thank you all!

1. Frisell’s group here includes the sorely missed trumpeter Ron Miles and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, and saxophonist Billy Drewes, a complete original most often heard with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.