Bill Crow Quotes

"(Joe) Morello had developed what he called his finger technique, in which he could keep his left stick tapping the drumhead with just the pressure of his left forefinger, and then he could add accents by rotating his wrist at the same time. Sitting with him at a back booth in the Hickory House, where he always had a pair of drumsticks and practiced on a folded napkin on the table, I borrowed a stick and figured out his finger trick, and I could keep it going pretty well. Joe loved to tell admiring students who visited us at the club, “There’s nothing to the finger technique. Anybody can do it. Here, look, even my bass player can do it!” And he would hand me a stick and have me demonstrate." - Bill Crow

source: Interview with Jazz Profiles (January 17, 2009)

Don Alias Quotes

"If you're really digging in -- soul to soul, skin on skin -- you're going to do damage to your hands [playing the Conga drum]. It's an occupational hazard. You're going to be playing, and it's going to hurt. You're really going to have to love to play in order for you to do this kind of work, because it's going to hurt you." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"I just read an article in a drum magazine, and I won an award as being the jazz percussionist. I really like that terminology -- jazz percussionist. They had different headings, like Latin percussionist and Salsa percussionist. I was the jazz percussionist. For me, that's a tremendous compliment, because it covers all the music." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"At the end of the night, I'm sweating. I feel as though I have played. That's what I am -- I'm a player. I like to play out. With this [David Sanborn's] band, I get the opportunity to do that -- to play. That's why I'm here." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Charlie Watts Quotes

"You need better technique than I have to play jazz, but what you have to do is the same thing, isn't it?" - Charlie Watts

Steve Reid Quotes

"Now everything has a very clinical, digital drum sound. You don't hear overtones or anything like that. It needs to be opened up. There's not too many guys left: Blakey, Elvin... everybody with a raw sound has gone now. Almost." - Steve Reid

Max Roach Quotes

"Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers." - Max Roach

African Proverbs

"A master drummer must have seven eyes." - African Proverb

Mel Torme Quotes

"I was a singer professionally when I was four years old, and I did not really begin to play any instrument - the first one, of course, was drums - till I was about nine years old." - Mel Torme

Mel Torme Quotes

"Buddy Rich is one of a kind; he's a genius, and that's all there is to it." - Mel Torme

Mel Torme Quotes

"As regards my feelings about drummers - there's Buddy Rich, and then there's everybody else." - Mel Torme

Mel Torme Quotes

"As Buddy Rich, for instance, broke into the business at the age of three, I think it was, on drums, so indeed did I break into the business at the age of four as a singer." - Mel Torme

Lionel Hampton Quotes

"Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God." - Lionel Hampton

Ken Burns Quotes

"A jazz beat is a dynamic changing rhythm." - Ken Burns

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"I've been playing with Blackwell over 20 years. We used to play when I first went to Los Angeles. Blackwell plays the drums as if he's playing a wind instrument. Actually, he sounds more like a talking drum." - Ornette Coleman

Chet Baker Quotes

"The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met." - Chet Baker

Buddy Rich Quotes

"To have everything written for you... It's not really creating. That's why I think symphony drummers are so limited. They're limited to exactly what was played a hundred years before them by a thousand other drummers." - Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich Quotes

"They're simply following what was laid down in front and they play the same thing. So, there's no great challenge in being a classical drummer." - Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich Quotes

"I think the drummer should sit back there and play some drums, and never mind about the tunes. Just get up there and wail behind whoever is sitting up there playing the solo. And this is what is lacking, definitely lacking in music today." - Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich Quotes

"I think at one time every drummer wanted to play like Krupa or wanted to win a Gene Krupa drum contest. This is the big inspiration for drummers and naturally it has to be the same way for me." - Buddy Rich