“It’s an honor for somebody like me to have Stanton come along and say, ‘Hey, we appreciate what you did’, and then pass it along to the younger drummers of today and expand on it. Not everybody can explain what we did and teach it the way Stanton can.” - John “Jabo” Starks
“Jabo and I may have created something in our style, but Stanton has created something in his style. His teaching and passing it down to the younger generation is very important to the world. He’s on top of it.”
- Clyde Stubblefield
“A lot of drummers in New Orleans just want to play and aren’t really interested in teaching. That’s what stands out about Stanton; he’s taking the time to share his knowledge with people, and that’s always a good thing. Stanton maintains the traditional sound, paying tribute to some of the elder New Orleans self-styled drummers, while blending in all the original grooves.”
- Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste
A CLINIC WORKBOOK & INTERACTIVE SAMPLER
Excerpted from the Groove Alchemy DVD & Book Series
PRESENTED BY The Drummer’s Choice.®
HUDSON MUSIC
©
Contents of this booklet ©2010 Hudson Music LLC. All Rights Reservered. May not be copied or reproduced without written permission from the publisher.
This project is about, well…GROOVE. It’s especially about understanding the past so we can be creative with the future. The goal with this material is to be able to not only understand and play the beats themselves, but to understand where they have come from, how they have been re-interpreted, and how we can bring them to new places in the future. I’d like to give a sampling of what this project is about. I’d like to show how you can use style combination and feel and tone juxtapositions to come up with new ideas. Let’s start by taking a look at some of the drumming of Clyde Stubblefield. In 1967, shortly after joining James Brown’s band, Clyde’s first drumming masterpiece, “Cold Sweat,” was released. For this groove he utilized several of the innovations from the drummers that preceded him, and he added some of his own personality as well. He used the displaced backbeat idea pioneered by James Brown, Nat Kendrick, and Clayton Fillyau, and incorporated the open hi-hat on the “&” of 1 and the “&” of 3 originated by Melvin Parker. Genius? Yes. Pulled out of the sky? No. “Cold Sweat” 1967, drums: Clyde Stubblefield, c. 112 bpm.
Let’s take a look at where Clyde may have gotten some of his Ideas. “Limbo Jimbo” 1962, drums: James Brown, c. 112 bpm.
“Soul Food, Parts 1 & 2” 1963, drums: Nat Kendrick, c. 123 bpm.
“Signed, Sealed and Delivered” 1963, drums: Clayton Fillyau, c. 158 bpm
VISIT HUDSONMUSIC.COM/GROOVE TO HEAR STANTON PLAY EACH OF THESE EXAMPLES!
As we can see, some of the drummers preceding Clyde were experimenting with the idea of displacing the backbeat. Clyde took this idea and utilized it for his own purposes. He then took the recurring open hi-hat on the “&” of 1 and 3 from Melvin Parker. “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” 1965, drums: Melvin Parker, c. 127 bpm.
He put all this together and came up with his classic groove to “Cold Sweat.” I could write out variations on “Cold Sweat” for days, but let’s take a look at how some of our other favorite drummers have varied it to create their own classic grooves. While researching this book, I found it very interesting to find many similarities between John Bonham and Zigaboo Modeliste. There’s much more on that in the book, but as pertaining to this topic, both drummers reinterpreted the first bar of “Cold Sweat” to create signature grooves of their own for the first tune on each of their second albums. “Whole Lotta Love” Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II 1969, drums: John Bonham, c. 93 bpm.
“Look-Ka Py Py” The Meters Look-Ka Py Py 1970, drums: Zigaboo Modeliste, c. 88 bpm.
In 1968 Clyde really outdid himself with “I Got the Feelin’.” Again he used the displaced backbeats and recurring open hi-hat, but this time he unveiled his secret weapon: three repeating sixteenth notes in the left hand with an accent sometimes in the middle. This Stubblefield original rears its challenging head in several of his grooves to follow. In this tune Clyde plays a lot of subtle variations, but here’s the main groove that he settles into. “I Got the Feelin’” 1968, drums: Clyde Stubblefield, c. 128 bpm.
Ed Soph
University of North Texas
“A great book, really a primary resource that will certainly stand the test of time. It’s a “personality” book with some real substance. The musical examples are played well. The musicality of the grooves is stressed—touch, finesse. Imagine that!”
Here are some things I came up with to work on Clyde’s three-note phrases. Try these with eighth notes on the hi-hat, à la “I Got the Feelin’.”
Now let’s take a look at some of the drumming of Jabo Starks. Let’s start by looking at the groove to “Sex Machine.” Notice how much swing Jabo puts on this groove. “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine” 1970, drums: John “Jabo” Starks, c. 109 bpm
Now let’s take a look at where Jabo may have gotten some of his ideas for this groove. In 1962 Clayton Fillyau came up with this beat for James Brown’s “I’ve Got Money.”This beat was ahead of its time and very innovative. Many people consider this beat to be the seed of the “James Brown beat,” and the spark that ignited the flame of funk. Notice that the unusually bright tempo of this song makes this track sound very similar to the drum & bass beats that came more than 30 years later. “I’ve Got Money” main groove 1962, drums: Clayton Fillyau, c. 162 bpm.
For “Sex Machine,” Jabo combined the styles of Clayton Fillyau with Melvin Parker by combining “I’ve Got Money” with Melvin Parker’s repeating open hi-hat notes on the & of one and three. He then applied a feel juxtaposition by slowing it down and putting more of a swing feel on it. He also added an element of himself by adding the skip beats in the right hand. “It’s fantastic! There are a number of books on James Brown drummers and even more on funk, but Stanton’s research and demonstrations put him way out in front of these topics as far as I’m concerned. I just haven’t heard or seen that kind of critical research from anyone else. And, he is probably the only guy who can break down Zigaboo’s stuff with that much authority and accuracy as he did. I’ve been waiting for the real ‘Cissy Strut’ for a long time!”
John Ramsay
Berklee College of Music
Justin DiCioccio
Manhattan School of Music
“Groove Alchemy invites creativity! It’s underlying message is that we must bring life into groove for it to have meaning! To do anything artistically you need technnique, but remember you create through your technique—not with it! ‘Make everything in life a groove!’”
We can now follow the examples of Clyde and Jabo to come up with some new grooves of our own. Let’s start by combining the styles of these two masters. The first bar of this next groove is based off of Jabo’s one-bar groove to “Sex Machine,” and the second bar is comprised of variations inspired by what Clyde plays on “I Got The Feelin’.” I’ve put this new groove into the tune “Pot Licker.”
WATCH ME!
Go to HudsonMusic.com/groove to see me play “Pot Licker”! You can also download the play-along mp3 version for free! You can now apply a feel juxtaposition and play the same groove with a different feel. I personally like to slow things down and put a New Orleans lilt to it. Let’s re-examine the previous example, which is a combination of Jabo’s groove to “Sex Machine” and Clyde’s groove to “I Got The Feelin’.” Imagine what this groove (these notes) would sound like slowed down a bit and played by Zigaboo Modeliste. Keep in mind that Zigaboo doesn’t usually play ghost notes as dramatically as Jabo and Clyde. This next groove is similar, but juxtaposes a New Orleans (or Zigaboo) feel onto it.
Now we can experiment with tone juxtaposition. You could try playing this groove on a wide open small jazz kit, going for Elvin Jones tones. Or you could put up a 26-inch bass drum and giant toms, switch out the snare drum, and imagine the same groove as played by John Bonham. Hopefully you can begin to see some of the possibilities for creating new things to play.
Visit HudsonMusic.com/groove to hear Stanton play “Pot Licker,” but juxtaposed with Bonham-esque tones! These ideas are all just scratching the surface of this project. Have fun with these, and if you are interested in digging deeper into the world of groove please check out the CD, book, and DVD, Groove Alchemy.
STANTON’S GROOVE GEAR My new Signature Drumset Pandeiro is designed to sound like a floor tom with jingles. It has a heavy duty mount on it that has been holding up great for me on the road.
I also use an ES-7 Cowbell over my bass drum and a few Black Beauty Cowbells peppered around the kit. LPPercussion.com I use Coated Ambassadors on the batter sides of my snares and small toms. I use Coated Emperors on the batter sides of my larger toms and floor toms. I use Clear Ambassadors on the bottoms of all my drums. I usually use Coated Powerstroke 3s on the batter side and Fiberskyn Powerstroke 3s on the resonant side of my bass drums. Remo.com
DW Hardware has held up amazingly well for me over the years on the road. My usual setup consists of three or four 6000 Series cymbal stands, one 6000 Series Snare Stand for the rack tom, one 5000 Series Snare stand in main snare position, one 9000 Series Hi-Hat Stand (with a multi clamp to hold the pandeiro) and one 9000 Series Throne.
The Drummer’s Choice.®
I also use DW 9000 Series Bass Drum Pedals. DWDrums.com I’ve been using the Audix D6 on my bass drums, D2s and Micro D’s on my toms and I5s on my snares. They help me get the warm punchy sound I’m looking for live. AudixUSA.com
I use my Signature Stanton Moore Bosphorus cymbals for all the musical situations I find myself in. I designed them hand-in-hand with the Turkish cymbal masters to fit all my musical needs from piano trio to funk to heavy metal.
I’ve been using Gator Protechtor cases for a while now and they have held up amazingly well on the road over the years.
My usual set up consists of 22” Wide Ride, 20” Pang Thang, 20” Trash Crash, 18” Smash Crash, (occasionally) & 14” Hi Hats.
I use the Trap Mod Case to carry my cymbals, snare, sticks, pandeiro, cowbell, and foot pedal. It comes with me on every gig and I don’t leave home without it!
BosphorusCymbals.com
GatorCases.com
I play an 8x12 rack tom, 14x14 and 16x16 floor toms, 14x20 and 14x26 bass drums, and 5x10 second snare all USA Custom in twilight glass glitter.
I usually use 16- and 20-strand Puresound Custom Series Snare Wires.
I use my Stanton Moore Drum Co. titanium snare and my Gretsch Solid Shell Bird’s Eye Maple Signature Snare and switch between them for different tunes. GretschDrums.com I designed my SSM Signature drum stick so that it would work for me in all of my musical situations. The body is slightly thinner and longer than a 5A and the tip is a modified arrow tip. It gets a great, focused ride sound if you play with the very tip, or you can lay more of the body of the tip into the cymbal for a broader sound. The shoulder has enough weight to serve well for all the snare drum work I do as well. VicFirth.com
They give me the sensitivity I need for the for the New Orleans stuff, and the articulation and attack I need for the funk and backbeat stuff as well. PuresoundPercussion.com Hudson Music is the leader in educational drum media. Their history dates back to the beginning of drumming education video, and they know what information drummers are looking for.
HUDSON MUSIC
I feel grateful to be on their illustrious roster of great artists. © HudsonMusic.com
