Dear All,

There’s a big gap in the Real Drums collection for cool modern jazz drumming.

Think: Bill Stewart, Jeff Ballard, Eric Harland, Peter Erskine, Jorge Rossy, Asaf Sirkis, Adam Nussbaum, Paul Motian, Clarence Penn, Terri Lynn Carrington, Jack de Johnette, Brian Blade, etc.

I’d see the following as the distinctive features of those players:

1. Complex ride patterns, with minimal ‘sizzle’ – just the stick-tip ‘click’ really – with spare, funky punctuation on the rest of the kit.
2. Mainly Even rather than Swing feel
3. Minimal use of crash cymbals, especially in pre- and post-fills.
4. Minimal use of the Kick Drum, except for punctuation.
5. Variations such as mallets on slower numbers

Most of the non-Latin jazz RD’s currently available are Terry Clarke’s. He’s a great player of course, but his approach tends to be very splashy and full-on. There’s a big gap around cool, modern grooves.

Since BIAB-2012 introduced the capacity to use loops, I’ve hunted everywhere for cool modern jazz drum loops to approximate non-splashy modern jazz drummers – and drawn a complete blank. Hence this request.

I’m sure your regulars – Craig Scott or Terry Clarke – could play this style. Or bring in someone new.

I’m sure your many jazz users would be very appreciative. (See, for example, Jazzman60’s wish-list post last week, which has drummer Moritz Baranczyk playing very much in this style)

Many Thanks. Best to All there. Andy