JOHN 'DRUMBO' FRENCH * O SOLO DRUMBO

ceedee japan 1998 avant avan 024

the former magic band drummer - who later also played guitar - starts his story on this 'drums in drumbo style only' record with some trivial notes before getting more to the points we're interested in....

the solos were recorded in november 1996, and the mixing occured in february 1997. the drums are panned 'player perspective' which means they sound in the same places to you the listener as they do to me (as 'the player'). special thanks to producer henry kaiser who made this album possible by being a great friend in more ways than i can explain. he is the man to thank or blame, depending entirely upon your position.

just for the record (pun intended), i certainly don't consider myself any kind of great drummer from the standpoint of technique. i think that i probably was very lucky to have had the chance to play to music that made me have to think differently about drumming than anyone else. it has been a pleasurable challenge.

to the ceedee: i tried to pick things that i thought people who know of my past work would like to hear. so, this is sort of a 'retro' approach. looking back, i realise now that everything here was created when i still had hair. the time i've gained in not having to do all that shampooing was spent perfecting these performances, so this album should be dedicated to 'baldness'.

terribly bald drumbo, back in 1968
picture by guy webster from john's book through the eyes of magic

for the beefheart fans, only the parts have been slightly altered for copyright reasons. 'hair pie' was the first song in which i tried actually writing out my drum beats before playing them. it was a different approach, and i tried to have at least two different things going on in each rhythm. the first part took forever to learn. one measure of hell. after a while, hell became much easier.

THREE FOR 5
[drum idea 1969] 6:35

i transcribed the basic idea for this in 1969, during rehearsal for 'trout mask replica' as an attempt to play in three different time signatures at the same time. it is in 3/8, 4/4, and 5/4 and is not repetitive for fifteen measures, at which time it begins the same cycle. i have tried to play it on several occasions through the years, but never had the patience (and still don't!) to master it. actually i programmed each measure into a drum machine, to hear how it sounded, and learned them separately. later, when i put them together, my brain didn't know which time signature to follow - and it was a very odd sensation, like trying to decide which presidential candidate to believe. what is here evolves into an improvisation based upon east indian tabla rhythms.

ice cream for john, circa 1974
picture by bill cody from the above mentioned book

P-K-RO P
[unused van vliet drum idea - year unknown] 4:59

don played a rhythm quite similar to this on the drums one day. he asked me to transcribe the beat to music paper. it was very difficult for him to keep playing it, and though it took me about thirty seconds to write it down, i kept telling him i didn't have it yet, so he kept having to play it for twenty to thirty minutes. it was a little prank in retribution for having had to transcribe all those 'trout mask replica' parts for bass and guitar.

however, he was able through his simple technique to innovate one of the greatest beats on drums that i have ever heard. i approached it here with a cab calloway visits flash gordon feel, because it always reminds me of old soft shoe / shoeshine boy rhythms from the thirties and forties and yet still has a timeless appeal.

STEAL SOFTLY THRU SNOW drums
trout mask replica 1969 2:27

it is not common knowledge that i wrote many of my own drum parts on beefheart's legendary 'trout mask replica'. i have included two titles from that album here for the beefheart fans. this is not improvisation, and i tried to capture the original intensity and abandon as much as possible.

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the other five tracks of this album are 'drumbo' style material intended for the 'french-frith-kaiser-thompson' collaboration project, and a solo performance in london in 1996. but the main 'idea' behind it is captain beefheart, of course. so, what actually do we get? that is: musically, as the nice memories are unexpected additions....

in total there are seven amazing pieces of magic, which is quite impressive, don't you agree? 'well-known' tunes heard from an other point of view (like the recording technique gives you the impression you're sitting ín the drum set), and a whole song - except the vocals - compressed into óne tiny kit! and don's never used 'shoe shining' melody makes this release more extraordinary - although you really shouldn't think the 'un-magic' rest is trash, despite the fact that this solo project drives you mad if you are a common listener: it's drums and drums and drums and drums only!

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[131297 / last update 180119]