Jazz Drummer Q-tip of the Week Interview Series: PETER ERSKINE!!!

man good thing I didn't see this before I heard you play so I never would have hired you I said why check the days it because you look like one of those jazz education you know the hair kind of bangs I had to go t I look exactly like that guy at the Reno Jazz thanks for doing this and I know so many views are gonna really appreciate everything they you have to say so it's very kind of honored to be here and such great company is all the other Gentiles you've interviewed so Wow okay the short answer my father was a psychiatrist yeah but earlier in his life he'd been a bass player okay and we had a conga drum sitting around the house and he had fashioned kind of a drum set with the conga drum a Chinese TomTom and a sizzle cymbal and I used to play along with recordings at home and you know I started taking lessons and around 1959 okay 1916 it's just look at the the history or chronology of jazz recordings I mean 1959 is a year that's the year and so I was just fortunate enough to to grow up and come of age when there was just so much music right around this and so how did I get started I'm just a mirror man I'm just a reflection yeah of that and that's not some false modesty kind of nonsense I mean it's it sort of was just being in the right place at the right time and having the support system of my family to get me lessons yeah well my first instructor was a drummer named John severa and Johnny was a local drummer in the Atlantic City New Jersey area he'd worked with Patti Page and I think he did some gigs with Billy May a really good drummer more than that he was a wonderful teacher and and it takes a special kind of teacher to mentor five or six year old student because your attention span is only gonna be so long and I loved playing I loved practicing I never looked at practicing is as drudgery or something to be avoided I got practice before I went to school I practiced as soon as I came home from school you know I just always loved playing and and and my father would seek out instruction they didn't realize I was only seven you had to be 14 years old to to enroll in the camp and a bit of a dilemma because we had we've driven two straight days that I get there that's before the interstate highway system was was completed and arduous drive for my my folks so that evening they arranged they what they called a private audition for Stan Kenton okay Stan was savvy enough he invited the local newspaper to come by with a photographer and they sort of liked this idea you know such a young student coming to the camp they played it up in the press okay I stayed in the dorm with my parents so they made a special accommodation and thereafter every summer I would get this jazz check so I'm hanging out not only with the Stan Kenton band but that first who was the drummer at the time the drummer at that time was Dee Barton I think Dean Valon 16 I never leave a note oh it's way way before Vaughn on the the the the drummer who I remember from that firt well they're two drummers I remember from that camp yeah one was Lewis Hayes because he was there the Cannonball yeah Lewis Hayes and the other was Paul Guerrero who was a very important figure in the Dallas area and he was the drummer in the one o'clock at North Texas okay way back then yeah and it would be a few years later when another one o'clock drummer it's so straightened me out good because I'll get to that in a second okay so so you know that I got to meet Oliver Nelson and I was kind of there around you know for about four four or five years I was this little you know the little wunderkind the lot a great little kid drummer would you call it would people call you prodigy they use the word I'm not sure what that means my first recording I mean the very first records my teacher brought to me one was a names a lot of your viewers may not be so familiar with specs pal hey Jenny Oh God Jax pearl from the west coast and then of course Shelley man and then our Blakey and that was the one who hit me right between the eyes and I remember Christmas present I had in our Blakey record and that kind of changed things I did it but also the the Buddy Rich Max Roach album rich versus Roche where you nobody's playing this stuff that's like wow well that's impossible max is playing melodies I'm like that's possible you know and I liked it more and then Joe Morello comes along with his soul on take five which is you know clearly inspired by maksim yes anis Wow I really like this so I can go back to recordings that were made at these camps listening to myself at nine years old and I hear me you know the eighth coin does grow into the tree the Stan Kenton camp in Redlands California all right and Ed so it's a young drummer playing with the bad game and I not sure what happened I I get to the audition and I'm reading the drum part like a little classical thing like I'd never played a big band in my life oh so you know we're reading everything verbatim he forbade him all of a sudden I don't know why because I had I think because I'd done poorly at the classical camp yeah reading a snare drum part so I really was trying to focus on reading and so I just had this complete jazz disconnect I sense it's not going well I look up I see Dee Bart and do that that's never a good sign now keep in mind to the last four years or so when I go to these camps I I would always place in the number one band I was Oliver Nelson's jump at the time you know and so the next morning I go to see the results of the auditions they posted I'm in the rock bottom last band I mean the abandon hope all ye who enter here the band of complete losers alright so that's a that's a bit of a shock to the system okay you know I think my dad's sense what was going yeah anyway a day or so later ed Soph and Stan Kenton come to the to our drum class in the afternoon and basically took me apart and put me back together Wow and that was the first kind of mature musical moment for me to really start understanding what playing the ride cymbal meant wow so I I like to credit ed so for really being instrumental yeah he was quite young himself he was a student at North Texas and he was just working that summer with stand and went back but he had that he had the teaching instinct I don't know if you know this but we're fellow IAA alumni yes I would yes I graduated in 95 Interlochen Arts Academy would you mind talking about your experience there and how that's kind of shaped who you are as a musician someone mentions interlaken at the same time Life magazine which was this magazine that published in a very large pictorial format they came out with a 12 page photo spread about Interlochen Arts Academy and it's like there it is heaven so I was really an overachiever on my audition tape I wonder where that audition tape is I would love to see that I have it so I got admitted to the school and I couldn't believe my good good luck and so eventually or ultimately I mean I I left home when I was 14 yeah and went to interlaken for three years the important the importance of interlaken number one you know I wasn't the odd kid that that liked music everyone up there was involved with the arts and so I remember when I was young I was listening to recording there's an Oliver Nelson album and I played it from my friends and every time it would get to this one passage my hair's would stand up I get goosebumps I said to feel that did you feel that no no listen again just feel that so I asked my dad and he said not everybody responds to music the same so kids interlock it was a kind of place for it yet people who had shared emotional responses to art yeah and that became my family as it where the the teachers as well as the students yes by the time I got out of interlock and I fashioned myself as I was you know I was the high school hotshot I played timpani in New York astre I did everything and then I got to Indiana and professor George Gabler and his wisdom said how about if we just work on a practice pad all year oh and he said even playing orchestra might have a couple triangle I think is for sure he said jazz you know you're a jazz or so do what you want to do but he said I really want to work on these basics he he later credited me with with that decision but as I remember it was him so we just looked at the mechanics and and that was the first time anyone really instructed me in match bread yeah okay so it was just a very kind of step by step what I thought was was technique but what we were really looking into was was tone tone tonal production first I can I literally just two weeks ago put a video on traditional grip and how I think it's important to learning jazz because it's the grip of the music kind of and so you're saying you started on traditional grip can you just talk about traditional grip and yeah the instrument was designed around traditional girl yeah so much of the vocabulary comes out of traditional grip traditional grip works now something that the bill Platt recently retired 40 years principal percussionist in Cincinnati where he does this demonstration of the hand movement like this okay and he said that it's basically what we're doing when we play yeah and if you play traditional it's the same movement you're just starting the hand in a different right starting point right so we're we're allowing gravity of the guide to stick and then we control the amount of you know we don't want pressure but the amount of energy right and then pulling the sound out of the instrument and and gaber was always aware of my tendency which got reinforced when I went on the road and then came back to school was I was hitting into the instrument too much I was playing too hard so you know one lesson this is after I'd returned to school three years on the road but the Kenton bent and then pretty early on in the lesson we're doing something in gaber stops me and he hands me a triangle beater hmm and he points to triangle he says all right mezzo piano you get one chance played it and took a puff on a cigar he said that was too loud he said I get out that was my lesson so I guess when I practice all week all notes and I became really interested in how softly and consistently can I do this but then you know I go out on the road again I lose that it took a long time for me to really connect with with tone and whatever gift you play you know toners is it's not just the sound toners is a vital part of feel than the way that the rhythm is expressed you know whether it's legato you know whether and just finally comment about match I mean match made sense you know like when Billy Cobham was doing it they're a big influence because yeah yeah it's the ambidextrous come here but if drummers for me if a drummer if he or she begins to move the elbows away from their torso and you've immediately got tension here yes tension there so when you when you play here and you play like this kind of like you know yeah classic Billy Gladstone and you're relaxed no of course you can be relaxed with good match yes but I think it if you follow that same set of principles things work you know the right of passage for like a lot of drummers in LA you know ultimately did you study with Freddy Gruber Freddy was a real character like it's just leave it at that yeah I decide well you know what enough people I know and respect her are taking lessons that included a black hole Steve Smith person the opiate had I didn't know Neil yet but I thought I'll check it out and I met Freddy and and I said I'd like to take a lesson he goes what do you want to work on I said technique your techniques fine I said no I want a negative now your techniques fine and as I press the pointing look as long as you don't hurt yourself when you play your techniques fine sir but there is one thing I'd like to to talk about with you so we schedule a lesson he starts tap-dancing in his kitchen anytime two answers for about 30 seconds he looks up kind of pleased with himself you said do you see you see man you get it no help me what are you trying to show me he goes look manacles I'm not trying to dance beneath the surface of the floor I'm dancing on top of it so the lightbulb just on the low though that said show me on the drums now he was famous for not playing the drums for a student right he goes sure baby so he dances into the second bedroom or whatever this house in Tarzana California sits down and I instantly get it he's just drawing the sound that's this beautiful sound Wow and I thank you and that was he said okay so that's all I wanted to talk about with you it's incredible that mr. Miyagi wax on yeah yeah process which might be you know baloney but I use with my students I try to get to that point during the first hour yeah I'm gonna make it locally relevant okay so there's a drummer who lives in New Orleans and he still plays the drums I think he also works as a chef okay his name is Allen Robinson he spelled al ly Robinson and Allen used to play with Jocko and Wayne Cochran ban Wayne Cochran and CC riders yeah which was an army man and Wayne Cochran was was a singer horn band like a small big man yeah they played fun chitlin circuit okay I think when I was in college I remember you know and the music's still illnesses now 1971 getting into 72 yeah and Alan and I were listening you know we were we were into dreams and we were into miles of course all the stuff but we were also listening to this band Edgar Winter yeah my trash which you know was it bad but but this guy's like no man he said if you want to hear something have you got to check out it's Wayne Cochran now so I go to the record store and I pick it up and there was one tune it just killed me it's called somebody's been cutting in on my groove and it's just this really hip funky beat and and somehow I internalized the way this guy Alan Robinson played me you know why would Jocko you know be interested in me so quickly every year in me one time but I'm convinced that he recognized so like yeah cuz he like Franklin Allen he could hear and he recognized that we've listened to a lot of the same things and I had this beat luckily that he seemed to like and you know we hit it off yeah and if I might have been self-conscious that vanished immediately when I'm walking up to the bandstand I said what was scuse me nice meeting you and I got to go play and he called after me he said hey man and I turned around and he said something to me no one had ever said he said have fun you know not play well it would have fun so I remember just like fun so I had fun would you say that weather report kind of embodied that spirit certainly sound like the music has had some of that yeah that was the goal of the band and and if you know I mean I had I had a lot of the ingredients that they were looking for you know I had I had the strength and the power and and you know Joe I'm weighing I think we're intrigued just by the idea that I had played with Stan cannon I think if they'd ever heard me play with Stan kenten they never would have even let me in the front door but you know they're kind of thing with the Kenton band from the 50s and then Jocko says he can play the funk so yeah and I had done my homework before we played for the first time but I was still kind of a side man you know and in my mind I was a big bad drummer and that's where I had to learn to step up to the plate make my own contribution you know one night I was playing very much I mean note-for-note the way Billy Cobham played and they didn't like that and it wasn't that they didn't like Billy but they you know if they wanted Billy they would have gotten Billy and because I was there they said you have to be yourself man you know when I hear you play and so I mean you were with them for and I you recorded five yeah that's five years and I think I said nothing else I said the longevity record yeah and in part it was because they it was a demanding gig and I think a lot of guys sensibly just thought you know who needs this I'm gonna go home yeah which had occurred to me a few times but I would always remember these guys know a lot more about this than I do so I gotta tough it out what was the most exciting part of that tenure in that band well I mean first was just you know pinching myself every night and what am i doing playing with Wayne Shorter and just getting to play with those musicians I mean you know I reflect on camp when I met Lewis Hayes they were both playing with cannon ball and Josie I think I remember you that little kid that played the drum and wearing short pants yeah so it was you know it it oddly didn't I mean I was enjoying it all like crazy but it didn't feel like I didn't belong there somehow it seemed like yeah this just seems to be the the arc this was supposed to happen and that's I don't mean that to sound at all boastful it was just here's where things have brought me and so I you know do the work and like you said you did your homework you were prepared you were practicing and yeah as well as I could be the challenge with that band because you know I was such a fan of Alphonse was on showing and of course cravat on the Erick revived and mysterious traveler was maybe my favorite hour but by the time I joined the band it was loud yeah you know it was a very loud band and and and I could operate at that level but there were a lot of things I couldn't do at that dynamic level it just didn't you know working and you know if the fun game we all play if you know if I can go back yeah I might have a smaller kit you know but but you know at the time the big bigger bass drum we're playing this Joe comes over in front of everybody and he starts no man that's not a weather report beat no what are you doing man that's not the weather before feet and I you know I want to that won't work for you anymore but part in the language but I don't say that because the press is there I don't want to be disrespectful but it's oh no I'm internalizing it and I feel like alright I'm home it's one of those really shitty Thanksgiving dinners and there's aunt so-and-so or uncle what's-his-name pulling the same on me that he'd pull when I was 10 years old and provoking the same emotional response right and so I'm not so angry at him as I'm really furious at myself right so I'm really bothered I send an email home to my wife and she's really angry with Joe he's pulled that you know so the next day we're going through the concert like I go on a separate car I had to get there earlier than the band to soundcheck the drums and stuff other side of the parking lot there's aa v'l in his car getting out of the car they provide it now like what did you do he yells out across the parking lot it was Peter Erskine it was not a great last night that was weather report they they really liked and asked with you immensely they really liked the messer it's that old jazz bebop mess with your stuff I think right yeah I've heard stories I think it's a little different now but a little more hard hard knock school of teaching back then it seemed yeah so steps started off as kind of a kick spam and it was Steve Gadd Don growling like Eddie Gomez Michael Brecker Mike veneering there's the studio guys getting together for fun yeah and you know Steve Gadd was doing everything Mike Meniere's son had had been at one of the weather report shows and he encouraged his dad said you should you should check out this new drum where they got a weather report and so Michael called me for a recording session with the Japanese guitarist named Kazumi Watanabe he was producing and he was warm Bernhard Michael Brecker Tony Levin samy figure rose you know anyway i'm flown to New York and I do one evening of recording yeah and then after that Michael called me too he was doing her solo album for Warner Brothers called wanderlust and you know I had very little studio experience relatively at the time but the album had some good moments and formed some some quick friendships with dr. Olynyk and some other people and I you know I had long admired his work so Don then invited me to fly to New York he was going to do his first jazz gig as a bandleader and I this might have been before I did any steps thing I just did Don's gig and then Don you know Steve was not going to continue to do the steps thing so they asked me if I would would do it these Steve cats Steve getting us okay so I started playing with the band and then a tour of Europe was was being talked about and booked because I had this the summer free now I'm in Japan with steps and I get a phone call or was told to call I got a message to call the weather report management and they said you know things have changed don't we need to take the band out this summer so I said we know you've got some other plans cuz I kept everybody informed yeah because I was still on weather record they said so you have to make a choice you do one or the other I said could I ramped I told these guys I was doing it I just didn't feel yeah I said well I'm doing the tour of Europe with steps I said okay fine we'll let you know Thanks don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out so I felt this incredible kind of sense of relief I mean it happened really quickly and I hadn't planned on the phone call quite going now it's kind of late at night Tokyo I I gotta go for a walk so I step outside my hotel room and I rent it to Michael Brecker in the hallway and I said hey Mike guess what just happened I said what I said I just quit weather report so I I could do the steps toward the summer I thought he'd be pleased and he just looked at me said are you nuts and he walked away shaking his head Wow gosh but I was really making good on on on honoring the advice that Zawinul had given me the Joe had said look if you really want to be a jazz drummer you know when I was in LA and in weather report I was I was doing dates with with George cables and right and working with Freddie Hubbard Joe Farrell did his Joe Henderson data I was getting to do stuff but Joe said you got to move to New York if you really want to be a jazz musician so that was the sign that all right I'm moving to New York and yeah there was that was the real beginning of an education this is before MIDI had become I mean I hadn't even been introduced yet so every every synthesizer manufacturer had their own and a proprietary system or protocol yeah so their devices could communicate with one another but you you know you couldn't have a rowlandson sequential circuits or over hi I'm Rui si or Yamaha a piece of gear the exit area there was no way to sync of mine and and very clever people were coming up with these interface boxes really complicated MIDI changed all that but my favourite steps out were steps ahead we had to change the name it was a bar band in North Carolina that that had a copyright on the name steps oh and they they were it was initially steps steps and there they were asking this dumb amount of money to get the right so somebody came up with the idea steps ahead but my proudest musical moment okay so steps is cool and you know the album the album modern times was great and was all over high and stuff and we were really clever and it was great I I love all those guys but anyway now we're gonna really test for it so during a concert vince mendoza is conducting and it's the music Miles Davis the collaboration she made with Gil Evans okay so we're doing not only you know miles ahead but we're Porgy and Bess and sketches to Spain now we had done a couple of these already with Jimmy Cobb and and Jimmy like I said Jim you want to play gone that before you Beth check it out it's a wild chart okay so anyway just you know when Jimmy Buffet play that beat so we're doing this concert at Disney home and Jimmy's not not there for that song I'm just playing the drums for the whole thing and we get the summertime yeah so there's no there's no piano in the orchestra it's just bass drums and Terrence and then so so it will just open up the end you guys play so the bass is walking I'm just playing quarter notes on the ride I had on to him for an acrostic every fourth beat just the classic Jamaica now Terrence is starting to really play some stuff like you know all but sending me an engraved invitation come on man let's mix it up I won't budge I'm only playing that and this thing starts to happen with attention and then tan now Terrence knows he's got the freedom he was like as a courtesy I think only come on and then he's okay so now the shit's really right and it's we we play for for some time and he's he's creating a masterpiece yeah by the time it's done the place explodes but instead of taking about you know it's an stunts he comes over he grabs my hand and holds it up like this for the whole house yeah I was I was like cool yeah that was I think it's one of my proudest moments learn how to play an accent on the snare drum that doesn't involved hitting the damn hoop by the rim it's such a go-to device and you don't realize especially when you're in a live room that that just gobbles up so much sound pretty easy and wipes out the banner saying the head and when you hit the head in the rim if again I'm hearing it a lot here as soon as a drummer wants to play an accent be honest right thing well that's their go-to yeah and you know if you're doing you know sure you're doing tower power everything yeah fine so I think Dave does that for ya the back beach but man you know you saved that so and and and most most players aren't conscious of it but I started becoming aware and my final bit of advice yeah so I saw this I saw this movie it's called shadows in light a long time ago and it's a documentary about cinematography and and the directors of photography the DPS determine not only the the set up of the shot the framing of it but the lighting you know they're crucial to the look and feel of a film so they're interviewing the the DP the director of photography on a film that was made and I guess it was the late 60s called Rosemary's Baby and Mia Farrow played the female lead and they're setting up a shop where the camera is looking down the hallway into a bedroom her character is sitting on the bed with a phone to her here so they have the stand-in you know sitting there with the phone right here and he lines up the shot and you see her head and profile at the phone so Roman Polanski the director is called over he looks he goes no no no change the angle so we only see the phone on her ear in the back of her head I don't want to see anything forward so the DB said I disagreed with the choice but he's the director so all right so we set it up that way yeah so he said the most incredible thing happened at the premiere John Patterson we're at the jazz educators Network conference right now so a lot of jazz stars and masters are walking by so so they've they shoot the scene down the hallway and you only see this much of the actors right at the premiere in New York when that scene came up on the screen he said the entire audience did this everyone tried to look around the door frame because of what wasn't there on the screen now to put it in more simple musical terms mother popcorn James Brown mother mother popcorn James Brown did it that then it that then up that did it I mean you you're gonna move your booty right we're beat one is basically not accented or even played and the genius of James Brown the genius of Boogaloo is you know why is that so cool it's because we're the beats aren't I mean the tragedy of disco is an electronic music it fills up every freaking right space and it's it's it's I think led to a lack of curiosity of musical possibilities to this don't all time so this really triggered a thing and it was around the same time I started making these ECM recordings yes and I'd already learned that a lot of the drumming devices Hydra live near trios and you know Taylor with John Taylor and Polly Danielson but before that with Abercrombie yes the stuff I used to do didn't work in part because you know the Tambor and pitch of the guitar if I went to a rack Tom yeah that's the same registers I'm wiping him out or he's wiping me out that's just right okay so I had to start thinking of the Tambor yeah choices and Mark Johnson who's North Texas I mean I know this is an exclusion or think it'd be your mark Johnson who attended our Texas yeah we spent a lot of time working on this you know Matt Wilson and Martin wind presentations then they they spoke at length about speaking at length about what you do with your rhythm part yet and so mark and I we work shopped all the time we were on the road we would we would do post mortems after gigs what worked what didn't we would check out other bands not liked it like you know that sucks yeah we're hipper but what's working what isn't and why yeah you know we would and we and we were starting to figure out like and we were trying to go holy cow that works yeah so drumming became then a reductive process for me what to leave that right so that's all it is and and older you get the more tempting it is leave more out well I heard that the other night where you're just playing the ride cymbal and beautiful performance you're just playing the ride cymbal and everything the musics it's happening you're not trying to force it it's just happening you're leaving space for things that happen and and for the imagination as well invites the listener and and and and and all it involves is is you got trust yourself yeah you got trusted musicians you're working with you don't have to feel like you need to corral it and or muscle would and really something it shouldn't be and unless you trust yourself trust me trust in music yeah and then trust your audience right it just as an aside you know there's nothing more fun or engaging for an audience to see a musician to see him or her truly engaged in what they're doing but also having joy people also don't want to see you know yeah struggling like you know you're trying to lift something it's too heavy for you if you're trying to lift something's too heavy for you you need help and you shouldn't need help when you're making music right right I like that keep that that's a great the first word or phrase is ride cymbal I'll say it again okay the first word is ride cymbal Zildjian bass drum Gretch John amber Cromie John Abercrombie genius melody harmony Elya analyst Samba dynamics soft Michael Brecker gone too soon Wayne Shorter the end to Joseph's yang that was more than one word but that's a that was finance is not a strict exercise my favorite Wayne Shorter story so I go visit Wayne in this new house and we're checking out the view and we're sitting in this kitchen now I don't hang out with Wayne that much I just happen to be there I said Wayne you know congratulations on your new house great viewing yeah you like it - yeah but there's in the Hollywood Hills and it's really inconvenient okay driving there or getting there or back whatever so I said but what do you do if you need butter and he looked at me and he turned looked at his refrigerator turned back it means that who needs butter okay are we still in the one word for when there's no couple more couple more where's Bob James Bob James the first thing that nice man and lastly your your thousands and thousands and thousands of fans and drummers and musicians who you've had an effect on in your life what do you think of when you think of those people Oh gratitude a ps4 for Bob James he arranged and really did all the all the work on a film score for an Al Pacino film called Serpico okay and if you're interested in in the art of orchestrating using a small ensemble a very specific ensemble and creating the maximum amount of music out of it check out Bob James work on the score to Serpico it's it's it's quite brilliant and and I think you know that's the stuff I love of his the I'm not a fan of the smooth thing even though I you know the earlier stuff I think observing your stuff didn't quite sound like that to me like the I'm not sure what to make of the smooth thing now just even the very word you know it's kind of kind of dumb but yeah what are we gonna call it a jagged I don't like that either I just want to say you know thank you obviously thank you for it for doing this and taking time to do this you could very well and you have every right to be at Apple as much as you've done if you came off set and you just said I don't have time for you I would understand but you're not that person you're such a good person and I think that comes out in your definitely comes out in your music which is the reason why we love your music and we love listening to you and while you're still here playing great and sharing such great energy on the stage so no I mean it I really do mean so I appreciate it and thank you thank you for all the viewers and look forward to seeing you again thanks so much see later

Channel: Quincy Davis

Views: 7,428

Rating: 4.9766765 out of 5

Keywords: jazz, drums, jazz drummer, quincy davis, traditional grip, match grip, drum tutorial, how to play drums, drum lesson, zildjian, quincy drums, quincy drummer, drum technique, play drums fast, bebop drums, drums for beginner, beginner drum lesson, ride cymbal, yamaha, vic firth, drum stick technique, drum history, jazz history, q-tip drum, marching snare technique, drum rudiments, swing, jazz ride, jazz ride cymbal, yamaha drum, drum set, peter erskine, fusion drummer

Id: Yo1L-DrLuF0

Length: 46min 43sec (2803 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2020