We're here to talk about James Brown - Sweet Soul Music !

Hi! How do you have fun this summer? When you are having very sunny days, you will be much more cheerful by listening to James Brown's music that you can't leave out when talking about groove!!  

Live at the Apollo Vol.2 [12 inch Analog]

From the James Brown's live show recording "Live at the Apollo, Vol. II", "Sweet Soul Music" is the best groove for sunny summer days. This song is originally released by Arthur Conley which you can listen to his version on YouTube. The original version is of course one of the best soul music, but James Brown's band in this album performs it with much more funk grooves.

(0:00-) 

The song joyfully begins with horns. 2/4 is inserted just before the verse, maybe because the lyric "Do you like good music" doesn't fit into 4/4. The drum fill in the 2/4 is very good. Just one single strike of a snare drum! Don't be unnecessarily fancy, and give over space to the vocal. I often play one-shot fill like that because I love this kind of simplicity.

(1:48-) 

Next, a dialogue among vocal, drums, and percussion from the 3rd bar of the above transcription. When the vocal goes randomly like "gotta gotta feelin'", the snare back beat changes its position accordingly. The slip beat, which is familiar in JB's music, unfolds in the groove. The "RATTLE RATTLE" snare taps are light and crispy. You can probably see that the Bongo really supports this gotta gotta feelin' groove. If you listen carefully, the faint Bongo notes contribute a lot to this 16th rapid groove instead of snare drum's ghost notes. That is a secret ingredient. 

James Brown has a lot to listen to. All musicians must listen to especially this live show version "Live at the Apollo, Volume II". Along with its music structure, ensemble and technique, it is indeed telling you what entertainment is. If you listen to the next song of the introduction "Think", you will regret not being able to participate in this show and your own destiny that you could not live in this good old times.

Episode 1: Attack of YouTube Drum Performance Showcase

This time I try a variation of this blog. Let me showcase 6 drum performances on YouTube deserving of special mention. You should officially watch all of them for your life as a drummer.

1. Aric Improta upsets conventional wisdom on a drum solo. Out-of-the-box is when even before the drum solo starts. Just by seeing the aerobic 0:06-0:10, it is clear that common sense has already been overturned. 

2. This explains some styles of stick tricks/twirling that famous drummers perform occasionally. The John Blackwell's stick trick is useful.

3. I can't believe they don't seem to be well-known super drummers. Is this blazing fast speed average among them!? The musicians are playing without much surprise, but the groove and especially the speed of the drummers are of the highest level in the world.

4. A footage of Buddy Rich's performance two months before he died. I'm very surprised that his performance does not show any decline throughout his life.

5. A Jojo Mayer's drum solo. In the first half, he expresses very variously using only the snare drum. Especially this incredible brush is a must-see. I learned a lot because I had no idea how to make changes or to express something with brushes.

6. The legendary session with Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, and Vinnie Colaiuta. Some of the comments on YouTube are about who won or lost. Do you think Vinnie won, sure? It reminds me that there are various criteria or evaluation scales such as speed, musicality, presence.

I can't stop watching YouTube. After one movie ends, thumbnail images look interesting show up to attract me. I just click on one of. That's to be expected. In the meantime, 3 hours just slip away before I know it. This is extremely dangerous. Watching movies on YouTube is an exercise to develop moderation and self-control.

Funkadelic - You Hit the Nail on the Head underlying mechanism verified

How are you getting along lately? This time, from the byword of funk, check out the funk groove that looks simple on the surface but you cannot easily make it happen.

In a Funkadelic's album "America Eats Its Young" released in 1972 has a lot to listen to for drummers. Drums stand out in the songs much. The groove in the outro part of the 14th track "Wake Up" is a must-listen for all of us, but this time we are going to see the 1st track "You Hit the Nail on the Head". 

America Eats It's Young

This is how the drummer plays from the beginning of the song:
(0:00-)

The organ riff and the somewhat wild strumming of the wah-wah guitar combine to create a unique dance groove. I like the way the song starts. The song is trimmed to start in Auftakt from the Hi-hat open accent in the drum pattern. We do not hear stick-hitting tick-tocks of the ride cymbal, and the ride cymbal itself does not produce a beat. Meanwhile, we can hear after-hitting resonance of the ride cymbal, and it makes the song a little bit thick and lively.

This drum pattern does not seem particularly important. But what does make such really funky groove?! I figured it out through hearing the riff for a while. Not to mention the organ phrase with staccato contributes to it, but the root cause could be the very subtle swing feel like this:

The drummer on the song, (probably) Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood might not be aiming that effect. But his natural instinct would realize that groove. This sense of time really matters in this song.

In this finely timed pattern, the song goes on and suddenly changes to a quite relaxed feel at 2:54 singing loosely "You hit the nail on the head". After some time relaxing like that, it returns to the pattern of the beginning when the snare drum breaks in. It's very cool to brace up and wake up the song to be funky again.

(4:21)

The lyrics of this song go like this:

You Hit the Nail on the Head
Just because you win the fight
Don't make you right
Just because you give
Don't make you good

"You Hit the Nail on the Head" means "you're exactly right" followed by the statement "Just because you win the fight don't make you right". It sounds like sour grapes, but also seems to convey a profound message. The 2nd track of this album "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause" criticizes people who protest against major issues for social justice but don't change anything about their lives. Other songs have messages about political and moral value judgments. This time I found out that Funkadelic has something certain specific they want to claim. Why have they been popular from generation to generation? Their music itself? The star shaped sunglasses on Bootsy Collins? It's more than that.

Thanks,