Give the Drummer Some

Why real drums—and real drummers—still matter.

One could make this a very short post if one wanted to. Simply ask a simple question:

If real drums and drummers don’t matter anymore, why are we so desperately using technology to try and imitate them?

People are spending lunatic amounts of hours and money trying to manipulate technology into behaving as much as possible like an actual human drummer. That, in so many ways, should tell you all you need to know.

But before drawing the obvious conclusion, it should be noted that there are exceptions to this strictly imitative trend.

From the pioneering drum & bass freneticisms of Roni Size & Reprazent to the buzzy Soundcloud beats of Nipsey Hussle, artists have been intensely bending the lens through which we look at drum beats through their use of electronics.

And whether it’s early industrial innovators such as Throbbing Gristle, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, and Einstürzende Neubauten, or Tom Waits and his “Bone Machine,” musicians have been equally exploratory in their use of found sounds as opposed to actual drums.

But even across all these use cases, the goal largely remains the same: build a groove that grooves like a human drummer would groove.

Why?

Because great human drummers groove. They groove in ways that cannot be replicated. In ways that we just love a little bit more.

Human drummers are so good, in fact, that in a feat of “reverse engineering” (drummer Jojo Mayer’s term), human drummers can even outplay computers at their own game. Mayer himself is legendary for his abilities as a live “jungle” drummer who can out breakbeat the breakbeats.

There’s a great article from MIC titled Science Shows Why Drum Machines Will Never Replace Live Drummers. In it, a brilliant quote from Mayer is cited:

“Digital computers are binary machines, which means they compute tasks making decisions between zero and one — yes or no. When we play music and generate it in real time, when we improvise, that decision-making process gets condensed to a degree where it surpasses our capability to make conscious decisions anymore. When that happens, I am entering that zone beyond zero and one, beyond yes and no, which is a space that machines cannot access yet. That’s the human experience — right between zero and one.”

As far as I’m concerned, the best way to experience the reality of this human experience firsthand is to go to New Orleans and listen to the homegrown drummers. Drummers down there can play the exact same pattern as drummers from anywhere else in the world, and yet it will somehow feel different.

If you can’t afford to travel, just listen to Zigaboo Modeliste.

These days, as is the case with rock and roll’s most signature instrument, the guitar, we’re in the middle of a cultural sea change that is serving to ensure the ongoing supreme relevance of real drumming.

Women are killing it on the drums.

Weirdly enough, much of the excitement is coming from the one arena that has probably otherwise been the most damaging development for young women in decades — social media.

Amidst all the horribleness, there has been an astounding increase in the virality of posts from women drummers on social, with the result being that more and more women are picking up the sticks and laying down the funk.

Nandi Bushell may be one of the most famous examples, and her videos are well worth checking out, but it’s also pretty hard to go wrong with Dorothea Taylor, the so-called “godmother of drumming.” Search ’em. You’ll dig it all.

Search Viola Smith, at one time dubbed the “fastest girl drummer in the world,” and a true early legend of jazz. Search Sandy West and remind yourself just how ahead of it all The Runaways were. And yeah, search Karen Carpenter. Her drumming was legit. And while you’re at it, search Cindy Blackman, Terri Lynn Carrington, and Janet Weiss, as well.

I’ve long harbored a theory that what separates a good band from a great band are not the usual suspects — i.e., the front people. Think Led Zeppelin. Sure, Page and Plant get the namechecks, but without Jones and Bonham, most LZ songs are just a bunch of irritating, out-of-tune drivel about vikings and groupies.

I mentioned Cindy Blackman earlier (now Cindy Blackman Santana). She’s another great example of a rhythm section making the front person palatable. If it weren’t for her drumming, Lenny Kravitz would literally be unlistenable.

The truth is, great rhythm sections are magic. Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. Zigaboo Modeliste and George Porter. Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Larry Graham and Greg Errico. Sly and Robbie. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. Philly Joe Joes and Paul Chambers. Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. Sam Lay and Willie Dixon.

You may not have heard of all of them, but you’ve grooved to ‘em.

So yeah, technology is here to stay. But there’s a reason they keep on sampling. The Amen Break. When the Levee Breaks. Funky Drummer. Three of those most sampled beats in history.

The Amen Break is, in fact, the most sampled of them all. It was played by Gregory Coleman. Sadly, Coleman died pretty much penniless and alone.

Let’s not have that happen again.

Give the drummer some.