hal blaine machine gun words...

Hal would have agreed 100% with this. So much of this he stressed constantly like how imperative it is to read music, the importance of dynamics, not “ smashing and crashing”, drum tuning, etc. He would always say when you listen to a record, you hear with your ears. When you went to a concert, you hear with your eyes. That goes with what the following article talks about music becoming a visual experience. Hal started out being educated as a jazz drummer and played that genre for many years. He said he was smart enough to see that there was no money in jazz so when rock and roll opened up he jumped on it. But the improvisation skills he learned from his jazz background gave him the skills to create hooks and fills and overdubs in songs to make them stand out. Steve’s comments on the loss of meaningful culture and music is something Hal spoke about also. He used to call today’s music a “talking machine gun with bullets”. Some may think it was just because of the time Hal grew up in. Actually Hal was fairly open minded on understanding change. What Hal did have is enormous amounts of wisdom and common sense

Hal - DURING THE SANE SIXTIES, SINGERS WROTE SONGS ABOUT LOVE AND LIFE. WHAT IS A SONG ?? A SONG IS A STORY, SO SONGWRITERS WERE PUTTING MUSIC TO THEIR LIFE STORIES AND EXPERIENCES. MOSTLY LOVE, THATS WHAT LIFE IS REALLY ALL ABOUT. TODAY IT SEEMS TO BE KILLING COPS.....

ACCORDING TO TODAYS STANDARDS, THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO BE TELLING STORIES OF MURDER, RAPE AND THE SLAYING OF COPS. I'M SURE THAT EVERY GENERATION SAID THE SAME THING BEFORE US. THE WORLD IS GOING TO HELL IN A HAND BASKET.... ISN'T IT STRANGE HOW MUSIC. THAT HAS BEEN AROUND FOREVER AS AN ENTERTAINMENT THING, HAS BECOME A TALKING MACHINE GUN WITH WITH BULLETS AND FIRE GOING EVERY WHICH WAY. I GUESS IM GROWING OLD AND NOT APPRECIATING THE NEW KIDS TODAY... SICK !!!

Photo: Hal 1975

Here’s the article:

STEVE SMITH

(VITAL INFORMATION)

“As we follow in the footsteps of living legends like Louie Bellson, Roy Haynes, Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine, Ed Shaughnessy, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, Steve Gadd, and Jim Keltner, the drumming community as a whole struggles to keep the same high level of musicianship.

When talking to teachers at the major music schools in the US, they inform me that the playing level of incoming students is lower each year. In general, I too have noticed a steady deterioration of musicianship over the years. I'm not talking about the ability to play new and incredible ideas on the drumset. We've seen lots of examples of drummers who are playing things that were once thought impossible. What I'm talking about are fundamental musical skills, which include the ability to read music, play with dynamics, get a good tone out of the instrument, play a variety of styles, and play sensitively with other musicians with steady time and good feel.

In my opinion, the cause of this deterioration is partly due to the decline of

meaningful culture and music in the world. With the music business focusing

on music being more of a visual experience than a listening experience, we're not listening as critically as before. With instrument companies promoting that "louder is better, it spreads misinformation and a growing gap between the reality of mature musicianship and the misled young drummers who believe the hype. We also feel the loss of a generation of drum teachers who were an extension of the great US jazz drumming tradition. And there are a growing number of young drummers who believe they don't need to study and take lessons. With young drummers lacking the above skills, they cannot play with older, more mature musicians and be part of the "master/apprentice system”. This age-old approach has helped to develop many well-rounded young musicians, it's fast becoming an idea of the past.”

elvin jones

jim gordon