Gadd shuffles

I stumbled across a video the other day of Steve Gadd playing a shuffle in which he used his left foot to play the skip notes.  This frees up the the left hand to just play backbeats, and the right hand to just play quarter notes - be it on the ride or hi-hat.  As no one limb has to play those two shuffled eighth notes really close together it creates a very relaxed feel.

Now, Gadd obviously isn't this first person to do this.  Mel Lewis immediately comes to mind.

But, as you'll have heard, Mel is playing a jazz ride cymbal pattern along with that left foot.  Gadd, on the other hand, is only playing quarter notes.  Again, to my ear this just makes the pocket deeper, and gives the groove an ease that's particularly applicable to rock and blues shuffles.

In the same video Gadd also went on in the video to do a few variations.  One was simply putting the odd push on the bass drum, like so:

He also put ghost notes on the triplet partial immediately after the back beat:

This opens it up to the possibility of turning the groove into some sort of half-time shuffle.

And while I was looking for a better video of Gadd playing these examples I came across another video labelled "Gadd Shuffle".  But it ended up being something different.  In this video Gadd was using his ride hand on the snare drum to create the shuffle.

Here you are playing those two shuffled eighths with the same hand, but with the right hand as you would on a ride cymbal anyway.  Again, it just seems to relax everything a bit.  Or maybe it's just Gadd being Gadd.

Anyway, the curmudgeon in me kind of wants to say "just work more on your left hand", which we all should do, but actually these are nice to have the your back pocket.  Stick them in your bag alongside the shuffles according to Keith Carlock.

Groove Transcription - Steve Gadd, "Lenore"

This is one of the first Chick Corea tunes I ever heard.  As a clueless 18-year-old jazz studies major I was told I should check out Chick Corea.  So, I went out and got Verve Jazz Masters 3 - Chick Corea, a greatest hits collection featuring "You're Everything", "Spain", and a number of other Chick classics.  I remember really loving "Lenore", but it wasn't until many years later that I realized how hip the drum grooves were.

In the A section Steve Gadd plays open-handed, with his left hand on the hi-hat, much like he does on "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and other signature grooves of his.

A few times later in the tune he drops his left hand down to the snare on the & of 3, which makes a nice variation.

Now, even the most cursory of searches will show you that I'm not the first person to transcribe or write about this groove, not by a long shot.  But most people seem to focus solely on that first part and fail to talk about how super hip the groove is in the next section.  It's pseudo-linear, with hard-driving accents on the pulse.

Towards the end there's considerably more improvising, but as it builds in density we hear something more like this.

The Steve Gadd Book

I try my best not to be a "re-blogger", but I was over at Cruise Ship Drummer! the other day and saw that Todd posted about a Steve Gadd book that is now available as PDF for free, so I figured it would be irresponsible not tell you about it.

This is a very cool book by Danish drummer, Hans Fagt, that features some of Gadd's best stuff.  And, to be honest, there were a couple of recordings in here that I was unfamiliar with and got to discover for the first time.

The format is great as well.  Rather than multiple page layouts of whole tune transcriptions, Fagt has broken everything down and gives us the main grooves of each tune and a handful of fills. 

It was originally published in 1985 and apparently has been out of print for awhile.  Hans is now giving it away if you simply sign up to his mailing list.  As he is so kindly handing it out essentially for free you should do him the courtesy of actually signing up to the mailing list to get it rather than just sharing the PDF.

Solo Transcription - Steve Gadd, "Aja"

Here's a classic Steve Gadd solo from the 1978 Steely Dan album, Aja.  The title track is the only tune Gadd plays on the whole record, though he makes it count.  As a matter of fact, no drummer, besides Bernard Purdie plays more than one track on the album, which also features Ed Greene, Paul Humphrey, Jim Keltner and Rick Marotta.  Really, the whole album is a who's of who of 1970s jazz and session players like Timothy Schmit from the Eagles, Don Grolnick, Joe Sample, Victor Feldman, Larry Carlton, Steve Kahn, and Lee Ritenour among many others.  Aja, the tune, even features Wayne Shorter on sax.

There are a few videos floating around YouTube of Gadd talking about his approach to this tune and breaking down some of the licks.  Not that there's a whole lot to break down.  He  isn't really re-inventing the wheel here (a lot of hand-hand-foot in varying rhythms) but the orchestration is absolutely beautiful and it's executed with a pocket like only Gadd can.  And it's said that he sight read the chart, and nailed it by the second take.

At the end we even get to hear the classic "Gadd samba", which I personally never really consider a "samba", but that doesn't mean it's any less killing.

Also, be sure to check out "The Making of Aja", which can be found on YouTube.  It's a wicked documentary with Donald and Walter talking about the making of the album and interviewing some of the musicians.  They even break out the masters and play some scrapped parts in context, and mute/solo certain tracks.  Very cool stuff.