{"id":696,"date":"2011-05-05T13:18:07","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T13:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net"},"modified":"2018-08-04T14:36:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T13:36:35","slug":"the-drummers-of-james-brown","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/inspired\/the-drummers-of-james-brown","title":{"rendered":"The Drummers of James Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

White, English drummers in their twenties; I sometimes wonder if there\u2019s a more musically ignorant breed to sit behind a drum set – including myself at that time of life. They think that listening to a few Chili Peppers or Living Colour CD\u2019s gives them a handle on \u2018Funk\u2019 drumming; as I was to discover for myself, this is so not<\/em> the case. A few basic syncopated, heavily executed Rock grooves under ones belt does not turn you into Zigaboo Modeliste overnight; it takes another decade, if you\u2019re lucky, for the penny to drop on what is<\/em> Funk drumming.<\/p>\n

\"ClydeThanks to educators like Zoro and Jim Payne and an awesome DVD, the magic lying within the work of James Brown that remained hidden to me for the first three decades of my life was finally set free. Perhaps it\u2019s down to an \u2018age thing\u2019; a bit like when they say, you only \u2018get\u2019 Jazz when you\u2019re much, much older? Well, there\u2019s a connection somewhere in that statement because every one of Brown\u2019s pioneering drummers were rooted in Jazz, taking what was already a Black American art form still under development, and giving birth to what we now know as Funk. Anyone who thinks<\/em> they know what Funk drumming is and hasn\u2019t studied the first ten years work of James Brown, needs to get down and dirty with those reissued CD\u2019s and get themselves an education.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re talking about guys like Clayton Fillyau, John \u2018Jabo\u2019 Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, Melvin Parker; the drummers who took Brown\u2019s rhythmical grunts and turned them into living drum parts with pretty much zero recognition. If you worked for Brown, it appeared that by virtue of just being on the pay-roll, any claims to recognition for musical contribution was waivered in favour of silent anonymity and a regular pay cheque. It would take at least two decades in the wilderness before the drum world woke up to what these unsung heroes contributed to the history of Funk music. In today\u2019s slick world of legal music specialists, it would probably be a lot harder for Brown to gather his band in a studio, throw over a few musical directions, let them take the reins and turn a germ of an idea into a fully flowered song; without giving his musicians a portion of the writing credit. But these were the days of the music business in its na\u00efve, corruptible infancy; where rules didn\u2019t exist and lawsuits were for rich white folks, never mind for a race of American\u2019s who still<\/em> had to endure the vile, racial inequality of a retarded society.<\/p>\n

So why are such simple sounding parts held in such high esteem by drummers like myself, who have long since turned their backs on the razzle-dazzle Olympian drumming of the 21st<\/sup> century? For starters; there are three things you need to play these parts \u2013 in abundance:<\/p>\n