SKF NOTE: In 1994, my friend and former Modern Drummer colleague, Rick Mattingly, was on staff at the Percussive Arts Society’s magazine, Percussive Notes. Rick asked if I would expand on and take a slightly different tack on a subject I touched on in a five-part series I wrote for Modern Drummer called History of Rock Drumming.
I gladly accepted Rick’s assignment. The resulting article was published in two Percussive Notes as Innovators of Jazz Drumset: Part 1 and Innovators of Jazz Drumset: Part 2. Here’s Part 2.
SKF NOTE: I rediscovered my Keith Copeland interview transcript in July 2015. Keith and I spoke over dinner at a Centre Island, NY restaurant. I have forgotten the restaurant name. Neither do I remember how this interview came to pass. But re-reading the transcript for the first time in about 30 years, I am impressed! Keith and I had a good rapport, both asking very good questions and giving very good answers.
When I began posting segments from Mr. Copeland’s transcript I could not remember when, if at all, the interview was published. I left MD in October 1983. With my interviews published after that date I’m missing memories of the hands-on work of putting together the MD issue involved.
This is Copeland’s handwritten “short biography.” I came across it in a box of drum business papers and wanted to add it to the worldwide web for present and future searchers of Keith Copeland information.
SKF NOTE: Thank you, John DeChristopher, for hosting a long overdue podcast tribute to Freddie Gruber. This two-part Zoom session with some of the world’s great drummers is a must see, especially for Gruber skeptics. The conversation, the sharing of stories about hanging with Gruber, taking drum lessons from Gruber, in Part 1 includes Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl, Jim Keltner, Steve Smith, Bruce Becker, Don Lombardi, Mark Schulman, and others.
I’d probably be remiss if I didn’t also mention there are a number of Gruber posts, audio and text, on this blog. These Gruber excerpts are taken from my interview with Gruber for Modern Drummer.
SKF NOTE: Re-reading drummer Jim Keltner’s interview in the November 1981 Modern Drummer, something he said about Buddy Rich made me smile. I decided it warrants reposting.
Here’s part of what I wrote about Keltner at the start of his MD interview:
Trying to establish a representative interview with Jim Keltner requires a sense of humor. The way he plays drums and the way he is seem to be so alike. Talk to Jim on Monday about drum heads, for instance, and you’ll get a different answer than you would if you asked again on Friday. We conducted this interview on and off for several months, putting the finishing touches to it only weeks before publication.
I had forgotten all about our interview preparation, and how much I enjoyed talking about life and drums with Jim Keltner.
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Jim Keltner: Let me tell you something about Buddy Rich. Everybody says that he’s real conceited and you can’t talk to him, right? A few years ago, Emil Richards took me and my wife to see Buddy play at a musician’s night in a restaurant in Glendale. All the musicians in town were there—especially drummers!
So after his set—which was incredible—we all went back to see him in the dressing room. I’m just watching him sitting there and talking and having been buzzed on how he played so incredible.
He looked real small and kind of vulnerable. So I went over and I said, “Can I kiss you, man?” I reached down and kissed him on the cheek. Everybody in the room was thinking, “OH SHIT WHAT’S JIM DOING? HE’S CRAZY! BUDDY’S GONNA KILL HIM!”
But he was so gracious and beautiful. He understood where I was coming from. He could feel what I felt in my heart, you know. He is an incredible man. Everybody’s got a reputation of some sort if they’re in the limelight at all.
SKF NOTE: North Texas State University offers this one-hour Elvin Jones jazz lecture online. I started watching from the beginning and couldn’t stop until I had watched the entire 60-minute video.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to promote the video by embedding it, with a link to the original, on my blog. So I’ve edited this clip for promotional purposes. If anyone connected with this video objects, please let me know, I will remove the video.
My hope, as I say, is that this excerpt will persuade viewers to visit the Jazz Lecture Series page and watch Elvin’s full verbal and musical performance.
SKF NOTE: This final part of my Feb. 28, 1983 Jimmy Webb interview is the shortest part. This is Webb completing his thought on the cyclical nature of the music/recording business.
There is also passing reference here to music Webb composed and arranged for an album by Art Garfunkel and Amy Grant called “The Animal’s Christmas.” Released on Columbia Records that album is still available.
A huge thank you to Jim Keltner who arranged for me to interview Jimmy Webb. And another huge thank you to Jimmy Webb for saying “yes.”
Scott K Fish 
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