Ira Gitler talks About Drums with Tony Williams, Art Blakey,Cozy Cole, & Mel Lewis,AUDIO!; Part 4 (Last)

Part 1 of this four-part audio discussion is here. You will also find there the printed article that was taken partly from this discussion, as well as from two other discussions for which I do not have the recordings. I shared that article because it’s of course relevant, and has nice photos, and it does help to determine who said what. But, as I noted, it is very different from the actual discussion. For one thing, comments from all three panels are weaved together there, whereas here you get to hear this conversation as it happened, uninterrupted and unedited.

Ira Gitler, our host for the panel, was one of the best-known jazz journalists of his day and his name is probably familiar to you. He begins this last segment by saying that he has a few more topics to bring up before they disband: Practicing (last column of p.18 in the published article), rudiments (the individual sounds and rolls that much drumset music is built from), and the value of studying piano (from about 3:50). The final question at 4:55 is, “What is Swinging?” (p.36 in the article). From about 10 minutes on, that leads into a discussion of audiences, and the importance of communicating.

At 17:28, Blakey tells a story of seeing a drum battle between Buddy Rich and Sid Catlett. Finally, the discussion ends on a positive note as they all agree, whatever you do, “Do it good!”

Listen, and enjoy:

Many thanks for this great series to the late Ira Gitler, to his son Fitz Gitler, and of course, to the four brilliant drummers.

All the best,
Lewis