Progression of a Musical Idea

[Flint]

The idea that a drum kit can be used as a pitched instrument, on which one can actually play melodies. Obviously, the idea has always existed in Jazz, with its high-pitched toms and bass drums, played wide open to ring out a true note. And there's been guys like Ginger Baker, who introduced some pretty mind-blowing, polyrhythmic, melodic drum kit work with Cream; using two differently-pitched bass drums for example. Then you've got Marching Band drumlines, with quad toms and tuned bass drum basslines. And traditional stuff, like Japanese Taiko drummers.

But I think the idea really broke free of convention (or at least became very prominent in my own mind) with Terry Bozzio, former Zappa drummer, currently touring, among other things, as a solo drum artist. Bozzio cites the very (relatively) recent invention of what is known as the drum kit, as a motivating factor in finding out how far the boundaries of its use can be expanded. He plays "mini-orchestras" on an array of tuned toms and pitched cymbals. The entire field of "drum kit" drumming, as relates to time subdivisions, sticking patterns and the like, is simply an underscore for his exploration of melodic ideas and overlapping limb-independent patterns.

He's not the only guy doing this kind of thing, but nobody else is doing quite what he's doing. He spent his entire career building the chops and confidence to strike out into this new territory, and this is where the point of my thread comes in:

Bozzio plays this new sh!t, blows my mind, and I spend years trying to build the skills I need to even begin to do some of it. I finally get a toehold on this new ground, and in effect I've absorbed the summation, the statement, of his life's work. I'm not saying I can play just like Bozzio, I'm saying the generation of kids who grow up listening to what the generation before them played, and imitate that, continue a constant cycle of raising the bar. Because the next generation that comes along will take this skill-set as part of the basic practice, and proceed to go beyond it.

What made me think of this is, simply, that my kids will grow up thinking that the drum kit is something that you play little melodies on, interwoven with defining the beat structure. They will grow up hearing the kinds of things that blew my mind, and to them, these things will be routine. And their generation will do something you and I have never dreamed of.