Questlove on Ringo's Drumming on Revolver

Ringo’s work here [on "Tomorrow Never Knows"] is, like in a million other places on this album and the rest, amazing. It seems like every few years there’s a misguided debate about technical ability and rock-and-roll drumming, or a reductive Greatest Rock Drummers list, and usually that debate or that list ends up undervaluing Ringo. From one drummer to another, I can say that he does one of the hardest things imaginable, which is to put a human stamp on drumming, to innovate in subtle ways that don’t detract from the song but enhance it, and to define and maintain the groove. Nice work, Ringo. Better than nice work. Songs like these pushed rock forward, which is why they meant so much to audiences of the future. (Questlove, "Evolver," in Revolver Super Deluxe Ed. book, 2022)

Ringo's Drumming on Revolver

 ...the Memphis influence is most prominent in Ringo Starr’s drumming, where the backbeat is as rock-solid as anything this side of Al Jackson, Jr., the great Stax session drummer. There’s long been a jokey idea that Ringo Starr is a second-rate drummer, one that probably originated with his affable willingness to serve as the source of comic relief in early press conferences and films like A Hard Day’s Night and Help! This notion is stupid, to put it mildly. Ringo Starr is a great drummer, and in 1966 he was at the top of his craft. (Jack Hamilton, "The Beatles’ Revolver Was Their Avant-Garde R&B Album," Slate 2022-10-28)

Hamilton goes on to say, "To my ears the most audacious drum performance on Revolver is “She Said She Said,” which finds Ringo holding down a murderous groove while simultaneously providing an onslaught of cascading, over-the-bar drum fills. There was simply no one else playing drums quite like this in pop music." Right on, Jack!

Playlist, Week of 2022-03-23

Listening has been all over the place, like my brain... Expect a review of the new Jefferson Pilot soon...

Playlist 2022-10-24:

*Paul Bley: Ballads
*Borderlands Trio: Wandersphere (disc 1)
*Anthony Braxton: Sextet (Parker) 1993 (disc 9)
*Anthony Braxton Ghost Trance Ensemble: 2000-08-01 Lisbon (CDR)
*Anthony Braxton Sextet + 1: 2007-05-26 Moers (CDR)
*Anthony Braxton: Trillium E (disc 4) "Act 4, Part 1"
*Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (Comp. 409, 410)
*Captain Beyond: Captain Beyond
*Circus Devils: Sgt. Disco
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2015-05-14 Nashville (wav) track 4
*Kris Davis Infrasound: Save Your Breath
*Miles Davis: 1987-09-27 Boston (CDR) (disc 2)
*Death Ambient: Death Ambient
*Death Ambient: Synaesthesia
*Deerhoof: Devil Kids (side 1)
*Grateful Dead: 1968-01-17 SF (selections)
*Grateful Dead: 1972-05-23 London (CDR) (discs 1, 2, 3)
*Barry Guy/Blue Shroud Band: Tensegrity (Small Formations) (disc 3)
*Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live at the Isle of Fehmarn
*Andrew Hill-Joe Henderson Quartet: 1988-03-25 Paris (CDR) (disc 2)
*Andrew Hill: Time Lines
*Andrew Hill Quintet: 2006-10-29 San Francisco (CDR)
*Jefferson Pilot: The Return of Troubled Youth Orchestra
*Lovely Little Girls: Glamorous Piles & Puffy Saddlebags
*Matt Mitchell/Kate Gentile: Snark Horse (disc 5)
*New Loft: Pieces 39 (2003): With Pat Lawrence
*New Ting: 2022-10-15 Battery Show, RVA (wav)
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Birth of the Bebop
*Charlie Parker: The Complete Legendary Rockland Palace Concert 1952 (disc 1)
*Sparks: Exotic Creatures of the Deep (sides 3, 4)
*Cecil Taylor Quintet: 1965-07-02 Newport (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1978-06-10 Köln (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor and the Sound Vision Orchestra: 2002-06-20 Knitting Factory, NYC (CDR) (disc 2)
*Titan to Tachyons: Vonals
*John Zorn: Calculus
*John Zorn: Bagatelles Vol. 3: Trigger 

Reading List, Week of 2022-03-23

Reading List 2022-10-24:

*Coviello, Peter. Vineland Reread (started)
*Homes, A. M. The Safety of Objects (started)
*Kirby, Jack. Jimmy Olsen Vol. 1 (started)
*Kirby, Jack, and Stan Lee. Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 4 (reread/started)
*Whitehead, Colson. Apex Hides the Hurt (started/finished)
*Shakespeare, William. King Henry VI Part 3 (Riverside, ed. G. Blakemore Evans) (reread/finished)
*Whitehead, Colson. The Intuitionist (finished)
*Shakespeare, William. King Richard III (Arden 3rd ed., ed. James R. Siemon) (reread/in progress)

Playlist, Week of 2022-10-16

Cecil Taylor's 3 Phasis never ceases to send chills down my spine when I hear it... the two New World albums are in many ways the pinnacle of his small-group recordings... I say this and then think of the Blue Notes... well, and this version of the Unit is tight and compact, with those amazing clusters of melodies... So, so much good music... 

Playlist 2022-10-17:

*Muhal Richard Abrams: The Visibility of Thought

*Anthony Braxton: Sextet (Parker) 1993 (disc 8)

*Anthony Braxton: Solo (NYC) 2002

*Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (Comp. 409)

*Mary Halvorson: Belladonna

*Andrew Hill-Joe Henderson Quartet: 1988-03-25 Paris (CDR) (disc 1)

*Tim Hodgkinson: Onsets

*Clifford Jordan & John Gilmore: Blowing in from Chicago

*Fela Anikulapo Kuti/Egypt 80: Live in Amsterdam (sides 1, 2)

*Made in Chicago: 2015-07-11 Rotterdam (CDR) track 5

*Matt Mitchell/Kate Gentile: Snark Horse (disc 4)

*Jason Moran: Black Stars

*New Ting: 2022-10-15 Battery Show, RVA (wav)

*Sun Ra: The Eternal Myth Revealed, Vol. 1 (disc 14)

*Sun Ra: The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra (sides 1, 2)

*Sun Ra: Ra to the Rescue!

*Cecil Taylor Unit: Akisakila Vol. 2

*Cecil Taylor: 3 Phasis (side 1)

*Cecil Taylor and the Sound Vision Orchestra: 2002-06-20 Knitting Factory, NYC (CDR) (disc 1)

*Titan to Tachyons: Cactides

*John Zorn: Music Romance, Vol. 1: Music for Children

*John Zorn: Valentine's Day

*John Zorn: In the Hall of Mirrors

*John Zorn: Flaga: Book of Angels Vol. 27 

Reading List, Week of 2022-10-16

Reading List 2022-10-17:

*Shakespeare, William. King Henry VI Part 3 (Riverside, ed. G. Blakemore Evans) (reread/started)
*Shakespeare, William. King Richard III (Arden 3rd ed., ed. James R. Siemon) (reread/started)
*Whitehead, Colson. The Intuitionist (started)
*Shakespeare, William. King Henry VI Part 2 (Riverside, ed. G. Blakemore Evans) (reread/started/finished)
*Garber, Marjorie. “Henry VI Part 2” in Shakespeare After All (reread/started/finished)
*Garber, Marjorie. “Henry VI Part 3,” in Shakespeare After All (reread/started/finished)
*Pynchon, Thomas. Mason & Dixon (reread/finished)

New Ting Gig Tonight

This evening will be a rare duo set, just me and Fred! Should be interesting; I'll break out the usual: Chinese cymbals, coffee cans, bells.

 

Playlist, Week of 2022-10-09

Playlist 2022-10-10:

*AMM: Ammmusic "After Rapidly Circling the Plaza"
*Tim Berne's Snakeoil: The Deceptive 4 (Live) "Hemphill"
*Anthony Braxton: Sextet (Parker) 1993 (disc 7)
*Grateful Dead: 1968 "Dark Star" (rehearsal) (CDR)
*Grateful Dead: 1968-02-14 Portland, OR (CDR) (discs 1, 2)
*Barry Guy/Blue Shroud Band: Tensegrity (Small Formations) (disc 2)
*Rob Mazurek Quartet: Father's Wing
*Modest Mouse: The Lonesome Crowded West
*Jefferson Pilot: The Return of Troubled Youth Orchestra
*Sun Ra: The Eternal Myth Revealed, Vol. 1 (discs 12, 13)
*Cecil Taylor: Spring of Two Blue-J's (side 2)
*Cecil Taylor/Bill Dixon/Tony Oxley: Cecil Taylor/Bill Dixon/Tony Oxley
*Lewis Taylor: Numb
*Titan to Tachyons: Vonals
*XTC: English Settlement (side 1)

Reading List, Week of 2022-10-09

Reading List 2022-10-10:

*Warren, Michael J. "Repunctuation as Interpretation in Editions of Shakespeare." English Literary Renaissance 7:2 (1977) (started/finished)

*Shakespeare, William. King Henry VI Part 3 (Arden 3rd series, ed. John D. Cox and Eric Rasmussen) (reread/finished)

*Pynchon, Thomas. Mason & Dixon (reread/in progress)

 

Playlist, Week of 2022-10-02

The new vinyl reissue of Sun Ra's The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra, with all-analog mastering, sounds fantastic, easily the best I've heard this record... Been digging Pigpen's organ playing on the 1968 Dead shows... More Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor (and plenty more where that came from!)... 

Playlist 2022-10-03:

*Boris: Pink

*Anthony Braxton: Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (disc 2) "No. 23C + 32 + 105B (+ 30)"

*Anthony Braxton: Sextet (Parker) 1993 (disc 6)

*Anthony Braxton + Italian Instabile Orchestra: Creative Orchestra (Bolzano) 2007

*Anthony Braxton/Tomas Fujiwara/Tom Rainey: Trio (New Haven) 2013 (disc 4)

*Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 (Comp. 408)

*Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Trust (sides 1, 2)

*Kris Davis: Rye Eclipse

*Marti Epstein: Marti's Greatest Hits (cassette compilation) (side B)

*Marti Epstein: Nebraska Impromptu

*Grateful Dead: 1968-01-20 Eureka, CA (CDR)

*Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 2 Bonus Disc

*Grateful Dead: 1968-02-03 Portland, OR (CDR)

*Grateful Dead: Dark Star 1972 version 2 (in progress, 3:18:12-5:48:40)

*Barry Guy/Blue Shroud Band: Tensegrity (Small Formations) (disc 1)

*Mars Volta: The Bedlam in Goliath

*Matt Mitchell/Kate Gentile: Snark Horse (disc 3)

*Nurse With Wound: Huffin' Rag Blues

*Nurse With Wound/Graham Bowers: Rupture

*Prince: The Flesh (boot CDR)

*Nino Rota: Fellini's Amarcord (sides 3, 4)

*Sun Ra: The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra (sides 1, 2)

*Sun Ra: Ellingtonia, Vol. 1 

*Cecil Taylor Quintet: 1965-07-02 Newport (CDR)

*Cecil Taylor Unit: Akisakila Vol. 1

*Cecil Taylor/Thurston Moore: 1997-10-04 Cooler, NYC (CDR) (disc 3)

*Cecil Taylor European Quintet: 1997-11-16 Wuppertal, Germany (CDR)

*Cecil Taylor: 2002-05-16 Rome (CDR)

*Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley: ....... Being Astral and All Registers – Power of Two......

*Titan to Tachyons: Cactides

*Work: See

*XTC: English Settlement (side 4)

*John Zorn/Brian Marsella Trio: Buer (Book of Angels Vol. 31)

*John Zorn: The Hierophant

*John Zorn: Perchance to Dream 

Reading List, Week of 2022-10-02

Reading List 2022-10-03:

*Kirby, Jack, and Stan Lee. Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 3 (reread/finished)
*Pynchon, Thomas. Mason & Dixon (reread/in progress)
*Shakespeare, William. King Henry VI Part 3 (Arden 3rd series, ed. John D. Cox and Eric Rasmussen) (reread/in progress)

 

Titan to Tachyons at Gallery 5 in Richmond 2022-10-02

Excellent show last night at Gallery 5: Titan to Tachyons. I was disappointed that Kenny Grohowski wasn't on drums, but whoever the sub was did just fine. Super-powerful show!