Another story from my forthcoming book “ Life’s Little Drumming Lessons”.
In the 1980s I was in my early 30s, and got called to play a gig with world famous Mose Allison at George Street Grocery Bar in my home town of Jackson Mississippi. My life long friend, Ralph Semmes, was on bass. Great bassist. Now, if you aren’t familiar with Mose’s music, you are really missing out. Get you some Mose. My desert island album would be his “Your Mind Is On Vacation”. Many famous drummers have played with Mose. My friend, Memphis drummer Tom Lonardo, turned me on to Mose’s music when I was a teenager. He had played with Mose before. Mose plays and sings mostly his own music and an occasional standard like “You are my Sunshine” …but in a minor key. It’s hard to describe Mose’s music accurately because it is so unique. He writes blues tunes with very clever and humorous lyrics, some of which have entered the lexicon and become American catch phrases, like “I don’t worry about a thing because I know nothing is goin’ to be allright” and “Your mind is on vacation but your mouth is working over time”. So he plays these very traditional blues progressions on piano as he sings in his very unusual voice but, then when he solos, he takes a left turn and shoots into outer space in a style that could be described as a cross between Thelonious Monk, Sun Ra, and Frank Zappa – just really “out there” jazz with lots of dissonances. Mose is the essence of being hip without trying. Watch the video above to get a dose of Mose.
I was not familiar with his live performances, just his studio albums where the solos were short, sweet and fairly tame. When we went to sound check/rehearsal, Mose gave the bass book to Ralph and said, “just follow the changes and them, when I solo, you can either try to follow me or just hang on the one chord”. Whoa, OK. Then Mose turned to me and said, “Here’s the drum rap. No hi hat on two and four, no sidestick, and when you solo just play as long as you want to and you can either stop and I’ll start the rest of the song or you can try to cue us in.” OK, I’m thinking let me unlearn, in one night, everything I know about playing jazz drumming that I learned at North Texas State University .
We played the gig and it was great. Every once in a while I would forget and use a side stick. Mose turned around and gave me the evil eye. Really. Mose likes to play really fast on the fast tunes; lots of notes and he plays a little bit ahead of the beat, pushing the envelope, so it was like chasing a runaway train and never catching it. There were drum solos on every fast song and I really went for it, trying to play the drums with the same frenetic energy like Mose played the piano.
I really wanted to ask him about the hi hat and side stick thing but, after the show, he walked off stage immediately and high tailed it out of the place and didn’t stop to talk to anyone. He was kind of skittish and quirky that way. Not warm and fuzzy. He’s from Mississippi originally but moved to New York in the fifties.
I was called a year or two later to play with Mose again at another bar in Jackson; Hal and Mal’s. We played two sets that night and I found Mose at the bar after the first set. I asked him about the hi hat and side stick thing. He said, “Well, see, my music is ethnic music. The hi hat on 2 and 4 and that wood block side stick sound is the white man’s gimmick that they used to make the music palatable to white dancers. I don’t play dance music or music to clap to. In my music the beat is all on the one. One, one, one, one, forward motion.” OK, well that explained that. Sort of.
Thanks to those gigs I began to understand that whole concept of not being locked into 2&4, back and forth, when playing jazz. It’s one of the reasons, besides Tony Williams’ influence, that I almost always play my left foot hi hat on all four quarter notes and don’t play the jazz swing cymbal beat on the ride cymbal constantly. I usually start with just quarter notes on the ride and play “walking drums” just like the bass player plays “walking bass”. Of course, rock music is all dance music for the most part. The big back beat and down beat IS rock and roll. But with jazz, just keeping time w the hi hat on 2&4 and just playing the swing ride pattern on the ride cymbal can become boring and corny very quickly. When I’m thinking all ones, and pushing the music with a forward motion pulse, especially with quarter notes on the left foot hi hat, I can play all sorts of crazy shit on top of that and get away with murder. Plus tax. Thanks, Mose.