Artistry is Wisdom - Great jazz drumming advice from Jim Blackley

I came to Jim Blackley’ material indirectly. I never got to study with him, but my drum tutor on my undergraduate jazz course in London had studied with Blackley and introduced me to some of the concepts he taught. It wasn’t until some time later that I got directly to work on Syncopated Rolls, and then the Essence of Jazz Drumming.

Both these books have been and continue to be, a huge resource for my development as a musician. They are a gold mine of ideas and developments that will take a lifetime to thoroughly absorb. This is no bad thing. The journey, the process, is more important than any particular destination.

Blackley’s approach is firmly based on the principle of creating musicians more than creating drummers. It is about the music. He is not big on the rudimental approach to jazz drumming, although he does utilise rudiments in some of his materials (specifically the Rhythmic Explorations Series). I take his argument to be that rudimental chops are not directly related to jazz as such because they have come more from marching bands and take the focus off jazz music and into pure technique.

Music first, chops second.

I see this in Brian Blade’s drumming. As far as I know, Blade never had any contact with Blackley, but I see Blade’s drumming as being driven by the music, not by rudimental chops. As a result, I think he embodies a lot of Blackley’s concepts.

I recently came across an old interview with Blackley from an old issue of Modern Drummer (1984) republished on Allan Cox’s website, where Blackley explains some of his ideas. It is full of valuable advice for aspiring jazz drummers.

One of the first things he talks about is listening, the need to listen and absorb the music to be able to play it well. The parallel is with language learning; extensive input first and then output.

If you want to be a jazz drummer and have never heard jazz being played, then you’re just not going to learn to play jazz. You have to expose yourself to the jazz language. The first thing any musician should be taught is the art of listening.

I came to jazz pretty late, jazz was never played at home, and it has taken me a long time to listen to the music and absorb it. If I’m honest, it is still a weak point. And like reading to learn, we need to never stop listening widely and deeply.

The next point Blackley makes is about time being the basis of everything. I think this brings home the point that he doesn’t see rudiments as the basis of jazz drumming.

I could direct students into being outstanding jazz drummers without ever teaching one rudiment, yet I could cover everything that’s being played in jazz, because everything develops from playing TIME.

He is right. Of course! Everything flows from the cymbal time and that pulse, at best rudiments are useful for soloing, but they have little to do with making music and playing jazz.

As all great jazz drummers and teachers confirm, there is always work to be done on time playing. Going back to basics, counting, working slow and just focusing on the pulse in the ride cymbal pays dividends again and again.

Following on from that Blackley emphasises how important it is to work on the jazz feel and how it is built off the triplets.

First of all, there are far too many drummers playing jazz who are not playing with a jazz feeling – they’re playing with an eighth note feeling, instead of off the triplet. The triplet feel is basic to jazz performance...

Especially for drummers who come from a rock or pop background that is based on a straight feel, the triplet basis of jazz drumming can be unfamiliar. Working on that cymbal time will counting triplets is what it is all about. Sure, as you develop and as the tempo changes, you can experiment with phrasing the cymbal differently. BUT, that doesn’t change the fundamental point: the triplet is the basis of all swing.

Blackley also makes some interesting comments on the nature of jazz.

A lot of what I hear is well played, but there is no improvising. There are no chances being taken, and that’s not what jazz is all about. If you’re going to improvise you cannot be right all the time.

This bears thinking about. One of the most important, if not the most important, aspects of jazz is the ability to create music in the moment in response to what the other musicians are playing. And in order to really push the music to new places and new heights and truly express yourself, you have to take musical risks. A lot of jazz education becomes prescriptive, boxing people into playing a particular way and calling it jazz. But jazz, in its best and purest form, challenges you to do something new with the music. Don’t be scared to express yourself and make mistakes. That’s jazz and that’s learning.

The openness to mistakes and learning is part of Blackley’s great humanity. He doesn’t care so much about being a great musician. Instead, he cares about being a great human being. Not that the two aren’t connected, it’s just that being a good human is first and foremost.

The more true human beings we become, the more that quality will emanate from our music.

It’s a valuable piece of advice. We can get so caught up in our art, in our endeavours to be good at what we do, that we lose sight of the most valuable thing; being good people and making the world a better place. Without that heart or humility, our music becomes nothing more than moving air.

This had important implications for Blackley’s teaching. He didn’t take on hundreds of students in order to make a ton of money, which he certainly could have. He chose to work with a limited number of students who he could really explore music with and have a meaningful impact on. These relationships lasted years, to the benefit of both. This is widely different from how a lot of people approach teaching these days.

Blackley challenged some of the prevailing ideas on how jazz drumming should be learnt and taught. It is an approach to playing and learning that is not often heeded, especially now he has passed on. But for those of you who are interested in transcending the limits of rudimental technique in search of making better music on the drum set, the words and works of Jim Blackley light the way.

Artistry is built on wisdom.

 

To read the full article head over to Allan Cox’s website. I highly recommend reading it in full: https://allancox.co.uk/pages/an-interview-with-jim-blackley-by-t-bruce-wittet

If you want to get hold of Jim Blackley's books, the only place I know you can get them online is from Drum Land.