Mike Clark on Palm Grease
by Tim Lake
Another groove from the great funk fusion record "Thurst" by Herbie Hancock.
Palm Grease is the lead track and opens just with Mike Clark playing the groove. It's in some sense wonderfully simple with sixteenths on the Hi-Hat and a simple backbeat, but the displaced and sparse second bar creates a nice bit of tension.
Also included is the B section groove which is tricky because of the 2/4 bar or 2 beat fill the band play, transcribed is one iteration of it.
One minor point is to remember to play the A section sixteenths with one hand on the Hi-Hat not hand to hand.
As the band gets into the song and solos on the groove, more variations and fills start to come in, but the basic groove is always there. Have a listen, play along and see what variations you can come up with.
This was originally posted on "Jazz Drumming Blog" back in 2010.