I came across this video today of Dan Weiss.
For those who don’t know, Dan Weiss is an incredible contemporary jazz drummer and composer who also plays tabla, based in New York. I once saw him there playing the most unbelievably complex avant-garde music all from memory.
I’ve never been deeply into Lennie Tristano but I was quite struck by this video. At first I thought it was because he has such a great touch and sound and phrasing which matches and complements Lennie’s original solo beautifully. But when I listened a second time without looking at the video I realised that it was also because of the beautiful movements he makes. One of my teachers often talked about awareness of movement as an instrumentalist and watching this reminded me of the valuable lesson. To watch instrumentalists live can enrich the experience of listening to music partly because of the graceful or passionate movements they make. I find that drummers especially have the space and opportunity to dance and flash along the way.
Now I will embark on possibly the most nerdy jazz thing I’ve ever done as I highlight some of my favourite moments. At about 17 seconds he lands a beautifully laid back, flat, dry brush on the snare at the end of the phrase. A few seconds later there’s some delightful wizardry as his arms cross and dash around followed at 25 seconds by a slide and a swish on the tom drum interpreting the original rhythm. This leads into a long phrase of which the highlight for me is the use of the pedalled high hat on various strongly syncopated repeating notes. The pedalled high hat has a certain surprising quality as if operated by itself in some fantasian symphony, so the repetition and emphasis on the weakest part of the beat jumps out and punctuates with delight. At 40 seconds the high hat continues to shine with a frilly little trill in combination with the snare followed a little later by a splash, reverberating until the metal sheets settle down. Whenever there’s repetition in the original piano solo, Dan sympathetically matches it with his own choices of repetition on certain parts of the kit which works wonderfully in the next passages.
The playing is continued with beautiful precision and articulation and at 1.06 he displays a nonchalant backhand contrasting the rather starkly bright harmonic choices on the piano. At 1.11 we witness a few sublimely delicate and subtle hits in the right hand, wrist askew as he barely makes contact; contrasted again, this time by many strong accents as the phrase continues all completed by another dry flat stroke. Now it’s hotting up, starting with a glorious splash, some deeply relished rounded triplets (a change from the mostly square rhythms so far) ending with some double handed attacks.
I’ll let you enjoy the rest by yourself in peace and away from this nonsense. But not before I mention the best part. At 2.12 with a short silent build up we have the fantastically creative dissonant howls on the piano matched by sumptuous acrobatics on the drum kit.