Time Is On Their Side: Ageless Jazz Drumming

by PATRICK JARENWATTANANON, March 06, 2013 2:59 PM

I've been listening to two very good new albums led by drummers. After learning that both men are in their early 70s, I can't help but wonder how I process that fact in what I hear.

"Killer" Ray Appleton (b. 1941) and Barry Altschul (b. 1943) practice different styles. But they both came of musical age in the hard-bop era, spent many years living in Europe and eventually returned to New York. In other words, they've each got a lot of experience.


The new album from Appleton, Naptown Legacy, which is old-school in almost all good ways. It's unselfconscious, head-solo-head hard bop for three tightly-arranged horns and rhythm section. (Tenor saxophonist Todd Herbert even affects a lot of Blue Train-era Coltrane mannerisms, a bit disconcerting for my taste.) It's a program of standards and tunes by Appleton's fellow Indianapolis natives Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard and J.J. Johnson. It wouldn't be out of place on Blue Note or Riverside c. 1961, and that's apparently the intended effect: Even the cover art, track listing, slim bi-fold packaging and liner notes are formatted to evoke the LPs of the era.

Jimmy Katz/Courtesy of the artist

You get the sense that this is Appleton's bread and butter, and highly present in the mix, he struts all over this record. His fills aren't virtuosic in a jaw-dropping way; on tunes like "Backlash" and "Fatback" he's happy to take a good beat and play it essentially the entire song. (Does anyone do that any more in jazz?) Simplicity can be deceptive, though, and attention to detail is where Appleton shines. His splaying ride cymbal, his ease with accents and commentary, his hookup with conguero Little Johnny Rivero — these sorts of things set this music apart from its imitations. Could this be attributed to finely-honed touch and timing cultivated over decades, a sense of swing deeply embedded from a young age? Whatever it is, it reminds me how infectious the heralded recordings of a half century ago remain today.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2013/03/05/173573973/time-is-on-their-side-ageless-jazz-drumming?ft=1&f=10002