How And Why Jeff Hamilton Is One Of The Best Drummers Of All Time

There are many great Jazz Drummers in the world. The Genre is old enough now, that it is no longer enough to be able to have super fast speed allowing you to fly around the drums at a loud and in your face rate. Neither can you come off as a pro by just having crazy syncopation knowledge, by playing super weird and off tempo rhythms that you somehow tie into the time signature. There are of course exceptions. Drummers like Buddy Rich are revered for the inhuman speed at which they play, and many a Latin-Jazz Drummer will show off with impossible-to-understand 5/4 and 13/16 rhythms. These are both cool, but in today's modern Jazz scene to stand out it is better to try and imitate a more musical approach of Drumming. Many Drummers play like everything is a solo, hammering out super loud and complex beats and accents underneath the most simple chords and mellowest lyrics. So how should a Drummer play? Well, an old saying among educated Drummers is to "Play to the Song." So what does this mean?

One perfect example is Ringo Star of The Beetles. Ringo has never been known for his super speedy skills and crazy chops on the drums. His infamy in this regard goes as far as John Lennon saying "Ringo isn't even the best drummer in The Beetles." when asked about Ringo's skill. Beside this, the Drumming Ringo did for the Beetles was perfect. It was loud when it needed to be, it was intense when it needed to be, it was quit and supportive when it needed to be, and it always perfectly accented the music. Because of this Ringo is now the most expensive Drummer in the world to hire.

So how does Jeff Hamilton fit into all of this? Well, like Ringo Star, Jeff Hamilton is well known for playing to the band. In addition Jeff is known for his pro level chops and skills, especially when playing with brushes. Outside of his band playing what I think makes Jeff standout is his soloing. His solos are musical and thought out to an extreme, and never show off a lick unless it fits the piece. Jeff is even known for emulating the melody of a song in his solos, showing a level of musicality above and beyond the vast majority of Drummers.

It's these reasons that make Jeff Hamilton one of the best Drummers, and outside of that one of the best Musicians in the world.

My Show Choir Experiences

Out of all of the extra curricular activities I'm involved with through my school, Show Choir is my favorite. The concept isn't any more fun then say Jazz Band or Pep Band, all I do is play music which is reason enough to be a part of it. Some might even assume I would like Show Choir less, being in the band, I sit in the back barely visible and, if I do my part right, barely noticed. Yet despite all of this Show Choir is still by far my favorite activity, where I play Bass for the Band the Choir sings and dances too.

My first year in Show Band I was on auxiliary percussion. That first year wasn't as much fun as this past year, I didn't know very many people, my part was rather uninteresting, and I didn't put in enough of my own time/effort to know many other people in the group. This year was different. I knew a lot more people this year, and by the end I knew almost everyone. Also this past season we lacked a Bass player so I was promoted to a much more interesting position in the band. I also spent more time at practice and doing the social aspects of the club.

Being in the band I had an advantage for friendship over the people in the choir. There are only 11 of us in Show Band so by the end of the year we became a very close group, and I would say that a majority of my best friends are in/from Show Band.

In fact, my best memory so far from High School, and maybe so far in my life, was at one of the Show Choir competitions this past February. It was at Brodhead, a medium sized competition that we were all excited about. The other schools that were there weren't from huge city's with big budgets so we didn't feel like we would be at a disadvantage based on that. We played well when we performed at around 3 pm, not our best performance but for sure one of our top three. We felt confident as we went into the awards and the announcements for finals. Our night official started to go well at the first round of awards when we not only made to finals, but won two of the three soloist awards as well as best band.  After that we as the band had a mini party and a big group hug in celebration of our achievement. Per tradition all the guys in both band and choir ran out to the woods to pee. A ritual started a few years ago that takes place whenever we get to finals at Brodhead. After this we had a few hours before we performed again since we were going second to last out of six groups that made it to finals. With our free time the band split off to celebrate some more and listen to the comments the judges had given us. Our second performance was our best all year, even compared to our later competitions. We gave it our all, we were all breathing heavy by the end, especially our drummer, and one of my fingers had started bleeding on the strings of the Bass. One of our singer/dancers stood out for an amazing performance as well. In the opening song he dislocated his shoulder. But without missing a beat he popped it back in and sang/danced the rest of the show as if it was nothing.

We were all obnoxiously happy, sweaty, and excited as the second round of awards started. We were packed together in the back left of the gymnasium, clenching our teeth and each others hands as we waited to see how we had done. It started strong for us, best male vocalist within a show, best vocals, best opener. By now we were hoarse from cheering and some of the seniors were already crying. Best choreography, best ballad. And then it hit, Grand Champions. We had beaten twenty other schools including groups that had out placed us in the past, and had swept 90% of the awards for the entire Competition.  We were all onstage sobbing and hugging and jumping about in excitement. None of us had expected to even make it to finals let alone win pretty much everything. It was very emotional, I was sobbing and so was almost everyone else. Even thinking about it now is making me grin.
Anyway, that is probably the biggest reason Show Choir is my favorite extracurricular.

My Adventure In Little Italy (Remake)

It's funny how accurate stereotypes can be some times.When you meet someone and a lot of the things you assumed about them based on their appearance are very accurate. This was the case for me when we went on a school trip to New York City and visited Little Italy. As we walked down the narrow car-less street, the amount of stereotypical Italian flying about was almost uncanny. It seemed as if we had hopped right into an old gangster movie, the slang, the accent, and the fashion were all plastered on groups of loud and tan men, all half shouting why their store was better than the one twenty feet to the left. After a few minutes of hunting for a quaint little place to get food, we found a tiny little pizza joint near the edge of the district. The owner had popped out as soon as he noticed hungry tourists out on the sidewalk. He was very insistent that we come in to eat, saying that if we wanted "Real, amazing, Italian cuisine" we should come into his parlor, and if we didn't we should head up the street to "Olive Garden." Being unsure where to go and slightly intimidated we agreed to head in and get some supper. While the man, who we never got the name of, lead us into the restaurant and over to a table he asked us where we were from. Wisconsin we said, and from there the conversation went to cheese and football. It's funny, he had just as many preconceived notions of us as we did of him!