Episode 249
Joy-Lapps and Larnell Lewis share drum stories
This podcast episode delves into the intricate world of drumming, highlighting the distinctions between regular drum inquiries and those posed by accomplished drummers. Our discussion encompasses various drumming techniques, such as the paradiddle, and the nuances of different drumsticks. We explore the influences of diverse musical backgrounds on our guests, particularly the interplay between steel pan and African drumming traditions. The conversation reveals the deep-rooted passion for music shared among our speakers, as they recount personal anecdotes from their musical journeys. Ultimately, this episode serves as a testament to the rich tapestry of experiences that shape a musician's identity and artistry.
Takeaways:
- The podcast explores the significance of personal experiences in shaping musical identity.
- Listeners gain insight into the diverse range of instruments played by the speakers.
- A humorous anecdote regarding a recital poster highlights the importance of presentation.
- The discussion emphasizes how community engagement through music can enrich lives.
- A deep dive into the process of arranging and composing music is presented.
- The episode illustrates how collaboration enhances the learning experience in music education.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Promarch
- Romark
- D'Addario
Transcript
Cool.
Speaker A:Coming from a.
Speaker A:I don't want to.
Speaker B:Ask like a superstar drummer or a regular drum question.
Speaker A:Yeah, I can google.
Speaker A:That was a great question.
Speaker C:That was a great question.
Speaker C:What do you define as a regular drum question?
Speaker B:Paradiddles, yes or no?
Speaker A:Inverted.
Speaker C:Always inverted.
Speaker B:I love how we can hear the drumsticks jingling throughout the whole interview.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, it's just like, you know, just gotta hear this is.
Speaker C:This is my support animal kind of thing.
Speaker C:Like it just kind of, you know, we just gotta hang.
Speaker C:Always there.
Speaker C:Never let.
Speaker C:Never let me down.
Speaker C:Especially these ones.
Speaker C:Really nice.
Speaker A:The fire special.
Speaker C:These are the fire green rebound 5A from Promarch.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Does that mean anything to you, Doriki?
Speaker D:Means nothing to me.
Speaker D:Sorry.
Speaker B:I'm gonna assume that they're weighted and they're very good at conserving energy by the name Rebound Bingo.
Speaker B:Nice.
Speaker B:I'm gonna check those out.
Speaker C:Yeah, man.
Speaker B:Romark, sponsor us.
Speaker B:Thanks.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Let's go, people.
Speaker C:Get it happening.
Speaker C:You heard the man.
Speaker C:This is Larnell approved.
Speaker A:That is hilarious.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay, so I'm sure we'll get into a lot more drum talk.
Speaker A:Do they steel pan?
Speaker A:Is it also referred to as steel drum?
Speaker A:Is that a thing too?
Speaker A:Okay, so we'll continue on the drum talk because that's something that you do very well and that you are known for.
Speaker A:How did that come to be?
Speaker A:I'm sure it wasn't your first instrument, right?
Speaker E:No, I was, I, no, I.
Speaker E:They started to offer lessons at the church that I went to.
Speaker E:I went to a.
Speaker E:At primary, an Anglican church.
Speaker E:I grew up in this Anglican church, the Church in the Nativity in Scarborough.
Speaker E:And we had a primarily Afro Caribbean congregation.
Speaker E:And so the kinds of activities that they offered were steel pan, West African drum and dance.
Speaker E:That was the kind of like, you know, the extracurricular or community engagement or engagement activities they had for the congregation.
Speaker E:So yeah, they offered the lessons and my godmother came with her checkbook, know, saying that she was going to pay for my first set of lessons.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker E:And I started it with my sisters, but I just really, I loved it, so I continued.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:Wait, your church had gem bas.
Speaker B:They had steel drum.
Speaker E:West African, but they also did.
Speaker E:No, no, no.
Speaker C:They, we.
Speaker E:They also had a West African drumming class.
Speaker E:So.
Speaker E:Yes, yeah, we.
Speaker E:We learned like West African drum.
Speaker B:Yeah, all churches should do that.
Speaker B:That's really cool.
Speaker D:Do you play any other instruments, Joy?
Speaker E:Yeah, I play.
Speaker E:I started off, you know, I was like.
Speaker E:I was like a recorder nerd.
Speaker E:I played in the recorder club.
Speaker E:I played bass Recorder.
Speaker E:In Koan festival, I played alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, and then got into steel pan.
Speaker E:And I like, I play other percussion.
Speaker E:So I play other Brazilian percussion, like from the escola de samba.
Speaker E:And I.
Speaker E:I play enough piano, like, to write music, and I play what I call functional drums.
Speaker E:When you teach steel pan, you often teach?
Speaker E:Yeah, I kind of teach from the drum kit.
Speaker E:So I.
Speaker E:I learn different grooves that go with the song that I'm arranging or composing for the class.
Speaker E:And then I find YouTube videos and I ask Larnell, I'm like, okay, should I learn this groove?
Speaker A:Do you approve?
Speaker D:Do you approve?
Speaker E:You know?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:So those are my instruments.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker D:What about you, Larnell?
Speaker D:Do you play anything else besides the drums?
Speaker D:Obviously.
Speaker E:Oh, the ukulele.
Speaker C:Oh, you played the ukulele and she sings functional.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:She actually did a great job doing that.
Speaker C:Gretchen Parlotto.
Speaker C:Was it her tune or was it just a cover that she did that you guys did?
Speaker A:Anthony Love.
Speaker A:I don't remember.
Speaker A:Yeah, do you remember, Joy?
Speaker E:It was.
Speaker E:Yeah, it was a customer.
Speaker A:I think it's her song.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, that's her song.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was really nice.
Speaker C:Yeah, I saw that the other day again, so.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So Joyce sings the plays ukulele.
Speaker C:Ukulele was a new thing for us.
Speaker C:D'Addario, our friends at Daddario, had sent us a few ukuleles to play with our.
Speaker C:With Kari specifically.
Speaker C:And so we just got into, you know, having that as the instrument that was around.
Speaker C:I was using that to measure his height just to see, like, how tall he was.
Speaker C:I just kind of.
Speaker C:Kind of put it right beside him.
Speaker C:I'm like, okay, he's almost a full ukulele.
Speaker C:Everything comes back to music always.
Speaker C:So I play drums, I play bass, a bit of piano, and I love guitar, but that's not an instrument that has fallen in my hands as easily specifically or based on how things went with my family.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:From my great grandfather all the way down, everybody plays guitar and it just went slight right over me.
Speaker C:Totally skipped.
Speaker C:What else?
Speaker C:Joy taught me steel pan.
Speaker C:So helping her teach her classes, that was really helpful, actually.
Speaker C:When she was at York in the.
Speaker C:In the degree program, while she was learning theory, she asked me to teach her theory, but I had to teach it to her while playing the pan.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:That was her idea, right?
Speaker C:So she's like, you want to learn the pen?
Speaker C:I want to get my theory together, but you got to teach it to me on the pan.
Speaker C:So I had to figure it out.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's pretty cool.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So there's a kind of a story legend.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I've never been able to ask you, but I've never asked you about it.
Speaker A:But your, your, your Humber recital, there's always has been a lot of talk about how that went.
Speaker A:Can you just.
Speaker A:Before I even try and explain what I heard, can you just tell us what you did for your recital?
Speaker C:I think I know what you're asking, but I'll.
Speaker C:I'll.
Speaker C:Do I start from the beginning or do I just kind of like.
Speaker A:Man, take us through it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So Humber College Jazz Studies program.
Speaker C:I was there 03 to 07.
Speaker C:And for the diploma program, your capstone project is your final recital, which is a 50 minute performance.
Speaker C:50, 55 minute performance that you do.
Speaker C:It's supposed to showcase all that you've learned over your time in the school and as well have your own personal flair.
Speaker C:Now we've instituted that you have to have a certain percentage of original or arranged material because people were just going up and playing jazz standards and calling it a recital.
Speaker C:So I wanted to be more original.
Speaker C:I wanted to make it a whole entire event.
Speaker C:So what I did was, you know, you have to put up posters to advertise your event because you're also learning about the entire, like the scope of how to promote a show and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker C:So I put posters around and first of all, nobody knows about this part.
Speaker C:I don't think anybody knows about this part.
Speaker A:Exclusive.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I put up my posters, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:I could only get 10 posters done.
Speaker C:So I was like, okay.
Speaker A:You drawing them?
Speaker C:No, no, that's it.
Speaker C:Honestly, I might as well have done it.
Speaker C:I might as well have done that.
Speaker C:But I got, you know, I had took.
Speaker C:I got a photo.
Speaker C:I did me holding sticks doing like, you know, the classic photographer pose, not drummer.
Speaker C:They're just like, okay.
Speaker C:Told the sticks like this.
Speaker C:It's like, is this a flute?
Speaker C:Like, what am I doing?
Speaker C:Like, this is the wrong instrument, bro.
Speaker C:Like so holding the sticks, looking at it like a cheeseburger, right?
Speaker C:And I've taken this photo and now I'm using this.
Speaker C:I've made 10 posters, put a date, put.
Speaker C:I think it was like March 28th or something like that.
Speaker C: This: Speaker C:2006.
Speaker C:I did the recital and also it was in the auditorium.
Speaker C:And the time, right.
Speaker C:I think my time was like 9:00 or something like that.
Speaker C:Or 8:00.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I posted that.
Speaker C:Then I started hearing all these whisperings yo, he didn't even put his name on there.
Speaker C:That's how you know this guy's bad.
Speaker C:He didn't even put his name on it.
Speaker C:I forgot to put my name on the poster.
Speaker C:And everyone's like, yo, this guy, he didn't even need to put his name on the poster.
Speaker C:Oh my gosh, what are you talking about?
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:So anyway, so that was fun, but basically, like I said, I set up a show.
Speaker C:First tune in, the band walks on stage, band walks on stage and everyone's like, where's Larnell?
Speaker C:And then they just start hearing sticks.
Speaker C:So I start playing on the floor from the back of the auditorium, playing on the floor, walking up to the adjudicator's desk, start doing all these stick tricks on their desk, get all the way up to the stage, play on the stairs, play on the stage, Wow.
Speaker C:I start to play this particular rhythm, I'm doing a free thing.
Speaker C:I play the head of the song by myself.
Speaker C:It was esp, right?
Speaker C:I think it is Wayne Shorter that wrote it.
Speaker C:So they do that or I, I do that and bring the band in.
Speaker C:Then we play one chorus, me playing sticks, the band playing the, you know the tune as is.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:We get to the end of the head, we play this rhythm, ba, bam, click.
Speaker C:I run from the front of the stage, hop over the monitor and just pow.
Speaker C:And then go into this blazing up speed, like this up tempo swing.
Speaker C:Right, right in the solo section.
Speaker C:So we're going, I'm swashbuckling with the ride cymbal, I'm just like, you know, swinging solo.
Speaker C:We ended, pow.
Speaker C:Everyone explodes.
Speaker C:By the way, there was like no standing, like there's no sitting at all.
Speaker C:It was just standing room, everyone crowding in the hall.
Speaker C:It was just insane.
Speaker C:I don't know, we probably broke fire codes that night.
Speaker C:It was insane.
Speaker C:So I did seven, I called them seven pieces or movements.
Speaker C:So there were two songs with the jazz band.
Speaker C:I did a drum duet with my brother and then I brought out Perfect cadence.
Speaker C:I played bass for one tune while my brother was on drums that I wrote.
Speaker C:And then I did a fusion tune with the band and then I did an open solo by myself.
Speaker C:So the open solo, a lot of atmospheric sounds playing through.
Speaker C:Then get to this one part where I'm playing this really complex pattern called the gms, right?
Speaker C:And so I'm playing this pattern which has a certain rhythm to it.
Speaker C:Playing Left Foot Clave.
Speaker C:I reach down, I grab another bass guitar that I had there and I play bass and drums at the same time.
Speaker C:What?
Speaker C:So I'm doing first of all like this.
Speaker C:I'm doing that, that GMS pattern which includes the left of clave.
Speaker C:And then I think I ended up doing like a samba kind of chordal pattern on the bass while, you know, soloing at the same time playing across the drum video ending with the GMS again somewhere.
Speaker D:God, I need to see.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:Someone find that, please.
Speaker C:Yeah, and then I went.
Speaker C:Yeah, no, and then I went into.
Speaker C:I went into John Schofield's trim, which is a tribute to Dennis Chambers, who's like one of my all time, like, favorite drummers.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker C:I went an hour and 10 minutes.
Speaker C:So they docked me marks.
Speaker C:I got 94 because.
Speaker A:Oh, because of time.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:But that was it.
Speaker C:That was the show.
Speaker C:I know it was a lot, but that's.
Speaker A:Yeah, that confirms the legend.
