Vinnie Colaiuta - Master of the Polyrhythm

When people write about music with complex or unusual rhythms, they will often use the word 'polyrhythmic', without really understanding what it means.

A polyrhythm is not just playing in one rhythm or time signature, however complicated it might be.

A polyrhythm occurs where a soloist is playing over the main pulse of the music in a time that does not conform to that underlying pulse.

In compositional terms, the more the rhythm of a line rubs against the implied basic time (which in rock music is typically 4/4) the more 'statistical tension' is created. This requires the rhythm section to be able to respond to the soloist's rhythmic shifts - and still come back on the 1.

Most drummers can't do this. Frank Zappa put it this way: "Either a drummer will play steady time, in which case my guitar line will wander all over his time, or he will hear the polyrhythms and play inside them, implying the basic pulse for most rock drummers, accustomed as they are to life in the petrified forest of boom-boom-BAP!"

"The chances of finding a drummer, a bass player and a keyboard player who can conceive of those polyrhythms - let alone identify them fast enough to play a complementary figure on the moment - are not good."

Lucky for Zappa, he found such a drummer - the inimitable Vinnie Colaiuta. Of all the talented drummers operating in rock and jazz, Vinnie is considered the master of the polyrhythm. He played with Zappa in 1978 and '79, appearing most notably on the album Joe's Garage and, on video, in the Circus Krone concert filmed in Germany in 1978.

Vinnie playing with Frank Zappa, late '70s

He has recorded with a wide range of artists including several tracks that remain benchmarks for complexity. These include the Sting song 'Seven Days', Joni Mitchell's cover of 'You're So Square' and the Zappa tune 'Keep It Greasy'. I have listed some more of his recorded highlights at the foot of this piece.

Of the experience in FZ's band, he said, "Frank liked that I understood polyrhythms - bizarre groupings of rhythm that I was able to sort of play with him because he loved all that stuff.

"And for me, I think that one of the things he liked about the way I played was that he played guitar solos and I'm improvising with him, kind of having this dialogue with him."

The best musicians invariably wound up being hired by Zappa, if they could hack it. He was famously demanding of his hired players and, because Zappa was a master of compositional complexity, the musicians themselves had to be able to handle whatever Frank would throw at them.

Even someone as accomplished as Vinnie Colaiuta was initially intimidated by the prospect of trying out for Zappa's band. Here, Vinnie describes his audition.

On tour with Joni Mitchell, 1983

Vinnie became immensely popular as a drummer for hire and by 1980 he was able to quit Zappa's band and rely solely on being a session drummer. 

Some of the best sessions and albums he appeared on in the 1980s, include Gino Vannelli's 'Nightwalker', the amazing City Nights from the 'Secrets' album by Allan Holdsworth and The Three Graces by Jeff Beal - Vinnie plays on one half of the record and Dave Weckl is on the other half.

In 1982, he became part of Joni Mitchell's band for the 'Wild Things Run Fast' album and the subsequent tour of North America and Europe.

Wild Things was Joni's rockiest album, at least in parts and Vinnie plays some dazzling stuff, particularly on the title track, the song 'You Dream Flat Tires' and the cover of 'You're So Square'. The latter has a drum break that includes a polyrhythmic pattern that Vinnie nails by coming back in - magically - on the one.

In 1994, Vinnie released a solo album, showcasing, as he said, his many influences in jazz and rock music. And once again, within many of the tunes he demonstrates his unique ability to throw bizarre and, to ordinary mortals, unfathomable drum patterns into conventional rhythms. 

Another of his most astonishing displays was the jam band session at the legendary (but tiny!) Baked Potato live music bar in Hollywood.

It's just phenomenal. I have a DVD of this and I never tire of watching it. It's a fixed camera angle side-stage with an odd sound mix (that is, no mix) but you're right in there with Vinnie, to witness his groove, his swing, his outrageous flights of fancy and mastery of rhythm.

I have followed Vinnie's career from those early days with Zappa and I've been lucky enough to see him play live several times over five decades and in many different situations:

- with Frank Zappa at Knebworth in 1978 - my first time seeing Vinnie - a fun day at this open air festival in the UK. Zappa played the hits and there was a good spirit about the concert.

 - Joni Mitchell at Wembley in 1983 - Joni's partner and bassist Larry Klein, put a band together including Mike Landau on guitar and Russell Ferrante on keyboards. It was a real treat to see Joni playing with a rocking band, who were also able to bring out the sophistication in her songs, especially those more jazzy tunes from the late 70s. Vinnie was especially good at laying back on the beat here. Also this was the best sounding arena show I ever saw.

- with Chick Corea in 1992 - my wife and I were in New York at Christmas time and this particular evening, after dinner at a midtown restaurant, we headed down to Greenwich Village and the Blue Note jazz club. The Blue Note is not a big venue and Vinnie's drumkit was set up at the front of the stage, so there was going to be no getting way from him on this night. I credit my wife for not being overwhelmed by it, because this was an amazing display by the whole band - John Pattitucci on bass, Wallace Roney on trumpet, Bob Berg on sax and, of course, Chick Corea on keyboards. The clip linked to above is the trio recorded in Tokyo around the same time. 

- with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall in 2007 - My brother and I went to this show. David Gilmour came on for the encore.  

- with Herbie Hancock, 2006 - my wife's second experience of live Vinnie, in a bigger venue this time, Auckland's ASB theatre.  

Here's a collection of some of his best playing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7KbQtAeFlc

and here's some more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnqNbKNGPXU

Here, he talks about his influences and how Tony Williams turned his head around.  

On being a session drummer

He's a monster drummer, that's all there is to it. 

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

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What Mike Shrieve did after Santana

A Farewell To The Professor - Rush's Neil Peart

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Duncan Browne's Journey - and comparisons with Nick Drake

One of my absolute favourite songs from the summer of 1972 was 'Journey' by Duncan Browne. It wasn't a massive hit single - number 23 in the UK charts - but it's one of those forgotten gems that evoke a more innocent time, driven by some nifty acoustic guitar playing. 

He released an album in 1973 called Duncan Browne. It contained Journey and several other similarly pretty and sometimes melancholy songs, such as My Only Son.

Browne accompanied himself on Spanish and electric guitar and there was some piano accompaniment from John 'Rabbit' Bundrick and bass and drums by Argent's Jim Rodford and Bob Henrit on some tracks. 

The mood evoked was not dissimilar to Nick Drake and there are clear parallels in how their careers progressed, or rather how they didn't progress.

Like Drake, Browne came from a well-to-do family. His father was an Air Commodore. Browne had initially planned to join the Royal Air Force himself, but chose instead to follow a musical path. He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, developing skills as a player and an arranger that would serve him well later.

Duncan's 1973 vinyl release

His first break into the music business came in 1967, when Andrew Loog Oldham signed Duncan to his Immediate label. The resulting album, Give Me Take You is a fine example of the classical and medieval-influenced folk music of the period. 

It didn't sell though and Duncan focused instead on work as an accompanist and arranger for the next couple of years.

In the early 1970s, Mickie Most signed him to RAK Records and the first fruit of this new patronage was the single 'Journey'. It was the surprise hit of the summer in 1972, a quirky tune with a bright and breezy lyric:

"Pack up your sorrow, put away your evening star
But don't change your clothes, I like you just the way you are"

and: "Soon we'll be sailors, sailing on the salty sea
Where the waves of the world would be the one and only company"

Artist and label were taken by surprise at the single's success, it seems, because it was many months before an album was ready for release. By then, the momentum had been lost and the Duncan Browne album was another commercial failure. 

Which is a shame because it's a fine album. The songs have a distinctive character and the guitar playing is excellent.

Clearly, the competition among singer/songwriter/guitarists was intense in the early '70s. It's not hard to see why artists like Richard Thompson and John Martyn succeeded. It's less clear why talents like Nick Drake, Dave Evans and Duncan Browne didn't. 

With Nick, we can say he failed at least partly through his own refusal to play live; his shyness and lack of stage banter (in marked contrast to John Martyn, for example) making it hard for him to tough it out on the gig circuit.

Duncan did at least try to gain a wider audience. He toured and gave interviews on the back of 'Journey'. He appeared on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in February 1973, playing two songs from the album - the opening track Ragged Rain Life and My Old Friends. 

Watching the clip of Duncan, it's easy to imagine how it could have been Nick Drake up there being introduced by Bob Harris. I wonder if the BBC approached Nick. He did do at least one radio session for John Peel's Top Gear show in 1969. What a shame he didn't do a Whistle Test session, so at least we would have film of him performing.

As with Nick, Duncan's recorded legacy is fairly slim. One of his most engaging songs from the early 70s was the 7-minute B-side of Journey, called In A Mist. It displays his natural dexterity as a guitarist and conveys the story of a love lost, reflecting on the nature of fidelity, commitment and possession. It is open and beautiful in its melancholy, just as Nick Drake's songs are.

Again, the low sales of the Duncan Browne album convinced him that he was better suited to being a backing musician and arranger for others. 

It's not such an unusual choice for musicians who, for whatever reason, find themselves fated to be a sideman. Like Mick Ronson, who most often played second fiddle or arranger for other artists (Michael Chapman, Bowie, Ian Hunter, Dylan even). 

In the late 1970s Duncan tried again. He had a hit single in the Netherlands with The Wild Places and formed the band Metro with Peter Godwin; sales were modest. 

In keeping with the more polished stylings of Metro, his solo album Streets of Fire at the turn of the 1980s had hints of Dire Straits, especially in the opening track Fauvette. The pattern of commercial failure remained intact though.

His biggest commercial success came later, when David Bowie recorded the Metro song Criminal World on his massive selling 1983 album Let's Dance. By that time though, Metro had disbanded. 

Later in the decade Duncan was diagnosed with cancer. He died in 1993, aged 46. 

Duncan Browne sustained a reasonable career as a musician without ever making the big time. And perhaps he was content with that. He certainly hasn't enjoyed the same posthumous success as his contemporary, Nick Drake.

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Also on this blog:
A Visit To The Annual Nick Drake Gathering

The Making of Five Leaves Left - A Worthy Grammy Nominee

Nick Drake: Better Album Programing Might Have Helped

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

When Tangerine Dream's Phaedra outsold Tubular Bells

Sometime in 1974 or '75 I was watching 'The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau' on British TV. They were filming a cave dive. It was beautifully shot and was complemented by the mellotron and early synthesiser sounds of German electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream. 

I recognised the music as a track from their album Phaedra. It was one of those perfect combinations of music and visuals. I wish I could see it again, but I'm not sure the tapes are still in existence.

Froese, Franke and Baumann - Tangerine Dream

The track was called 'Mysterious Semblance at The Strand of Nightmares' - a beguiling if rather unsettling title, entirely in keeping with the other-worldly atmospheres evoked by Tangerine Dream. 

The Phaedra album became massively popular in the UK in 1974 on the strength of late-night exposure on John Peel's Radio One Top Gear programme.

Peel was the only national radio DJ playing progressive music in the early 1970s, be it Pink Floyd, Soft Machine or so-called 'krautrock' bands like Can, Neu and Faust. 

An advert from the NME in 1974

This new psychedelic synthesiser music was a popular complement for those late night sessions. The advert that appears here, from the New Musical Express in 1974, shows what a phenomenon Tangerine Dream were at the time. 

The ad says, "No airplay, few reviews, yet Phaedra has already hit the top 30 only two weeks after release - faster even than Tubular Bells."

John Peel said, "I have been introducing Top Gear for 6 years and during that time we have had sessions from Cream, The Who and Hendrix. 

"We were the first to broadcast Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Family, the Fairports and King Crimson. 

"Yet we have had more mail about Tangerine Dream than any other group."

For their 1975 UK tour in support of the follow-up album, Rubycon, Tangerine Dream had the inspired idea of playing in some of the UK's most impressive ancient buildings.

The concert at Coventry Cathedral in October 1975

The first show, at the new Coventry Cathedral, built on the site of the bomb-damaged ancient cathedral -  was filmed. A short film made by Tony Palmer was shown on the BBC at the time. The original sound recording was dubbed using recordings from later in the tour, with overdubs added at The Manor, Virgin's Oxfordshire studio. Some of this appeared on the live album Ricochet. The film linked to above is the closest I can find to the original concert.

The musicians often worked spontaneously on stage, improvising around pre-agreed thematic changes. The technology has advanced massively since those early days of monophonic synthesisers and sequencers. But the music created by Tangerine Dream in the 1970s, along with the solo albums by Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Peter Baumann, have stood the test of time. Tangerine Dream were the progenitors of the ambient and space musicians now featured on streaming services such as Hearts of Space. Highly recommended if you like to use music to be transported to another dimension.

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

See also on this blog:
Music While You Work From Home - A Guide

A visit to the Annual Nick Drake Gathering

What is Led Zeppelin's best acoustic song?

NickDrake - better programming might have helped

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

 

October 1970 - Janis Joplin found dead in Hollywood

MM front page Oct 10, click to expand

Three weeks after the shocking loss of Jimi Hendrix on September 18th 1970, the rock world was once again in mourning for one of its biggest stars. Janis Joplin was found dead in her Hollywood apartment on October 4th, at the age of 27.

According to the Melody Maker front page report, Janis had been recording during September with the 'Full Tilt Boogie' band, for the album that was released posthumously as Pearl, in January 1971.

An appreciation of Janis by the writer Geoffrey Cannon, said, "It's hard to sit down, a fortnight after trying to say something adequate, quickly, about Jimi Hendrix, and try to catch something of what Janis did - it's too soon."

Cannon said there was a connection between the deaths of Joplin, Hendrix and Brian Jones. "It's a question of how much you can give of yourself without being swallowed by your myth...It's as if a certain kind of star has made a racing car of their own mind and body, so that every night in performance, they slide round the chicane at 120 in a state of total concentration...

"We used to wonder how people like Jimi and Janis could stand the strain. Now we know - they couldn't."

Even though she lived life on the edge as a frequent heroin user, watching Janis Joplin perform, you were never in any doubt she was totally committed to the music and wanted to give the audience a whole-hearted experience. Sometimes she tried too hard and the results could be disheartening. Her soul revue band, that became the Kosmic Blues Band (my personal favourite of her bands) premiered at the Stax-Volt Christmas show in Memphis, going on after all the other local bands (Booker T & The MGs etc) had played, and they couldn't match up.

But watch her at work, at Monterey (with Big Brother & The Holding Company), at Woodstock (with the Kosmic Blues Band), on the Festival Express tour or singing 'To Love Somebody' on the Dick Cavett Show, she was a powerful musical force and a hell of singer.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham supported Janis at a gig at the San Jose Fairgrounds in 1970.

Nicks' memory of the gig is Janis yelling and swearing at her to hurry up and get off the stage. But once Janis hit the boards herself, any animosity was banished. "This woman who was screaming at me only moments before suddenly became my new hero," said Nicks.

"Janis put herself out there completely, and her voice was not only strong and soulful, it was painfully and beautifully real. She sang in the great tradition of the rhythm & blues singers that were her heroes, but she brought her own dangerous, sexy rock & roll edge to every single song."

'Full Tilt Boogie', the band that appeared on Pearl, were the musicians who accompanied her on the Festival Express train tour of Canada with The Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Delaney & Bonnie and the Grateful Dead in the summer of 1970. The movie of the tour is well worth watching, for the candid scenes on the train where they are just playing for their own amusement between stops on the tour.

"Next time you throw a train, invite me," she said. 

The MM story carried tributes from various musicians. Duster Bennett said, "So much of life was in her voice - the pain, despair and ecstacy. She could say it all for you."
Singer Maggie Bell said, "I'm absolutely choked. She had so much to say - the first girl who really started into hard rock."
Guitarist Stefan Grossman said, "Janis was a gentle girl and one of her last acts was to help finance the tombstone for the blues singer Bessie Smith. In her own time, Janis was the 'blues empress."

Some more highlights from her career, check out youtube.

Duetting with Tom Jones on 'Raise Your Hand', 1969

Maybe on US TV, 1969

Here's the song Move Over from Pearl, played live on the Dick Cavett Show, June 1970

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Also on this blog: Jimi Hendrix - The Last Interview, September 1970