 |
 |
 |
 Follow Spath around some time. One night he’ll be playing with Barbara Morrison or Diane Witherspoon doing jazz standards with the touch of a diamond cutter, the next he’ll be out there in the valley playing hard, hard, rock blues with Alan Mirikitani, might be doing a session with me reading though a bunch of R&B charts next, then, lookie here...swinging through some bebop with Lanny Morgan or Bobby Shew. Wow.
All The Dawwgs call Spath "The Reptile," because of his unearthly ability to play four independent, interlocking rhythms with each of his four appendages. It’s a sight to see, especially at your up tempo tempos...left foot stommping out a rhythm on the high hat ...shshshshshshshsh...right foot...kicking on the bass drum like...dun...dun...dun..dun...left hand slapping a back beat thick and fat and sounding like...crack.......crack.......crack.........crack...and then he’s playing intricate little rhythms on the ride with such precision and finese it ties all the parts together way up high and sounds like...z.z.zz.zz.zzzz...z.z.zz.zz.zzzz.
And with fire.
And that ride? It’s his ungodly ability to play, at any tempo, intricate and controlled rhythms on the ride cymbal that has virtually established and identifies The Dawwg House sound. Picture a big, fat, blood rare cheese burger. Listen to it sizzle in that deep grease.
That’s why I never consider doing a session with out Spath.
For one thing it saves money. See Spath is not only a brilliant drummer he’s a brillianter musician. He know’s Walter Piston inside and out and he can hear chord changes so intricate to where, if he could, Charlie Parker would be scratching his head.
So I said to Spath one day these words: "Write me a ballad."
"Ok." Lee’s a man of few words.
"Make it a twelve bar, but throw in all those demented changes in there too."
"Ok."
And he did. But it took a while.
"Lee. Walker on the line. What’s the status of that tune?"
"I’m not satisfied yet with some of the chord voicings. I still got two bars to work out."
"Ok." So I finally go over and Lee sits down at the piano and plays me this absolutely gorgeous tune, melody and all, that sounds like a cross between Gil Evans, Rostopovich and Blossom Dearie.
Unfortunately, when he handed me the music, I only had to take one sideways glance to know all those Amflat 13 and sharp nines and double eleven chords, voicing’s or not, were as foreign to my hands as over tipping an ugly bar maid.
"I can see why you took a month finding these chords." I said. "Some of them must have been hiding behind Dexter Gordon’s shoe horn."
Anyway my point is he brings all that experience and musicianship to his drumming.
Things get done fast which means I can get home early. Thank ya, Lee.
Lee Spath
maltjazz.com
|
Artists:
|
live perfomances or recordings.
|
Blues:
|
Robert Cray
Maria Muldaur
Bettye Lavette
Frankie Lee
Jimmy Witherspoon
& others
|
Pop:
|
Buddaheads
John McVie
Thelma Houston
Randy Crawford
Jennifer Warnes
& others
|
Jazz:
|
MALT Jazz Quartet
Matt Harris Trio
Bobby Shew (trumpet)
Lanny Morgan (alto sax)
Bob Sheppard (saxes)
Tim Ries (saxes)
& others
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
