DAVE WECKL: REEVALUATING

Starting over Another zone A lot easier Comfort level Too hard Flow Hibernating

Besides all the new and improved products, there were also drummers that showed some new features at the Frankfurt Music Fair. A bit less polished, maybe. A bit rougher around the edges. More direct. A looser approach. In the sound proof venue at the Yamaha booth, with Mike Stern's trio, Dave Weckl's playing was even not directly recognizable, at some points. About how easy his playing seemed to be, and how hard it was...

`Every musical situation is different too, so that's gonna have something to do with it: this music is a bit heavier sometimes, and sometimes it's lighter. That's the aspect I like about the guitar; the acoustic piano, such as with Chick Corea, can be very limiting for the drums. If you play the gig correctly, you can't really get too heavy. This music gives me the opportunity to rock out, which I love, and it's an electric format, which I like. It's been good. All last year I was touring with Mike Stern's band, mostly Europe, and a few things in the States and Japan. So we're continuing this year, we're gonna do a record at the end of March - Mike's new record - and we're adding a sax player to the trio later on this year.... The we'll come back to Europe in the summer, and we're going all over again. Indonesia, Australia, Europe, the States.'

STARTING OVER

`I'm doing well. It's been nice cause I've had some time off over the winter. I Have been studying and practicing a lot; it's kind of like a new lease on life as far as drums are concerned. You know, I haven't been real excited about playing drums for a while, as far as like really learning something new. I have been working so much, that I really haven't had any time to sit back and kind of look at it and re-evaluate, and just kind of start over.

`It is not that I've been trying to change my playing - it's way above that. I'm studying with a guy that a lot of guys are studying with, in the States. Freddie Gruber. What makes him so special is that he is able to get past what most teachers really concentrate on. And he treats everybody as an individual. It's basically physics, what he's doing. Not fight any natural body movement, and just to approach the instrument as naturally as possible. It really makes a big difference, if you can approach it that way, with that concept.

ANOTHER ZONE

`A lot of it is technical. Understanding how the sticks work and how to control them. Instead of really making each stroke and playing hard, it is about the whole gravity process of the stick rebounding. It's a lot of the stuff that Jim Chapin talks about, and Henry Adler comes into play, as well as a lot of the other old great teachers. Freddie knows what all those guys are doing. What drew me to him too is that he really spent a great deal of time with Buddy Rich, and Buddy was obviously my big idol. Since the Memorial Scholarship Concert videos came out, I've had sort of a rekindling of inspiration and interest in Buddy again. Not so much to play like him - like I said, it's not about that. Freddie and I call it: getting to another zone. A zone where it's absolutely no work. The end product that we're going for is the feel. How to make it feel really good. It's all intertwined: it goes in with the approach, not fighting the instrument... It's new for me cause I am finally getting passed some obstacles that have been there in the past...'

A LOT EASIER

The word obstacles sounds kind of strange, coming from a drummer who was being criticized for making it look too easy, rather than anything else?

`I have always tried to maintain that, and it may not have been visible to anyone else. But very rarely did I get to that zone where I was completely comfortable and... of course I got there sometimes, and it was happening, but for the most part... What I'm after is to be there all the time with no inhibitions, no distractions, no nothing.'

`Again, a lot of it is technical. I'm changing a lot of things, working on different technical aspects, but it it's all after that one thing: a very natural, loose approach. One big difference for me is that I used to hold the left hand back very far on the stick, conventional grip. That's totally fighting any kind of balance. I don't do that anymore, cause I realize I'm only fighting myself if I do. The stick just doesn't bounce. It falls, it makes the subdivisions uneven, and it takes more work to actually make the groove happen. You got to think about it too much, instead of it just being a product of what's in here, coming out. So that seems to be a lot easier, now.

COMFORT LEVEL

`It's exciting. There are things that I definitely have felt as an improvement over the last four months, and I haven't been working on it that long. I can see another level, another zone. I see it.

`This is really the first time that I've been playing now, this last week, that I've been able to experiment with it and putting it to use. And almost every time I've played, you know, even with sound things being wrong, and head configurations being wrong, the drums not sounding right - which is part of it too - even through that I still manage to kind of get through it and still have that comfort level that I'm after.'

A wrong head configuration used to distract you more than it would do now?

`Yeah. I mean: they would contribute to my inability to get over that and just, you know, compound problems... Be thinking about it too much and forgetting about the approach to the playing.'

TOO HARD

`To me, at this point, I understand what the people who have criticized me, in the past, have been saying. To some extent they had a valid point. Because sometimes, in an effort to make it so right, the feel sometimes gets inhibited, and I'll be the first to admit that I have been guilty of that in the past. I have been trying to work too hard, at times, to get something to happen, and eh, now...'

Still you never looked like you were working hard, at the same time...

`Well, may be not, like I said. To the `normal' person watching it wouldn't be evident, but to the feeling that I was getting... I think people will notice the difference now, feeling-wise. The guys in the band have, and to me that's more important than anything. And it's funny, because it opens up the mind to a different way of playing. I'm at a point where I just want to have fun with it.'

FLOW

`Obviously, I'm talking about it in a very generalizing way, as far as approaching the instrument, and of course you always have to play within the guidelines of the style that you're playing in, most of the time. There are rules, always, but getting around all that, when that's a given thing, when you are obviously playing the gig correctly and you are not overplaying or underplaying, when you are in the situation where you are just playing the music, whatever it is - then it's about how you are going about doing that, and the feeling you have doing it: Is it work, are you hurting yourself, are you playing what you want to play easily, are you being able to voice that, is it natural.

`Having no inhibitions, that's the bottom line. That is where I want to be, no matter what I'm playing, in what style I'm playing. To me that's a new point, after a while of not conveying the feel real naturally and getting it happening. And I'm not talking about loose or tight and any of that shit, I am talking about actually a physical approach that makes it easier and that makes everything flow better. So....'

HIBERNATING

`As for the rest, I haven't been doing anything that anyone would now about. A lot of stuff in LA, a lot of different bands, and there's some jingles, if you watch American TV, that you might hear. But other than that, no. I have really been hibernating for a while. Stuck myself in my own room and practiced and just working around LA, and sitting in for Tris Imboden. When he goes out with Chicago I have been playing with his band, Cecilia Noel and the Wild Clams. That's a fun band, fifteen pieces latin-funk. And I have been teaching myself some, which also opens up some other aspects to the inside of it. I'm also writing for my next record, which is going to be completely different - the first three ones being kind of similar. At this point I'm trying to figure out the next direction.

It has been good to have time to re-evaluate and actually practice. When I was still working with Chick Corea, There was no time to do so, absolutely no time to think about creating something different. You should create on the spot, of course, but physically there wasn't much time to practice at getting better at something. Now there is, and that's good.'