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Gurn Blanston Blindfolded

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Listen To This! is relative to the popular "Blindfold Test of Down Beat magazine, with the added element of a musician-to-musician interview, as inspired by Drummer Art Taylor's book Notes and Tones (Da Capo, 1982). The "blindfolded featured artist is asked to identify the players and tunes they are listening to, as well as rate each performance on a scale of 1-5 stars.



Drummer Gurn Blanston is a highly regarded underground jazz icon/teacher from the Boston area. One of the most under-rated drummers in history of jazz, partially due to the fact he likes to maintain a low profile, Blanston will attest that he was one of the main influences on such luminaries as Alan Dawson, Tony Williams, Joe Morello, Marvin "Smitty Smith, Teri Lynn Carrington, and others. Blanston's innovative style was much sought after in his playing days during the '60s and early '70s, and though there was much talk about the playing he did with Miles Davis and other jazz greats of the day, only bootleg recordings exist of the drummer in his prime. Blanston prefers not to play out in the scene much these days, but teaches privately at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I caught up with Gurn recently during a rare Seattle visit, which included a clinic at the Seattle Drum School for his first blindfold test.




Miles Davis
"Milestones
Highlights from the Plugged Nickel (Columbia, 1965)
Personnel: Miles Davis, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums.
Composer: Miles Davis



Gurn Blanston: As far as the test goes, you must not be trying to trick me. This is my old friend Miles with that kid Tony Williams on drums. Tony used to come to me for lessons back when he was 15 or 16. I recommended he go see Alan Dawson and learn his rudiments, then come back and see me. The boy must have really listened to Alan, 'cause when he came back, I only had to give him two or three lessons and he was off and running. I set him up with this old cymbal I had laying around which became the sound everyone associates with Tony nowadays. He ended up breaking the darn thing playing that rock-and-roll stuff.

All About Jazz: Do you like the direction he took later on?

GB: I love Tony. He's like a son to me, what can I say? Sure he lost all of his subtlety, and you had to talk twice as loud for him to hear you because he blew his ears out with that rock stuff, but it was still Tony, and I loved the guy. Roy (Haynes) and I used to joke that if we had been born yesterday, we'd have just copied everything Tony Williams ever did, 'cause he was the perfect drummer. This tune is "Milestones. They sure got into playing fast at that time. When was this, 1965 or so? I got called to sub for Tony a few times with this band, but I didn't want to get Tony fired so I just had the guys over when they were in Boston and we all jammed.

AAJ: You're too modest. When I was at Berklee, a lot of teachers I had were talking about you and that you used to play with Miles when he came to town.

GB: Well yeah, I used to gig with him from time to time, but I never really dug the bar scene much. Most of the playing I did with Miles was in one of his transitional periods. He'd play in Boston and have me play, or I'd go to New York once in a blue moon to do a gig. He wanted me to go on the road, but I told him why don't you use Jack (DeJohnette) or this kid that use to visit me named Billy Cobham? Billy ended up going the route Tony did, but boy he played some jazz that would knock you out. I just liked to practice and play with people. There wasn't anyone I couldn't hang with back then, but I just didn't care about anything but making music for music's sake. I never had any desire to travel or record, man. I just liked to play music.

AAJ: Stars?

GB: If I gotta give this stars, forget it 'cause these guys went to the moon! What's next?




Wes Montgomery
"Full House
Full House (Riverside, 1962)
Personnel: Wes Montgomery, guitar; Johnny Griffin, tenor saxophone; Wynton Kelly, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Jimmy Cobb, drums.
Composer: Wes Montgomery



GB: Oh yes! Sounds like Wes and the thing he used to do. Is that Miles' old rhythm section with him? I used to play with this saxophonist at this club on Lansdowne that isn't there anymore. Is his last name Griffith?

AAJ: Griffin.

GB: Johnny Griffin, that's right. Boy he'd call "Cherokee and you'd better look out. Not many people can swing at that tempo. Many young guys today, they can all play fast. Well they think they have it but they don't. They're playing fast but it don't swing. Then of course there's these cats that couldn't swing in a hammock, no matter what the tempo. But I think Griffith wanted to weed out the suckers back then, and he could really play. The interesting thing for me is the effect that Miles had on his musicians. It's like that's the best it ever got for some people if they played with Miles and once they got turned loose they kept on sounding the same. But Miles was innovative, man. I bet you Cobb still sounds like this but man, I thought it was old in 1964. There was so much fresh things happening at the time. Not to take away from these guys, it's just not the cutting edge thing I've always sought after and been a part of. If you want Swing 101, listen to this rhythm section! Be careful though. It's like the Bermuda Triangle, man. It'll suck you in and you'll forget what a poly rhythm is. Listen to that ¾ feel though. I'll give it 4 stars. I leave out a star for what could have been if one of these guys could have butched up and taken this thing in their own direction.




David Liebman
"Invitation"
Setting the Standard (Red, 1992)
Personnel: Dave Leibman, soprano saxophone; Mulgrew Miller, piano; Rufus Reid, bass; Victor Lewis, drums.
Composer: B. Kaper



GB: Well, this sounds different so far. Oh, there's the melody. "Invitation. Joe Henderson used to like to play this one. This sounds newer. Thanks, I was starting to feel old. This soprano sound is familiar. Is it Dave Leibman?

AAJ: Yeah.

GB: This is great. It's kind of straight-ahead, but it's exploratory. I like Dave's approach to standards. Usually with Dave, I'm like OK man; just put on some Coltrane and get it over with. But he gets the vibe you know? I played with Dave just the two of us in my basement one time and we must have played this one tune for three hours straight. It wasn't really a tune I don't think, just free. He was sweating so much I had to get a bucket (Laughs). No, but we were both playing our asses off, and Dave can play. This drummer sounds like one of a handful of talented young cats. There's that cymbal sound I was talking about earlier. It ain't Tony, but he's trying to sound like him. I get a kick out of that, 'cause I don't care about getting credit or anything, but really that's my cymbal sound that everyone is copying. I just get a silent kick out of that. You don't have to print that (Laughs).

AAJ: Why don't you want credit?

GB: Well you know. We all have egos, but when it comes to music I took a look inside a long time ago and decided that true innovation has nothing to do with any of that stuff. I don't care how many people know about what I'm doing. I had a fun time playing, and I prefer to teach for the last 30 or so years. Oh, listen to that! Is that Mulgrew Miller? He's as sharp as a tack. It might be that guy Kikowski that Roy likes to use.

AAJ: It's Mulgrew.

GB: OK. Let me see that CD jacket. Oh Red records. Bergonzi told me about these guys. He got really into the Italian thing for a second. Dave sounds good, and this is a good band. 5 stars for this, because I don't have to compare him to Trane this time.




Ornette Coleman
"Lonely Woman"
The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic, 1959)
Personnel: Ornette Coleman, alto sax; Don Cherry, trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.
Composer: Ornette Coleman



GB: I was wondering when you'd start playing me some of your West Coast crap! (Laughs) No, this is good stuff. A lot of beboppers hated this stuff, and most people think it was because they were too full of Bird and they couldn't get over it, but really it had to do with the music being new and they thought Ornette and these other guys were stealing their gigs. Nowadays, the free thing is just part of the vocabulary for most of these young guys that stick with it. There's a great teacher close to where I live named George Garzone. He held a standing gig at a place called "The Willow just outside of Boston forever. His group would take it out, man. I'd go down there every now and then and sit in, but the smoke in that place used to be horrendous. It would stick to the shag carpet they had on the wall, and I just couldn't hang too long there.

AAJ: What do you think of Billy Higgins playing?

GB: He's one of the guys from my era that I didn't get much of a chance to hang with. He called me one time because he had some cousin of his moving to town and looking for gigs, and I told him I could pay him 4 bucks to mow my lawn but that's about it, because when I heard this cat he really couldn't play. Anyway, Billy was too nice for his own good and it showed in his playing. He evened out those swung eighth notes, and then he smiled about it the whole time so you couldn't get mad at him. 5 stars for this band. They did their own thing.




John Coltrane
"I Want to Talk about You"
The Legendary Masters Unissued or Rare (RareCD, 1962)
Personnel: John Coltrane, drums; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.
Composer: Billy Eckstine



GB: Well, you must be trying to make this blindfold thing easy for me.

AAJ: I just like to hear you talk about the old days.

GB: Well, it seems like yesterday to me. Trane really had a band sound. He is idolized and copied and referenced to death by all these jazz guys, but the one thing they can't do with him is commercialize him. He was coming from a different place, man. I guess they got that church where he used to live somewhere in North Carolina where they play his stuff. You know he had an impact when you hear stuff like that. I was talking about this at the clinic yesterday... Enough time has gone by that people can technically explain every note that he and his band played, but what can't be translated is that feeling, the vibe that Leibman and a few others have a finger on but it's never quite the same as when Coltrane himself had it going. I have a friend in New York who has a name for all those Trane clones. He calls 'em "hipbadobee players. I say what do you mean and he says you know (Singing) hi-ba-do-be, hi-ba-do-be, hi-ba-do-be... Patterns you know, but it ain't the same.

AAJ: I've heard it called "hurdy gurdy.

GB: Whatever man, it's all the same unless you got that spiritual vibe, you know. Elvin really isn't doing anything technically that I wasn't already doing fundamentally with polyrhythms, but when you put it in context with that band, it was really something special. People ask me how to play like Elvin all the time, and I just ask them 'Why?' The important thing to get out of that whole thing is how to play as a band, which should be different for everyone. People that come to me already usually know most of their rudiments, and I send a lot of them away if they don't have it, but once you have that foundation man, all you need is a few concepts and just play you know. As a teacher, that's what I did with Tony, and that's what I do now, and hopefully they'll eventually all sound like themselves and not like me. Listen to that cadenza, man. Trane never ran out of ideas. He was just something else. I only got to play with him once, through being friends with Roy. But oh, I listened. That's another one that shoots past the stars and goes straight to the moon. Thanks for playing that for me.

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