The Dodds book came through this morning. Two things are clear: he wasn't the first drummer to ever use brushes and he didn't much care for them.
The following are all the brush-related excerpts I could find:
'In 1923 I used very heavy sticks. One day Joe told me, "I want to try to get you to beat light," and he brought me some wire brushes. It was a new thing and I was probably the first guy that ever worked with wire brushes in this part of the country [bold, my edit]. But I still beat heavy even with the brushes and Joe said, "You'd beat heavy with two wet mops. Give me those things. Take your sticks back." I didn't like the brushes and couldn't get anything out of them. It seemed lazy to me. But I realized that I should learn to beat lighter with the sticks. I worked on this and began getting very technical with the drum sticks. That is why I can beat so light now with sticks.'
On the next page, talking about how he accompanied different instruments:
'With the piano I tried to play as soft as I could with a low press roll; not too soft, of course, but just the right volume. I didn't use brushes because they did not give shading to the drum tone.'
On working as a duo with female pianist Cleo Brown at the Three Deuces in 1931:
'Of course with Cleo I had to play very softly. But I still used sticks rather than brushes. I also had to hit the bass drum very lightly and tap the cymbals softly so as not to drown out her piano.'
Lower down the page, on working with guitarist Lonnie Johnson as a duo:
'Then too, I had to play very softly and soothing, so as to let the guitar's sound protrude over the drum. I had to think all the time what to put in, and what not to put in. But it was a great experience and helped make me both versatile and light handed.
Even Gene Krupa couldn't see how I did it. He was playing at the Chicago Theater and he came over and said to me, "Well, Baby, I heard about this but I didn't believe it. I came to see it. I don't see how you do it. Don't you use brushes?" I told him, no indeed, when you have to do something, you just learn how to do it and that is all there is to that. And he would stand there and look at me and just shake his head.'
On recording with Jelly Roll in a trio situation:
'He just wanted to feel us, not to hear us. Because he wanted the drum so very soft I used brushes on Mr Jelly Lord. I didn't like brushes at any time but asked him if he wanted me to use them and he said "Yes" So I played the whole number with brushes instead of sticks…On the Wolverine Blues I decided to try using my Chinese tom-tom. I figured it would change the beat yet still sound good, and Jelly left it in the record.'
And finally, talking about the drum solos he recorded in 1946:
'I played them just as I would have with a band but on Careless Love I used brushes just to see what it would sound like all alone.'
I have the recordings Dodds refers to, and I'd never have guessed that he used brushes on Careless Love. Sounds just like sticks: if using brushes, he must have played fast singles for the rolls.
Going back to Morton, this extract is interesting:
'The trio idea was Jelly's and it was something new for records. It was through this trio of Jelly, John and I that a lot of people got the idea and jazz trios became a popular thing.'
Then, as now, brushes were used for more intimate situations. The fact that they're absent from recordings during much of the 20s was probably to do with: brushes being inappropriate for the size of the ensemble being recorded; whether the band leader cared for the sound; whether the drummer was comfortable using them.
The 1923 date Dodds gives, suggests that Oliver purchased a pair of Ludwig's 'Jazz-Sticks' or something similar. Perhaps Oliver had previously jammed/performed with/seen a drummer who'd used fly-swats, which had given him the idea.
One thing that caught my attention in the book is a paragraph about when he met William Ludwig, during a trip by the drum manufacturer to St. Louis. Dodds was working on a steamboat and Ludwig quizzed him about his habit of using his left-foot to stomp out time. He took measurements of Dodds foot and, later, got back to the drummer with a prototype sock-cymbal. Dodds didn't care for it and declined the offer to endorse the product.
What this shows is that Ludwig, as the early ad for their brushes suggests, had their finger on the pulse and weren't only following the local Chicago jazz-scene. The whole jazz explosion happened in the decade prior to the 20s. Rag time and blues music wasn't the preserve of New Orleans, and not all musicians stemming from New Orleans set off for Chicago. Many toured and spread their influence, so different 'schools' grew up around the US. So, perhaps the whole 'jazz-brush' phenomenon - on which Ludwig were so clearly cashing-in - developed outside of Chicago. Gershwin was from Brooklyn and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra operated from New York in the 20s. The West Coast is also another possibility. And then, of course, there's good old New Orleans.
I still have a little more reading to do to, but I don't think we'll ever get to the bottom of this. Perhaps the mural at Minton's gives us the answer: at an informal jam someone picked up a fly-swat to beat out time and later tried it out on their kit. Whatever, at some point in history a drummer walked purposefully over to their snare drum, swat in hand, with experimentation on their mind. To that unknown-soldier of the brushes, we salute you. To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, that was one small step for a man; one giant sweep for drummer-kind…
TAXI!
