I know what you mean. I was watching an interview with Louis Armstrong the other day and he confirmed something I've heard a number of times. He said that they couldn't have drummers playing on early recordings as the needle of the cutting equipment was sensitive to mechanical vibration and would jump. Rather than running the chance of ruining the take, they told drummers to stay at home. Either that or they were relegated to pottering about on woodblocks, drum rims and cymbals. Armstrong looked mournful when talking about the King Oliver sides he'd cut in the early days and just said "No drums...", the implication being that it was a missed opportunity to record something that had been truly wonderful.

I'm not getting much (any!) response from my posts elsewhere, but there's a UK drum nut who is really into the history of early jazz so I'll email him (if possible).

"Soft-Shoe Dancing

master of the essence, whereas George Primrose is cited as an exceptional exponent of the old soft shoe."

Source link

I don't own it, but there's a CD 'reprint' of Jo Jones' book The Drums for sale and, supposedly, he talks about how he was inspired by such dancers to experiment with sweeping the drum head using brushes.

If anyone's interested here's a little info about Kersand:

In the same time period, the News reported that the Billy Kersands troupe of colored minstrels played to a full house at Kerr's Hall on Monday night. The paper declared it the best show of its kind on the road, but sadly reported that most of the townspeople "kicked against paying a dollar to see it" (16). Billy Kersands was probably the same Billy Kersands known as one of the most famous Negro minstrels of the period. Richards and Pringle's Georgia Minstrels were a popular colored troupe that had toured for years. They boasted in their membership Billy Kersands, a man supposedly able to hide a billiard ball in one cheek and continue his monologue without the slightest inconvenience (28, p. 173). Earlier history recounts that Kersands, a noted dancer, had belonged to an all-Negro company named The Georgia Minstrels, begun by a Negro named Charles Hicks in 1865. Charles Callender had taken over the company and had in turn been bought out by Jack Haverly. They toured Europe as Haverly's European Minstrels, headed by Billy Kersands and Sam Lucas (25, p. 26). Frederick Bond cites a William Kersands as one of the Negroes unsurpassed in the art of creating jazz tunes, jigs, and unusual steps and dances (3, p. 19).

From this site:

http://www.granburydepot.org/hale/1886to1911OperaHouseHistory.htm

Further trivia: Jelly Roll Morton toured along the Southern States of America with Billy Kersand's Minstrels in the early 1900s.

Info re George Primrose:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primrose_and_West

Cool yootoob clip:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THc9nhOo5kQ[/ame]

I don't know about you, but I recognised some of those moves!

Gerry - First off it’s time to laugh at myself again. Gerry you said your threshold for humor was low, so picture me pulling my hair out trying to hear the drums that "AREN'T THERE". Can you see my brain straining? I can hear you laughin' (me too).

As for the soft shoe I hear you loud and clear. How do you accompany a soft shoe without brushes, it’s such a cliché. Another GREAT point you’ve made, that brush use may have developed to replicate and enhance that soft shoe sound! Gerry you are rockin!

I started this page last night on the main web site. To make this work for future generations I need some help with the details.

1. Date Timeline

2. First Recording

3. First Video

4. Styles and Sounds of the time

5. Beginning of Jazz

I have the patents covered and will break them down by the early Fly Killers and the newer ones that came in when drum companies started making them and getting patents. If we put the old with the new then there might be a way to see which manufacturer copied which fly killer.

I also have the catalog references and early ads and other historical info to add in to the mix.

So if anyone wants to take this on that would be great. I have the article credited to the users here.

I know this is not exactly why this thread was started, but the history needs to be put in place. I will go so as far as adding all of the drum books about brushes and the different techniques in a time line as well. I have a collection of those as well.

Thanks

David

David, so long as time isn't a priority, then I can help with some of the above. Give me a few more days to explore some new leads and I'll get back to you with a little more info.

David & Gerry - In the paragraph below from 1924 they mention “Jazz Strainer Sticks”. Is this a reference to brushes? If so, it seems to me that brushes may have already become a standard tool in the drummer’s kit by this time (I know they were available in 1923 cat, but is that long enough to make a standard?). Is that your take on this too? If so, hardware stores must have been selling quite a few Fly Swatters to musicians.

Time is no poblem.

I have a project that has been sitting for three years! So when time permits it should finally get done.

Also, Most of what I do is always a work in progress. Even though I create the page I might make changes years later to improve or add to history.

David

While looking for the metal fly swat I found this antique one and realized I had seen something like this in early movies somewhere. I think fly swatters similar to this may have been more common with the upper class way back. It’s interesting too that horses use there tails to swat flys and we humans use their tails to do the same thing. Ha ha ha.

It seems like the flexibility of this type of fly swatter would make a nice slap on a drum and may have inspired the metal fly swats that became our drum brush.

Sorry the photo isn't better!

Here's a link: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/Art-deco-retro/Fashion-beauty/auction-255596567.htm

Here is the quote of the description that accompanied the photo:

These are the earliest recordings I can find to date that feature brushes:

Wolverine Blues

(Benjamin Spikes / John Spikes / Jelly Roll Morton)

Jelly Roll Morton Trio

June 10, 1927, Chicago, Illinois

Victor 21064-A

38663-1

Drummer: Baby Dodds

Brushes from 2:08 mark onwards

Mr. Jelly Lord

(Jelly Roll Morton)

Jelly Roll Morton Trio

June 10, 1927, Chicago, Illinois

Victor 21064-B

Drummer: Baby Dodds

Brushes throughout

Beale Street Blues

(W.C. Handy)

Jelly Roll Morton's red hot peppers

June 10, 1927, Chicago, Illinois

Victor 20948-A

Drummer: Baby Dodds

Brushes throughout

The Pearls

(Jelly Roll Morton)

Jelly Roll Morton's red hot peppers

June 10, 1927 Chicago, Illinois

Victor 20948-B

Drummer: Baby Dodds

Brushes from 0:55 onwards

Indiana

(Hanley)

Eddie Condon Quartet

July 28, 1928, New York

Parlophone R-2932

Drummer: Gene Krupa

Brushes during piano solo (1:12 mark)

Knockin' A Jug

(Armstrong, Louis; Condon, Eddie)

Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra

December 4, 1928

[master W.401689-B] -- OKeh 8703

Drummer: Kaiser Marshall

Brushes from 0:34 onwards

Muggles

(Armstrong, Louis)

Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra

December 7, 1928, Chicago, IL

[master W.402200-B] -- OKeh 8703

Drummer: Zutty Singleton

Brushes throughout

St. James' Infirmary

(Primrose, J.)

Louis Armstrong And His Savoy Ballroom Five

December 12, 1928, Chicago, IL

[master W.402225-A] -- OKeh 8657

Drummer: Zutty Singleton

0:50 mark onwards

Tight Like This

(Curl)

Louis Armstrong And His Savoy Ballroom Five

December 12, 1928, Chicago, IL

[master W.402226-C] -- OKeh 8649

Drummer: Zutty Singleton

Brushes throughout

Mahogany Hall Stomp

(Williams, Spencer)

Louis Armstrong And His Savoy Ballroom Five

March 5, 1929, New York City

[master W.401691-B] -- OKeh 8680

Drummer: Paul Barbarin

Brushes throughout

All these tracks can be heard at redhotjazz:

http://www.redhotjazz.com/jellyroll.html

http://www.redhotjazz.com/louie.html

Their samples aren't the best quality (there are cleaner recordings available on CD, judging by online sound clips). It's also possible that the Fletcher Henderson track Copenhagen featured brushes during part of the performance. Is so, that would make it an earlier example than any of the above. I'll reserve judgment until I can find a better recording.

The basics of the early brush-style - which laid the foundations for the patterns used throughout the swing era - are described (albeit briefly) in the Gene Krupa Drum Method. Sand-dancers may have inspired the moves of Jo Jones, but early pioneers of the brushes merely used them as they did their sticks; the difference being that they substituted a sweep of the head for the press roll. That's the reason why, traditionally, the drum-roll and the brush-sweep share the same notation when written. Because brushes/fly-swats have little rebound, the sweep was the nearest thing they could get to the sound of a sustained roll.

Apart from Singleton (who appeared in a couple of films in the 40s) and Krupa, I have yet to find footage of any of the other drummers listed using brushes. However, enough exists from the early 30s to piece together - with a little help from Gene Krupa's book - what the drummers of the Hot-Jazz scene were doing. It's not complicated. In all of the above examples, one hand taps-out the time in a steady quarter-note pulse while the other accents the 'after-beat' (2 & 4) with a quarter-note sweep. The principal is no different from a modern drummer accenting the backbeat with a rim-shot. When sticks were used, the Dixie-drummers would, quite literally, drag-out their press rolls by drawing the stick down the surface of the head. So, it would have been quite natural for them to sweep similar paths using a brush.

The arm doing all the sweeping would bring the brush down vertically onto the head - much like they would with a stick - and then pull back from the elbow, thereby creating the 'roll' effect. When performed using the left-hand (traditional-grip), this creates a strong accent and heavy sweep. However, those who favoured the right-hand had a lighter touch due to the shallower angle of the brush in relation to the drum head. For these reasons, it's easy to take a stab at which hand the drummers were using. The heavier performances of Dodds, Marshall and Barbarin suggest that they swept with the left, whereas the rest were probably using their right (Krupa and Singleton certainly did in later life). It's also possible that a more lateral motion of the left-hand was used for the softer approach as this technique, along with the one just described, can be seen during footage of the Louis Armstrong Orchestra performing live in Copenhagen in 1933:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eu2aYiu7Uo[/ame]

Although not the earliest example of brush playing on film, it's probably the most representative of the style that was used in the closing years of the previous decade (the drummer uses a more vertical approach during Dinah). Due to the sound being slightly out of synch it looks (in places) as if the drummer is sweeping on 1 and 3. That's isn't the case though (use your ears as much as anything).