Gerry – So I don’t lead anybody astray, you were right about a patent’s duration. If I understand this correctly, the duration at the time of Allis’s would have been 17 years in the USA, and that patent duration was maintained until 1995 when it was extended to 20 years and always has to be renewed. Allis’s Fly Swat patented was 1913, so it was a close call with what they call a “grace period” of some sort on when you actually file. I agree Allis must have been p*ssed! Ouch!

Saw this photo of Paul Barbarin in 1919 and noticed he seems to be using a type of brush or a broom in his left hand. Edit: It could be too that, he is holding his regular sticks together in one hand and they disappear behind the snare.

The photo caption read: “The bandstand at Tom Anderson's, Rampart Street, 1919, Paul Barbarin, Arnold Metoyer, Luis Russel, Willie Santiago, Albert Nicholas.”

510, excellent find! Do we know what city this club was in? Also, is this from a book? If so can you name it please.

Well done!

Gerry – This photo was on Drummerworld dot Com. The more I look at it though the more I’m seeing it as: he is holding both of his sticks (pointing down) in one hand in a pose, with a little of his white sleeve cuff adding to the width, giving the impression of a wider implement. I still can’t say for sure though, and was hoping somebody would help me critique my assertions.

While you’re here Gerry do you feel the swishing style was possibly developed from the press roll styles that the New Orleans drummers were using or from some other inspiration like the sand blocks thing as mentioned? Paul Barbarin is shown in a photo playing with one brush and a stick. The brush was in his right hand and the stick in his left (I thought maybe the press hand part could be swished with a brush). But I saw the youtube video (see below) that shows him playing what I believe is the “shimmy” style and he seems to be the guy that plays the press part of that sound with his left hand where Baby Dodds played it with his right. Both guys use traditional grip. So if Barbarin has the brush in his right hand he may have been slapping and not swishing in the photo I mentioned even as late as 1958. Yikes! I’m sorry, this my not be to clear from my writing, I hope you understand what I mean here.

Paul Barbarin video, no brushes though. There is another one from this session on youtube too.

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

Edit: Ooops, Tom Anderson's was in New Orleans at the corner of Rampart and Perdido!

Edit2: In Ken Burns' book the caption for a photo of Tom Anderson's Annex states it was on the corner of Basin and Iberville. Rampart parallels Basin just a little further east with a railroad in between. I think this is the correct location even though the photo I posted said it was Rampart that would only be partially true with Rampart running along the tracks on the east side and Basin on the west side of the tracks.

510, unfortunately our laptop is a bid dodgy at the moment so I'm using a little netbook to surf. If I blow up photos the resolution is really bad, so I can't say for sure what it is Barbarin is holding. It does look like some kind of fly-whisk, though. It could also be a whisk broom held sideways and we're not seeing the flat of the brush.

Either way, it ties in with my findings. As I posted on the redhot message board, whisk brooms were used (at least in Chicago) before wire brushes were, although this is the first instance I've seen of one being used with a snare.

As he's holding the 'brush' in his left hand, he was probably sweeping 2 & 4 with it. Regardless of what hand drummers used, they'd switch to a LH sweep so that the right could do other things. In the 20s, the RH would often play the bass drum - note that Barbarin's RH shoulder is dropped. Ben Pollack used a fly swatter to beat out time/circle with the RH on the bass drum; LH sweeping 2 & 4 while he did so. Other players used a mallet or stick in the RH. There's a really racist (as in jaw-dropping) Betty Boop cartoon featuring Louis Armstrong, from around 1932/1933 - I think it's called I'll be glad when you're dead you rascal you. IIR, the drummer was Tubby Hayes and for a brief moment you see him doing what I've just described (although it's unclear exactly what he's playing with the RH, because the bass drum obscures it).

Re tapdancing. The Chicago drummers seem to have all adopted the press roll technique, so that's how they ended up playing brushes. Before that, or in other areas, who knows? 'Circling' was in use during the 20s (as described above), but I can't find any examples on record (there is film evidence). What is certain is that a huge amount of drummers from the swing era were also 'hoofers'. I’ll find the list later and post, but it's surprising how many could tap dance. It goes without saying that one discipline must have influenced the other. At the end of the day, sand-dancers and brush players were trying to create rhythm using swish and the moves could be pretty similar - some used their feet, others their hands I guess…

LINK

Page 281, third paragraph down. Hopefully you can see the preview (it's too much to type out).

Re the photo, I've managed to have a look on a better screen. Difficult to tell. I can now see at least one stick resting on the snare's head. As for what's in his RH, it could be a brush of some description. It could also be a railing or something that he's holding on to (there are enough of them in the photo). So difficult to tell.

Sorry, I just realized it may have not been clear in my previous post, which I’ve quoted above, that I was referring to a different photo I saw on the net. Not the one I posted from Tom Anderson’s. So here is the photo I was referring to. Notice the eyeglass case mute technique too. I know wallets were used as mutes on snares traditionally too. I love drummers that “use what they got”!!!Cool1

Cool photo, 510!

Looks like a primitive drum booth, in which case his efforts are probably on record. When I've got a moment (might be a while) I'll look for a discography and find out what he was recording then. This merits a listen!

PS Check out the 4:38 (and 4:55) mark here for some wallet dampening in action:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S5DGqCfk8o[/ame]

Yeah Gerry - I have those DVDs and that wallet thing in that video is the exact scene I was thinking of when I wrote my last post. What a coincidence!Cool1

Here is something I’ve been thinking about again:

So if the swishing style of brush playing was developed to accompany Sand Dancers and Tap Dancers, and those styles of dancing developed in shows like Vaudeville and such and not a popular dance craze (a dance that everybody was doing like the Charleston etc.), then it seems reasonable to believe that the swishing style was started in that facet of show business and not in Dance bands, Jazz bands and Ragtime music. Most of the traditional Jazz drummers mention working in tent shows, theatre and Vaudeville presentations so they would undoubtedly have had a hand in its development though, and they perfected it even more later on. The “smoking gun” may be found in old Vaudeville and show photos. Maybe not. Just a thought.

Broadly speaking, I'd go along with you. It's clear from that chapter in the book I linked to that a lot of development came during the 'show' days of the 30s.

Having said that, the Georgians recording reminds me of a dancer. Not obviously 'swishy' but it has that tap dance feel, and perhaps was inspired by a tap-dancer.

The one thing that is becoming quite clear from all the reading I'm doing is that music, and rhythm, wasn't compartmentalized in places like the South: music permeated every aspect of daily life; dancers also sang or played an instrument. So, if drummers also danced, how can you separate one medium from the other? It's not clear cut.