Kenny Clarke

b y Nrorber't. G o l d b e r g
Kenny Clarke is considered to be a founder
of the be-bop movement in jazz drumming.
In tracing back his personal and professional life, we can learn much about this
innovator and recall one of the most fruitful and exciting periods in our musical
history.
Born in Pittsburgh, Kenny Clarke
started playing professionally in his late
teens. "l took a friend's place in a cabaret
in Pittsburgh. He went home to see his
mother and never came back. 1 was trying
to play like Zutty Singleton. Zutty was recording with Louis Armstrong. All my
friends were imitating Louis, but I listened
to the drums." When asked about that
style of playing, Kenny explained, "It was
called 'digging coal on the snare drum' - a
press roll, you know, on two and four,
hardly hitting the cymbals, maybe in the
introduction or at the end. This was about
1931 or '322'
From that point, Kenny's career focused
on the big band. His mother, a pianist,
taught Kenny how to read music at an
early age and he was able to play with a big
band at a supper club near his home. Kenny
speaks of his playing during that time:
! lae,cusslve Notes

"I learned to play better and better

every day. My style was changing constantly, but I wasn't aware of it. My roll
improved, my ideas became more modem,
I started using more cymbals. The afterbeat wasn't invented at that time."
I asked Clarke what kind of equipment
he was using at that time and his answer
provides quite a contrast to the large setups of today. "I was using a bass drum,
snare drum and a couple of cymbals. 1
didn't have the money to buy the woodblocks and those other things."
Soon after his first big band, Clarke
joined another with which he travelled to
the famous Cotton Club in Cincinnati.
There he met many of the great musicians
of that era.
"On weekends they would have big
bands like Earl Hines, Duke Ellington,
and Don Redmond, all the big bands. We
just played the show. [ got to meet all the
great musicians from New York: Ben
Webster, Jimmy Monday and all the
drummers like Walter Bishop, Big Sid
Catlett - one of the best drummers that
ever lived - and Jo Jones, who was later
with Count Basle. They encouraged me to
come to New York, so I went along with a
pianist, a friend of mine."
Once in New York, Clarke started playing in various musical situations. He
worked with a small band at the Blackcat,
a cabaret in the Village, along with
guitarist Freddie Green who later joined
Basle. Shortly thereafter he travelled
throughout Europe with Edgar Hayes' big
band. In Europe, he encountered a musician with whom he would share a long and
close association. "Dizzy was already here
in Paris playing with Teddy Hill at the
Moulin Rouge; he was about seventeen or
eighteen years old."
After returning from his European tour,
Kenny joined various bands for a few
months at a time. He played with Claude
Hopkins, Sidney Bechet, and Teddy Hill's
band at the Savoy along with Dizzy. It was
there that Clarke started experimenting
with a technique that would revolutionize
jazz drumming. Relating this incident,
Kenny said with some amusement:
"I was dropping bombs or something
like that and I was fired from Teddy Hill's
because of it. [ started it by accident. We

played up-tempo, tremendously fast, you

know. To get out from under the strain of
playing the bass drum that fast, I started
accenting with it. The brass section liked
it immediately since 1 was accenting with
them. I thought it was a good way to save
yourself." Unfortunately, Teddy Hill, the
band leader, thought otherwise. "He was
afraid that the customers wouldn't understand what I was doing. They wouldn't be
able to dance to it. It turned out the other
way; they were able to dance better,
in fact."
Teddy Hill later changed his mind and,
as manager of Minton's Playhouse, asked
Kenny Clarke to form a group, assuring
him that he wouldn't interfere with the
music. Kenny recalled, "l took Thelonius
Monk on piano, Nick Fenton on bass, and
Joe Guy on trumpet. Joe Guy was from the
same school of playing as Dizzy. So everything worked very well and we became the
house band. We had a good rhythm section - all the musicians came to hear those
bombs l was playing and would sit in.
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny
Goodman, Harry James - they had never
heard anything like that before. The so
called be-bop movement was born there."
At this point, Kenny expounded on his
philosophy of music and drums. He expressed his opinion that all the different
styles of playing were and are still based on
the rhythm section. "It's all drums; if it
weren't for the drums they wouldn't exist.
1 guess it will always be like that."
Like many other musicians of that era,
Kenny Clarke went into the army during
W W II. Although he entered as a musician, he wound up in chemical warfare,
dropping bombs of another sort, smoke
screen and camouflage. Perhaps his experiences in the army changed his outlook
on things since, after coming back in
April, 1946, he decided to stop playing
and enrolled in an electronics school in
New York City. He said, "I was sick of the
whole business, but that didn't last too
long. Next thing I knew I was back where I
started. 1 joined Dizzy's big band and
stayed with him the year of forty-six and
then I joined Tad Damerons' band, a small
group of about seven pieces."
Clarke later rejoined Dizzy's band for a
tour of Europe, culminating with the fam-

ous recorded concert at the Salle Pleyel in

Paris which introduced Dizzy's now famous combination of Latin jazz. It was with
Dizzy that Kenny was nicknamed "Klook"
or "Klook-mop," supposedly because it
simulated his playing style. O f the concert
in Paris, Clarke said, "That was the concert with Chano Pozo, the conga player. It
was an integration with Cuban rhythms.
Dizzy started the whole thing, 1 didn't approve of it at first but then started to like
it. I had never had the opportunity to play
with a conga player. The first couple of
weeks he got in my way, but then I got
used to it."
Kenny then played the record of that
concert which included a piece called
Cubana Be-Cubana Bop, also call AfroCuban Suite. The integration of Latin
rhythms was evident and I was particularly
struck by Clarke's command of that idiom
and his interpretation of it in a big band
context. As we were listening, I noticed
Kenny beaming with pleasure as if he were
reliving a beautiful moment in his life.
Clarke stayed in Paris after that concert
along with John Lewis, the piano player,
with whom he later formed the Modem
Jazz Quartet. After a few years of shuttling
back and forth between New York and
Paris, Clarke returned to New York in
I951 and stayed for five years. It was dur-

ing that time that Clarke became very

active in the recording scene.
"1 was doing mostly all the recording
with Savoy records. 1 was also A & R man
with them and recorded the good talent in
New York - people like Tommy Flanagan,
Cannonball Adderley, Pepper Adams,
Donald Byrd, Lee Konirz and Lennie
Wristano."
1 asked Kenny if he enjoyed working in
the studios as opposed to playing live. He
replied, "I didn't mind as long as I was
picking the musicians. Most of the work
was with Hank Jones, Wendell Marshall,
Paul Chambers and Percy Heath. They
were the rhythm section. Arista now has
the whole Savoy catalog. At night, I
would work with them in the clubs. I
played with Lennie Tristano, George
Shearing, Sara Vaughn and Billy Holiday."
In 1956, Clarke was invited to return to
Paris by Michel Legrand and join the
Jaques Helian big band, a very well known
band of that time. Kenny also did some arranging for that band, but after Helian became ill, the band broke up. Kenny Clarke
remained in Paris and has been there ever
since.
"I began to work for Barclay records
with Quincy Jones, and trombonist Billy
Byers, who also wrote many film scores. 1
also formed a rhythm section and worked

in a club playing with most any good musician who came through Paris: J.J.
Johnson, Miles Davis, Zoor Sims and Stan
Getz. This lasted for seven years. [ was
doing studio work for Barclay during the
day, playing big band for people like Sarah
Vaughan. Her famous Misty album was recorded here. American record companies
also recorded here and 1did those sessions.
Then l started using Lou Bennett, an
organ player, and a guitar player, Jimmy
Gourley, from Chicago; we've been playing together for about twenty years."
At this point, having brought Kenny
Clarke's life into historical perspective, I
asked him about his decision to live in
France rather than the U.S. Although he
still calls the U.S. home, and maintains
his American citizenship, Clarke expressed his feelings on the different lifestyles between the two countries.
"I like it better here, to live. No one
bothers you. [ can do everything I want to
do. At home, there are too many hangups. Here you can lead a peaceful life.
Every year [ said [ was going back, but I
guess I just never made it."
Kenny Clarke was well-known and respected as an excellent big band drummer.
"Joining a big band was like going to
school," he said of the big band era. "That
was what we called 'the conservatory

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Apz~1983/25

without walls.' That's nonexistent today."

He shook his head, "It's a drag, really a
drag. I think it's due mainly to economics.
Clubs stopped hiring big bands. In the late
twenties and thirties they had big bands all
over the place. They began to fade in the
late thirties, and by the early forties they
didn't exist anymore."
In comparing today's drummers with
those prominent in his time, Clarke feels
that nothing has equalled what was and is
being done by drummers like Art Blakey,
Philly Joe Jones or Roy Haynes.
"Max Roach did everything you could
do technically thirty years ago. To play
like Art Blakey- the swing, that's where it
is. That's the whole enjoyment of playing.
You can't explain how it feels.., it's the
most wonderful feeling you can get out of
playing."
I mentioned that there are drummers
who can play in many different styles rock, jazz etc.
but Clarke maintained
that he hadn't heard any.
l asked Clarke how he felt about the
electronic developments in percussion.
"I'm an acoustic player," he said. "l don't
approve so much of the electronic drums.
For one thing, they're not dependable.
Playing with an organist I've found that
out. When you have electricity failures, the
band has to stop. Out of all instruments
the drums don't need amplification."
"[ see guys setting up with ten cymbals
or tom-toms and only use one the whole
night", he said of today's tendency towards multiple drum set-ups. I say take
what you need! If you have all that stuff, 1
want to see you play it. I've been using two
top cymbals all my life. In most of my recordings [ didn't use tom-toms. [ didn't
have any need for them." During his
studio days in New York; "I used to wheel
my drums through the streets. Taxis
wouldn't pick us up, so you took as little as
possible."
Clarke expressed his opinions on the
newer music, which he feels is lacking the

vital element called "swing."

"I don't get into it too much. It's too
monotonous. It's the freedom thing that I
enjoy. If I sat down and played one of
those rock beats, after a chorus I would go
crazy! I think the be-bop era was the most
fruitful for any instrument. I can't see Art
Blakey or Philly Joe playing rock music.
It's not for thinking or creating musicians.
There's no room for improvement if you're
playing a monotonous beat."
Clarke feels that musicians are concentrating too much on the technical aspects
of playing. "I don't think they're searching
for beauty," he said. "The most simple
things are the hardest to play anyway.
When someone plays scales, they're playing things they've practiced. There's so
much technique employed that you can't
really get a feeling of what they're doing.
Personally, 1 don't think they know what
they're doing.
Still practicing in order to maintain his
flexibility, Clarke feels that the best
practice is actual playing.
"I set up my drums in the living room
and play whatever [ feel like. Practice pads
don't have the same touch as a snare
drum. 1 have set routines, rudiments; I try
to play all four drums and work out patterns where 1 can use all the drums, dividing up the rudiments till they don't sound
like rudiments anymore. A lot of people
practice, but they don't know how. l
learned to put in six hours a day just to get
my hands in shape. The rest came later by
listening. It was a very hard road, learning
to play."
Although not playing as much as he
would like to, Clarke is still active doing
concerts in Paris. Recently, he taught at

the University of Pittsburgh, also conducting the big band there. As far as his
playing is concerned, he says, "If I played
steadily for a week or a month, l'm right
back to where I was twenty years ago. I feel
as if I could play just about anything."
Despite the fact that many of Clarke's
counterparts didn't have much formal
training, he believes that it is a worthwhile undertaking. "It's better to have it
and not need it than to need it and not
have it." He recalled how some orchestral
percussionists used to come and listen to
him play and there would always be an exchange of information on the various
aspects of drumming.
Aside from formal training, Clarke believes in the individuality of a drummer
and the importance of finding one's own
style. "I play like I play and I would hate to
hear somebody who played just like me. If
you like my style, take out of it what you
can to make up your own style. One
should find his own version of playing, his
own way of doing things." He thinks that
swing is the most important quality that a
drummer should possess. "When you
swing, everyone knows that's you playing
because nobody else swings like that. It's
not so much what you're playing but how
you're playing it."
Clarke feels that he will never retire
from playing. "[ was just talking to a doctor who's a jazz fanatic - has records piled
up all over the place. He said he regretted
the day he stopped playing. He wanted
something secure, but if he were to do it all
over again he would be a musician.
"Music is the queen of all professions
and the musician is king. It's something
that's instilled in you for life."

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