+ Deep Dive Four: Bill Stewart +

PART ONE:
INSPIRATION

BILL STEWART
WILL MAKE YOU SMILE.

Bill Stewart has every aspect of playing the drums in his back pocket. He has amazing feel, unrelenting time, polyrhythmic phrasing, endless creativity, and a sense of humor that comes through his solos and trading. To sit and learn a Bill Stewart solo is like breaking down a story by a great writer. The vocabulary of a genius, a flow, and some laughs. Sometimes you just smile over the fact that it occurred to him to play a particular phrase in a particular way. It’s a joy to listen to him play.

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PART TWO:
IMITATION

Transcription:
“ONE WAY TO BE”

The solo here is from the 1994 album “I Can See Your House From Here” by John Scofield and Pat Metheny. The name of the song is “One Way to Be.” The bassist is Steve Swallow, and in general it is a ShredFest- Metheny and Scofield both solo and Bill Stewart plays a chorus-long solo at the end with Swallow vamping underneath. The tune has an oddly-shaped melody for the head, with an extra odd measure toward the end.

The solo starts out in a groove context, with some comping phrases and rimshot accents. It then goes around the drums with classic Bill Stewart stuff, including three-note phrases, buzz roll combinations and tom orchestration. Finally, at the end there is a 7-note phrase that Stewart plays on multiple recordings- two three-note stickings followed by a bass drum that gives an “odd” yet melodic finish to the solo.

That’s all worthless unless you play it with the swagger that Bill does. Playing and transcribing this helped me put myself in his head as he’s playing through these different phrases, building and creating repetition and contrast. He milks different phrases and then moves on once a new idea pops up. The ideas are just flowing, like speaking a statement and then moving on. I love that.

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PART THREE:
INNOVATION

My focus to expand on this solo is via one phrase that Bill plays at the very end of the solo. Seven glorious notes. First, two sets of 3-note stickings in the hands, followed by a bass drum. Here’s how it lays out over four bars:


At first, the coordination of keeping the hi-hat going is tricky but then the melody becomes clear and it works itself out with practice. There are the usual ways to change it into something else- rate shifts, orchestrations, adding diddles, creating different feels with those same seven notes. Having this at fast tempi (like the recording) is probably going to have you playing eighth notes. Slower swing stuff can switch it up into triplets and it’s a completely different vibe. The hands can use different three-note stickings and that also changes the melody substantially. Above all, it’s fun.

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One:
THE PHRASE
OVER FOUR BARS

Here is the seven-note pattern (RRLRRLB) that I am pulling apart for this Deep Dive. Here, I play with how the phrase works as a four-bar phrase in a trading context.

Two:
TOSS IN SOME
BASS DIDDLES

Same phrase and sticking here, only throwing in a double on every second bass drum. The cycle still sounds similar, but the diddle on the foot makes it more dense and even wilder.

Three:
SUBSITUTE HI-HAT FOR BASS DRUM

Same sticking, same 7-note phrase as eighth notes. BUT, here I swap out a HH for the bass which gives another option texturally.

Four:
SWISS ARMY
PHRASING

Now taking the 7-note phrase and playing the repeated 3-beat hands phrases as Swiss Army Triplets. On them toms. “Them toms” is what they say in Switzerland.

Five:
A DIFFERENT
CONTEXT

Using the same phrase, trying it as an alternative within an Elvin-ish swung Latin beat.

Six:
BUZZY SNARE
ROLLING BEAT

Here's kind of a buzzy groove-ish thing on the snare with the same underlying phrase and structure. This could still work in a solo or trading context just fine.

Seven:
TRIPLET
PHRASING

Getting back into the swing world, here is the 7-note combo phrased as triplets. At a slower tempo, keeping the HH on 2 and 4 helps ground it.

Eight:
VARYING THE
TRIPLET STICKING

Still triplets, but the hands are orchestrated with different movements around the drums. And the result is a pretty different melody.

Nine:
ROCKY STUFF

Let's get weird and put the 7-note thing into a rock beat and play the drums real hard and loud. Same sticking (RRLRRLB).

Ten:
DAYS OF
WINE AND ROSES

Finally, trying to take the phrase and weave it in organically over a song melody. Here's one stab at it over "Days of Wine & Roses."

Here’s another.