On Friday, May 08, 2009, Jazz elder Clive Zanda paid a visit to Satchmo’s on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook. The Clive Zanda Trio for this gig was Peter Shim, self-described on-call drummer sitting in for Richard Joseph, who was on duty with Élan Parlé, and bassist Russel Durity.
Peter submitted the following first-person account to the Woodshed:
It was a blast drumming for Clive at Satchmo’s.
Peter swears by Zildjian 6″ & 10″ Splashes, 14′ & 16″ Fast Crashes and the 20″ K Custom Dark Dry Ride
He opened with a 12 bar blues improv, which morphed into a ’straight-ahead’ jazz swing and back again.
The thing I love about Zanda is that he never plays a song ‘verbatim’ so to speak. A ‘Zanderization’ occurs…he goes left, I follow…add to the stream…now I’m asking for it…Zanda Time.
Zanda will take a song through a myriad of rhythmic expressions, be it Kaiso, Afro-Latin, Blues-shuffle, Samba and so on. The reward for me is creating a ‘feel’ with the elements given to me by the other musicians. A cohesiveness occurs, an aural power manifests and everyone gets pulled into its vortex – adding, changing, creating. This is definitely where I love being.
The core of my drumming is based on rock, Blues, Jazz, Electric Jazz, Latin, Samba, World Beat [which comprises of a plethora of different expressions], kaiso/soca…and growing. Creating a rhythmic pallet for Clive and Russel Durity (bass), is always rewarding. The experience is always happiness and celebration.
Each meeting becomes a joyful mess, organized naturally – a sometimes strange utopia of direct democracy in motion. The musical concoction is always pervasive, rewarding the audience to the bone.
The patrons were a small group, but everyone sat or stood close to the band bathing in the experience, and at the end of each song responded delightfully with applause and shouts of praise.
I sometimes go to Satchmo’s on a Friday night to get a play. Clive lets me have 3 or 4 songs. For me it’s a kind of blessing. The work is sparse in T’dad., not many Jazz Clubs, and don’t have a group to call my own…as yet. So t’was a really good Friday night at Satchmo’s with Clive and Russel…was no big, big crowd…but they were ours.
I recall in the 90’s, I was offered opportunities to sit in with senior local Jazz musicians at a basement club at the Queen’s Park Hotel [which has since been demolished]. The club was graced by the presence of Clive Zanda, Mervin DeGannes, Ralph Davies and many more. There I was indoctrinated on the ways of Classic Jazz; a tough road for a pop and samba drummer.
Later on I would spend a year at the Hilton Hotel’s ‘La Boucan’ restaurant with Jazz balladeer and pianist Felix Roach and later on local soft-jazz group ‘Nite Life’. In between all that I took in the likes of Chic Corea, Yellow Jackets, to call a few. Mainly though, I was listening to the modern interpretation by the ‘now’ drummers at their approach to the Classic Jazz songs as well as the new creations.
The hybridization which has taken place in the jazz genre is what has drawn me in so completely…It’s like ‘let’s see what next we can create’. I was so infused in the music Friday night that when the gig was over I asked “really? are we done? It seemed like minutes not hours. Being in that moment…time does not exist when you’re having fun like that.
Drummer on call…
Peter Shim
PS:
Zanda changed company on Tuesday, May 12 for an assault on a repertoire of Jazz Standards, Folk music and Calypso at The Corner Bar on Ariapita Avenue. He was not the leader of that band though;Sean Thomas was.
Drummer Thomas of St. Jazz Inc. Ltd. invited Zanda to be the guest of honour for ‘A Spiritual Journey Through Jazz‘ with a trio outing at The Corner from 10:00 pm to midnight Tuesday 12. Douglas Reddon was the one thumping the ‘Low’ (I just wanted to talk like our French friends do for a moment).
This trio match-up makes sense, if you ask me. Zanda needs all the help he can get promoting the recently reissued Dat kinda Thing that has compositions in there like the Kaiso-Jazz standard Fancy Sailor and Fever.
