Groove is the most misunderstood concept in music. A lot of things have to fall into place for a groove to happen. Groove is not singular but collective. It is impossible for a groove to occur if the musicians are not in sync with one another.

Time is a musical constant-- turn on a metronome and its there. Groove evolves with each musician contributing their feel to the brew. The Count Basie rhythm section of the 30's and 40's set the standard. No matter what style of music you play, these guys (Count Basie, Jo Jones, Walter Page and Freddie Greene) were it! 

Basie's section got the groove going by playing the flow of the beat and not its exact parameters. Playing the flow creates the dance feeling.  Basie would reinforce the feel with his "Plinks and Splanks". 

Give and take is another aspect of groove playing. Killer Joe from Quincy Jones' "Walking in Space" is a wonderful example of this.

The tune anchored by Drummer Grady Tate and Bassist Ray Brown is section playing at its finest. Grady decided "to let Ray have it". Allowing Ray Brown to take the rhythmic lead is what makes "Joe" come alive.

Killer Joe is also an example of hearing and awareness. You can't play a groove without being aware of the length of the beat. You develop this awareness by listening. 

Groove more than anything is a state of mind, If you hear it you will achieve it.

                                       the groove continues...

Green Onions, Time is Tight, Soul Limbo. These tunes were the work of Booker T. and the MGs, the first rhythm section ever to have instrumental hits on the charts. Their first hit, "Green Onions", can still be heard on TV. The MGs would create and define the Stax sound. Raw, funky and dynamic.

The MGs: Booker T. Jones, (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewis Steinberg (bass) and Al Jackson Jr. (drums) played on every recording released in the 60's by Stax.

What made them unique was Jones' trance-like sound on organ and a behind-the-beat groove that made everything they played infectious. 

The "delayed back beat", as it was then called, was the creation of guitarist Steve Cropper and drummer Al Jackson, Jr., who were trying to musically emulate a dance move. The groove allowed the musicians to sit in a pocket at the very bottom of the beat. 

The Stax sound was complete when bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn replaced Lewis Steinberg. What occurred next was a musical role reversal with Cropper and Jones taking on a greater rhythmic role, allowing Dunn to play more melodically.

Sam and Dave's "Soul Man" became Stax's anthem of the mid-60's. The song has a melodic line that sits on the edge of the beat, yet the band sits at the very bottom of the beat creating a tension that permeates the entire track.

In the late 60's, new management and external forces would forever change the relationships that were at the core of Stax's sound. Booker T. became frustrated with the company's treatment and was the first to leave. The others would soon follow. 

The Group was dealt a final blow with the murder of drummer Al Jackson, Jr.  Al was building a career as a producer when he was cut down. Ringo Starr would pay him the ultimate tribute calling him the "Groove Maestro".

The surviving musicians would continue to play with many major artists, including a resurrection for Cropper and Dunn with the Blues Brothers.  But the sound they created for "Soulsville" will forever be a part of the American soundtrack.

                                    The Groove Continues...

Benny Benjamin, Richard "Pistol" Allen and Uriel Jones have long been the Holy Trinity for drummers. Long unknown to the general public, they finally got their due thanks to the film "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown". The Funk Brothers, as the studio band was known, played on virtually every track that was recorded in Detroit. 

Drummers around the world have spent years trying to find out who these guys were. I even wrote a letter to Motown in 1965 as part of a school assignment requesting information on who played drums. They replied that several drummers played on the recordings. 

Benny Benjamin (pictured left) who played on many of the early recordings, was a veteran of the big band and blues scene. He is the originator of the Motown drum sound and of the drum pickup (pictured below). This pick up and it's variations are heard on every Motown recording.

"Get Ready" by the Temptations is a great example of Benny's style. It features not only the pickup, but an interlude with big band figures and fills. The song also features Benny's tom tom bump on the "and of four" which was his personal signature.

Richard "Pistol" Allen of Memphis was recruited by Benjamin and added his relaxed but driving beat to Motown. His boiling Shuffle groove on "Heat Wave" is heard here. Watch his hands at 2:02  and you will see what a real Memphis Shuffle looks like. The real kicker in the track is the Charleston figure he plays in the bass drum.

Uriel Jones (my wife's favorite drummer) was a large gentle man who brought his powerful rock  feel to the mix. In the following segment Uriel explains the Motown sound and plays "Ain't To Proud To Beg" with Ben Harper doing the vocal. If you listen carefully you can hear him push the beat on the chorus and pull it back in the verses. 

The Motown drum section had a fan in John Lennon, who once quipped that the Motown drummer sounded like he was "hitting the head with a bloody tree stump". The Drummers were ably assisted by Percussionist and tambourine master Jack Ashford and Eddie "Bongo" Brown and a production team that knew how to get a "live" drum sound.

The drummers also doubled up on many songs. They either played in unison or with one part split between them. The two ingredients common among all the Funk brothers was their Jazz background and years of live performance. Motown sessions were often scheduled in the early morning hours after their nightclub performances where the musicians were still warm.

Benny, Pistol and Uriel are gone now but the groove continues.

John Lennon is many things to many people. Suffice it to say that he is a musical and cultural icon. What many people overlook is the fact that he was one hell of a guitarist. John was, prior to his fame, a working musician just like the rest of us.

Paul McCartney is often viewed as the most musically talented and John the more gifted writer. My view is that they were all excellent musicians with different skill sets. John's guitar playing is often overlooked because he was a great singer and composer who happened also to be the Beatles rhythm guitar player.

Everybody knows "Free As A Bird", where the other three Beatles played along with a prerecorded track of John"s after his death. The recording is only interesting historically or what could have been. The problem was the group was playing to him and not with him. What the track did prove was how necessary his musical and physical presence was.

My awareness of his guitar skill came years after I first heard the Beatles. "All My Loving" was on the radio when it hit me. The recording has an irresistible groove thanks to John's hair-raising guitar part. He plays strummed triplets throughout the songs verses with his only relief coming in the bridge and during George's solo. 

Bassist Gary Van Scyoc was a member of Elephant's Memory, which became John's band in the 1970s.  He describes their first time playing together." What struck me about an hour into the night was the fact that John was such a presence rhythmically. He added so much to the groove especially when our lead guitarist Tex Gabriel was soloing". 

His guitar abilities shine on two of his best songs. "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and Norwegian Wood share a 6/8 meter, which is not easy to play. The songs are performed with minimal or no accompaniment, yet the groove is unmistakable.

What made him so good was that he never tried to do too much. He did what was necessary to make the song work. This was a musician who understood and mastered his role in the band.  Gary Van Scyoc remembers John as "having it all together and was relentless in his approach".  John Lennon will always be remembered by many for his remarkable life and sadly the manner of his death.

I choose to remember the smiling, energetic guitarist with the Rickenbacker 325 who inspired us denizens of the rhythm section to always play for the band.