What does Jaki Liebezeit of CAN and the king of Afrobeat Tony Allen have in common?

If your answer was: Polyrhythms. You get an A+.

Doug was a big fan of the odd patterns of Tony and Jaki, that feel like almost 2 drum patterns complimenting each other by one drummer and we talked about this subject ad nauseum. We were heavily discussing how Polyrhythms were important to one day again be brought to the forefront of music. He introduced them into his playing with the Sparkler Dims.. and I’m fortunate to have him turn me onto many different conceptions of what a drum should sound like in what time we spent together.

Tony Allen is absolutely a master of this. For all you non-drummers: Polyrhythms are kind of a controversial topic. Really either you get it or you don’t. I’ll try to break it down for you. You see some drummers are time keepers, and some drummers (bad drummers) are just off beat (usually they’re trying to catch up to the click or they’re rushing past it), and some polyrhythmic drummers are working off of the vibrations of sounds and placing their notes where it feels good unconsciously. They’re able to free themselves of linear time, and create real complex patterns.

You’ll notice how Polyrhthmic drumming doesn’t follow a specific pulse they often fluxuate in emphasis in speed and pitch. They increase or decrease and they communicate and tell a story. If you’ve ever heard a hippie drum circle a Fela kuti song Elvin Jones, Jon Theodore or Ray Baretto.. you’ve heard Polyrhythms.

Now, Western music has alot of fucking rules about where the drums should be placed. How even the notes should be played.. the more mechanical and “On Time” the drums are the less sloppy the better the player. With this approach less becomes more, and the drums either accompany or enhance the movements of guitars or what have you.

When you go beyond that conception of reality..and join the school of There’s No Fucking Rules, Dude. You start to hear the concepts of all sounds as musical.. The sounds of seagulls communicating while circling for food sounds like an avant garde brian eno piece. Or the repetitive churning of a Laundry machine turns into a 90’s electronic dance foam party. These are the sounds that occur in Nature. The Vibrations of the planet.

When you start to go beyond the concept of what is right and wrong in drum and what a drum should sound like, and open your mind to new patterns.. once you jump out of 4/4 and get into ?/?. You’ll understand why Afrobeat was a genius variation of Black funk music.. Fela brought a whole new attitude and Tony took the Talking drums culture that has always existed in Africa expanded on the concepts and made it FUNKY. This is why more people should be talking Polyrhythms.. the whole world would become a whole lot stranger, but way more interesting.

Now as Charlie will demonstrate.. you don’t need to play Polyrhythms to be good at the drums. It’s just one approach in a world of different approaches.

DOUG.. was an irreplaceable thinker, gifted musician, and he was unfortunately taken from this planet way too soon.. This is an important lesson in drums he taught me, and I hope for one of you out there somewhere too!!