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Visit Bill’s online store for exclusive and signed items: Matte Kudasai, in Japanese, literally means “Wait, please” or “Please wait for me”. Adrian Belew’s beautiful song was a moment of calm in what was usually the whirlpool of a King Crimson show. Time to kick back and listen to the poignant, melancholy lyrics that Belew was so good at. The Simmons hi-hat chirps away on the up beat, sidestick reliably on two and four; the slide guitar is surrounded by guitarist Fripp’s comfortable arpeggios, and for a few minutes, all is well with the world. “When, when was a night so long / Long, like the notes I’m sending…” We all have choices. All drummers have four levers of control: temporal, metrical, dynamical and timbral. The way they choose to pull and push on those levers gives the player a different sounding voice and an identifiable style. Style seems to be an individual thing; the way an individual goes about doing things, in my case, on a drum kit. Allan Moore has called it a ‘patterning of sonic decisions’. Most drummers try to develop a style, of more or less interest to others. My style on the drums? I articulate clearly and am an empathetic listener. I have plenty of ideas as to how to make things sound different, but that sometimes causes me to fidget, to give the appearance of trying things out, which usually I am. I change cymbal in the middle of a bar or a section for no good reason. I abandon possible ideas too quickly; I can be inconsistent with tempo and meter. In short, I’m a tad impatient. If I didn’t know me, and I was reviewing this drummer called Bill Bruford for some internet chat-room, I’d say that was a fair assessment. If you’re a drummer, you’ll have a different set of stylistic characteristics. These are all indicative of my (or your) character as an individual, just transferred to a musical instrument. The instruments never lie. You choose when and how to pull which levers, and your stylistic personality appears. When you perform, you can be read like an open book. Your personality is on display for all to see (or hear), if they know the instrument and the kind of choices you’re making. Of course, the decisions you make are constrained by any number of other considerations: your own expectations, the expectations of others on stage and off, your technical ability, your mood, your motivation, love or loathing of the band-leader, and so on. But eventually, like it or not, your style emerges. One way to look at it is as a sonic composite of what is said (content), the way it is said (expression), and the tone of voice in which it is said (touch, feel, and timbre). Some or all of these might be projected or sublimated by the individual in performance, in accordance with the perceived demands of the group, its leader, or the music to hand. In King Crimson, and particularly here in Matte Kudasai, style is very much projected by all four performers. #kingcrimson #billbruford #tamadrums #paistecymbals #drummer #jazzdrummer #electronicdrumkit #drumsolos #billbrufordsearthworks
