Joe Morello

He says, we would play a gig one night as Dave Brubeck and we might get fired because the music was too far out.

The next day, Joe Morello went in and got the job.

Same group went in and played.

They'd fire us again.

This music is, um, there's so many things he does that are, that are just fascinating.

Uh, and then you also, you also hear how the, the quartet as it came together, um, how each of the members of the famous quartet we're sort of talking about here with Joe Morello and Eugene Wright and Paul Desmond and, of course, Brubeck on piano.

They all had... a really important voice that made the sum of the parts, you know, greater than any of the individual players.

So hearing that and also being able to hear from the beginning and hear how that developed until, you know, they put Joe Morello onto the drum chair and he added his voice.

And all of a sudden there's a drum soloist in the group that's adding all sorts of color and excitement and, That stems from this idea of polytonality and counter rhythms that would encounter melodies that would float through this piece from beginning to end.

And when you listen to the music, it's just, it's amazing.

You know, I love Dave Brubeck.

I mean, Joe Morello with Dave Brubeck.

I mean, here's Elvin Jones, you know, with John Coltrane.

You know, those guys, that was another.

Um, I guess, uh, the best answer to that is that because I was always, always interested in playing with people, uh, so I was mostly like self-taught in the beginning because there was no really so many teachers I actually knew when I was younger.

So of course I made also a lot of mistakes, you know, and, and, and later, early 2000 I actually went to, to study in New York City with, uh, these kind of legen- legendary jazz drummers, Joe Morello, Jim Chapin, and, and Freddie Gruber and, and John Riley.

And actually b- because I was playing, uh, already ...

At that time was I was already playing, uh, in, in many different bands and many, many different styles.

of Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae singing together.

And that was backed up by Dave Brubeck's group with Brubeck at the piano, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums from 1961 on Columbia.

Then we went back to 1949.

We heard the deck of duets of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday and all those...

Oh, yeah.

It would be Joe Morello, probably Art Blakey.

Okay.

Guys turned up regularly on, um, primetime TV in the UK where I am.

So I was, you know, I was getting the the little journals.

I think the first things I got, though, was that that the Ludwig Drum Company was publishing a little magazine, you know, and, you know, with Joe Morello and his drum set and those sorts of things.

So I was I mean, that's the kind of beyond.

Beyond the the city band, you know, in Sheboygan, I mean, there was that there was there was the influence of of of.

And that was some good drumming.

Joe Morello.

Playing the drums.

No relation to Tom.

Right, next time you've got a free couple of days, you're coming on the show and you're just going to be McCartney.

Joe Morello.

Oh, Joe Morello, yeah, very interesting.

Jazz, pure jazz.

I used to, I mean, on things like Take Five, Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Can you talk about, because you got out there at the most, Nancy King, there was this public radio going on where she had a show, or I'm going to have to get the whole thing, but Bill Evans would come into that.

I mean, Eugene was like a hotbed of activity, and Arsenio was playing with the Pranksters, but this goes back to like, oliver lake who i just interviewed in the black artist group in st louis and and i i just got the feeling that sokolov i mean no one's going to mistake you from joe morello or you know elvin but like i'm like this guy is swinging man i just wanted you to talk about when you first got out to eugene you know sort of the the people that that found you or you found them and you started to groove together

oh for sure well I'll tell you a little, you know, Drumson, you know, Drumson, Arsenio Richardson Jr.

Drumson? I didn't know that was his name.

Fried Rice, you know.

Get Fried Rice!

yeah so anyway i do want to you mentioned joe morello somehow i you know back in new jersey so i was just high school and just getting out of high school and i got to see joe morello in a little tiny club you know

well no what's what's really interesting is that uh i'm not sure he had a drum shop where he gave lessons that's where i thought you were gonna what you were going where