Andrew Gander's High Five

Historical article recovered from a Wayback capture dated 2018-02-24.

Andrew Gander is a Sydney based Australian jazz drummer. He has toured, recorded and performed with many local and international artists including Adam Armstrong, Alan Vizzuti, Barbara Morrison, Ben Winkelman, Blaine Whittaker, Bobby Shew, Carl Orr, Craig Scott, Chuck Stevens, Dale Barlow, Daryl Pratt, Dave Ades, David Starck, Dennis Irwin, Don Burrows, Ernie Watts, Eugene Pao, Gabriel Guerrero, Guy LeClaire, Harry Connick, Jack Wilkins, James Morrison, James Muller, Jamie Oehlers, Jim McNeely, Jim Pugh, Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Chindamo, Joe Pass, John Hoffman, John Irabagon, John McLaughlin, Johnny Griffin, Julien Wilson, Kenny Kirkland, Kenny Wheeler, Kevin Hunt, Mark Fitzgibbon, Mark Murphy, Michael Brecker, Mike Nock, Mike Rivett, Nicholas Bouloukos, Paolo Levi, Paul Grabowsky, Peter O’Mara, Peter Scherr, Phil Stack, Randy Brecker, Ray Brown, Richard Maegraith, Sam Anning, Scott Dodd, Sean Wayland, Steve McKenna, Steve Magnusson, Tim Hopkins, Vince Jones, Vincent Herring and many others. Andrew is also an active educator and clinician. He holds a Masters Degree in Music Performance from Melbourne.

1. DAVE ADES - Venue 505: (David Goodman, drums; Cameron Undy, bass; Dave Ades, alto; Zach Hurren, tenor)

Chordless ensembles allow increased space for the drummer’s improvisational dialogue with bass and horns, pushing him/her to expand the time-functioning and comping roles beyond conventional formulae. The context also necessarily tends to entail a more vivid portrayal of form by means of alluding to changes and outlining structural markers in the absence of piano or guitar. David Goodman’s masterful playing with the Dave Ades Quartet delivered on all those requirements in spades. Moreover, he has forged a coherent voice that integrates a wide palette of diverse drumming influences - from Motian, DeJohnette and Higgins to Colaiuta, Novak and Rossy – with a self-consistent concept of drum tuning (Sonor Designer Maple Light: toms & snare - mid to upper-mid range head tension; bass drum - low-mid range tension, controlled resonance) and cymbal sound (Bosphorus Masters Series Turks: 22” & 20” – mid-light weight, focused, dry, warm, clean attack, low pitched wash, some with one rivet) that yielded a very satisfying & cohesive sonic blend, both within the music and the room, across a wide textural and dynamic spectrum.

Following the lead of Buell Neidlinger’s ‘Big Drum’ CD, David’s compelling take on polymetric interaction with this quartet reconciles the unbounded, angular territory of a-rhythmical ‘free’ drumming with what Colaiuta called ‘a scholarly approach to the axe’(i.e. one whose processes operate within certain parameters of math & meter). Dave’s overall angle of approach then is informed by a mature musicianship and technical discipline with a sensibility that is both visceral and cerebral, in that he manages as an improviser to loosely yet cogently deploy layers of rhythmic displacement, artificial subdivision and metric modulation while tactfully supporting the band’s dynamic/emotional contours and sustaining an open, organic, connection with the often highly abstract and emotionally free-ranging cross-conversations that characterize this quartet’s music.

2. CRAIG SCOTT – Venue 505: (Tim Firth, drums; Craig Scott, bass; Paul Cutlan, tenor & soprano; Warwick Alder, trumpet; Tim Fisher, piano), 2012

It’s thrilling to experience the sense of collective and individual freedom that emerges in a really cohesive band of great players, peaking on the back of an extended string of gigs with all the elements in place: unified ensemble sound, intuitive chemistry, trust and a thoroughly mastered and malleable repertoire, within whose parameters there exists massive scope for spontaneity, creative risk taking and highly personalized expressive nuance. That was exactly the vibe onstage and particularly behind the drums when the Craig Scott Quintet launched their CD Timeline at 505 after a week-long NSW tour. From the get go everyone’s chops were up and the collective groove surefooted, slow-burning and already in motion from the previous gig. Bandleader, composer, educator and world class bassist Craig Scott has assembled a definitive modern quintet of leading Sydney players, conspicuous among them the brilliant Tim Firth, who handled this gig with his usual aplomb and signature blend of time, precision, dynamics, propulsion, rhythmic displacement, unerring good taste, compositionally mature soloing and some very hip latino & breakbeat vocab: in short, a fully articulated contemporary jazz drumming concept that was literate, rooted in tradition (Louis Hayes, Philly Joe) and totally current (Hutchinson, Blade, Harland, Hoenig, Guilliana) with a technical apparatus perfectly suited to manifest it. The tuning of his snare drum (Brady 14” x 5.5”), 12” & 14” toms with 18”x14” bass drum (Yamaha) were tightly tuned, high pitched and singing, with crisp tension on the snare wires. That’s an exacting set up to play and a measure of Tim’s top class execution, self-assuredness and clarity of concept. Every note projected cleanly through the ensemble without ever either choking the flow of his thought or overwhelming the band, and Tim’s total sound palette - distinguished by this clean, focused, articulate drum sound in perfect symbiosis with the sustained resonance, warmth and velvety dark tones of relatively large thin cymbals (24”/22” Istanbuls) and functioning as a foundation of the quintet’s dynamic/timbral landscape - was on full and glorious display. A serious player in a great band on a great night.

3. BARKER/BRAID DUO – Venue 505 (Simon Barker, drums & percussion; David Braid, piano)

On a recent visit to Australia, Canadian pianist David Braid played a duo improvisation concert at 505 with the great Simon Barker. This gig was remarkable as a meeting of two very full and free-ranging musical minds playing in perfect spontaneous simpatico. The territory was totally open and ran the full gamut – Debussy, minimalism, high energy modern jazz - basically anything went, allowing Simon maximum improvisational scope to exploit his total repertoire of rhythms, sounds and influences. The drum set tuning was really impressive, amounting (in combination with the K Constantinople cymbals, Istanbul hi-hats and various gongs & other percussion items) to a mini orchestra, with all the frequencies and textures necessary for establishing the duo’s ensemble sound and sustaining that energy throughout the set in a really satisfying way. Simon exploited dynamics to the hilt – from his Korean inspired polyrhythmic tour de force to the gentlest whisper, functioning as accompanist, conversationalist, composer and soloist while maintaining a pure, self-consistent original voice throughout. In particular one stunning ballad-inspired, improvised mood piece was probably the best of its kind I’ve heard live. True musicianship on the drums.

4. BOB BERG QUARTET – Ronnie Scotts Nov 1996 (Gary Novak/ Dave Kikoski /Ed Howard)

Ronnie’s had a corner table right by the hi-hat in those days and I got lucky three nights in a row. Novak at that time, in that band, was just unsurpassably great and his hook up with Kikoski and Bob Berg was devastatingly strong. This seemed to me the ultimate and complete modern jazz drum-set language, incorporating everything I love about Jack DeJohnette, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Buddy Rich, Joe Chambers and Billy Bobham with everything I love about Marvin Smith, Jeff Watts, Vinnie Colaiuta, Bill Stewart and Dennis Chambers. It was great to see and hear Gary up close tuning his 18” bass drum between tunes too - it had that kind of funky, open ‘oil-barrel’ quality to it that just set up an incredible, aggressive ensemble sound context – very raw and complex, but so punchy and articulate, which matched his whole set up perfectly (Sonor designers: 10, 12, 14, 16 toms, big, dark K Zildjians all around, plenty of sizzles and an Azuca with sizzles too – full on!). Gary’s control, power and endurance were just frightening and his sheer musical heaviness and maturity were so compelling I wanted to fall at his feet (in fact I did accidentally, but that’s another story).

5. BRUCE CALE QUARTET – Opera House 1977 (Allan Turnbull, Roger Frampton, Charlie Monroe)

I was fifteen year old boy whose understanding of music was based on 50’s and 60’s big band. Allan Turnbull changed my life in about the first 20 seconds of the first tune (Bruce Cale’s Rolling Thunder) that night. In retrospect I can clearly say it was coming out of Roy, Jack, Elvin & Tony, but at the time I’d never heard those guys so to me it was like hearing someone expound quantum theory in Sanskrit. I mean I just sat there in the front row (looking up at an 18” flat ride) practically with my thumb in my mouth while Al’s right hand effortlessly maintained a VERY up tempo, VERY broken time pattern that was so hip he could have just stopped there. Unfortunately for me, his left hand and right foot were simultaneously spitting out an impossible fusillade of very subtle, very clean, very fast, very creative eighth note multiple stroke (3’s & 4’s & 5’s) syncopations in razor sharp dialogue with the late great Roger Frampton. By about the five minute mark I was experiencing the proverbial ‘moment of clarity’ along with a feeling of mounting uneasiness about my own playing prospects as the sheer weight of the guy’s chops and drumming intellect descended on me and I began to grasp the scale of the problem facing me. It was a genuinely mind altering experience that opened the door to everything else, and that first feeling of contact not only with Allan’s technical depth, but with his whole overarching concept of time and accompaniment, has stayed with me ever since. My teacher :-)