A performing artist,composer,percussionist,drummer, Steve Habib is a writer and music journalist available to help all in the field, especially the Jazz Field. His life experiences for the past 50 years since the time he was a young child has exposed him to the legends of the past. He grew up with Elvin Ray Jones,John Coltrane,Duke Ellington and family. His opinions are highly regarded among Jazz Musicians,Composers,Producers and Listeners.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The Beautiful Compassionate Master Drummer Educator
Many events in this person's life are to be documented as time moves on but for today, this is the very first article to be presented in this educational series. Interviews, photos and many more articles will appear in this blog and also on Marbib Radio Television in the future. Today marks that day of continued change and continuous movement as Jazz Music needs to have documentation to go along with the living legends that are here now at the end of 2011 and the start of the New Year, 2012. The person that I'm reviewing and telling the story about, is one of the greatest musicians of all time, unique in all his ways and one of the most swinging drummers that I've ever heard play the drums and I grew up with all of them and sat along side of many of them including Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Art Blakey and now this CAT that I'm telling you about!
Once upon a time in Englewood New Jersey there lived a happy family named Smith. The daddy worked hard and built his own house for his family, wife, three sons and a daughter. The oldest son played drums, while the middle son worked as a salesman and the daughter went to college receiving a doctorate degree in theology. The baby boy of the family liked the sounds that came out of his older brother's drum set so he decided at the age of 2 to sit under the high hat while his brother waiied away, swinging and singin all the bop jazz tunes you could ever imagine. Practically everyday, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Art Blakey or any of the drummers during that little boy's day, came over to the house to hang out with the older brother. So the story went. Music, music music and happiness all the time. The parents built a wonderful den(practice room) and the older brother noticed that the little boy had more talent than any of the well known master drummers that were coming over to the house. The little boy used to climb up on the drum throne but his feet couldn't reach the bass drum pedal. He started to figure out how things worked because the older brother's foot was so large and powerful but yet he feathered or lightly touched the pedal and drew out the most magical sounds down there. It was almost like you coudn't hear the bass drum but you could feel it driving the groove on each beat. The little boy decided that everything moves like the wind with a gentle but powerful presence. This interested the little guy so he started going to school at the age of 5 and everyone laughed at him. Things seemed backwards to him and the parents realized that the little boy had dyslexia. Kids in school always made fun of him and he reached a point of turning everything around by spending hours on end practicing and working hard every hour that he was home from school. His brothers and parents continued to try and motivate him to go out and play with the other little kids but, no, no, no, he was persistent in practicing those drums and by passing his older brother's playing and also by passing all the brother's drumming buddies. Years went by and the little guy was no longer a little guy even though he was thin and appeared fragile. What started coming out of the drums was a sound that nobody could duplicate. It was the sound of a genius and the sound of the wind and all the elements. The little guy started performing in venues where typically you had to be over 18 but it didn't matter because he would sneak in, sit in and blow the doors off of the bandstand to the point where all the master drummers were embarressed and self conscience refusing to appear after the little boy swung so hard on the drums. Yeah, it was amazing and ever since that happened, nothing much has changed. Now in 2011, many, many years since that time at Birdland, The Village Gate and so many other venues, the little guy still blows the doors off of every bandstand and venue but he has produced well over 1200 videos of his performances, more than any performing artist in the world, including all the other major jazz drummers in the world. combined.
The story did go from Englewood, NJ to Europe and he played in Sun Ra's Arkestra, so did his older brother who also played with Eric Dolphy. He also played with Archie Shepp and practically everyone you might have heard of in the jazz world. He moved to Italy and practiced Buddhism. His spititually grew and he became enlightened. He discovered that the reason he was able to play the drums so fluently and naturally is that his chanting brought him closer to his Buddha Nature and he discovered that it was important to be understanding of others and project goodness. He helped everyone and the more people that he turned on to his spiritual reality and discovery, the stronger his drum communications became. He had this unique hollow but yet full, light but yet powerful sound that came out of the drums when he touched them. Folks started to notice his aura. Around him, especially when he was playing the drums, a light formed around him and it felt warm and glowed as if you could see the motion, the constant motion that was always present whenever he moved. Sometimes, you would be drawn into that presence that he represented but only if you pushed your own desires and your ego over to the side. He taught in Italy and he taught many. He became known as a drum sage. The drum was simply his tool for communicating compassion, the real truth about love. He evolved and evolved and yet everybody was jealous. The beautiful person lost mom, dad, both brothers and still has a sister living in NJ. He now is the head of his own music company which includes a 48 track state of the art recording studio, a music publishing company, a media broadcasting company a record label of his own,a production company, a music marketing company and the main event of his life, his music school where he does all his drum teaching and involves all master players of all instruments to come into his studio every week to be recorded on his master sessions, "better than hollywood" for the benefit of his students so that they can intereact on the bandstand and learn just the way he did as a little boy and the way things were done in traditional jazz years ago when the other masters were alive. Today there are fewer and fewer of the great masters around but he is available and yet you would think that serious drummers and other musicians would be breaking his door down to get in! Well little has changed and while such a great genius master drummer/educator is here on earth now, few are taking the moment to even reflect on the importance of "rubbing shoulders" with the living legend. Most simply want to go to college, read a bunch of books about the dead masters and go out and play gigs that they don't even understand the music and how to execute it because they haven't learned the traditional secrets that can only be taught through direct exposure. They spend too much time trying to become labeled as a "bad mo-th-r fu-ck-r" when the should become more concerned about learning how to lose their egos and become humble through their acts of compassion and doing something for others. A simply gesture of giving to others before giving to self will start to make a difference and make a player more soulful/spiritual and a more joyful person to be around. Yeah, a good "old fashioned kick in the ass" is what Elvin used to say, along with Blakey, Max and all the rest. Today, that individual that were talking about here is Dr. Marvin Smith. He has been written up in a two page spread , Modern Drummer Magazine, February, 2011 issue but what good is having the media recognize him if the young players don't respond because they all think they can out play him. The ones that do study with him stay with him because they are seeing results. The ones that have ego problems can't stay with him because he won't tolerate anyone who thinks they're a better person than someone else. To him, everyone has equal value and people either become the Buddha inside and achieve a balance in their life or they can't play because they're afraid of looking at and/or facing the bullshit and truth that exists in their own life!
Dr. Marvin Smith is who we're talking about in this article and I've been a close friend of his for most of my life. This long term friendship has taught me much and I believe that others should do everything they can possibly do to spend time around him while he is alive. If it's learning more about music and studying some of the lessons of life that others have discovered, then Dr. Marvin Smith and the masters that he performs with every week in his studio, are available to you and you will be recorded and documented playing on a higher level. One thing is certain, if you are driven by players that are stronger than you, eventually it will rub off after they kick your ass enough. Yeah, old school, no substutute for it in the jazz world.
LOVE ALWAYS and ALWAYS LOVE,
HABIB
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