Posted on Dec 30, 2023
Herlin Riley: master of drums in the cradle of jazz
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It's a Wednesday night in the venerable Bayou Bar of the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans – one of the best (and least publicized) jazz gigs in the city known as the cradle of jazz.
Herlin Riley is presiding. The 66-year-old drummer sits at his drums like a prince before his court. The tavern is packed because when Riley plays, there's always a crowd. He is one of America's most revered and distinctive drummers. Tonight, the audience will know why.
You can't take your eyes off of Herlin Riley or you might miss something. He's twirling his sticks in the air like a Vaudeville drummer. He's playing everything: cowbell, wood block, tambourine, the drum shell, the other drum stick. On one tune, he drops his left stick and plays the drumhead with his hand like a bongo. On another tune, an admiring waiter holds out a water pitcher in the middle of his solo and he beats out a rhythm on that. Later, the same waiter – is he part of the act? – hands him a glass of red wine. Riley holds the wine in one hand while playing a rollicking one-stick solo with the other, keeping time with the bass drum and high-hat cymbals.
It's a Wednesday night in the venerable Bayou Bar of the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans – one of the best (and least publicized) jazz gigs in the city known as the cradle of jazz.
Herlin Riley is presiding. The 66-year-old drummer sits at his drums like a prince before his court. The tavern is packed because when Riley plays, there's always a crowd. He is one of America's most revered and distinctive drummers. Tonight, the audience will know why.
You can't take your eyes off of Herlin Riley or you might miss something. He's twirling his sticks in the air like a Vaudeville drummer. He's playing everything: cowbell, wood block, tambourine, the drum shell, the other drum stick. On one tune, he drops his left stick and plays the drumhead with his hand like a bongo. On another tune, an admiring waiter holds out a water pitcher in the middle of his solo and he beats out a rhythm on that. Later, the same waiter – is he part of the act? – hands him a glass of red wine. Riley holds the wine in one hand while playing a rollicking one-stick solo with the other, keeping time with the bass drum and high-hat cymbals.
Herlin Riley: master of drums in the cradle of jazz
Posted from npr.org
Jazz Music
Music
Drums
New Orleans
Posted 5 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
...""He's one of the last of his kind," says Dave Torkanowsky, a veteran New Orleans pianist who's been playing with Riley their whole adult lives. "And by that I mean, directly connected to the origins of improvisational American music. You can hear the ancestry in his playing... You can't help but feel it."
But Riley takes his renown as one of America's greatest living drummers with a grain of salt.
"I appreciate the respect," he says, "but I don't take it seriously. I take it very lightly. Because I'm a strong believer in God and everything we have is by God's grace."
"So I don't get too full of myself," he continues, "I don't get too full of ego. I'm not the greatest, I'm just one of his vessels, one of the people that he put the light in."
...""He's one of the last of his kind," says Dave Torkanowsky, a veteran New Orleans pianist who's been playing with Riley their whole adult lives. "And by that I mean, directly connected to the origins of improvisational American music. You can hear the ancestry in his playing... You can't help but feel it."
But Riley takes his renown as one of America's greatest living drummers with a grain of salt.
"I appreciate the respect," he says, "but I don't take it seriously. I take it very lightly. Because I'm a strong believer in God and everything we have is by God's grace."
"So I don't get too full of myself," he continues, "I don't get too full of ego. I'm not the greatest, I'm just one of his vessels, one of the people that he put the light in."
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel good day Brother William, always informational and of the most interesting. Thanks for sharing, have a blessed day!
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