It’s Earth Day 2008! The day where we should all do something helpful for the planet, except its kinda hard to post about earth day on a drum blog.

Think about it…pretty much everything you use as a drummer; snare drums, your floor tom, your mounted toms, drumsticks, well pretty much the whole drum set…Besides the hardware and cymbals, is made of wood. I guess it’s not so bad considering that the majority of people who own drum sets aren’t ever going to just throw them away.

Anyway, I guess something drummers could do for earth day is be appreciative of the drums we have, and maybe try to volunteer around where you live or even just pick up a few pieces of trash, anything helps. We have to protect those trees! Or else no more drums!

Rashied Ali has been one of my favorite drummers for a while. He played with John Coltrane and comes from an avant-garde jazz background. His playing, (a lot of it at least), is very improvisatory and complicated. Not complicated in the sense where he is just spinning his wheels, but complicated in the sense of being extremely exploratory, daring and fluid.

A record I highly recommend checking out is “Duo Exchange”, released in 1973 on the Blue Note jazz record label, it stands as a powerful statement on avant-jazz, improvisational drumming. Its just Rashied Ali and a horn player; Frank Lowe, 2 tracks, around 20 minutes each. The music featured on this album may be hard to listen to for some, but the fruits of your listening are worth it as it shifts from intenese driving sections to slow, moody sections with oddly placed accents coming from Ali.

Ali is all over his kit on this album, with amazing tom tom sections being the highlight of the drum sound. Even if you aren’t into jazz or the somewhat abrasive sound of this record, if you’re into drumming there is a lot you can pick up here. When I first heard this record, there were so many drum tricks, fills and accents I’d never heard before. Great album and an amazing drummer.

Another drummer that I’m a big fan of is Aaron Harris of the band Isis. Isis’ music, in case you aren’t familiar, is a blend of post-rock and art rock and has a heavy vibe to it, similar to Tool. A lot of the bands songs have large portions with no vocals, when there are vocals, they are more tonal than traditional, usually not emphasizing words but sounds.

Aaron Harris is the pulse of the band. Usually emphasizing weird accents and including a lot of syncopation into his playing, he tends to push and pull the songs, a bit like a jazz player.  His drumming through odd time sections is usually keeping a steady, simple yet effective approach, until Isis’ last album “In The Absence of Truth”.

After becoming good friends with Tool drummer Danny Carey, as well as tour mates, Aaaron Harris’ playing became noticeably more complex and involved.  His playing on this album defintily shows Danny Carey’s influence but also some new techniques all together. I highly recommend checking out his drumming on this album, it is some of the best I’ve heard in the past few years.

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*(Photo courtesy of Heilsound.com)