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The Times Interview - Frank Gibson, Explain Yourself to PJ Taylor Thursday, 10 May 2007 • Howick and Pakuranga Times
Growing up in a musical and drumming household, was it inevitable that you’d become a drummer? It turned out not only to be genetic but environmental. I was hearing music from the womb. The earliest experiences I can remember were when I was six. While my father taught, I’d sit outside the door, play on practice pads and try and emulate what they were doing. Then my father started to teach me, simply rope learning, no reading. I learnt by ear and playing in time, because my father was very strict on that. He was such a great time player. Everybody respected him for that. He played under several big band leaders like Lou Campbell, going right back to the end of the 1940s. My father was in the first rock’n’roll band in the country, Frank Gibson’s Rock’n’Rollers. Drumming was prominent at the time, driven to the forefront of popular music by great US players Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa. Then along came some of your favourites, Kenny Clarke, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Jimmy Cobb, Shelly Manne and Art Blakey. Art Blakey was a great leader. He taught musicians how to play. He taught sensibilities, dynamics, how to build solos, how not to play too many notes. When Wynton Marsalis got into his band, I read that Art Blakey said to him, ‘you can’t play yet, but you will’. And Branford Marsalis had to go back to the woodshed a lot, because he just wasn’t up to it. But Branford’s a fine musician today. Blakey made more bandleaders out of people in his band than anyone. Wayne Shorter, before he went to Miles Davis, Hank Mobley, before he went to Miles. Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bobby Timmins. The thing about The Messengers was the length of time they went on, 1955 to 1991. While attending Mt Albert Grammar, you decided on a future drumming career. Tell us about one of your teachers who had an ear for high intelligence music. I ended up swapping Dave Brubeck albums and he’d loan me classical. I was surprised he was interested in what I was listening to. Brubeck was such a huge influence on jazz. I was playing in a rock’n’roll band with Brian Henderson also, while I was still at school. He’s still with Rodger Fox. Keyboardist Murray McNabb also went to that school. Did you play all styles from the beginning? I was playing a lot at the same time. People look at me now - Frank Gibson the jazz drummer. That’s true and I’m proud of that, but that’s not the only music I play. I call myself a drummer for all seasons. You have to be that, if you want to get studio work. Having the first fusion band in this country, Doctor Tree, helped. That was a very popular band. After Street Talk, I was playing for the Hammond Gamble Band, in a line-up with Bruce Lynch on bass and Stewart Pearce on keyboards. We did a couple of albums. The Gluepot was in its heyday and we’d play, say, from Wednesday to Saturday. From Thursday onwards there was 500 people in there. Below that, I used to play a lot in the Corner Bar. Then going to the UK, to [Dick] Morrissey [Jim] Mullin, which was a top UK funk-fusion band, and [fellow Kiwi] Bruce Lynch was in with me, so I had a lot of experience. I played with Elton John one time, a studio session. It’s like all the English rock greats are on this session. It was an album called Putting On The Style, to re-launch Lonnie Donegan’s career. Brian May was on that session, Ray Cooper, Leo Sayer was playing harmonica. Most of the things that have happened in my career, I never thought about, they just happened. The only conscious decision I made for anything, I decided to go to London, because I thought I needed to get to a place that was bigger. It had more musicians, to get a good kick up the backside to develop my own playing. Being amongst all those people, I met Leo Sayer by chance. My contractor put me on that session. You never knew where you were going and who it was, apart from gigs. I ended up on all kinds of things, like The Walker Brothers. I did an album with them, Night Flight, and my great friend, Dave MacRae, one of the great piano players in the world, he was the musical director. You’re a fan of what Jimi Hendrix’s first drummer Mitch Mitchell played for The Experience. Many of those early British pop-rock drummers came from jazz, including Ginger Baker and Charlie Watts. I remember the day I met Charlie. He said, ‘I’ve been meaning to look you up’. I said, ‘that’s very nice of you’. We had a very nice conversation and he was a hell of a nice guy. He had a huge passion for jazz. Did a lot for English musicians to get to New York in his big band. You’re one of only a few NZ drummers that can be called at short notice to cover any gig. A few years ago, you got a gig for Diana Krall with the NZ Symphony Orchestra, on the recommendation of renowned ex-pat Kiwi pianist and composer, your friend Alan Broadbent. There was one rehearsal. That’s all I got, one shot. I thought I’m either going to die here or I’m going to come out smelling good. Fortunately I did. Jeff Hamilton couldn’t make it, because Ray Brown [legendary jazz bassist] had died. Diana Krall was really broken up because she was such a fan of Ray Brown and he was one of her teachers. [In Los Angeles] Alan said there’s someone down there that could do it. Jeff Hamilton agreed and they recommended me. Bless them for that. So, I got thrown in the hot seat, thoroughly enjoyed it. I was very nervous, of course, but once you get on, it was eyes down. There was [chart] reading because I didn’t know the material. I’m just pleased I’ve been able to do things like that and I’m looking forward to doing more in the future. I go up to Los Angeles and play. When I went in January, I had a few gigs, one a concert with Alan and Putter Smith. We’ve done six CDs. And Andy Brown [great NZ bassist] did the first two of Alan’s trio albums. So Alan and I became reunited after being in a band as teenagers. One glance at your CV says there are many career highlights. What were the influential ones? The thing I’m most proud of is playing with [trumpeter] Red Rodney, who was with Charlie Parker for years. Then playing with [saxophonist] Sonny Stitt, who they say was one of the greatest. But you don’t make comparisons at that level. It’s a hell of a thing to play with people that Charlie Parker played with. Those gigs meant so much to me, every one a lesson. I played with Dionne Warwick and it was my first real big gig, 1970. Her drummer couldn’t get a visa. I was so young and naïve, I didn’t really know how difficult it was. I went in and played the first rehearsal. They had a big band. We finished and I had done pretty well and was starting to pack my drums up when the musical director said, ‘you stay Frank, we’re going to do it again, the whole thing’. He said, ‘look, what’s on the parts is not necessarily what needs to be played’. That’s the most important thing, the feel. People say it’s technique, but it isn’t. It’s the feel, but if you have some technique, you can get out of scrapes. We got to Christchurch and the [NZ] horn players weren’t cutting it. The musical director didn’t know how to tell them, so the bass player actually told them. We did it as a quartet. My memory for good gigs – it’s the same for everybody – you never forget the really great ones. And that was. I said to her before she was leaving, ‘I learnt a lot from you’. There were plans for me to do more gigs after that, but it didn’t happen. I didn’t even know that was such a compliment as it was in those days. When based in London, was the famous north Soho jazz institution Ronnie Scott’s a popular hangout? That was one of the greatest jazz clubs in the world. I saw Elvin Jones there many times, all of the great players, Bill Evans, Stan Getz. I played opposite Dizzy Gillespie for two weeks with Morrissey Mullin. What an experience that was, playing alternate sets to Dizzy. What are you doing now? I’m teaching and I’ve started teaching beginners again. I haven’t done that for a long time. I feel a real responsibility to music in this country, when I’m dealing with beginners, to give them what I consider to be the correct advice. |
