I recall one winter day in Salt Lake City, where I grew up, driving through a severe blizzard to Wagstaff's Music to watch Chester Thompson give a clinic. I was in 7th grade and had been playing drums for a few years. The keyboard player in my dad's band, Rod Strong, had got me excited about the clinic and turned me on to Chester's playing. I remember going to his house a few hours before the clinic and watching Chester's latest concert video with Genesis. Roughing the weather was certainly worth it, that clinic was the first time I had ever heard a drummer of that caliber, and I was truly inspired. From that day forward, Chester Thompson remained at the top of my list of favorite drummers. Chester's signed photo stayed pinned to my wall for years to come. In 1998, during my third year of studies at Belmont University, guess who signs on to teach drum set . . . yup . . . Chester Thompson. As fate would have it, over the next two years, I had the privilege of studying with the first drummer to ever have a significant impact on me. My most recent visit with Chester found us back in the percussion trailer on a hot August day in Nashville, TN at Belmont University where I spent hours upon hours trying to master my instrument under Chester's guidance. He was worried that it might give me nightmares coming back after having been gone for so long . . . so far so good. I took this opportunity to ask Chester a few questions that were on my mind, and here's what went down . . .
Michael - How do you go about preparing for a major gig? After years of experience, are there any habits/routines you have established to aid in the process?
Chester - Each situation is different. If it's a very regimented band, say like Zappa or even Genesis for that matter-which was such a tight show that it didn't waver very much from night to night-Frank's show would be different in certain respects from night to night but just as regimented. Even the randomness was kind of built in and rehearsed as well. If possible, I get whatever I'm to learn from as far ahead of time as I can. Sometimes it's charts, but I haven't seen a good chart in ages. Like with Phil for example, we've got stuff coming up and the first gig is not until the end of December, but I got the CDs last week. The first week I get them I'm usually in the middle of something else anyway, so I'll throw it in the car and listen randomly. I will dedicate a couple of days to really sitting and detailing. I transcribe everything, not bar for bar because with pop you get so much repetition, but any major hits. In the case of Phil, because he is a drummer, at least one or two of those fills is going to be counted as part of the arrangement, so I literally transcribe all the fills. I find the problem with writing and transcribing is that it defeats the memorizing process. I don't like to learn things like that by reading them because it's so difficult to ever put the paper away. I find if I don't ever write it in the first place I've got it down. It really depends on how many other things I've got going on. Last year I've was taking classes as well as teaching here [Belmont University], so my plate has been pretty full as far as time is concerned. I've found, if I'm not careful, I can be too reliant on the transcriptions. The good thing about Zappa, which was ages ago, was that everything was written out in extreme detail but he wouldn't allow anyone to take music on the road. He never wanted to see a music stand on stage. I had cheat sheets taped around the drums on the first tour, but after the first two weeks I never needed them again. He [Zappa] was right in that you don't really know it if you're still reading it. Now the other extreme is Weather Report, nothing was to ever to be repeated from night to night. If they played a tune the same way twice they were really let down about it. Those tunes were charted and, actually, I found them harder to read than anything because the structures were so unusual. Things were not just groups of fours, so your reading had to be really on it. The charts were really detailed, but only for the first time. You had to really know the tune because it was going to go anywhere after that. So the basic answer is just get whatever it is you can get as far ahead of time as you can get it-whatever the gig is, I don't care if it's just a one-nighter. Now the real test of locking it down, especially if it's a CD or a tape, is putting on the headphones and playing along with it to the point where I don't need a chart anymore. And if I have time to not have to write it down, then I just progressively go through the tune. I listen to it two or three times while making mental notes. If there are specific things to hit I'll just stop, rewind, and go over that part over and over until I've got it nailed. I just do that with each section, and then string them all together until I can play the whole thing down and catch everything I feel like I should catch. And by the time I've done that, I know it and have freedom to do things with it. But very seldom do I find that somebody wants it that exact these days.
Michael - How about physically?
Chester - Drums are a physical instrument and you need to stay in shape anyway. To be honest, I don't know how guys make it that are like 50 lbs overweight. But, there are guys that can do it and play hard all night and it works for them. I'm not an athlete in any sense of the word, but I feel like if I can't run a mile without stopping that's just really bad. Whatever age I am it doesn't matter, you've got to be able physically get through a night of playing really, really hard for a long time. You're going to feel it man, if you've done nothing but play brushes in a lounge then suddenly you get called for a major rock tour, you're going to be hurting if you don't already have some sort of workout routine that you do. I think pretty aggressive practice is the answer. You can practice things like taste and subtlety, but you also have to practice just beating the crap out of the drums as fast, as loud, and as hard as you can for as long as you can.
Michael - For those of us who don't have these kind of gigs to prepare for, any advice for preparing for future opportunities?
Chester - Just wood-shedding, staying real on top of what's going on in the world of rock, jazz, and whatever. I feel like I have to be aware of what's going on.
Michael - I've heard you say before that "you get the gigs you're prepared for."
Chester - Yeah, exactly.
Michael - What and who have been your major influences as a musician? What is your musical heritage, in other words, where do you come from musically?
Chester - I started doing cover gigs in clubs in '62, so that was early James Brown, early Motown, and all that kind of stuff. Heavy Soul Music in those days, now I guess they call it R & B. That's what I did night after night. Now in my practice sessions day after day, however, I was only listening to Max Roach, Art Blakey, and Elvin Jones. Tony [Williams] has been a major influence, but Elvin has probably been the biggest influence drummer-wise, but there are lots more. Billy [Cobham] has been an influence in some respects. I got to see him live with Mahavishnu from backstage-that was an experience. I've never seen anybody hit a drum that hard in my life. To me that was like, "oh, ok, so that's what you do." I've probably put far more hours into jazz as a kid and even now the things that I teach a probably more related to jazz than anything else. But if you've got that together, the rest is just going fall into place. The stuff you listen to on the radio day after day is not going to challenge you if you've got the kind of four-way independence that you'll get from playing jazz or something that demands more than just playing a beat for five minutes.
Michael - Do you think that studying jazz might also be important because the origins of the instrument itself are rooted in jazz?
Chester - That's probably got a lot to do with it, but at the same time jazz is probably the least thing in the public's and young musician's awareness as far as the instrument itself. It's only the really dedicated players that even go there and even bother to find that out, or are very aware of the jazz players and what they do. Drums are almost more of a sporting event now than a musical event. And, like it or not, that's what you're dealing with.
Michael - To what do you attribute your success as a drummer?
Chester - Grace… [laugh], I don't believe in luck. It's a God given gift and hopefully you'll pay attention when life is trying to say something to you and when opportunities come your way, you won't hesitate to walk out of fear. At the same time, I've learned the hard way that sometimes you just shut-up. I was pretty dedicated to practicing. I was pretty fortunate in that a lot of things were just not hard for me, but I've always looked for a challenge. If it wasn't hard for me then I sought out that which was.
Michael - Always pushing the envelope.
Chester - Oh always, even now always. Reflexes aren't quite the same. The speed is not quite the same. The coordination is probably way better than it ever has been. I'm still looking to take it as far as I can.
Michael - Seeing that you have had a lot of teaching experience over the last several years, have you discovered any common challenges or deficiencies in up and coming drummers? What do you feel that the next generation of drummers needs to focus on?
Chester - I think that most drummers are to one-sided; if they're right handed they're extremely right handed. I've gotten even more obsessed with playing everything left-hand lead as well, to the point where it's getting stupid. I feel like it has really helped my own playing, there's just a freedom that comes with it. I may or may not do that in the course of playing a gig, but those times that I do it's getting a lot more comfortable. And what I've discovered is that by playing left-hand lead stuff suddenly the whole drum set has opened up. All of the sudden, while staying in the pocket with the hi-hat, which is half the pocket anyway, I have a freedom to move around the drums in a way that I never had before. I think you need to become as ambidextrous as you possibly can. I think you need to listen and really study to as many kinds of music as you possibly can. You're going to be a product of your influences anyway. There is an awful lot of closed-mindedness in terms of influences and what people listen to and don't listen to. People get so stuck in the style of what they consider themselves "into", that they get this weird tunnel vision and don't look beyond it. Now there will be those, as fate will have it, that will excel in just one area and, man, great, good for them. It certainly has not been that way for me and most people that I've ever run into. I don't know that many people that can get away with only doing one thing. Then again, if it weren't for the purist, then we wouldn't have these various styles that do evolve and grow, so I guess there has to be that as well. Again, part of it for me is the frustration of wanting to have been an actor, but I always was too shy and too self-conscious to ever try it, so musically is where I do it. I like wearing different hats musically.
Michael - Do you think that is what keeps you fresh musically, especially when you have been on long tours with Genesis?
Chester - Well, actually yes and no. I always had a practice set and before the show I would play anything I wanted to play. I would play with the click because with Genesis all those years the drum machine was part of the tune a lot of the time. You don't want to listen to a board tape after the tune and find out you were way off from it. So it served a double purpose: I kept my click chops up and in that half-hour before it was time to get dressed and go on stage I played any and everything I wanted to-the crazier the better. So when it was time to play the show, I was quite content to play the show. The other thing was that I wrote music all the time. My solo album [A Joyful Noise] basically was written staying up half the night on Genesis tours writing music.
Michael - Speaking of clicks, I've done gigs where I've had the click and nobody else does. What is your approach to this kind of situation?
Chester - I've had that in studios as well, where nobody else wants the click. I'm the first one to fight it, "If I've got to play with the click, you've got to play with click. I'm not going to sound like I'm behind just because you guys are all rushing." I've done a ton of live albums where I'm the only one with a click.
Michael - How did you find a balance between what the other musicians are playing and focusing on the click?
Chester - Well, you've got to balance between the two. If their getting too far away you can't bring them back in half a bar. You've got to bring them back over, say, two, three, or four bars. It's just a gradual process and if you've done it well nobody will ever hear it. And if you make it too abrupt then it's just a big embarrassment for everybody. The biggest problem is when you try to fix it too quickly. You can't fix anything in one beat. I'll even give myself a half chorus to bring it back to the click. If I've done it well and you randomly clocked it, you may find places where it's ahead or behind, but the idea is that you won't feel any of that while it's playing.
Michael - Where can we look forward to hearing you in the near future?
Chester - I don't know…you got a gig [laugh]? Locally, I've got the Franklin jazz festival August 31st, I'm fronting the band. I've got a faculty concert here at Belmont September 8th. I've got gigs with Phil, but I can't give dates or places because they're promoting this Disney thing coming out and they're basically going to be announced the day of. Unfortunately, there are not going to be that many gigs open to the public. Phil keeps saying that something is going to happen in 2004, the band has been waiting to go on tour for like five years now. Over the years the band has whittled down and evolved to where the last time out it just felt really, really good. It might be the best combination it's been. However, I am working on a new CD. I thought I'd be finished by now but I keep rejecting tunes and writing new ones. I really like what's happening so far. I've got some writing partners that are great.
Michael - Going in any new directions?
Chester - It's going to be a little more aggressive than the first one . . . a lot more aggressive than the first one, actually. But it's still not going to be a drum-a-thon.
Michael - Describe your most fulfilling musical experience.
Chester - Weather Report…hands down Weather Report. There was one other band I played with in Boston that not many people that didn't come to this particular club have ever heard of. The name of the band was The Post Pop Space Rock Bebop Band [laugh]. And that's what it was. There were so many arrangements in the book that we stopped using any of them. The first person on stage started playing and that was the first tune. Wherever they went that's where you went. So, a set wasn't ever possibly repeated. There was a singer and there were really nice arrangements on set tunes. But the instrumental stuff . . . oh goodness, whoever happened to be on stage just started playing and everyone else would let them establish where they were going and then join in. We're talking about a really high level of musicianship, these guys were phenomenal players. In fact, they're the reason I went back to school because I felt like, "man, I'm just not in this league." I mean, I was playing-wise, but as far as understanding, putting pen to paper and making it clear, I wasn't. I did that band for only 6 months in '71. On an ongoing basis, it had to be Weather Report. At the same time, I did three gospel albums with Ron Kenoly. I've just never experienced a spiritual high like that-ever. The first one is called Lift Him Up; second is God Is Able; and the third one is called Sing Out. If I had to pick out one single concert outside of the Kenoly concert, it would have to be Weather Report in Paris in '75. They cancelled our second show and there was a real honest to goodness riot. They turned over cars, used tear gas…the whole deal [laugh]. The French don't play when it comes to jazz.
Well, that was about all we had time for. I hope you found the interview interesting, helpful and inspiring. Not only is Chester Thompson in the top of my favorite drummers list, he is also at the top of my favorite people list. Thanks Chester!
Michael Green
August 19, 2003
Check out Chester's website at http://Chesterthompson.com
