by “Pistol” Pete Kaufmann

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MODERN DRUMMER • MARCH 201048

“Nah, let’s do it again,”says a tireless StantonMoore, sitting behind

his drumkit at Levon HelmStudios in Woodstock, New York.A native of New Orleans and anaficionado of his city’s music andculture, Moore is still unsatisfiedwith his fifth take of the funkyClyde Stubblefield–influenced“Knocker,” which he’s recordingfor his new DVD/book/CD pro-ject on Hudson Music, GrooveAlchemy.

“Alright,” replies guitarist WillBernard, while organist RobertWalter nods in agreement. RobWallis, co-owner of Hudson Music,leans over and tells me the bandhas been putting in fifteen-hourdays while filming the DVD.James Brown (one of Stanton’smajor influences) may have beenknown as the hardest-workingman in show business, but StantonMoore is likely the hardest-workingman in drum business.

Moore, a consummate profes-sional, is concerned with only onething: doing the best job possible.And that goes beyond being oneof the funkiest drummers around.Dig a little deeper and you’llunderstand how Stanton’s lovefor his craft has driven him to bea very smart businessman as well.The Stanton Moore DrumCompany Of New Orleans andthe new digital label MooreMusic are only the tip of the ice-berg. Go to the drummer’s Website, stantonmoore.com, and youcan purchase a gift certificate forhis online store, which you canredeem for CDs, DVDs, books,and T-shirts. In the modern age,when a drummer’s businesschops are as important as his orher paradiddles, Moore hasclearly got all his bases covered.

Reprinted with permission by Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. Copyright 2010

Fast-forward two months to our follow-up inter-view, via Skype. Moore is in a hotel in Paris afterreturning from a meal at a café. Barely five min-

utes late, he apologizes to me, being the cordial gen-tleman that he is. I’ve never had an interview startexactly on time, I tell him. We both laugh, but I knowthere’s nothing funny about Moore’s work ethic. It’swhat has brought him this far in his prolific career,along with his talent and his passion for drums. I askStanton how he manages to balance his social lifeand family life with such a busy schedule. He sayswith a laugh that his wife became his manager sothey could see each other more often.

Since Moore last appeared on the cover of ModernDrummer, back in April of 2004, he’s been involved inso many projects that we can barely cover them allhere—his Take It To The Street educational book andDVDs, two solo albums, two Galactic records, aheavy metal LP with Corrosion Of Conformity…. In

2009 alone, he played on records by Diane Birch,Street Sweeper Social Club, Garage A Trois, AlecOunsworth (from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah), andAnders Osborne (playing and coproducing), and hisnext solo album will be out in April. When asked howhe manages to accomplish so much in so little time,Moore explains, “I just try to follow through on myideas—even little things like returning phone calls. Itall helps keep things moving.”

Indeed, if Moore is doing one thing, it’s moving—heck, he’s running with the “torch of groove” that’sbeen passed to him by the great funky drummers ofAmerican music. It wouldn’t be a stretch to label hima savior of funk drumming, given his work as a dissem-inator of information about groove forefathers likeClayton Fillyau, Clyde Stubblefield, Melvin Parker,Zigaboo Modeliste, and Jabo Starks. We in the drum-ming world are very lucky to have Stanton Moore onour side.

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MD: So, what are you up to in Paris?Stanton: I’m doing clinics with Fender,which is the parent company of Gretsch.In a few days I’m doing a drum festivalthat also features Billy Cobham, IanPaice, and a bunch of other people.MD: Speaking of drummers like them—real legends—you’ve always made it apoint to learn from the masters; that’sone of the things that makes your stylesound authentic. Beyond the fact thatyou’re from New Orleans, you’ve taken

the time to understand the music.Stanton: I agree. You know, I mentionedBilly Cobham and Ian Paice just nowbecause I realized the other day that Iwas in my bedroom shedding to theirrecords before I really started sheddingto James Brown and Meters records.Billy Cobham and Ian Paice were doingall these complex things and beingfunky at the same time.

As fifteen-, sixteen-year-old kidsgrowing up in the ’80s, my friends and I

were digging back to the records of the’70s, like Black Sabbath and LedZeppelin. That’s why sometimes peopleare taken aback when they hear me onstuff like Street Sweeper Social Club—which is a record I did with Tom Morelloof Audioslave and Rage Against TheMachine—or the Corrosion Of Conformityrecord I did. But if you’re studying themasters, I’ve never really thought youhave to be genre specific. Blurring thelines is something I feel very natural

Emphasis OnInfluencesThe Meters all (ZigabooModeliste) /// James BrownStar Time, Funk Power (various,but especially Jabo Starks andClyde Stubblefield) /// LedZeppelin all (John Bonham) ///The Beatles all (Ringo Starr) ///The Wild Magnolias They CallUs Wild (Larry Panna) /// EddieBo The Hook And Sling (JamesBlack) /// John Coltrane all bythe classic quartet (Elvin Jones)/// Black Sabbath all with BillWard /// Miles Davis all (vari-ous) /// Jimi Hendrix all (MitchMitchell, Buddy Miles)

Drummers Stanton listens to most for inspiration:Zigaboo Modeliste, ClydeStubblefield, Jabo Starks,John Bonham, Elvin Jones,Idris Muhammad, JamesBlack, Johnny Vidacovich,Herlin Riley, Shannon Powell,Russell Batiste, Brian Blade,Bill Stewart

doing, and I’ve worked toward that.Tom Morello saw me playing some-where, and he just said, “I like the wayyou play. I want you to play on thissession.” And because I played to thosekinds of records—and played in heavymetal bands before ever playing in afunk band—I had that experience todraw on.

I think it’s important that you playevery gig that comes your way asyou’re developing. “No” should not bein your vocabulary. You know, I wouldliterally play a parade on a snaredrum—traditional New Orleans brassband music—then get to the end of theparade and someone would drive me toa heavy metal gig. I’d have my whiteshirt and black pants from the brassband gig, then I’d change into jeansand a T-shirt that I had stashed undermy floor tom. What I learned playingsnare drum in the streets transferredover to the metal band—I learned howto hit harder but still make it musicaland make it groove.MD: Did [famed New Orleans drummerand educator] Johnny Vidacovich teachyou to go for every gig? I rememberhim saying, “Unless you got a lot ofmoney, Jack, you gotta take every gigyou can get!”Stanton: Yeah, he was very cool.Growing up, I got to study with him alot. And when it was time to decide ona college, I stayed in New Orleans andwent to Loyola because I could studywith him and still be around RussellBatiste and all these New Orleans guys.I knew that was what I wanted to do.

Johnny taught me that anywhere Igo, being from New Orleans was goingto make anything I did unique. He liter-ally grabbed me by the shirt and said,

“You can go to school here, but whenyou’re done with college, if you’re noteither on the road or moved outta here,I’m personally gonna come find you and

Crisp, Articulate, Slushy, Legato

STANTON’S GEARDRUMS: Gretsch USA Custom in gray glass glitterA. 41/2x14 Stanton Moore Drum Company

titanium snare or 41/2x14 Gretsch Stanton Mooresignature solid-ply bird’s-eye maple snare

B. 5x10 snareC. 8x12 tomD. 14x14 floor tomE. 16x16 floor tomF. 14x20 bass drumG. 14x26 bass drum

CYMBALS: Bosphorus Stanton Moore series1. 15" Fat Hats2. 20" Trash crash3. 22" Wide ride4. 20" Pang Thang5. 18" Smash crash

ACCESSORIES: Audix mics, XL Specialty cases,PureSound snare wires, Danmar bass drumbeaters, Roland electronics

PERCUSSION: LP 12" pandeiro; cowbells, includ-ing ES-7 (on bass drum), ES-6, ES-5, and BlackBeauty (in left-foot position); 8" headless tam-bourine; various shakers

STICKS: Vic Firth Stanton Moore signaturemodel, Heritage brushes, T2 Cartwheel timpanimallets; Regal Tip Handbourines

HEADS: Remo coated Ambassador on tops ofsnares and 12" tom, coated Emperor on tops offloor toms and pandeiro, clear Ambassador on bottoms of all drums but bass drum, coatedPowerstroke 3 bass drum batters, FiberskynGretsch logo front heads

HARDWARE: DW 6000 series stands, two 7000series snare stands, 5000 snare stand (in mainposition), 9000 series bass drum pedals, hi-hatstand, and throne

JOHN “JABO” STARKS (James Brown)It’s a blessing and an honor to be mentioned in Stanton’snew DVD. He’s quite the young man and one of the finerdrummers to come along. I’m proud of Stanton and whathe’s done. He can teach and play what he’s talking about.It’s an honor for somebody like me to have Stanton come along and say, “Hey,we appreciate what you did,” and then pass it along to the younger drummersof today and expand on it. We had no idea how the beats we created weregoing to impact music; we were just having fun! Not everybody can explainwhat we did and teach it the way Stanton can. Last time I saw him we talked alot about pocket. Stanton’s drumming fits into the pocket—like a hand fits intoa glove. Most drummers don’t even know what it means to play in the pocket. Ithink if Clayton Fillyau was alive today, he would be very, very pleased withwhat Stanton’s doing.

CLYDE STUBBLEFIELD (James Brown)Stanton Moore is a great man. I’ve been listening to a lotof his stuff, and he’s fantastic on the drums. Talk aboutfunk—he’s funky as can be! He’s got his own technique,

and he knows how to use utilize it. Jabo and I may have created something inour style, but Stanton has created something in his style. His teaching andpassing it down to the younger generation is very important to the world.Stanton cares about others and knows how to treat and respect others. That’simportant in whatever field you may be in: to have respect for the next person.He’s on top of it.

JOSEPH “ZIGABOO” MODELISTE (The Meters)To be honest, it’s quite flattering that Stanton would talkabout me as a major influence. Stanton is a very dearfriend of mine, and being from New Orleans, he didn’tjust pick up my stuff, he picked stuff up from other drummers as well. A lot ofdrummers in New Orleans just want to play and aren’t really interested inteaching. That’s what stands out about Stanton; he’s taking the time to sharehis knowledge with people, and that’s always a good thing. Stanton maintainsthe traditional sound, paying tribute to some of the elder New Orleans self-styled drummers, while blending in all the original grooves. He’s also veryinvolved in his work, and he’s a hustler. That guy doesn’t stop!

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The Masters Of Funk Speak About Stanton

kick your ass.” [laughs] ButJohnny made a good point, and Istarted touring before I even fin-ished college. I’d leave school fora couple weeks at a time, whichwas kind of hairy, since I wastrying to finish up my degree—but I did it, and that’s how Ideveloped to where I am now.MD: You studied business in col-lege. Do you think the combina-tion of that and your music train-ing helped you take your careerto this level?Stanton: Having some businessawareness has definitely helpedme get to where I am. I don’tthink that necessarily having adegree in business is necessary.But I realized early on that, yes,practicing is one very, veryimportant element of being asuccessful musician, but there’s a heck of a lot more that goesalong with it. I operate under the notion that I can alwayslearn more; I can always get better at what I do. Look atKenny Aronoff; he’s just getting better, he’s more in shape,and he’s even more excited about what he’s working on nowthan the last project he did. There are other friends of mine

that I try to take that cue from as well: It’s not that they’regetting older, they’re getting better.

Now, as far as the business stuff goes, I try to have my eyesand ears open and listen to people as they’re talking—reallypay attention to what it is that will make me successful. Andyou don’t need a degree to know this. Just returning phonecalls, showing up on time, having a good attitude, and doingwhat you tell people you’re going to do makes an impact. Isee a lot of great players who are not working right nowbecause they might be missing one of these elements. I try tostay on top of things and follow through. It makes me have torun around a lot—I’m trying to watch a movie on the computerwhile I’m returning emails. [laughs] My wife is always, “Let’srelax now.”MD: Well, you got her on the ship too.Stanton: Yeah, she just took over as my manager—and shewas a successful businessperson before. We met when wewere teenagers and reconnected five years ago. She’d movedto L.A., where she was doing very well project-managing bigWeb sites, but it became very difficult, so we said let’s justjoin forces. The great thing is she can come on the road withme, so it’s given us more time together.MD: Speaking of working and following through on ideas, yourecently started the Stanton Moore Drum Company Of NewOrleans with your new signature titanium snare drum. You’vesaid you were inspired to create this by a great-soundingdrum that Johnny Vidacovich gave you but that was stolen.Stanton: I think that drum was a Ludwig Pioneer from the’20s. The shell had been painted over in off-white, but it wasa really cool drum.

I’ve always searched for a drum that is both crisp and artic-ulate but that can also be slushy and legato. For the backbeatstuff I slam out in the bigger rooms with Galactic I need adrum crisp enough to cut through. But I also need something Ican play the New Orleans stuff on—something that can be

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Guitarist Will Bernard and keyboardist Robert Walter join Mooreat Levon Helm’s studio to simultaneously record Stanton’s latesttrio CD and new instructional DVD, Groove Alchemy.

legato and slushy enough butwithout being too tubby. And Ineed something that’s not likeplaying on a tabletop when Iplay the New Orleans stuff orthe buzz-roll stuff.

I was trying all kinds ofdrums at one point, andaround then I met drumbuilder Ronn Dunnett, whotold me about the qualities oftitanium—how it’s warm andcrisp at the same time. I said,“That sounds good; have youmade one in a 4" depth yet?”He said, “No, but I’ll try it.” Sohe made me a 4x14 andbrought it to me at a clinic atthe Seattle Drum School, and Idug it. We experimented with a 41/2"depth, the thickness of the shell, thedepth and width of the snare bed, howbig the diameter of the shell is in rela-tion to the head, die-cast hoops…. Wehad it all ready to go, but Gretsch didn’treally want to do titanium at the time.Since I had put all this work into it, Iasked if I could release it on my own.

They said, “As long as it doesn’t preventyou from putting out a wood drum withus.” So when it came time to redesignthe drum to be different from “theGretsch thing,” I wanted it to havelighter hoops on it, because it’s such alight shell.

I thought it would be cool to tie insomething from my past with tradition

and the future, doing things like com-bining single-flange hoops with tubelugs. Taking a new shell material liketitanium and putting traditional hard-ware on it—combining something tradi-tional with something new—is mywhole philosophy, really.MD: You’re very specific about yoursound. I remember at the filming of your

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Groove Alchemy DVD, you had aroundfifteen snare drums lined up for when-ever you needed them.Stanton: The intention was to use threedrums in the DVD, including my newwood Gretsch prototype signature drum—which sounds amazing—my titaniumdrum, and my Craviotto 41/2x14 solid-shell bird’s-eye maple. Johnny Craviottowas the first guy who hipped me to the41/2" depth. He was like, “I want to makeyou a drum!” I said, “I would love a drummade by you.” So I went by his booth atNAMM and I tried all these differentwoods. Sometime after that, he sent thisdrum to me with my name engraved inthe hoops and a plaque on the shell, andit was and still is quite possibly the mostbeautiful drum I’ve ever seen. That’swhen I asked Ronn to do the 41/2" titanium drum.

At the video shoot I had the Craviottoand some other metal drums for refer-ence, the titanium for the real high-pitched backbeat stuff, and my woodGretsch bird’s-eye maple for the NewOrleans second-line stuff. Sometimes Iwould throw up a 61/2x14 Ludwig

Supra-Phonic—there’s really nothingelse if you want that Bonham sound. Allthe other drums were there mainly forreference, to make sure I was on pointwith my assessments.MD: For the DVD, you were workingwith guitarist Will Bernard and organistRobert Walter. That’s the trio from youralbum Emphasis! (On Parenthesis).Stanton: Yeah, that came out of a bandcalled the Frequinox, which was Robert,Will, Donald Harrison on sax, and RobertMercurio on bass.

A couple years ago I was doing pub-licity for my signature cymbals, and Ihad a day off. Jeff Hamilton was going tobe at the Memphis Drum Shop, which isonly a six-hour drive, so we drove overthere. The plan was that Jeff was goingto play with his trio and then we wouldhang out and check out the shop’s cym-bal room, which was brand new at thetime, and Jeff would help me fine-tuneeverything that needed to happen onthe cymbals and get it back to the guysin Turkey. So we’re hanging out afterthe gig, drinking wine, and I was like,“Man, I should start my own trio.”

I wanted an organ trio so I could playjazz if I wanted to or rock out if I wantedto. Then Katrina hit and we did the firsttrio record. We were going to do it at theGalactic studio, but we ended up doingit at Preservation Hall. That became myIII record. We called it that becausethree is one of the numbers I often referto. It’s a very musical number. I playphrases in three all the time, and it wasmy third record and the birth of my trio.MD: At a point on your new DVD yourelate a story about seeing the Meters’Zigaboo Modeliste perform at a clinicand break up his beats between twohands. You said a lot of drummers don’tunderstand that, but when you broke itdown and showed it with an alternating-hand 16th-note hi-hat pattern, it was a revelation.Stanton: A lot of people didn’t knowthat. Dennis Chambers was playing withone hand on the hi-hat, Steve Jordanwas playing with one hand… though thenext time I saw him, a year or two later,he was playing with two hands. I don’tknow where he got hip to that, but I sawhim go from one hand to two. What’s hip

STANTON MOORE

about it is that it helps you understandhow Zig’s doing the Stanley Ratcliff beat.I tell the kids that once they’ve got thatbeat feeling pretty good, if they then tryto play the Meters’ “Fire On The Bayou,”they can do it immediately because it’svery similar.

Now, I’ve seen people play “HeyPocky A-Way” in a very interesting waythat doesn’t have anything to do withthe way Zig was doing it. But once youunderstand Zig’s method, it helpsstreamline everything; you don’t needto reinvent or reinterpret the wheelevery time you come up with somethingnew on your own. And then you startgetting adventurous with it.MD: You really took the time to makesure the sound was right for each songon Emphasis! What did you do on“Over (Compensatin’)” to get that old,dusty sound?Stanton: For one thing, I started off byplaying smaller drums. A lot of what Zigwas doing on those early records waswith an 18" or 20" bass drum. So Iplayed an 18" and a Ludwig Supra-Phonic 400 14", which is the go-to funksnare drum. I tuned it up higher than I

normally would. I listened to recordingsand tried to get it in that range. And Iused vintage mics, though on that snarewe probably used a Shure SM57, whichis the go-to mic with the board wewere using, a Neve fifty-two-channel.That makes it real organic and warmright off the bat, and then we dirtied it up.MD: The song “(I Have) Super Strength”almost sounds like you’re going for adrum machine kind of sound. Is that a loop?Stanton: Some of it is loops, and someof it’s me playing live. We threw downa bunch of ideas, and I composed itlater. Robert’s son was running aroundplaying superhero and screaming, “Ihave super strength!” We thought thatwas cool, so we tried to reinforce thatand make it part of the track.MD: On “Wissions (Of Vu)” you don’tplay any fills, other than embellishingwith some open hi-hats on 2 and 4.Stanton: With that tune we improvisedto a Wu-Tang tune and, again, com-posed afterwards.MD: The drum intro on “Thanks!(Again)” is reminiscent of “Squib Cakes”

by Tower Of Power. Were you thinkingof David Garibaldi?Stanton: It’s mostly from ClydeStubblefield, though Garibaldi listenedto a lot of Clyde, so I’m sure that’s whyyou’re hearing the similarities.MD: You’re very conscious of passing onthe legacy of New Orleans music.Stanton: It’s important. A lot of peopledon’t realize that the drumset wasinvented in New Orleans. It’s a younginstrument—only about a hundred yearsold. It started when a guy had the sim-ple idea to put the bass drum on thefloor. Ludwig started mass marketing abass drum pedal, and then we had thisthing we know as a drumset.

One of the things I show in the newDVD is how a five-stroke roll type ofmarch on the snare drum developedinto rock ’n’ roll. The second-linegroove on the snare drum developedinto jazz as well. And if you can under-stand the syncopated New Orleans second-line, it’s going to greatly helpyour ability to play funk.

I dig giving back; I dig talking aboutthe history. When people begin tounderstand a concept after you explain

STANTON MOORE

it, you’ve changed their perspective.People realize that New Orleans is thebirthplace of a lot of this stuff, so theywant me to talk about it and presentthat to the people who don’t know ityet. Just yesterday at a clinic, there wasthis kid who was super-psychedbecause he’d learned some beats off myfirst DVD—and he was like eight. He gotup there and showed me how he’splaying, which is so cool.MD: Groove Alchemy is very thorough.Did you do a lot of research, like with JimPayne’s book Give The Drummer Some?Stanton: Oh, yeah, that book is brilliant.It was pretty much my guidebook indoing this whole thing. I have atremendous amount of respect for Jim. Iworked through that book when it cameout in the early ’90s. There was defi-nitely some stuff in there that I couldn’tplay—like the Clyde Stubblefield three-16th-notes-in-a-row thing. And as Iwas preparing for my book, I decided togo through it from page one, and I’m amuch better player now because of that.I just kept working on it; I went backand re-transcribed all that stuff myself. Iused the Amazing Slow Downer pro-

gram and really got meticulous with it.Man, I shed that stuff a lot—you can askmy wife! [laughs] “Baby, I’ve got all thisstuff I gotta demonstrate that I can’tplay yet!”MD: It was interesting reading aboutMelvin Parker, who was working as aguidance counselor in some high schoolwhen Jim Payne interviewed him. AndClayton Fillyau was just living a verysimple life somewhere in Hephzibah,Georgia, before he passed away a fewyears back. Those guys dipped out ofmusic completely.Stanton: It is interesting—and sad insome ways. Even Zigaboo, I think, wasnot playing drums for a while and wasdoing other things. I have a friend, ajazz singer from New Orleans who livesin Norway. They take care of her there;she’s a sponsored artist, and they makesure she’s got everything she needs.She’s making a living on her own, butthey value her being there. But in theStates we don’t value our artists—theinnovators, the people creating themusic that is the fabric of our life andculture. Some of these people get to thepoint where they can’t afford to play

anymore and need to find somethingelse to pay the bills.

You know, if it weren’t for Jim’s book,I wouldn’t have known who to checkout when I was coming up. We needpeople to come out and say, “Hey, man,you need to know about these guys.” Imentioned his book many times in mybook. With my book I wanted to take astep backwards and forward, so I couldunderstand, for instance, where ClaytonFillyau might have gotten his ideasfrom, show some of the specific thingsthat Jabo picked up from Melvin Parkerand how that made a difference. Samewith John Bonham and Clyde.MD: You even demonstrate some beatsthat James Brown himself came up with.Stanton: The whole goal was not just tobe a historical account but to under-stand the creative process of these guys.How did they come up with what theydid—the specific things John Bonhamgot from Clyde, what Jabo got fromClayton, blending and coming up withnew stuff. It’s about understanding thenuances and the creative process andapplying that to come up with newstuff. That’s what it’s all about.

STANTON MOORE