Ladies and Gentlemen...Trevor Goss

(Used with permission...hopefully)

The Jed and Trevor weekly jams...

Just last month I moved up to South Jordan, UT and found myself in the same ward as one of my good friends and fellow percussionist Trevor Goss (pictured above). Trevor's work with the band "To The Death" is legendary in these parts. Trevor and I played together in a number of groups down at BYU and spent a good amount of time in the world-renowned salsa group "Salsa Azul!" (emphasis added). Alright, so we weren't world renowned, but I thought we were pretty good.

(Salsa Azul! at Salsa Chocolate in Provo)

Trevor's drums are set up in Sandy (just across the freeway) where he teaches private lessons, so we started getting together each week to collaborate and refine our drumming skills. This was the first of those occasions and I was sure to document the experience. From the 60+ minutes of footage I put together a short collection of my favorite fills, etc. We also played for a while with me on congas and Trevor playing drum set, but due to my piteous conga playing and out of respect for Trevor's privacy I haven't included any of that. Instead you'll just see snippets of some of each our solos with me on kit and Trevor on Congas. We spent the majority of our time brushing the dust off of our latin grooves and trading 4 or 8 measure solos. This is a common practice among jazz musicians, and you'll see Trevor and I either trying to one up each other or trying to feed off of the other's ideas. I think the result is rather satisfying.

Comments: To be perfectly honest, I had a hard time cutting this one down as much as I did. While there wasn't anything extraordinary, there wasn't a whole lot junk. Most of what I played I thought was interesting, well executed, and in time. In a lot of ways I'm more comfortable with these latin grooves than I am with a straight ahead jazz or rock tune. The groove itself is so rhythmic that ideas come easily. I was also very comfortable playing with Trevor and we knew each other well enough that I wasn't worried about screwing up in front of him.

I also think that one of the biggest factors was that I was able to play loud. One of the greatest challenges for drummers is having to play soft. With guitar or bass, the technique is essentially the same whether you're playing soft or loud. It's just a matter of turning down the volume knob. With drums, playing a double stroke roll and 12 inches is NOTHING like playing it at 3 inches. Its a different technique altogether that you just can't do without having practiced it. In the drumming world this is one surefire way to separate the men from the boys.

One of the greatest learning experiences I ever had was having to play each week at Mimi's cafe in Orem (try the Pasta Jambalaya, it's to die for). It was the kind of environment where everything had to be soft enough for a dinner conversation to still be heard, and it really forced me to think about every single note I played. You wouldn't believe how frustrating it was to hear something in your head and know that there is no way in Hades that you'll be able to play it. This is where I first started to really think about what I was playing. It takes a lot of refining to be able to play musically, and accurately at a soft dynamic.

In this video you'll notice that I actually started out with the headphones on, but realized that it was too hard to hear what Trevor was playing and eventually took them off. Hopefully you'll notice towards the end of the video that my playing had dropped significantly in volume. Though the drums don't always sound as good (on recording) play soft, I think my playing was better when I played softer.

A couple of things that I struggled with, however, were 1) finishing solos, and 2) having more original ideas. There are a handful of licks that I got into and then either bailed out half way through or realized that I had no idea where to go from there. I also find myself hearing the clave pattern in my head and not being able to break free from that one pattern. Most of you won't notice that, but the trained ear will be slightly bothered by it.

In general though it was very rewarding for me to watch this clip and see that I actually had progressed quite a bit. I used to hate watching myself play. This might be one of the first times that I got some fulfillment out of my own playing. At least when it comes to trading 4's over an afro-cuban groove, I'm really not half bad!