The Hal Blaine Interview

The drum chair and he who sits in it. A barrelhouse of polkas, stripper gigs, game shows, jingles and soundtracks. It's about feel. The terms that have come about are nothing more then playing behind in front or on the beat. When my guest hit the studio scene he was ingratiated by Earl Palmer who was feeling the groove to many grooves in fact that he recommended my guest to all the Producers, like Phil Spector who hired jazzers like Conte Condoli, Plas Johnson, Pete Jolly and my guest. Baja Marimba, Psychedelic Percussion, Three's Company, (Come and Knock on my Door) Dawg Grass with David Grisman, stone Jazz gigs with Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco playing Dee Dee's Dilemma into a little boss's into a ballad into a funky blues. My guest felt his way through the music because he knows that songs tell a story and the drums have to envelop that story. Some stories are happy or sad, some speak to regions of our country some don't make sense at all. Some stories go on for decades with the same performers like John Lennon and others were a one shot deal. He is an master drummer just like Elvin Jones, Jo Jones and Philly Joe Jones and Benny Benjamin He is the most recorded studio drummer in the history of modern recorded music. He's given others opportunities because not all enter from the same entrance. Hal Blaine, welcome to the JFS