Evolution of a Drummer’s Bossanova Groove
I was listening to this video from an outdoor restaurant gig the other night and thinking about all the things that have influenced my approach to the Bossanova over the years. The playing on this video of vocalist Mike Winkle’s tune “This Dance”, especially the spaces that the bassist (Craig Snazelle) and pianist (Ray Hardiman) and I leave for each other, and the subtle interactions between everyone in the band, all provide a great backdrop to demonstrate the evolution of my approach to the Bossanova.
My first exposure to the Bossanova was in high school. At the time I thought it was all about doing a little syncopation with the left-hand while side-sticking on the snare drum. Then at the Naval School of Music I was given a book of basic drumset grooves to memorize and its Bossanova beat was basically a two-bar phrase with the syncopated side-sticking done over what amounted to a kind of popular pop-music soft-rock groove. I stuck with that for a few years as the foundation of all the Bossanova I played.
Oddly, it was a pop tune that kind of help me hear the Bossanova in a new light. Sade’s “Sweetest Taboo”. I started using elements of that song’s drum groove when playing Bossanovas shortly after it came out. It was a new approach to the Bossanova to most ears at the time and gave the old groove a fresh feeling. It doen’t change the left-hand cross-stick pattern too much at all, what it does is reimagine the role of the bass drum pattern, from a pop-rock kind of pulse to a more syncopated counter rhythm to the cross-stick. The two syncopated rhythms have a kind of conversation going on, and it’s that conversation that, for me anyway, makes it so interesting.
Some years later I was introduced to the basic Clave patterns and I often use them now as part of my Bossanova grooves.
At some point during the last 10 years, I’ve made a couple of changes to how I approach the Bossanova. I’ve found that since the bass player is frequently going to be playing on beats 1 and 3, I don’t need to as often and that not playing beat 1 and emphasizing beat 3 with the bass drum gives the hint of a little samba street dancing kind of thing. Add to that, accenting 2 and 4 with the cymbal or high-hat pattern gives the whole groove a bit of lift.
Finally, when I can, I like to play the Bossanova with a stick in one hand and a brush in the other. This gives more textures to paint with and gives the listener the hint of four percussionists having a rhythmic conversation.
In this video you can hear all that evolution of my Bossanova groove; the basic rock-based Bossanova, the influence of Sade’s hit song, the influence of Clave patterns, leaving space for the bass player (who’s playing is laying down the perfect foundation for this tune), and lifting the whole groove by emphasizing the 2 and 4.
Now if I can just get more comfortable letting my left hand play the cymbal ride patterns in the next decade, I might have a pretty good Bossanova groove going. Always a work in progress.
This quartet is a new combination of these musicians, although all of us have worked together in other configurations over the years. If you close your eyes and just listen to this video, you’ll hear there’s a lot of respect for each other on this bandstand.