KenyonGrooves.com The online home of drummer JASON KENYON

There’s Something in the Water

If you know me, you prob­a­bly know that I love the music of New Orleans. That funky, soul­ful, in-between straight and swung sound has always appealed to me. It’s hard to put a fin­ger on it… it might be the melt­ing pot effect of so many dif­fer­ent cul­tures influ­ences, that vibe that seems to draw from every­where, but strangely comes from only there. Maybe it’s the incred­i­ble com­bi­na­tion of food, music, and cul­ture that gets sim­mered and blended together so per­fectly that its hard to tell one from the other. Or, it could just be that amaz­ing, greasy groove that seems to ooze out of every horn, drum, and ampli­fier through­out the city. What­ever it is, it’s some­thing that’s always res­onated deeply with me.

New Orleans water meter cover

It might have all started when my first drum teacher turned me on to Lit­tle Feat’s clas­sic live album Wait­ing for Colum­bus. I was in 6th grade, and blues, funk, and south­ern rock were not things I was famil­iar with. I was imme­di­ately drawn to it, and the drum­ming of Richie Hay­ward was incred­i­ble, and unlike any­thing I had ever heard before. There was a funk­i­ness, a swag­ger and feel that was new to me. While my friends and I were scrib­bling Metal­lica and Megadeth logos on our trap­per keep­ers, I was secretly scan­ning the liner notes of WFC for clues to the ori­gins of this sound. Soon after, I found a Richie Hay­ward inter­view in Mod­ern Drum­mer in which he men­tions being influ­enced by New Orleans artists Dr. John and Pro­fes­sor Long­hair. This was a rev­e­la­tion for me that lead me down a road of dis­cov­ery. I was get­ting closer to fig­ur­ing out the roots of what I was hear­ing, and in the process, unearthing a whole new musi­cal world.

Through dis­cov­er­ing and lis­ten­ing to new artists, I began to piece together parts of the New Orleans sound. It was diverse, slip­pery, and styl­is­ti­cally far-reaching. Just as I began to think I had it pinned down, I’d hear some­thing else that would take me in a totally dif­fer­ent direc­tion. The music was deep, and frankly, just damn good. The com­mon ground seemed to be a musi­cal­ity that almost all of the artists I was dis­cov­er­ing had. It was as if the musi­cians of New Orleans were all draw­ing from the same source, some sort of ancient water­ing hole that over­flowed with a pri­mal funk­i­ness, and those who drank from it absorbed this incred­i­ble power. I loved this, and wished I could belly up to the bar for a drink.

Jason and Her­lin Riley

Through the years I’ve taken a few trips to NOLA, and as a musi­cian it’s always inspir­ing. I’m con­stantly blown away by how vibrant and alive the music scene is. The cool thing about vis­it­ing is that on almost any day of the year you could be dropped any­where in New Orleans and dig up some sort of musi­cal gem with­out even try­ing. On the first night of a recent trip I decided to head down the street for a quick bite to eat, and in the span of 20 min­utes I checked out the Hot 8 Brass Band play­ing in the back room of a bar, found out that Dr. John was play­ing at a club two doors down, and met one of my heroes, jazz drum­mer Her­lin Riley as he walked down the side­walk on the way to a gig.

Incred­i­ble, and only in New Orleans.

Jason is now teaching at Meter Music School in Seattle!

I’m very excited to announce that I’ve been added to the fac­ulty of Meter Music School in Seat­tle! Meter is a great all ages neigh­bor­hood music school located in Seattle’s Cen­tral Dis­trict, offer­ing pri­vate lessons, group classes, clin­ics, camps, and per­for­mance oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents. If you’re inter­ested in study­ing with me there, or want to check out some of the group classes I’ll be doing, con­tact the school via their web­site here.

The Orphan Finds a Home

14x20 vin­tage Sonor bass drum

One of the coolest things about mov­ing to a new city is get­ting the chance to check out new things. I was on a recent scout­ing mis­sion of Seat­tle area music shops when I came across a lost soul. Sit­ting on a shelf, sur­rounded by drum kits and hard­ware cases, was a lone vin­tage bass drum, an orphan among all the other happy sets. A lit­tle rough around the edges (but charm­ing just the same), this drum looked like it needed a home. It was com­ing home with me.

West Ger­man made, this drum is a 1960’s vin­tage Sonor 14″ x 20″ 6-lug, in micro gold sparkle fin­ish. It has a 3-ply beech­wood shell, and although the T-rods are from the 90’s, and the spur rods are new, the claws seem to be orig­i­nal, or at least from the 60’s. After doing a lit­tle dig­ging online, I’m pretty sure this drum is a ’65. I’d wel­come any insight from the vin­tage Sonor experts out there.

I’m happy to report the drum is get­ting along fine with the rest of my drum fam­ily. The beech­wood shell has a beau­ti­ful tone, warm, but with a decent amount of attack. It’s sounded great in the sit­u­a­tions I’ve used it in so far, every­thing from a low vol­ume vocal jazz group, to a loud and funky New Orleans style brass band. I can’t help but think the drum is happy too, being part of a team again, play­ing music. I swear I can see a smile on it’s lit­tle drum face. Yes… the orphan found a home.

Badge, 14x20 bass drum, vin­tage Sonor, 1960’s

*Spe­cial thanks to Andrew at The Trad­ing Musi­cian for help­ing with the drum

Welcome to KenyonGrooves.com!

Wel­come to KenyonGrooves.com! This site is here to pro­vide infor­ma­tion about my play­ing and teach­ing, and to talk about drums and music in general.

If you’re inter­ested in study­ing pri­vately with me, I’m now accept­ing stu­dents in the greater Seat­tle area. Get in touch via the con­tact page.

Thanks for visiting!

Jason