Christine Bard 
I'm
in my 30s
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Christine Bard |
I'm
in my 30s |
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 New
York State |
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 Marc
Ribot's Shrek, Voices From the Moon, Ruby, Trousers, God Is My Co-Pilot |
http://www.webcom.com/jimp/bard.html
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"The Music of Marc Bolan," Eszter Balint, Tzadic "Soultronix Live at the Cooler, NYC," Jim Pugliese’s Soultronix,Cellar
Records "Rough Assemblage" (featured artist), Norman Yamada/MarkDegliantoni,
Avant "Being and Time," Norman Yamada, Tzadic "Lobster and Friend," Anthony Coleman/Roy Nathanson, Knitting Factory
Works "Cobra," Live at the Knitting Factory, John Zorn, Knitting Factory Works
"The People’s Choice Music," Komar & Melamid and David Soldier, DIA "War Prayer," David Soldier, Newport Classic "No Stranger, Not At All", Gisburg, Tzadic "Shadows in the Sea," Gisburg, Tzadic "Dice 2 (She Says)," Trousers; Ishtar "Anonymous," Trousers, Cellar Records "Ribbons of Euphoria," David Watson, Midwest 9 (New Zealand) "Wax and Wane," David Watson, Dr. Jim’s records And much more, including: "EasSide Percussion: ESP," Avant "Shrek," with Marc Ribot, Avant "My Sinister Secret Agenda," with God Is My Copilot, Blackout Records
"Properties of Matter," with Nana Simopoulos, Enja |
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 I
play with both hands (and my feet, too). |
 I
studied drums in the public schools where I lived. I also attended music
camps. Years later, I went to a few music colleges. Then I found a great
teacher, Jerry Granelli. But before I could study at school I practiced
on our family snare drum on the back porch. We had moved to Miami, Florida,
to a house on a tiny lake. When I practiced my paradiddles, they sounded
like rolls because there was this great echo. (Maybe that's why I still
like to play with many drummers!) |
 First,
I was given a set of bongos by my sister’s beau, who was from Cuba. He showed
me some ways to play. Then, I bought a "real" snare drum for the school
band. Finally, I bought a used set of Pearl President drums. |
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Sometimes I pound, playing poly-rhythmic funk with another drummer in "wall of sound" bands (Soultronix, Shrek). Sometimes I play snare-istic stuff like klezmer or with another percussionist, and we have "dialogues"; my drum trio, Easside percussion, does complicated poly-rhythmic pounding as well as teeny tiny tastes of teeny tiny sounds inspired by brief associations with John Cage. We venture into the world of ambient electronics, drawing from the works of Edgar Varese, David Tudor, Stockhausen, Musique Concrete, Fluxus... But as a freelancer, I've played country & western, Motown, in orchestras, a Santeria healing ceremony, in Haitian drumming ensembles, R&B, gut-bucket blues, etc. |
Some of my current influences are still Ziggy Modeste, Clyde Stubbelefield,
and Eddie Blackwell. Recently, we opened for Sonic Boom at the Cooler in
Manhattan, NY, and I liked his approach to ambient electronics. He was using
short-circuited Speak-n-Spell toys with a delay pedal, and his aesthetic
was to maximize the sounds to make "geometric" walls of sound; looping and
curving in on themselves, they created this elaborate dimensionality that
made it comfortable to listen to this massive electronic onslaught. I also
like the fearlessness of Diamanda Galas. I feel that she has added some
much-needed real estate to the fields (of sound) women are "allowed" to
occupy. |
 Well,
I've just broken 4 pairs of Vic Firth 5b's on this tour (in three gigs!),
so I guess I only use Vater 5a's. I would use the 5b's if I had them! I
also use Vic Firth ultra staccato timpani mallets, any brushes, lacquered
chopsticks, sometimes claves for the big hair drum. |
 I
either use a trap case on wheels or my beautiful backpack that distributes
the weight to my legs with complicated straps, padding, and belts. That
way my shoulders don't get any weight and my hands are free for the drums
… I try to get cartage for the gig so I don't get worn out by some insane
series of stairways before I even touch the drums! It's more fun with a
mover/helper anyway; things can get pretty hectic on a tight schedule, and
if you missed that "No Parking From 4-6, Tow Away Zone" sign, like I've
done, it gets really expensive. With two sets of eyes, that's less likely.
On tour, we ask for a backline. |
 No.
If they can't concentrate, I walk. This has only happened at Manny's. Usually,
if I do the stick-choosing trick my teacher taught me (and his teacher taught
him), they aren't afraid that I will defile their stock. |
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I assume "ear," in this case, refers to learning music by listening to genre, context, overall sound, hearing the logic of the passages, and so forth. Sometimes we have to beware the possible dichotomy between covering a score or chart and making the drums sound great, between attending to musical sound as opposed to getting a specific passage "correct" -- the danger of losing the feel or flow of the music while getting bogged down in technical difficulties. As far as "mastering music," I remember something the great jazz drummer
Billy Higgens once said to me. I think we were discussing tuning the drums
to the room, because I knew the drums he was playing on in the club that
night and he was making them speak in a particularly evocative way. He
said something like, "Drums are like children. You can’t master them or
be their master. You can't make them do what they're not going to do –
you have to LISTEN to them." And then you figure out your way around that.
When dealing with the music, you have to figure out the logic, emotion,
or whatever your road is into the music and then make it your road; make
the music yours. It takes a surprising amount of intellect, ear, and intuition.
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 Er…
Umm… I like the drummers who add to the music, not spending their time chauffeuring
the melody, taking a second- or third-string role in the music and setting
drumming back to some auxiliary role. There are thousands of examples of
great drummers and even nice drummers. Usually, everyone has something special
for us to see/hear. I especially like drummers who evoke the "mystery" of
the drums and of the music, who bring the drums into the room, so to speak.
Drums should sound "alive" -- wood and skin, the spirit of the wood and
the soul of the animal and the long history of the ancestors who drummed
and danced before us. Anybody who remembers and evokes this is a favorite
of mine. |
 It
depends on the band, of course. The drums can drive, create mood, can be
the catalyst or agent of change. The drums can provide harmonic melody.
I spent some years studying/playing (at least in my opinion) the harmonic
rhythm of the music/band. If the band can open up their harmelodic sense,
where the melody is derived from the harmony and the (chordal) extensions
of the harmony and harmonic movement, then the drums and the bass can shift
and change in ways the saxophone or lead guitar do in the lyrical and other
traditions. It sounds weird when I explain it this way, but it makes a lot
of sense in the music. I think that a healthy band can make mercurial switches
of roles from lead to backup, from melodic lead to melodic comping, and
everyone should be able to rhythm-section as well. Playing in an ensemble
with total rhythmic understanding means you get to play in a full, deep,
wide sound and a deep fat beat. Waaahoo. |
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I have worked with a lot of women who really have the money/representation thing worked out -- a LOT better than I have (in fact, don’t even talk to me about it!) … I look to them as mentors. Coincidentally, these women also have a very strong sense of what their music is and what they need to do to make it happen. I think the world needs the full, unapologetic, unfettered (artistic, in this case) voice of women as much as it needs clean air and water. It’s always refreshing and bracing and invigorating (and generally nourishing, for me) to see women's vision coming across loud and clear! Sadly, I have also seen women "give over" control of the music and personnel
decisions -- often by asking for reassurance and guidance from "someone
in the biz" (no matter how inexperienced) or a boyfriend/girlfriend or
wannabe friend. "Giving over" makes things precarious for the musician's
work. Its a good idea to get expert opinions, to find a mentor, but not
to have their work subverted, (even) by (well-meaning) advice. A good
mentor will work on developing their protégé’s confidence and ability
to develop their own sound and artistic vision, to cultivate the musician's
uniqueness and to make that work for them throughout their career. If
the protégé doesn’t get that skill early in the game, they’re going to
be depending on "expert" opinion for a very, very long time ... |
 There
was a time when all drummers were women. They played for sunrise, sunset,
for cramps (to avoid them), for the seasons, for childbirth; during harvesting
and sifting; while boats were rowed up and down the rivers and oceans. The
healers were also drummers. And the rites of passage and initiations were
all brought to fruition by the women drummers. But the drum temples were
annihilated. One by one the drummers had taken up other instruments: flute,
voice, and, occasionally, guitar. The musicians thought it was much easier
than lugging all that equipment on their backs. And so the temples of drumming
fell into disrepair. The traditions were lost and forgotten. 4/4 time replaced
the subtle intricacies of body mechanics and the movement of the sun, water,
and stars … |
 Is
this a real question? If a man asks to move my drums, I have either paid
him or bribed him. How come girls don’t ask to move my drums? Ok. Once in
a while [they do]. |
 Male-dominated?
Segregated? Which part of the profession is musician-dominated?! I think
lawyers and the industry create these false segregations. Some male musicians
are uptight with females, but most serious musicians want to play good music
-- with musicians who ring out strong. The domination comes from other areas,
in my opinion. It relates to undervaluing the artist as a means to marginalizing
the role of the artist in the industry. That's how segregation works in
most cultures and political manipulations. Break up the natural order of
a society/culture. Create chaos. Move in and take over the decision-making
process … Not that lawyers are bad. I love some of the rights good lawyers
have won for artists. It just needs to become more balanced than it has
been. |
 I've
played through 87 choruses of "Cherokee" for every saxophone lined up for
his turn. I’ve recorded and toured with broken fingers or thumbs, sticks
taped to my grip. I’ve gotten lost in Beethoven’s 5th and found again on
a big-pressure gig. Those occasions didn’t make me doubt the playing. But
before all that, sadness had taken its toll. Early on, my parents had created
an atmosphere of dread over my career choice and so I took some time away
from playing, and once heartbreak of the romantic sort made me take a break
for a bit. I was sad and lonely. Both times actually forced me to find a
very different way of playing that opened up very different avenues. I think
I had run aground with the old routes and so, when the "tragedy" struck,
the playing couldn’t support my heartbreak. |
 About
3 seconds. |
I got some bongos when I was 7 or 8 and my best friend and I had worked
up some stuff with her go-go dancing and me playing the bongos. So after
a few months, some people in our neighborhood saw us working on our thing
and hired us to play their party. I thought I was pretty slick, but we left
after the REAL go-go dancers came. I thought they were goddesses. We probably
made about 45 cents or so. |
Yes. |
 I
do cultural workshops in various public schools a few days a week. I try
to keep the momentum on the playing, but sometimes the teaching load gets
heavy. I try to balance the income/outgo so I can play and record in good
situations, not desperate-for-money situations, like I may have done once
or twice… |
 George
Lawrence Stone’s "Stick Control"; Joe Morello's "Accents and Rebounds";
"West African Rhythms for Drumset," by Royal Hartigan (I haven’t read this
yet, but it comes highly recommended); "Portraits in Rhythm," by Anthony
Cirone; that funk drumming book by Aynsley Dunbar; "The Healing Drum," by
Kobla Ladzekpo; "On the Nature of Music," by Hewitt Pantaleoni; "When Drummers
Were Women," by Layne Redmond; "Silence," by John Cage; "The Poetics of
Music," by Igor Stravinsky; "African Rhythm and African Sensibility," by
John Miller Chernoff; "Introduction to the Physics and Psychophysics of
Music," by Juan Roederer; "Simple Composition," by Charles Wourenin; "Nico:
The End," by James Young; "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale
Hurston. Any poetry by Pablo Neruda. "The Economy of Love and Fear," by
Kenneth Boulding. Any recordings of Afro-Cuban drumming, the rumba, etc.
Legitimate info on Santeria drumming and ceremonies will put you there.
|
 The
time my neighbor came over and said, "Hey, you wanna do a gig? It pays 50
bucks. They need the drums." I said, "Sure," and brought two drums, one
for him and one for me. We get there, and I walk into a Santeria healing
ceremony. I thought they just needed the drums, not me. But my friend, who
had come up with them in the neighborhood, and the families had all practiced
from [together for years], and now his childhood friend was a practitioner,
like a priestess, and was about to do a ceremony to heal someone of their
loss. My friend sits down behind the drums and tells me where to sit up
in the altar area, and we start playing. Then he’s so out of shape, he whispers
over to me, "Go ahead." Now I accompany people, but I don’t know any of
the liturgy. So I tell him to turn up the music, and I get my stuff off
the music (they had been listening to pre-recorded drumming before I got
there). Then everybody sings the song. I thought I was faking it until the
deity shows up. I closed my eyes and could "see" the path to a "place."
And my friend starts shaking me and tells me to open my eyes and come back.
So I opened my eyes and watching the healing take place in the room. |
Total world domination. (Ha, ha.) |
 Positive:
Playing traditional Haitian rhythms in a workshop with junior high school
students who had just come from Haiti to the U.S. within the past month.
No one could speak English yet, but we really went at it, playing hard and
fast. The feeling was really raised in the room. Then two of the girls jumped
up and started doing sacred dancing. It was that palpable feeling of touching
a source. The source opened up and we entered, passing our regular borders
and smoking those rhythms. Negative: a low-paying recording session with
a less-than-experienced recording engineer who had just finished a domestic
quarrel with his wife. It seemed like he was continuing his quarrel with
me because of my female voice. It was a long, tiresome session. |
I'd be the Queen of England. |
| © 2001 Happy Mazza Media, LLC. | Contact us: drummergirl |
Soultronix, Easside Percussion, Pitchbrite 
"Duras
Duchamps," John Zorn, Tzadic 
I
play a custom maple resonator shell Premier; a Slingerland circa 1966;
and a Ludwig made to Joe Morello specs (circa mid-60's). I also have a
rehearsal set, a Tama royal star. 
Lately,
I've been playing "downtown" music -- music played below 14th Street in
Manhattan, NY. I studied improvisation with jazz musicians, bebop drumming,
classical percussion, New Music, a one-week timpani master class with
Cloyd Duff, and, briefly, African drumming with a master drummer from
Ghana. Also, I got one taiko drumming lesson and a few Egyptian dumbek
lessons. I mention all these situations because they affect my playing
and interpretation of music/stylistics.
I think that most musicians would agree that "ear" and intuition are fundamental
in "mastering music." ("Ear" in musical terms, not always "hearing," since
we know of some great performers who do not "hear" with their ears and
can play music wonderfully.) 
In my experience, women get paid less for performing and recording their
own music. Maybe that’s only the ones who call me! Or maybe they don’t
know they have a right (and responsibility) to work things out better.
Or maybe it’s a conspiracy started by all those people (under the sofa,
watch out!) who think women should give it away for free. I don’t know.
In fact, I am totally perplexed … Unless a musician has developed some
strong smarts (knowing what to expect from a promoter and what they deserve,
and that the females in the group also expect to be paid fairly), no club
owner or label executive is going to hip them to that fact. The goal there
is to make the artist feel undeserving and that their work is next to
valueless (monetarily, that is). "But we just LOVE to SEE you up there!
Maybe we’ll make more money next time, although there are a LOT of costs.
You can pay us back later. Do you have those photos for us yet? Here’s
the telephone number of our photographer. He’ll give you a great price.
Don’t be shy if he tells you to take off some of your clothes. It’s good
for business…" Hah.