Ballads with Drum Solos

[Guy Berger]

This evening this very random question popped into my head. Examples, if you have them!

Guy

[Chas]

The ballad "Sweet Song" on Stanley Cowell's Travellin' Man ( aka Blues For the Vietcong ) features Jimmy Hopps pretty much soloing throughout it . Even allowing for the fact that Hopps is way upfront in the mix , this track doesn't work for me at all . The rest of the album does work for me though .

[king ubu]

Sonny Rollins let his conga player solo on almost every tune when i saw him in (a mediocre) concert, last year or the year before... not my cup of tea, to say the least, even more so since that conga player had nothing much to say at all... totally pointless.

[Tom Storer]

I don't have a specific example that comes to mind, but I know I've heard Elvin play some beautiful solos on ballads.

[king ubu]

I assume there'd be some ballad-like Trane performances with Elvin not actually soloing but really contributing a lot to the vibe of the performances, on albums like "Crescent", "Coltrane" (the Impulse one - "Out of this World"), "Quartet Plays", and maybe even on "Sun Ship".

[Michael Weiss]

Around 1979, at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, I heard Moody give Wilbur Campbell a chorus or two on Body and Soul.

Edited October 4, 2006 by Michael Weiss

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Idris Muhammad solos on "Peace" from his "Peace & Rhythm" album.

I think there are some more...

MG

[Nate Dorward]

Yes, one excellent example of Elvin Jones in fact as the main soloist on a ballad: "A Child Is Born" on Hank Jones' Upon Reflection.

[brownie]

Jo Jones solos in the Art Tatum version of 'Just One of Those Things' from the Tatum group sessions.

Also not strictly a ballad but let's not forget Max Roach's solo contribution to 'Saint-Thomas' on Rollins' 'Saxophone Colossus'!

[mikeweil]

Mel Lewis solos excellently on a track titled "Brushes" usually listed with Zoot Sims as the leader. It was recorded on a Annie Ross session for Pacific Jazz and is a bonus track on her "A Gasser" CD.

Mel Lewis also solos and plays part of the theme on a track of the Thad Jones - Pepper Adams LP/CD on Milestone, "Mean What You Say"

[Jazz Kat]

This is just one of those "rules" that don't make sense.

[Spontooneous]

When Todd Strait (from Karrin Allyson's band) lived in KC, his buddies would let him solo on ballads quite often. The results were always good. Wish I had a recorded example.

[ep1str0phy]

Michael Carvin solos on 'Who Does She Hope to Be?' (the Sonny Sharrock ballad) on Frank Lowe's Lowe-down and Blue. Quite beautiful in a minimalist way.