# Joey Baron brings his awareness and command of seemingly every musical style heard in North America: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/01/13/joey-baron-brings-his-awareness-and-command-of-seemingly-every-musical-style-heard-in-north-america-video-photos/
- Published: 2023-01-13T00:02:20+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Joey Baron is a treasure, a fount of wisdom and experience, a restless, uncompromising
inventor with the highest musical standards. I last saw him in New York at Birdland
in the summer of 2022, playing with Marc Copland, Randy Brecker, Billy Drewes, and
Drew Gress, a beautiful night of music.**

Throughout the set, Joey swung and smiled, subtly shading the music by coaxing countless
tiny gradations of tone from his cymbals and drums. He was deeply inside the tunes,
spurring the soloists, blending with the band, generating heat, cooling it down,
an individual and a team player simultaneously. It was a joy to behold.

On the surface, that night at Birdland might seem a far cry from the 1980’s NYC 
avant-garde milieu of John Zorn, Tim Berne, and Bill Frisell which brought Joey 
Baron to the ears of millions of listeners. Beneath the surface, however, in the
details, Joey Baron is moving forward and suggesting possibilities, as he’s done
his whole career.

![Joey Baron - Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Joey_Baron.
jpg)

This is what makes Joey Baron special:

Joey Baron brings his awareness and command of seemingly every musical style heard_
_in North America to every setting he plays in. He can play jazz, rock, and soul/
funk/R&B of course, but he keeps going. Even if he’s playing with a relatively straight-
ahead piano trio, Joey might reference gospel, blues, or country drumming. Joey 
has a deep awareness of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean traditions, and might, depending
on his mood, nod towards radical versions of rock music- punk, metal, grindcore-
or something from the celebration music of the Jewish diaspora. Finally, there is
a reverence for the full spectrum of American commercial music and entertainment-
jingles, TV theme songs, soundtracks, TV orchestras, and so on.

I could hear all this, in flashes and implications, that night at Birdland with 
Marc Copland. But that’s simply Joey’s voice. He’s sublimated his influences and
skill into a seamless, instantly identifiable sound; this might be the highest level
of mastery.

For instance, I remember Joey playing “Wipe Out” with his band Killer Joey at Tonic,
ca. 2000. At first, I couldn’t believe the great Joey Baron was playing “Wipe Out”;
seconds later, I was wondering why I didn’t have a band to play “Wipe Out”, because
Joey and his band _made “Wipe Out”_ _sound amazing_. Joey’s musicianship and generous
spirit had completely convinced me.

Finally, Joey Baron is as big an influence as there’s ever been. Based on my non-
scientific method of talking to every drummer I know about drummers, all the time,
Joey Baron’s name always comes up. Just off the top of my head, Ben Perowsky, Josh
Dion, Jim Black, and Mark Guiliana have all talked about his influence.

Here’s Dave King:

_“I’m usually able to keep my shit together, but to this day, when I run into Joey
Baron, it’s difficult for me to not remind him of the impact [of seeing him play
in the late 80’s]…seeing Joey Baron at that time was very eye-opening.” _

_To me, the swing thing was the real challenge. How could these guys play four quarter
notes and get it to feel so full? So it was my goal to really investigate that, 
and I got the hands-on view of it from working with Carmen _[McRae]_.  -Joey Baron_

Joey started his career in Los Angeles, playing with Blue Mitchell, Art Pepper, 
Hampton Hawes, and, most notably, Carmen McRae. _**Carmen McRae at the Great American
Music Hall**_ (Blue Note, 1977), featuring Dizzy Gillespie, is the first easily-
available release with Joey Baron on drums.

It’s an incredible album, we should all be listening to it right now. McCrae is 
on fire, the band is great; heavy 4/4 swing, ballads, backbeats, a samba, its all
here. Check out the seriously swinging eight-bar duet of Carmen and Joey on “Too
Close For Comfort”; the _very slow_ (less than 40 beats per minute!) version of 
Bill Withers “Paint Your Pretty Picture”; the space Joey leaves in his beat on Alice
Cooper’s “Only Women Bleed”, and, of course, “On A Clear Day”.

[“On A Clear Day”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbHSLr8XfzY) is the special track
for me. After Carmen sings a chorus, Dizzy takes a chorus and a half solo- magic.
But! Beat 4 in the fifth bar of Dizzy’s bridge, Joey SMACKS a crash cymbal and a
snare drum; a great choice, loud, brave, ear-catching, slightly irreverent.

A telltale sign- we know who this drummer is.

With Carmen McRae, the Joey Baron we know and love is present, loud and clear. But
in 1976, he hadn’t even _met_ Bill Frisell, or John Zorn, or any of the NYC musicians
he made his name with. Baron wasn’t fated to play with Frisell et al, or they with
him;

Rather, Joey chose to be involved with them and their community. It was no miracle,
no accident; Joey worked hard, made some tough choices, and became the player and
force in music we know. That’s how he did it.

_“I spent 7 years out there [_in LA_] and that’s when it started to hit me that 
something was wrong…I needed more of an outlet than just working other people’s 
gigs functionally. I liked doing that for the first few years, but later I was trying
to do something else, and I didn’t know what….So I started to feel that maybe I 
should leave LA and come to New York.”_

_– Joey Baron_

When Joey arrived in NYC, his first order of business was to make a living, so it
was “club dates, strictly club dates

”, but he was soon doing gigs with Toots Thielemans and Jim Hall, and appearing 
on records by Jimmy Rowles, Fred Hersch, Gary Dial and Dick Oatts, Roseanna Vitro,
and Herb Robertson.

It was on Herb Robertson’s _**Transparency**_ (JMT, 1985) that Tim Berne, Bill Frisell,
and Joey Baron first recorded together. Not one track from _**Transparency**_ is
streaming on any platform as of January 2023

_I made up my mind that I would take what I love about traditional jazz and add 
to it. I went from being someone who had a rep as a tasty accompanist to someone
who people thought couldn’t play a bar of of straight time!” -Joey Baron_

In March 1987 (the same year that Ralph Peterson began recording for Blue Note with
Geri Allen) Bill Frisell, Hank Roberts, Kermit Driscoll, and Joey Baron, entered
the Power Station in NYC to make _**Lookout For Hope.**_ (ECM, 1988).

This was the first in a series of four albums recorded in a 12-month period (March‘
87- March ‘88) with a similar personnel, giving us a snapshot of Joey Baron as he
transitions from a “tasty accompanist” into the musician and spirit we know and 
love today. The change was conceptual: now Joey let every influence come through;
not consciously, but naturally, and musically.

The four albums are:

 * **Bill Frisell:**_** Lookout For Hope**_ **(ECM)**

Bill Frisell/Hank Roberts/Kermit Driscoll/Joey Baron. Recorded March 1987, Power
Station, NYC.

 * **Tim Berne**_**: Sanctified Dreams **_**(Columbia)**

Tim Berne/Herb Robertson/Hank Roberts/Mark Dresser/Joey Baron. Recorded October 
13-15, 1987, Power Station, NYC.

 * **Hank Roberts**: _**Black Pastels**_ **(JMT)**

Hank Roberts/Tim Berne/Ray Anderson/Robin Eubanks/Dave Taylor/Bill Frisell/Mark 
Dresser/Joey Baron. Recorded and mixed November/December 1987, RPM Sound Studios,
NYC.

 * **Miniature: **_**Miniature** _**(JMT)**

Tim Berne/Hank Roberts/Joey Baron. Recorded March 1988, RPM Sound Studios, NYC.

![Joey Baron's Deep Listening Manifesto](https://i0.wp.com/downbeat.com/images/news/
_full/JoeyBarron_WEB.jpg?resize=640%2C457&ssl=1)

For Baron, suddenly, all options were on the table. His radical openness was not
for the sake of novelty, or easy effects. Joey Baron allowed the whole range of 
musical styles to be present to make the music sound good. This community of players-
Frisell, Berne, Roberts, Robertson, etc.- all achieved this, in their own way, and
each executed it differently.

Respect and gratitude.

Joey was not alone in bringing this sound to the drums- Phil Haynes, Alex Cline,
Anton Fier, Bobby Previte, and others were making contributions as well. But these
records and these players traveled far. As Joey said, _“What you’re hearing is rooted
in ordinary things- that’s where I start._”

I really love these albums; this is powerful music. Let’s take a brief listen.

In Philip Watson’s invaluable new biography of Frisell, _Bill Frisell: Beautiful
Dreamer_ (Faber and Faber, 2022) he suggests that _**Lookout For Hope**_ is a landmark
in Frisell’s discography, a meaningful statement of intent. Without a doubt, the
Frisell sound is in full bloom here; so is Joey Baron.

As great as Joey always sounded, he simply wasn’t playing like this with Carmen 
McRae, Fred Hersch, or Red Rodney.

On the 12/8 title track, Joey is powerful and explosive, almost a co-soloist with
Bill. But he never overwhelms; this is just the chemistry of the band. “Lonesome”,
a classic Frisell melody, has Joey playing a lovely straight-ahead country beat 
with brushes, but the spontaneous and mood-changing cowbell and woodblock fills 
connect the track to the avant-garde.

“Alien Prints” closes the album with some joyous, virtuosic rock/R&B drumming for
Frisell’s solo, with Hank Roberts playing like a rhythm guitar and Kermit Driscoll
keeping it all connected; Joey’s 7-second flam fill at 3:51 is…..OMG!!! The energy
recedes, and they ride off into the sunset.

Tim Berne’s _**Sanctified Dreams**_ (Columbia, 198) was his second and last Columbia
Records release, the follow up to his critically acclaimed _**Fulton Street Maul**_(
CBS, 1987). Recorded just a few months after _**Lookout For Hope**_, _**Sanctified
Dreams**_ demonstrates how quickly Joey was expanding.

With Bill Frisell, Joey could play idiomatically- rock vocabulary, jazz vocabulary,
through his own filter. But Tim Berne’s music is much less idiomatic, with fewer
direct references to rock, jazz, R&B, and so on. No problem; Joey uses his musicianship
and artistry, and his voice comes shining through.

“Velcho Man” features Joey setting up Tim’s melodies with the wisdom and grace of
Mel Lewis, navigating an elaborate, fully-realized arrangement as easily and lightly
as if it were a collective improvisation. On “Elastic Lad”, Joey seamlessly transforms
an  improvised duet with Hank Roberts into a rocking 6/8 for a full-band reading
of Tim’s theme. “Terre Haute” (Hank Roberts’ hometown) starts with an unforgettable
four bars of Joey in funky 5/4, then transforms into a ruminative, African-influenced
voice and drum duet.

At the end of 1987, Hank Roberts’ _**Black Pastels**_ (JMT) features Bill Frisell,
and Tim Berne, and three trombonists. All the tunes are by Roberts, and no track
follows a predictable course. An inviting, wholly unique set of music, connecting
the avant-garde energy of Tim Berne and Bill Frisell to cutting-edge pop music, _**
Black Pastels**_ is a perspicuous classic, and shows how diverse and wide-ranging
the cohort of Baron, Berne, Frisell, Roberts etc truly are.

The opening title track, played by a trio of Roberts, Frisell, and Joey, features
a slow, dramatic buildup centered around Roberts’ wordless vocals, Joey rocking 
and filling, alternating between two distinct feels, and setting up a classic Frisell
solo. Genre distinctions simply don’t matter here; when Joey enters on Hank’s lovely“
Jamil”, he seems to be almost singing along with Roberts, he’s so connected to the
song.

Joey plays a quasi-calypso on “Choqueno” with Frisell on a 12-string; soon they’re
joined by a trombone choir for a melody that suggests gospel, Eddie Palmieri, and
80’s pop. I can’t think of another track like this anywhere in jazz, sort of the
intersection of AACM experimentalism and David Bowie. Stunning.

On “Lucky’s Lament”, the album closer, Hank, Frisell, and Mark Dresser keep the 
funeral march feel, while Joey shakes his shakers and rattles his toms, while Tim
gives his blues and R&B side a chance to shine.

In the midst of all this, Tim Berne had organized a trio of himself, Joey, and Hank
Roberts, called Miniature. The group was a collective, so everyone brought in tunes,
though Hank Roberts told me repeatedly, regarding Miniature, _“So much came from
Tim; he made so much happen”. _Miniature has a distinct personality, with a lot 
of humor many references to current pop music, and stands out in Tim’s vast discography
[](https://vinniesperrazza.substack.com/p/on-a-clear-day-joey-baron#footnote-11-95284431).

That sense of fun and play comes through on their first album, _**Miniature**_**(
JMT, 1988**). This is the debut of Joey’s ‘electronic’ set, where his 4-piece Sonor
kit is outfitted with MIDI triggers and augmented with a Casio CZ 101 keyboard. 
However, the liner notes state that there were no overdubs on the album; everything
we hear is live.

Roberts’ “Ethiopian Boxer” suggests R&B and the new ‘world’ music sound; Joey playing
with his hands on MIDI-triggered drums and generating a lot of density with his 
keyboard.

Berne’s “Circular Prairie Song (For Bill Frisell)” a through-composed three-part
suite in two and a half minutes, features some whoopee-cushion sounds on Joey’s 
keyboard and Hank’s spoken outro. Yes, I actually LOL, every time I hear this track.

Joey’s “Lonely Mood”, a serious and effective piece, features a moment of stark 
beauty when Hank and Tim play in unison, broken by a sung note from Hank, while 
Joey creating a forest floor of texture with keyboard, cymbals, and MIDI drums.

Tim’s “Narlin” has a second-line groove from Joey, a bluesy melody from Tim, and
a moment of Hank Roberts gospel cello (at 4:20) that makes me want to cheer. Hank’s“
Abeetah” abruptly switches from quasi-punk to slow swing with the funniest keyboard
solo (played by Joey) I’ve ever heard.

Tim Berne’s “Sanctuary” features a motivic Baron drum solo[](https://vinniesperrazza.substack.com/p/on-a-clear-day-joey-baron#footnote-12-95284431)

and concludes with a tough, beautiful melody, masterfully orchestrated, built up,
and swung by Joey, bringing us to the close of an astonishing 12-month run of recording.

![](https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%
3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%
2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F99bb82fd-9659-499d-a234-13d720bd2682_1500x1000.jpeg?w=640&ssl
=1)

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