David Garibaldi 
(September 2005 Issue)
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All is right with the world. Well, if you're a fan of inventive funk and soul music, you probably feel this way. Why? Because David Garibaldi is back in Tower Of Power, once again tantalizing drummers with some of the most grooving, twisted, and mind-bending beats ever to shake a booty.

Back in the '70s, Garibaldi's drumming with Tower was a revelation. Not only did he lay down some of the baddest beats ever played, the master drummer expanded the vocabulary of the instrument. Garibaldi created several playing innovations that added a whole new sophistication to funk drumming. And with Tower's unrelenting 16th-note approach, Garibaldi's precise playing style melded perfectly with the large band - from the stinging horns right down to the monstrous bass.

Go back and give a listen to some of those classic beats, like "Squib Cakes," "What Is Hip"," "Drop It In The Slot," "Soul Vaccination," and the seminal "Oakland Stroke." Drummers hadn't heard anything like them before. Garibaldi created a multi-layered effect between the snare, hi-hat, and bass drum that wove together seamlessly. His mastery of ghost notes and beat displacement was unparalleled. And his fresh fill concepts added yet another spark to the mix. No question, Garibaldi was one of the most influential drummers of the '70s'and remains that way today. David has won Modern Drummer's Readers Poll in the funk/R&B category a record six times, most recently this year.

Unfortunately, some good things don't last. After ten mostly fruitful years with Tower, in 1980 Garibaldi made his exit under unfortunate circumstances. Basically he felt it was time to move on. But funk fans were not happy.

Garibaldi left the San Francisco Bay Area and headed for Los Angeles with the hopes of building a career in the studios. The following nine years were somewhat successful for the funk stylist. He played on several recordings by artists such as Gino Vannelli and fusion band Wishful Thinking, wrote books (including the well-received Future Sounds), and became recognized as a fine teacher and clinician.

By the end of the '80s, though, Garibaldi was tired of the vibe in L.A. and decided to return to his beloved Bay Area. Back on home turf, things started to mushroom. Garibaldi began exploring Afro-Cuban rhythms and formed the innovative Talking Drums percussion trio to present these concepts. He also recorded a couple of solid educational videos. Eventually Garibaldi joined Mickey Hart's Planet Drum ensemble, which featured other rhythmic giants such as Giovanni Hidalgo, Zakir Hussain, and Airto. Garibaldi was on a roll.

And then, in 1998, it happened. Through an interesting turn of events, David Garibaldi was invited to re-join Tower Of Power. Today, after five years together, drummer and band are back in top form. They recently released their first new studio album in years. In fact, it's Garibaldi's first album of new material with the band since 1979. (The blistering concert disc Soul Vaccination: Live was released in '99.)

Oakland Zone is a killer, combining some of the band's classic get-down attitude with a contemporary edge. As for the drumming, it's eerily reminiscent of the past. However, there's a noticeably increased depth to the drummer's feel. And added to that is a sense of joy that jumps off the tracks. Once again, Garibaldi's brilliance is obvious - innovative, in the pocket, and intense.

MD: Do you think someone can learn to be funky, or is it something you have to be born with?
David: My experience is, whatever you have motivation for, then chances are you're going to achieve it. If you love a style of music and have a strong desire to learn and acquire it, then you can take it as far as you want to go. I truly believe that.
When I was coming up, James Brown was it for me. And then I also spun off into big band music. I loved Count Basie. But I knew I wanted to play funk. It just totally moved me. And with funk music, so much of it stems from that James Brown'type of drumming. If you go back to those recordings he did in 1962, you're hearing some of the first funk beats ever to appear on record. The feel created by his drummers on those recordings is the foundation.
If you want to learn the jazz tradition, you study people like Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, and Tony Williams. For funk music, you need to go back and study the forefathers, like Clyde Stubblefield, Jabo Starks, Melvin Parker, and Clayton Fillyau with James Brown and Zigaboo Modeliste from The Meters. They're the players who came up with most of the basic funk vocabulary.
MD: Besides who to listen to, can you offer some specific tips on how a drummer can improve his funk playing?
David: The tradition of funk music - particularly the drumming - is about beats and learning how to play them with the right feel. If you study those James Brown recordings, practically every song was beat-specific. The songs were built on really cool grooves, and these are the building blocks of the music. I feel it's very important for a drummer to go back and master those basic beats.
When I hear someone play funk today, I can tell if they have the roots together or if they're someone who hasn't discovered what that is yet. It doesn't mean that person won't get it, but there's definitely a difference.
MD: When you were coming up in the '60s, drummers focused on feel more than having "perfect" time.
David: Playing with a click wasn't done. You learned how to play time from listening to drummers, like Sonny Payne with Count Basie, who had a serious groove. And then the James Brown drummers had that slightly on-top sort of feel, that relentless sort of timekeeping. Those are the things I studied to develop my feel.
MD: How did you come up with your multi-layered approach, where hi-hat, snare drum, and bass drum parts overlap in some very complex ways?
David: In my early days with Tower, I used to study different drummers, including Bernard Purdie. I'd put on headphones and listen to his recordings. I'd close my eyes and try to visualize what he was playing. As it turns out, what I thought Purdie was playing was something completely different from what he was doing. Since I didn't know, I tried to figure out ways to play these things I thought I was hearing. That's how it started.
As these concepts evolved in my playing, I started to realize that I was developing my own way of doing things. That was exciting, because creating my own voice on the instrument was something I always wanted to do. That motivated me to keep pushing forward.
As for coming up with all of those crazy beats, a lot of that started when I began checking out Latin music and realizing that there was a powerful groove going on but there was no 2 and 4 happening. I started experimenting with these types of ideas in Tower. For instance, instead of playing a beat with 2 and 4 on the snare drum, in the middle of a tune I would turn the beat around and play it on 1 and 3 - just to piss everybody off. [laughs] But you know, in certain songs, it worked really well and created a cool vibe.
I always have ideas. I guess if there's a strength in my playing, that would be it. Every time I get an idea and start working on it, it just snowballs. It goes off in other directions and keeps morphing.

If you'd like to check out some of David Garibaldi's classic Tower Of Power beats, including "The Oakland Stroke, - click here

William F. Miller

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