Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Rare Clip of Dave Tough

Dave Tough is a drummer whom I greatly admire. I wrote a thumbnail sketch about him in March, 2010, and also posted a downloadable copy of his paradiddle exercise book. It is with a great deal of pleasure that I present this rare clip of him:

Granted, there is not much, but there is such dearth of video on who I consider to be one of the world's greatest drummers that it's a start.

Shown: Eddie Condon leading on his four string tenor guitar with Wild Bill Davison trumpet, Cutty Cutshall trombone, Edmund Hall clarinet, Gen Schroeder piano, Dave Tough drums, and Bob Casey(?) bass.

Dave was tagged as a dixieland, 2/4 drummer, but he was much, much more. He could swing and was a groove master of the highest order. Here is a pair of dueling articles in Downbeat between Dave and Eddie Condon that are humorous in their own way, but also provides historical insight into the state of jazz during that era. Tough died on December 9, 1948 - 11 days before I was born - so the article is mid-to-late 40s. Note the term re-bop, which was what the musicians were calling what we now call bebop. Here is Tough's view and Eddie Condon's rebuttal.

If you have any additional clips of Dave please let me know the link to them so I can add them to this post. Thanks and enjoy.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Unfortunately that's NOT Dave Tough. It's Buzzy Drootin on drums. There is, however, a clip of Tough playing with Eddie Condon. It's likely on youtube.