Chas, this really strikes a chord. I've heard so many musicians complain about playing with a drum machine that's it's not "human time" and they can't or won't have anything to do with it. These musicians all turn out to have serious time problems, and they cannot keep to the rhythm. they are so used to playing with rhythm sections that adjust to each others' time so much that their time is all over the place. Whenever i'm working a solo or with my bongo/handpercussion man Madafo, and i invite someone to sit in, if they are well-established musicians they often decline or ask me to please turn off the bass/drums. If a singer comes up, i start to comp for her, then as we hit a groove I use the tap tempo to bring in a basic bass/drum swing or just drum w/lh bass. Most of the time i see them have a look of fear and dread come over their faces, like oh no!!!! But i have found one great young singer out of UM who loves to ride on the perfect time, and Madafo is not an established percussionist yet, so he embraces the steady backgrounds and finds he has creative freedom he never had before because I'm relieving him of time-keeping. If you can't play with a drum machine you have serious time problems, friends--and the only way you will fix it is by playing with a drum machine, and/or learning to make in-time body motions when there is no machine. how do those great drummers do it? i don't know, but i can tell you this..only the top rank can, most drummers cannot keep it that solid. there's a lot more to good drumming than any machine can provide--that's true--but at least the machine provides the most important element..and does it better than any drummer.

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Miami Mo