Will Glaser - Some Drum Sounds (2021)

The Idea for a solo album came from suddenly finding myself with a lot of time on my own and, after having an unusually long break from playing at the very beginning of the first lockdown, obsessively wanting to make music.

I’ve been playing Jazz, Improvised Music and experimental things with so many people I admire for several years now, but found myself wanting to explore making music alone. I was fortunate enough to receive funding from Arts Council England which enabled me to explore recording, compositional techniques and the aspects of the drums and improvisation that mean most to me.

The resulting album is the product of this period of exploration and learning. The record also marks my first experience in the shoes of a recording engineer... and uses the first album art I’ve made for myself... It was a very Isolated year! Seemed appropriate...

The first half of track 1, Crazy Hour, was built up on top of an improvisation on djembe... all additional percussion was also built up through improvising. This then gives way to my free jazz impression on some of the same rhythmic and melodic ideas.

The three Durations pieces are Duets with myself, structured by different durations of time that are a loose compositional tool to structure improvisation and create chance moments...

Panglossian People and Hymn for Him are composed pieces... Panglossian people is a tune I wrote on a 12 bar structure, I play variations of the melody and improvise sections.

Hymn for Him is a dedication to Milford Graves and is a loosely improvised Rondo Form...

The other pieces are free improvisations.

Music making doesn’t get much more personal than a solo performance and so I guess this is is a very honest representation of where I'm currently at; What I care about musically; and the direction of travel for the future...

Or not. At the end of the day, these are just Some Drum Sounds that I like... and I hope you like them too.

Huge Love and thanks go to the amazing Alex Bonney for his work on the album.