186: Letting the Music Play You, with Paul Wertico

<p class="p1">Today on the show we have the honour and the pleasure of sitting down with Paul Wertico. If you’re at all familiar with the all-time great drummers of the world or you’re a jazz fan then you’ll know his name and his work.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1">Paul is a 7-time Grammy Award winner, perhaps best known for his almost 20 years playing with jazz guitarist Pat Metheny where his distinctive “flat ride” cymbal style became a defining part of some of the group’s best known recordings.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1">Paul is an innovative musician and a devoted educator, including his role as Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, and as author of a new book entitled <a href= "https://www.alfred.com/turn-the-beat-around/p/00-44214/?utm_source=mupod_shownotes&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=mupodcast"> <em>“Turn the Beat Around”</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1">As you’ll hear us say in this interview, Paul is a man frequently associated with the very word “musicality” and so it was such a delight to get to speak with him and unpack what exactly it means for a drummer to be “musical” and exhibit “musicality”.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1">We talk about:</p> <p class="p1">• How Paul learned the drums and the influential music educator who helped encourage him in developing his own unique identity as a musician.</p> <p class="p1">• What it means to “turn the beat around” and how playing what he calls “front beats” can bring a unique flair to a piece of music.</p> <p class="p1">• And how it’s possible for his group Wertico Cain and Gray to perform 100% improvised compositions together with no prior discussion, ranging from 30 seconds to several minutes long which have a coherence and structure that mean the listener would never guess they were improvised.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1">We also talk about practicing with a metronome versus a backing track, what role the drummer plays in different