{"id":1891,"date":"2020-06-29T23:49:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T23:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1891"},"modified":"2020-06-29T23:51:35","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T23:51:35","slug":"ftv-hats-off-to-joe-saylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1891","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Hats off to Joe Saylor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some musicians wear hats and I never gave it much thought until I saw Dwight Yoakum in the movie <\/span>Sling Blade <\/span><\/i>(1996)<\/span>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 As a disciple of the Bakersfield Sound, I always assumed Yoakum\u2019s ever present cowboy hat was symbolic of his country music roots.\u00a0 Despite the ample locks of hair that streamed from under his western chapeau, it turns out he has a profoundly bald pate under his hat.\u00a0 With the hair on the top of my heading receding at an ever increasing rate, I am not making any statements about baldness.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t like he was trying to hide anything (he did not wear his hat in the movie), I just hadn\u2019t given any thought as to what was under his ever present head gear.\u00a0 Over the last couple of decades, Roger McGuinn, the former leader of The Byrds, began wearing a\u00a0 Panama style hat.\u00a0 McGuinn\u2019s headgear has also become a permanent fixture, but is it due to an ebbing hairline or is it just a fashion statement?\u00a0 When Donna the Buffalo performed at the Porcupine Mountain Music Festival in 2018, leader Jeb Puryor was sporting his trademark brimless beanie hat that has been his trademark since we first began spinning their <\/span>Rockin\u2019 In The Weary Land<\/span><\/i> album in 1998.\u00a0 Fashion statement or cover up, hats have been part of music for a long, long time.\u00a0 Like the cobalt colored granny glasses McGuinn sported in his Byrd days, musician\u2019s hats can sometimes stimulate their own fashion trend.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The late Neil Peart, the drummer extraordinaire from the band Rush, began wearing a kind of pillbox hat similar to Puryor\u2019s in the second half of his long career.\u00a0 Anton Fig sported a beret of sorts during all the years he played with Paul Shaffer\u2019s band on <\/span>The Late Show with David Letterman.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Fig has appeared more recently in Joe Bonnamassa videos and he is still a hatted drummer (subbing a baseball cap for the beret in recording sessions).\u00a0 It has grown to be such a part of Fig\u2019s image that I didn’t even recognize him without it.\u00a0 He was part of the stage band at a Bob Dylan Tribute concert in 1992 and sans his trademark hat, it did not hit me who he was until I spied his name in the credits.\u00a0 Fig\u2019s drumming counterpart on <\/span>Saturday Night Live<\/span><\/i>, Shawn Pelton, seems to favor the type of \u2018newsboy\u2019 cap worn by Dr. Archie \u2018Moonlight\u2019 Graham in the movie <\/span>Field of Dreams<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Pelton even wears his signature hat when filming drum instruction videos.\u00a0 The latest drummer I noticed wearing a hat at all times is Joe Saylor, and in his case, we are back to the ever present Dwight Yoakum style cowboy hat.\u00a0 The bearded Saylor hides not a receding hairline under his hat, but a shaved head (but one won\u2019t find many pictures of him without his lid).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I really didn\u2019t know much about Joe Saylor until I began tuning into <\/span>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/span><\/i> to get his daily summary of what Colbert called <\/span>Donald and the Giant Impeach.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The\u00a0 whole sordid affair made it hard for me to follow the unfolding story on CNN or the network news shows.\u00a0 Somehow the sprinkling of humor Colbert added to each day\u2019s proceedings made it easier to swallow this nonsense.\u00a0 I won\u2019t get further into the politics of the situation beyond saying that humor like Colbert\u2019s is what people need to smooth the rough patches on the road of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having not been a regular <\/span>Late Show<\/span><\/i> watcher since David Letterman retired, I started to take notice of Colbert\u2019s house band.\u00a0 John Batiste and Stay Human (or Stay Homin\u2019 as they have been billed during the \u2018broadcast from home\u2019 episodes dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic) replaced Paul Shaffer\u2019s <\/span>CBS Orchestra<\/span><\/i> so I was curious how the new house band would compare.\u00a0 The \u2018bumpers\u2019 the band play for the audience during commercial breaks aren\u2019t usually heard in their entirety by the TV audience.\u00a0 Returning from station breaks, the camera will pan across the band and that is when I began to take note of the be-hatted drummer in the band, Joe Saylor.\u00a0 When Colbert\u2019s normal studio entry music ends, he an Saylor always exchanging knowing looks and a couple of drum fills as if to say, \u201cYeah, baby, here we go again!\u201d\u00a0 My initial research on him was supposed to find out why Saylor always wears a hat, but in the end, I found out his story is much more interesting than \u2018he always wears a cowboy hat\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Saylor grew up in the relatively small (population 14,000) college town of Indiana, Pennsylvania,\u00a0 His parents were both public school music teachers so he was raised in a musical environment.\u00a0 His father noticed something in the way young Joe banged on the pots and pans in the kitchen, so by age three, he had a toy drum set.\u00a0 The family attended a church that featured a full band so his dad would let him sit up front with the drummer.\u00a0 When Joe wasn\u2019t sitting in for the drummer, he would be playing percussion, tambourine, woodblock or shakers just to be involved.\u00a0 His natural aptitude for the drums had him taking lessons from local college students by age eight.\u00a0 Saylor outgrew his teachers so at age twelve, his father began dropping him off on Saturdays at the home of jazz drumming legend Roger Humphries, sixty seven miles away in Pittsburgh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Saylor describes his \u2018lessons\u2019 with Humphries:\u00a0 \u201cMy dad would drive to Pittsburgh every Saturday and drop me off at Roger\u2019s house.\u00a0 I was taking lessons, but it was often more just about spending time with him and watching him play.\u00a0 Sometimes the whole lesson would be just Roger sitting at the drums and playing a solo for two hours straight.\u00a0 Or sometimes the lesson was him taking me across the street to his uncle\u2019s house.\u00a0 At that time, the entire street was occupied by members of the Humphries family, including Roger\u2019s mother and some of his uncles and aunts.\u00a0 Some of them had gone to elementary school with people like Art Blakey, Mary Lou Williams, and Bill Strayhorn, all jazz legends.\u201d\u00a0 When Saylor told this story to Jeff Potter in <\/span>Modern Drummer<\/span><\/i> magazine in 2014, he summed up the whole experience saying, \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe I was so lucky to experience being around those people.\u00a0 I remember going back to sixth grade the following Mondays and thinking to myself, \u2018I had an experience this weekend that none of my classmates would understand.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The early exposure to jazz had an unintended consequence.\u00a0 Even though his father was his high school band director, Saylor wasn\u2019t thrilled at being part of the band.\u00a0 He loved the sound of a marching drum line, but he thought, \u201cAw, this is dumb –\u00a0 I want to swing out!\u00a0 I hated it.\u00a0 I just wasn\u2019t into it.\u00a0 I just wanted to play drum set.\u00a0 Now, when I look back at my younger self, I wish I had taken it more seriously.\u201d\u00a0 Saylor can read drum scores but found over time he much prefers to follow the other musicians when creating music rather than just playing written parts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In high school, Saylor joined two friends in a jazz trio they called paj3 (\u201cpage three\u201d) which they coined by combining the first letter of their names.\u00a0 They expanded from local gigs to more substantial ones around Pittsburgh.\u00a0 Saylor\u2019s father used his music connections to get them gigs backing various artists who came through the area, like Ellis Marsalis.\u00a0 After six years of lessons with Humphries (that included playing out on some of his teacher\u2019s gigs), Saylor finally realized, \u201cOkay, I can do this professionally.\u201d\u00a0 As high school graduation neared, Joe took his sticks to New Orleans to soak up some of the music styles he had heard on some of his favorite records.\u00a0 While he was weighing a move to NOLA to continue his music studies, the Crescent City provided Joe with a glimpse into his future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Saylor told <\/span>Modern Drummer <\/span><\/i>his NOLA story:\u00a0 \u201cTrue story.\u00a0 I was just walking down the street one day, kind of aimlessly, because I didn\u2019t know where I was going.\u00a0 And John Batiste was standing on the street.\u00a0 I had my stick bag in my hand.\u00a0 He saw me and said, \u2018Hey, man!\u00a0 You play the drums?\u00a0 I play the piano,\u00a0 Let\u2019s go play.\u2019\u00a0 So I followed him into a building which happened to be his high school.\u00a0 In a classroom, there was a piano and a drum set. \u00a0 That\u2019s the first time we played together.\u00a0 We exchanged phone numbers, and then we both moved to New York a few months later.\u201d\u00a0 Saylor\u2019s musical education at the Manhattan School of Music culminated with a Master\u2019s at the Juilliard School.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s unplanned meeting with Batiste years earlier brought them back together in New York where they formed the Jonathan Batiste Trio.\u00a0 They released an independent CD (<\/span>Live in New York:\u00a0 At the Rubin Museum of Art<\/span><\/i>)<\/span> in 2006. When the bass player left the band, Saylor and Batiste found themselves at a crossroads:\u00a0 \u201cWe were left with no bass player and no gigs,\u201d Saylor recalled.\u00a0 It was a moment that started them moving forward toward their current gig with Colbert\u2019s <\/span>Late Show.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>The band filled out their ranks by adding tuba player Ibanda Ruhumbika and saxophonist Eddie Barbash.\u00a0 Their first grassroots campaign (or \u2018pavement\u2019 campaign as Potter calls it in his article) was to bring music to the people in the streets and subway stations.\u00a0 Then they got the inspiration that would separate them from the typical NYC buskers:\u00a0 \u201cWhy don\u2019t we play on the subway cars?\u00a0 Let\u2019s literally play a concert in the subway car for the whole ride.\u201d\u00a0 Saylor continues, \u201cSo we\u2019d set up in the subway car and play for an hour, the whole way from uptown to downtown.\u00a0 We did that every single night for an entire summer,\u00a0 We ended up getting so many fans.\u00a0 And we eventually realized that this is how we could build a fan base.\u201d\u00a0 Saylor would provide rhythm with a tambourine and Batiste would play the melodica rather than a standard keyboard.\u00a0 Even at club gigs, they often found themselves leading a conga line with the audience in tow;\u00a0 through the club, out to the streets and back again.\u00a0 Their growing reputation led to a spot on Comedy Central\u2019s <\/span>Colbert Report<\/span><\/i> in July of 2014.\u00a0 They played <\/span>Express Yourself <\/span><\/i>and ended up leading a N\u2019awlins type street parade out onto 54th Street where their block party was joined by people on the street.\u00a0 Saylor\u2019s understated assessment of their spot was, \u201cThey liked having us on the show.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Colbert took over <\/span>The Late Show<\/span><\/i> upon Letterman\u2019s retirement, he remembered Stay Human\u2019s visit to his old show and called Jon.\u00a0 Colbert found they approached comedy and music in very similar ways.\u00a0 The band was offered the high profile slot and given a free hand to keep their street band ethos.\u00a0 Most late night TV bands tend to use snippets of cover-tunes for the guest\u2019s walk on music and commercial bumpers.\u00a0 Stay Human uses original tunes, some crafted the very day of the taping.\u00a0 Saylor calls their style \u2018social music\u2019:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s the <\/span>intention<\/span><\/i> of the music.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about whether we\u2019re playing jazz or blues or rock,\u00a0 Whatever it is, it\u2019s about the intent, the spirit of the music.\u00a0 It\u2019s social music:\u00a0 music for and <\/span>with<\/span><\/i> people.\u201d\u00a0 As for how the music is created, Salyor continues, \u201cThere are no charts.\u00a0 This band has never depended on reading music.\u00a0 Usually Jon writes the music according to the guest,\u00a0 We pretty much learn everything by ear the day of (the taping).\u00a0 It\u2019s half and half:\u00a0 Jon either writes the music beforehand and brings it in and teaches it to us, or he comes up with it the day of.\u00a0 I personally hate reading sheet music while playing.\u00a0 I always have.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When they are called upon to accompany guest artists, they will usually get an MP3 of the music to learn before they rehearse with the guest musicians.\u00a0 Most will follow the band\u2019s relaxed way of putting the arrangements together.\u00a0 Don Henley was one guest who was quite specific as to what he needed from the band (and being a drummer, especially from Saylor):\u00a0 \u201cAt the rehearsal, [Henley] came over to me and said, \u2018Yeah, man, it\u2019s great, but it\u2019s not the <\/span>sound<\/span><\/i> that I want.\u00a0 Could you get a 7 inch deep snare drum and tune it to a certain pitch?\u2019\u00a0 I keep extra equipment there, so I asked my drum tech and he got me what Don asked for.\u00a0 Playing with Yo-Yo Ma was special, too.\u00a0 One of the things I love to do is collaborate in other genres – not just other genres of music but other genres of art.\u00a0 For instance, we accompanied and collaborated on the show with a tap dancer, Michelle Dorrance, who recently won the MacArthur genius grant.\u00a0 Playing with Ed Sheeran was also fun, because we played with him in the original Stay Human format of tambourine, melodica, sax, and tuba while he played guitar and sang.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Watching more recent \u2018homemade\u2019 COVID-19 episodes of <\/span>The Late Show<\/span><\/i> indicate that they have expanded the band\u2019s lineup a bit with a bass player, another percussionist, and an additional keyboard player.\u00a0 I had a couple of other questions about Saylor that have finally been answered.\u00a0 The first was, \u201cWhat do the four letters on his bass drum mean?\u201d (a question answered by a sudden flash of insight:\u00a0 <\/span>L<\/span>ate <\/span>S<\/span>how w\/ <\/span>S<\/span>teven <\/span>C<\/span>olbert).\u00a0 The second (Does Saylor have a family?) was also answered recently when Baptiste congratulated him on air for the birth of the Saylor family\u2019s first child).\u00a0 The only remaining question?\u00a0 Why the cowboy hat?\u00a0 It probably isn\u2019t to ward off a sunburn on his shaved head as his main gig takes place indoors.\u00a0 I will let you know if and when I find out what inspired his trademark headgear.\u00a0 In the meantime, remember the name of Joe Saylor.\u00a0 I have a feeling that he and Baptiste will be making their brand of social music for a long time.\u00a0 Seeing Stay Human on the front lines of the NYC \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 marches certainly fits in with Saylor\u2019s description of their music:\u00a0 \u201cMusic for and with people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video: Speaking of Dwight, Buck and the Bakersfield sound . . . and men in hats!