PART ONE
THE INTERVIEWS
ROBBY AMEEN
What inspired you to start playing the drums? When I was really
little, I guess primary school, we were given a project. We were
studying Native Americans and we had to make drums. I used rubber
from the inner part of an auto tire and I put it over a can and I had
these little chopsticks – so I had a little drumset. I used to play that, a
lot.
Later on, some cousins of mine were getting married. I went to
the wedding and they had a drumset up in the attic that they weren’t
using. They knew I’d been playing on these rubber things for so
many years so they gave me the drumset and I just started playing,
you know. The funny thing is the guy who gave me the drumset, my
cousin who was a little older, heard me playing and said “You sound
good, but you know, by the time you are ready to turn pro, it’ll all be
computers.” He said that back in 1970 – so he was right!
At about the same time I had a teacher in school that gave me
an early Miles Davis record and he gave me Coltrane’s “Africa/
Brass.” I was in the fourth or fifth grade and I freaked out – I didn’t
understand any of it, but I loved it. That was a great introduction – It
blew my mind.
What were your main goals as a kid learning his craft? I was just
totally into it. Whether you’re into sports, music or whatever, if that’s
what you want to do with your life there’s usually a point pretty early
on where it just grabs you and that’s all you do. You know, where it’s
like your parents have to pull you away from it as opposed to telling
you to practice. So I was just practicing for hours and hours and
hours a day like everybody does. I just wanted to make it as a profes-
sional drummer and hoped that that could happen. That was really
my goal. I idolized lots of drummers, you know, Steve Gadd, Elvin
Jones and I was lucky enough to see a lot of these guys play. I’d go
watch them play and go home dreaming about it.
How did you approach your own development? I started out self-
taught, then I had a teacher for like 6 months. He was head of the
local union and he’d spend the whole lesson on the phone yelling at
people. He was one of these practice pad guys – he wouldn’t let me
play the drumset, which was frustrating, but it helped with my hands.
I understand it now but he was a little too extreme.
Then I studied with a piano player which was kind of hip. He
was a jazz player who used to be a drummer. We would just play to-
gether - he’d write out stuff and he’d write out drum pieces then he’d
play on the piano and I’d have to play what he wrote.
Later on in high school I got to study with Ed Blackwell,
which was fantastic. He had just had problems with his kidney so
he’d slowed down and was teaching at a University. I went and found
him in the town he was teaching and I got to study with him.
My practice was pretty much what a teacher would have you
practice, you know, it could be snare drum etudes, exercises Ed gave
me, and then of course practicing to records - which is probably
mostly what I did. Another thing I did was play along to salsa re-
cords. The thing about that which was very cool was that there were
no drums in salsa so I was kind of inventing my own thing and you
sort of knew whether you are clashing or not. I spent quite a lot of
time doing that too.
Do you still set goals for yourself today? Really to just do what I
do, and do more of it. I’m starting to write more, which is something
I never really did before. I’ve done a few records with Horacio Her-
nandez (a double drum band) but now I’m working on a solo record.
The thing that I’ve always felt about writing a solo record is that you
should write the music - you don’t have to write all of it necessarily,
but otherwise you’re still sort of a sideman. You know, you’ve got to
write the music or it’s really not your record. You can lead a band and
