511 - Jamey Haddad: Playing with Paul Simon, Playing What You Know vs. What You Feel, Bringing Cultural Authenticity to Pop Music

Working Drummer

Jamey Haddad's career as a drummer and percussionist has spanned five decades, countless genres, and multiple continents. For over 25 years, he’s had a close relationship with Paul Simon, playing alongside Steve Gadd on multiple records and live projects. He has appeared on over 170 recordings and has played with a wide range of artists from Joe Lovano to Yo Yo Ma, and his career as an educator has found him at Berklee, New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

In this episode, Jamey talks about:

• Playing with Paul Simon, and Paul’s constant desire to rehearse and adjust how his music is presented
• Recording the album You’re The One and collaborating with Steve Gadd to create the rhythmic and textural foundations for those songs
• Committing to representing the traditions he studied in the pop world
• How a given style can be treated as both an academic subject or a folkloric tradition
• “Every generation needs its music.”
• How to make people you’re playing with know you’re listening to them

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