James Gadson is one of those legendary drummers known to industry insiders. He has played with Quincy Jones, BB King, Diana Ross, The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, and many others. Old School Guys (OSG) wanted to talk with him about his work on the album Still Bill with Bill Withers. Specifically, we wanted to talk about Use Me and Lean on Me.
Here are the songs that we discuss during this interview.
Of course, we focused on two classic tunes – Use Me and Lean on Me. The players on Still Bill were – Bill Withers – vocals, guitar, acoustic piano, acoustic guitar; Ray Jackson – acoustic piano, clavinet, Wurlitzer, electric piano, horn, and string arrangements; Benorce Blackmon – guitar; Melvin Dunlap – bass guitar; James Gadson – drums, percussion; Bobbye Hall – percussion.
OSG is a work in progress. We originally recorded this and played the tunes in the video so that you (the listener) could hear the music. We then had James comment on it. Well, that’s great if we could get copyright clearance. Trying to figure out who has the copyright and then get permission takes a supercomputer and a wad of cash. We don’t have either. So, we had to edit the music portions out of the final mix to pass the YouTube inspectors.
This is a wonderful interview with one of the all-time great drummers, James Gadson. Let us know what you think. We appreciate the feedback.
