Havin’ fun and carryin’ on the heritage
17th June 2019 · 0 Comments
By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer
“I like to have fun on the bandstand – it creates a good vibe,” declares drummer and vocalist Gerald French who does just that every time he sits behind his set. Thoughts turned to French following two recent shows, Donna’s Revisited at Snug Harbor and his Jazz Fest performance leading the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band. In 2011, he took over leadership of the historic ensemble from his uncle, the late drummer Bob French, who succeeded the band’s leader, banjoist Albert “Papa” French. On both occasions, Gerald just drove the traditional jazz groups with his steady yet intricate stick work and big personality. He was an instigator for revving up the music and mood.
New Orleans musical families’ importance in carrying on the sound of the city from father or grandfather to son or daughter become prominent. The French clan is major in that number with Gerald being the son of bassist and vocalist George French and the nephew of Bob French all of whom boast a musical lineage going back decades.
Because he plays drums, many people think Bob was Gerald’s father. “I get that all of the time,” says Gerald adding that he was highly influenced by his uncle.
“I’m always the jokester, I’m always the prankster when it comes to certain things. It’s part of my personality. It’s something I used to see my Uncle Bob do. He would always have a good time as well as play good music.”
That Gerald didn’t take up the bass like his father made sense as, he says, if he played the same instrument they wouldn’t be able to perform together. He vividly remembers the first time they actually did share a bandstand.
“When I was a teenager, I would do sound for my dad,” he offers, adding that sometimes, when James Black was on his father’s gig, George would borrow his drums for Black to use. “Sometimes James Black would have drums and sometimes he wouldn’t have drums.” So it wasn’t unusual that George asked his son to bring his drums to his show at the Marriott hotel apparently for Black.
“I had a suit on and got everything set up and I go grab me a seat by the sound board. So five minutes before the gig, he (his father) goes ‘Come on, okay let’s go.’ And I said, ‘Come on, let’s go where?’ ‘Oh, you’re playing drums tonight.’ ‘Man why didn’t you tell me?’ I was on the gig and didn’t know I was, I the gig. I think it was kind of planned by him and he just didn’t want me to get nervous.”
Gerald grew up playing drums in the First African Baptist Church. “It was old-school gospel – strictly a pocket kind of groove,” he explains. “You just kept the groove and you kept your gig. The thing that I got out of playing in church was the discipline of playing in the pocket and knowing your role as a rhythm section musician and just holding things together.”
The church is also where he began singing and continued lifting his voice in high school, though, he was understandably somewhat intimidated in this endeavor because of the talented vocalists in his family. “Having somebody in your family who sings like my dad, it was like, ‘No, this is something I don’t even need to fool with.’”
Though Gerald readily admits he was really shy as a youngster, he recalls eventually coming out of his shell when he began to understand that he had his own voice. “I could do me and everything would be okay.”
An intensely involved musician, Gerald really goes after and incorporates the entire drum set making maximum use of the tonal qualities of what some might consider “auxiliary” elements like the cowbell and woodblock.
“That’s what I grew up listening to so I emulate a lot of those things,” he explains. “The cowbell is just an intricate part of that drumming style. To me, that’s the whole thing, you’ve got to use what you got. You’ve got cats that aren’t from here and they don’t understand the importance of that and they don’t understand the nuances that you can play with a cowbell. At Preservation Hall they don’t have a full drum set – not all the toms. There, the cowbell and woodblock are very important because I can still play different rhythmic ideas.”
Given his creds as the leader of the Tuxedo, which performs weekly at Bourbon Street’s Jazz Playhouse, his early years playing with the Young Olympia Brass Band and a standing gig on Tuesday and Thursday nights at Fritzel’s as well as his family’s background in classic jazz, people naturally consider Gerald to be a traditional drummer. “That’s not necessarily the case – I’m a musician,” he states.
His modern approach and influences from the likes of drummers Herlin Riley and David Lee, with whom he took lessons, can be detected when he performs with trumpeter and vocalist Leroy Jones. When Gerald is behind Jones, who he’s played with for decades and continues to travel with, he moves right along with the trumpeter when he takes more modern turns. Check it out on Jones’ 1997 release, Props for Pops.
“His songwriting, his passion for the music and how he takes traditional songs and puts his own spin on them, to me, that’s the whole thing of being an artist,” Gerald says in praise of Jones.
Gerald also spent 14 years backing vocalist Charmaine Neville, only departing the band to take over the Original Tuxedo.
“I hear certain things in the music and that’s what I try to play,” Gerald simply states. “It’s not a pile of technique, it’s musicality. I listen and serve the music.”
This article originally published in the June 17, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
