WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.540 Imagine waking up on a Tuesday morning, right? 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:05.139 You walk into a recording studio and you're told 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:08.859 your job for the day is to play rigid Polished 00:00:08.859 --> 00:00:11.720 just totally metronomically perfect pop music. 00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:14.220 Oh, wow. Okay Yeah, like it's a track designed 00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:16.920 specifically for teenagers to dance to on national 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:19.699 television Yeah, so, you know you lock in you 00:00:19.699 --> 00:00:23.039 build this flawless unshakable rhythmic grid. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:26.039 You just play it totally straight exactly but 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:28.379 then imagine waking up on Wednesday driving to 00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:30.920 a completely different studio across town and 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:34.460 the producer asks you to just throw out every 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:36.479 single rule of rhythm you use the day before 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:38.979 just toss it all out the window yep because now 00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:42.340 you're playing wildly experimental, avant -garde 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:46.439 free jazz with Ornette Coleman. No grid, no steady 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.960 pulse, just pure, spontaneous sonic texture. 00:00:49.219 --> 00:00:51.420 I mean, that's a level of mental and physical 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:53.640 whiplash that most musicians, even the absolute 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:55.520 greats, would really struggle and navigate. You 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:57.179 were talking about completely different musical 00:00:57.179 --> 00:01:00.000 languages there. Exactly. But in the mid -20th 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.500 century, there was one man who didn't just imagine 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:05.760 that scenario. He literally lived it. Yeah, he 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:08.239 did. And he used at least seven different names 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:11.140 to pull it off. So welcome to the deep dive. 00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:14.099 Today we are exploring the life of an American 00:01:14.099 --> 00:01:16.480 drummer named Samuel Evans, though he was way 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:19.760 better known as Sticks Evans. And he's a fascinating 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:22.299 figure. He really is. Our mission today is to 00:01:22.299 --> 00:01:24.560 show you how a seemingly straightforward list 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:27.900 of dates, names, and recording credits actually 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:32.739 serves as a skeleton key. It unlocks this hidden, 00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:36.079 deeply interconnected reality of the mid -20th 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:39.510 century music industry. Honestly, I like to think 00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:42.569 of Stix Evans as sort of the Kevin Bacon of 20th 00:01:42.569 --> 00:01:44.650 century music. Yeah, I love that analogy. Right, 00:01:44.750 --> 00:01:46.750 he's this connective thread linking just wildly 00:01:46.750 --> 00:01:48.909 different musical universes. Okay, let's unpack 00:01:48.909 --> 00:01:52.909 this. Who exactly was Stix Evans? Well... We 00:01:52.909 --> 00:01:54.909 can ground ourselves with his vital stats first. 00:01:55.209 --> 00:01:57.989 Samuel Evans was born on February 5, 1923 and 00:01:57.989 --> 00:02:00.609 passed away on April 11th in 1994 in New York 00:02:00.609 --> 00:02:03.310 City. OK, so a long life. Yeah. And his active 00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:05.469 professional years span this incredible stretch 00:02:05.469 --> 00:02:09.449 from 1948 all the way to his death in 1994. And, 00:02:09.610 --> 00:02:11.530 you know, he wasn't strictly confined to the 00:02:11.530 --> 00:02:13.509 drum throne either. Right. He did a bit of everything. 00:02:13.710 --> 00:02:16.069 He really did. He was a percussionist, a music 00:02:16.069 --> 00:02:18.969 teacher and arranger and even a musical director. 00:02:19.430 --> 00:02:20.930 I got to say, the very first thing that jumps 00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:23.689 out when you look at his career is his identity, 00:02:24.610 --> 00:02:27.530 or, well, rather, his incredibly fluid approach 00:02:27.530 --> 00:02:30.689 to his own identity. Yeah, the names. It's wild. 00:02:30.889 --> 00:02:34.370 He is credited on various records as Sammy Stick 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:36.830 Evans, Sammy Evans with one M, Sammy Evans with 00:02:36.830 --> 00:02:40.770 two, Sammy with an I, Stick Evans as Sticks Evans, 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:43.620 and Bilton Evans. It's a lot to keep track of. 00:02:43.699 --> 00:02:46.139 What's fascinating here is what that massive 00:02:46.139 --> 00:02:49.439 list of aliases actually tells us about the sheer 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:52.500 unglamorous hustle of being a working -session 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:54.479 musician during that era. Yeah, it wasn't just 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:57.639 for fun. No, not at all. When an individual operates 00:02:57.639 --> 00:02:59.879 under seven or eight variations of their name, 00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:03.599 it speaks directly to the... the cutthroat mechanics 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:05.460 of the recording industry at the time. Right, 00:03:05.639 --> 00:03:08.000 because we aren't talking about a modern pop 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.939 star adopting an alter ego for some fancy concept 00:03:10.939 --> 00:03:12.699 album. This feels like, I don't know, survival. 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:14.840 It was absolutely about survival. You have to 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:17.460 remember just how intensely territorial record 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:20.400 labels were in the mid -20th century. Like they 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:22.889 owned you. Pretty much. If a musician signed 00:03:22.889 --> 00:03:25.210 an exclusive contract with a specific label, 00:03:25.569 --> 00:03:27.949 they were legally barred from crossing the street 00:03:27.949 --> 00:03:31.129 and recording for a rival label. Wow. But session 00:03:31.129 --> 00:03:33.669 musicians, they didn't have the luxury of just 00:03:33.669 --> 00:03:35.789 sitting around waiting for their primary label 00:03:35.789 --> 00:03:37.629 to call them in for a session. I mean, they were 00:03:37.629 --> 00:03:40.490 paid per big. Yeah, they had rent to pay in New 00:03:40.490 --> 00:03:43.710 York City. Exactly. So wait, if you get caught 00:03:43.710 --> 00:03:46.289 moonlighting for a rival label under your real 00:03:46.289 --> 00:03:48.569 name, what happens? Are you just blacklisted? 00:03:48.789 --> 00:03:52.400 Oh, yeah. You could face severe financial penalties, 00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:55.139 breach of contract lawsuits, or yes, you could 00:03:55.139 --> 00:03:57.800 literally be blacklisted by the very producers 00:03:57.800 --> 00:03:59.979 who controlled your livelihood. That is terrifying. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:03.340 It is. So to mitigate that massive risk, you 00:04:03.340 --> 00:04:05.460 simply vanished on paper. You'd show up at a 00:04:05.460 --> 00:04:07.840 different studio, lay down the tracks, take your 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:10.319 cash in an envelope, and just walk away. Right. 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:12.319 And when the album came out, the liner notes 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:15.199 would suddenly credit a Belton Evans or a Sammy 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:17.879 Evans. It's a brilliant reflection of a working 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:20.740 artist navigating the deeply exploitative business 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:22.639 side of music. You just do what you have to do 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:24.540 to keep the sticks in your hands, right? Mm -hmm. 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:27.139 Totally. And his playing timeline in the early 00:04:27.139 --> 00:04:30.899 1950s is just a perfect illustration of that 00:04:30.899 --> 00:04:33.879 relentless hustle. Like in 1950, he's recording 00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:36.480 with the Milt Buckner Orchestra, backing the 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:38.730 rhythm and blues singer, Winone Harris. Which, 00:04:38.829 --> 00:04:41.410 by the way, is a massive, highly structured sonic 00:04:41.410 --> 00:04:44.029 environment. Right. But then just two years later, 00:04:44.389 --> 00:04:48.029 in 1952 and 1953, he is recording with Milt Buckner's 00:04:48.029 --> 00:04:51.009 Organ Trio. OK, totally different vibe. Completely. 00:04:51.410 --> 00:04:54.029 And then he leaves that trio in February 1953. 00:04:54.589 --> 00:04:58.089 And by 1954, he has moved on entirely, playing 00:04:58.089 --> 00:05:00.829 in the Teddy Wilson Trio alongside the legendary 00:05:00.829 --> 00:05:03.500 bassist Milt Hinton. The rapid evolution in that 00:05:03.500 --> 00:05:05.540 four -year window is really striking. I mean, 00:05:05.660 --> 00:05:08.680 it's incredibly fast. I have to push back on 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:10.199 this a little bit, though. OK, let's hear it. 00:05:10.379 --> 00:05:12.439 Because when I see a guy jumping from a massive 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:15.779 full orchestra in 1950 down to an Oregon Trio 00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:17.819 and then immediately hopping over to a totally 00:05:17.819 --> 00:05:19.500 different piano trio with Teddy Wilson. Yeah. 00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:22.339 Like, does that mean Evans was just a hired gun? 00:05:22.699 --> 00:05:24.759 Was he just desperately taking whatever gig paid 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:27.139 the bills that month? Or are we seeing an artist 00:05:27.139 --> 00:05:29.500 actively searching for his own definitive sound? 00:05:29.740 --> 00:05:32.959 That is the ultimate tension of a session musician's 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:35.560 life, honestly. But I think to really understand 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:37.480 what he was doing, we have to look at the physics 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:39.519 of those specific ensembles. What do you mean 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:43.319 by physics? Well, playing drums in a full orchestra 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:46.779 is an exercise in horsepower and precision. You 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:49.279 are the engine of a massive machine. You have 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:52.420 to drive an entire horn section and keep a dozen 00:05:52.420 --> 00:05:55.000 other musicians locked into the conductor's vision. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:57.839 Okay, yeah. It's almost like driving a massive 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:00.449 semi -truck. Like, you have to plan your turns 00:06:00.449 --> 00:06:02.889 a mile in advance, and you cannot just go off 00:06:02.889 --> 00:06:05.709 script. Exactly. You'd crash the truck. But then 00:06:05.709 --> 00:06:08.350 he moves to an organ trio. The physics there 00:06:08.350 --> 00:06:11.879 completely change. How so? In an organ trio, 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:14.720 the Hammond B3 organ takes up an enormous amount 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:17.579 of sonic frequency. It's just huge. The drummer 00:06:17.579 --> 00:06:20.139 has to figure out how to lock in with the heavy 00:06:20.139 --> 00:06:23.139 driving bass pedals that the organist is literally 00:06:23.139 --> 00:06:25.980 playing with their feet without moneying up the 00:06:25.980 --> 00:06:28.740 low end of the mix. It's incredibly dense. And 00:06:28.740 --> 00:06:31.220 then he pivots again to a piano trio with Teddy 00:06:31.220 --> 00:06:33.120 Wilson and Milt Hinton. Right, which is much 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.920 lighter. Oh, completely. Now we're talking about 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:41.529 elegant conversational acoustic swing. The sonic 00:06:41.529 --> 00:06:44.290 space opens completely up. The drummer has to 00:06:44.290 --> 00:06:46.509 put away the heavy sticks, pull out the brushes, 00:06:46.870 --> 00:06:49.629 play delicately, and just listen intently to 00:06:49.629 --> 00:06:52.290 the unamplified resonance of the acoustic bass. 00:06:52.790 --> 00:06:54.470 So it's not just jumping between gigs at all. 00:06:54.569 --> 00:06:57.490 It's jumping between entirely different instrumental 00:06:57.490 --> 00:07:00.529 vocabularies. Precisely. The fact that Evans 00:07:00.529 --> 00:07:02.970 could seamlessly navigate all three of those 00:07:02.970 --> 00:07:05.649 highly specialized rhythmic environments in a 00:07:05.649 --> 00:07:08.040 four -year window? They're crazy. It is. And 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:10.639 it doesn't say desperate hired gun. It says master 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:13.120 craftsman. He wasn't searching for a sound. He 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:15.199 was proving that he already possessed the vocabulary 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:17.779 to speak any musical language the room required. 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:20.759 Wow. So he was building this massive adaptable 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.680 toolkit. Yes. And that chameleon -like ability 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:26.300 he developed in the 50s became his absolute greatest 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:28.959 weapon when he hit his most prolific studio era 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:31.660 in the early 1960s. Oh, the 60s were huge for 00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:33.459 him. Yeah. This is when he becomes the secret 00:07:33.459 --> 00:07:35.620 weapon for Prestige Records, completely under 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:38.319 the guise of his most prominent alias, Belton 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.560 Evans. Yes. His era at Prestige is phenomenal. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.399 As Belton Evans, he foams this incredibly tight 00:07:45.399 --> 00:07:48.300 rhythm section partnership, accompanied constantly 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:51.540 on bass by Leonard Gaskin. And the roster of 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:55.800 blues giants they backed as a duo is just staggering. 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.680 It really is. I mean, he is laying down the rhythm 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:00.879 for Curtis Jones on the album Trouble Blues. 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:04.439 He's with Sunnyland Slim on Slim's Shout. He's 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:07.060 backing Sonny Terry on two separate albums, Sonny's 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:09.910 Story and Sonny is King. The list just goes on. 00:08:09.930 --> 00:08:12.029 He's playing with Big John Greer, Laverne Baker, 00:08:12.170 --> 00:08:15.490 King Curtis. And then in 1960 alone, he plays 00:08:15.490 --> 00:08:17.970 on Lightnin' Hopkins' album, Lightnin' and Roosevelt 00:08:17.970 --> 00:08:20.449 Sykes, The Honeydripper. I mean, it's a definitive 00:08:20.449 --> 00:08:23.329 who's who of mid -century blues. Truly. But again, 00:08:23.410 --> 00:08:25.449 we need to think about the immense technical 00:08:25.449 --> 00:08:27.829 and emotional adaptability required to pull that 00:08:27.829 --> 00:08:30.889 off. You are the Rysmic Foundation, but every 00:08:30.889 --> 00:08:32.950 one of those bluesmen requires a totally different 00:08:32.950 --> 00:08:34.850 kind of architecture from you. Give me an example. 00:08:35.070 --> 00:08:38.070 Well, Sunnyland Slim plays a very specific, driving, 00:08:38.370 --> 00:08:41.269 heavy -handed Chicago blues style. It demands 00:08:41.269 --> 00:08:44.409 a propulsive, relentless backbeat. Okay, but 00:08:44.409 --> 00:08:46.190 Lightning Hopkins is the exact opposite of that. 00:08:46.330 --> 00:08:49.389 His Texas country blues is notorious for its 00:08:49.389 --> 00:08:52.429 loose, unpredictable timing. Like you can't just 00:08:52.429 --> 00:08:55.149 set a metronome to a 4 -4 beat and expect Lightning 00:08:55.149 --> 00:08:58.149 Hopkins to follow you. Not at all. Solo bluesmen 00:08:58.149 --> 00:09:01.909 like Hopkins, they often add or drop entire measures 00:09:01.909 --> 00:09:04.909 based purely on their vocal phrasing. Just whenever 00:09:04.909 --> 00:09:07.549 they feel like it. Pretty much. If he feels like 00:09:07.549 --> 00:09:09.590 holding a note for an extra three beats because 00:09:09.590 --> 00:09:11.690 the emotion of the lyric demands it, he just 00:09:11.690 --> 00:09:14.649 holds it. As the drummer, you have to be telepathic. 00:09:14.750 --> 00:09:17.049 You have to anticipate where he is going to drop 00:09:17.049 --> 00:09:20.000 a beat before he even does it. Man. Playing behind 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:21.899 lightening Hopkins isn't like laying bricks on 00:09:21.899 --> 00:09:25.679 a grid. It's more like trying to tether a hot 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:29.000 air balloon. Oh, I like that. The timing is erratic. 00:09:29.340 --> 00:09:31.220 The wind is constantly shifting. And as the rhythm 00:09:31.220 --> 00:09:33.580 section, you aren't laying down a rigid path. 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:36.340 You're constantly adjusting the slack so the 00:09:36.340 --> 00:09:38.379 balloon doesn't fly away or crash into the ground. 00:09:38.539 --> 00:09:40.480 That is a brilliant way to conceptualize it. 00:09:40.500 --> 00:09:43.519 It requires an entirely ego -less approach to 00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:46.350 the instrument. Because you can't show off. Exactly. 00:09:46.610 --> 00:09:49.269 You aren't there to play flashy drum fills. You 00:09:49.269 --> 00:09:52.649 are there to serve the specific, shifting, emotional 00:09:52.649 --> 00:09:54.769 core of whoever is sitting in the room with you. 00:09:54.970 --> 00:09:57.169 It makes me think of the Evans and Gaskin rhythm 00:09:57.169 --> 00:10:03.139 section. A reliable duo of character actors in 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:06.000 movies. Oh, yeah, the, hey, it's that guy actors. 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:09.000 Yes. You know the exact type. The supporting 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.539 actors who show up in 100 different films. They 00:10:11.539 --> 00:10:13.779 do all the heavy lifting in a scene. They set 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:16.419 the tone. They provide the crucial reaction shots. 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:19.679 They make the A -list star look absolutely incredible. 00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:21.700 But they never steal the spotlight. Exactly. 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:24.460 They never, ever pull focus away from the lead. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:26.519 You don't walk out of the theater talking about 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:28.759 the character actor. But the entire movie would 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:31.139 fall apart without them. They provide the structural 00:10:31.139 --> 00:10:33.860 integrity for the stars to shine. And in the 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:36.519 blues world of the early 60s, Evans and Gaskin 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:38.720 were the ultimate character actors. OK, now, 00:10:38.860 --> 00:10:41.940 if you are listening to this, you might logically 00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:44.019 think, all right, Sticks Evans or Belton Evans, 00:10:44.259 --> 00:10:47.320 he found his definitive lane. He was a blues 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:50.659 traditionalist who spent the 60s mastering deep 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:52.620 traditional roots music. That would make sense. 00:10:52.700 --> 00:10:55.840 But here is the massive twist. At the exact same 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:57.980 time he is tethering the hot air balloon for 00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:00.799 Leighton Hopkins, he is secretly building a resume 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:03.700 in entirely different, radically groundbreaking 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:06.019 genres. Yeah, the genre hopping we see in his 00:11:06.019 --> 00:11:09.299 1960s discography is frankly mind -boggling. 00:11:09.379 --> 00:11:11.919 It completely shatters any notion of him being 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:14.240 confined to one style. So here's where it gets 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.289 really interesting. Let's look at the avant -garde 00:11:16.289 --> 00:11:18.470 and jazz side of his work. Okay, let's do it. 00:11:18.629 --> 00:11:21.889 In 1961, the very same era he's playing deep 00:11:21.889 --> 00:11:26.129 blues, he appears on John Lewis' album Jazz Abstractions. 00:11:26.230 --> 00:11:28.870 Mm -hmm. And the personnel on this record is 00:11:28.870 --> 00:11:31.230 insane. It's unbelievable. He's playing alongside 00:11:31.230 --> 00:11:34.389 Bill Evans, Garrick Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and 00:11:34.389 --> 00:11:36.330 Jim Hall. Like, this isn't standard swing and 00:11:36.330 --> 00:11:38.750 jazz. This is the bleeding edge of experimental 00:11:38.750 --> 00:11:40.690 third stream music. Absolutely. And he doesn't 00:11:40.690 --> 00:11:42.970 stop there. He plays on Ornette Coleman's album 00:11:42.970 --> 00:11:46.370 Beauty is a Rare Thing, also in 1961. Wow. And 00:11:46.370 --> 00:11:49.009 prior to that, in 1960, he was on Charles Mingus's 00:11:49.009 --> 00:11:52.009 album Pre -Bird, which Mingus later re -released 00:11:52.009 --> 00:11:54.950 as Mingus Revisited. Mingus and Coleman are the 00:11:54.950 --> 00:11:58.029 architects of incredibly complex, barrier -breaking, 00:11:58.370 --> 00:12:01.210 free -form jazz. But wait, the whiplash continues. 00:12:01.690 --> 00:12:05.139 Look at the soul. pop and R &B side of his discography. 00:12:05.179 --> 00:12:08.059 It just keeps going. In 1961, the exact same 00:12:08.059 --> 00:12:10.240 year he's playing avant -garde free jazz with 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:12.759 Hornet Coleman, he is a member of the Ray Bryant 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:15.580 combo, backing the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:18.960 on her second album, Aretha. with the Ray Brant 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:21.000 Comp. That's just wild. He's also the drummer 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.019 on Sam Cooke at the Kurpa in 1964. He played 00:12:24.019 --> 00:12:26.759 with Mickey Baker on the Wildest Guitar in 1959 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:31.240 and Bud Johnson's Ya Ya in 1964. Number one that 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:33.620 really breaks my brain, honestly, Neil Sedaka. 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:35.960 Oh yeah, Neil Sedaka. 6 Evans played on Rock 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:41.159 with Sedaka in 1959. Neil Sedaka is pure, pristine, 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:44.320 commercially polished, drill building pat music. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:46.980 So I just have to ask you, how does a single 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:49.100 drummer's brain physically and mentally switch 00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:52.019 from the rigid, commercially perfect pop structure 00:12:52.019 --> 00:12:55.720 of Neil Sadaka to the wildly free, abstract, 00:12:55.860 --> 00:12:58.299 avant -garde jazz of Ornette Coleman? It's a 00:12:58.299 --> 00:13:00.100 great question, and if we connect this to the 00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:02.240 bigger picture, Sticks Evans proves that the 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:04.820 neat, isolated genre categorizations we force 00:13:04.820 --> 00:13:07.279 on musicians today are largely a modern invention. 00:13:07.659 --> 00:13:10.120 What do you mean by that? Well, today, algorithms 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:12.700 dictate our listening right. They put up walls 00:13:12.700 --> 00:13:15.639 and say, you are a jazz listener or you are a 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:18.600 pop artist. But Evans proves that in the mid 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.940 20th century, the borders between pristine pop, 00:13:22.269 --> 00:13:25.809 early rock, traditional blues, and highly experimental 00:13:25.809 --> 00:13:29.110 jazz were incredibly porous. Porous borders. 00:13:29.610 --> 00:13:31.769 Like, the walls between genres were paper thin, 00:13:31.850 --> 00:13:33.730 and guys like Evans were just walking freely 00:13:33.730 --> 00:13:36.129 between the rooms. Exactly. And to answer your 00:13:36.129 --> 00:13:38.610 question about how his brain switches, it's about 00:13:38.610 --> 00:13:41.929 viewing rhythm not as a rigid set of rules, but 00:13:41.929 --> 00:13:44.730 as a fluid spectrum. OK, a spectrum. Yeah. So 00:13:44.730 --> 00:13:46.610 when he steps into the studio with Neil Sadaka, 00:13:47.090 --> 00:13:49.250 he understands his job is basically architectural 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:52.820 drafting. The song needs a relentless, metronomic 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:55.159 pulse that teenagers can intuitively understand 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:57.480 and dance to. Keep it simple, keep it driving, 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:00.200 and just do not deviate from the blueprint. Right. 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:02.440 But when he steps into a room with Ornette Coleman 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:05.179 for Beauty is a rare thing, the blueprint is 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:07.909 intentionally set on fire. He's no longer an 00:14:07.909 --> 00:14:10.409 architect. He's an abstract expressionist painter. 00:14:11.029 --> 00:14:14.090 The tempo in free jazz is often implied rather 00:14:14.090 --> 00:14:17.289 than overtly stated. He has to listen deeply 00:14:17.289 --> 00:14:20.289 to the chaotic, brilliant lines Eric Dolfi and 00:14:20.289 --> 00:14:23.169 Ornette Coleman are playing and respond in real 00:14:23.169 --> 00:14:25.809 time with textures. Like splashes and accents. 00:14:26.009 --> 00:14:28.710 Exactly. With abstract splashes of symbols with 00:14:28.710 --> 00:14:31.330 unpredictable accents that provoke the soloists. 00:14:31.649 --> 00:14:33.950 It's a completely different neurological exercise. 00:14:34.090 --> 00:14:36.799 It is. The fact that he was trusting by both 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:39.519 the commercial hit makers producing Neil Sadekka 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:42.840 and a genius like Charles Mingus and Mingus was 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:45.980 a man notoriously demanding and volatile with 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:47.679 his musicians, by the way. Oh, I've heard the 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:49.960 stories, yeah. Right, so to be trusted by both 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:52.679 shows an almost supernatural level of musical 00:14:52.679 --> 00:14:54.899 empathy. Supernatural musical empathy, I love 00:14:54.899 --> 00:14:57.559 that. He could walk into any room, instantly 00:14:57.559 --> 00:15:00.840 read the... emotional and structural requirements 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:03.480 of the universe that Ruhm existed in and just 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:05.600 become exactly what the music needed him to be. 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:07.960 And by doing so, you know, he didn't just passively 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:10.860 participate in these different genres. He actively 00:15:10.860 --> 00:15:13.220 shaped the foundational recordings that defined 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:16.019 them from the sophisticated energy of the Copa 00:15:16.019 --> 00:15:19.360 with Sam Cooke to the dense, demanding studio 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:22.259 sessions with Mingus. It's the ultimate evidence 00:15:22.259 --> 00:15:25.500 of an artist who flatly refused to be boxed in. 00:15:25.860 --> 00:15:29.200 Now, all of this accumulated knowledge. this 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:32.259 unparalleled ability to understand the physics 00:15:32.259 --> 00:15:36.399 of every conceivable genre, it did not just stay 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:38.220 trapped on the vinyl records he played on, did 00:15:38.220 --> 00:15:40.879 it? No, it didn't. It flowed directly into his 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.799 role, completely off the stage. Oh yes. If we 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:45.779 look back at the very beginning of his professional 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:48.320 description, we are reminded that he wasn't just 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:51.500 a player, he was a music teacher. And the specific 00:15:51.500 --> 00:15:54.080 pupils mentioned in his orbit are fascinating. 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.120 They really are. The text specifically highlights 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:00.139 three prominent musicians he taught, Bernard 00:16:00.139 --> 00:16:03.980 Purdy, Max Newhouse, and Terry Burrus. Now, without 00:16:03.980 --> 00:16:05.840 going down the rabbit hole of their entire separate 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:08.200 biographies, the mere fact that these highly 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:10.419 influential names are listed under his tutelage 00:16:10.419 --> 00:16:12.620 speaks volumes about what he was passing down. 00:16:12.779 --> 00:16:14.820 It does. And this is really where we find the 00:16:14.820 --> 00:16:17.080 why it matters aspect of Sticks Evans' life. 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:19.840 The mark of a true master isn't solely found 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:22.919 in the discography they leave behind. The records 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:25.419 are beautiful, sure, but they are ultimately 00:16:25.419 --> 00:16:29.200 a snapshot frozen in time. The true mark of mastery 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:31.879 is in the knowledge passed down to the next generation. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.139 It's the ripple effect of all that cross -genre 00:16:34.139 --> 00:16:37.210 playing. Exactly. By teaching musicians like 00:16:37.210 --> 00:16:39.990 Purdy, Newhouse, and Burruss, Evans's legacy 00:16:39.990 --> 00:16:43.110 becomes exponential. He took the rigid ensemble 00:16:43.110 --> 00:16:45.490 discipline he learned in the Milt Buckner Orchestra, 00:16:45.889 --> 00:16:48.529 the deep telepathic listening he honed while 00:16:48.529 --> 00:16:51.029 tethering lightening Hopkins, the abstract textures 00:16:51.029 --> 00:16:53.970 with Hornet Coleman, yes, and the metronomic 00:16:53.970 --> 00:16:56.889 precision he needed for Neil Sadaka. And he handed 00:16:56.889 --> 00:16:59.649 that entire massive toolkit to the next generation 00:16:59.649 --> 00:17:02.289 of players. So what does this all mean when we 00:17:02.289 --> 00:17:05.029 look at this seemingly simple page of alias is 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:08.059 dates and album titles, what is the ultimate 00:17:08.059 --> 00:17:10.430 takeaway for you listening right now? To synthesize 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:12.809 everything we've uncovered, Samuel Sticks Evans 00:17:12.809 --> 00:17:16.130 left behind a recorded legacy from 1959 to 1971 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:18.970 that reads less like a single session man's resume 00:17:18.970 --> 00:17:21.730 and more like a definitive encyclopedia of 20th 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:24.230 century music. In a single decade, he touched 00:17:24.230 --> 00:17:27.309 the very foundational pillars of rock, traditional 00:17:27.309 --> 00:17:31.509 blues, soul, pop, and avant -garde jazz. He was 00:17:31.509 --> 00:17:33.549 the invisible architecture holding up some of 00:17:33.549 --> 00:17:35.789 the most important cultural recordings of the 00:17:35.789 --> 00:17:38.269 era. It fundamentally reframes how you look at 00:17:38.269 --> 00:17:40.849 music history. Like the next time you are flipping 00:17:40.849 --> 00:17:42.829 through the liner notes of your favorite old 00:17:42.829 --> 00:17:45.410 records or, I suppose, clicking through the production 00:17:45.410 --> 00:17:47.829 credits on your streaming app, remember what 00:17:47.829 --> 00:17:50.630 we explored today. Yeah, look past the main artist. 00:17:50.869 --> 00:17:52.670 Exactly. You aren't just looking at the famous 00:17:52.670 --> 00:17:55.029 star on the cover. You should be looking for 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:57.589 that hidden, interconnected network of highly 00:17:57.589 --> 00:18:01.230 adaptable, working class heroes like Stix Evans, 00:18:01.849 --> 00:18:04.170 the character actors of the rhythm section who, 00:18:04.569 --> 00:18:07.250 quietly, brilliantly, and under a half dozen 00:18:07.250 --> 00:18:09.380 different names, held the music together. They 00:18:09.380 --> 00:18:11.880 are the musicians who truly built the sound of 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:13.740 the century, even if they had to hide their real 00:18:13.740 --> 00:18:16.960 names to do it. They absolutely are. But before 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:19.559 we wrap up this deep dive, there is one final 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:22.380 lingering mystery hidden right there in the dates 00:18:22.380 --> 00:18:25.720 of his life. Oh, right. The timeline. Yeah, provocative 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:27.519 thought I want to leave you with. If you look 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.960 closely at his recorded discography, it is absolutely 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:34.440 packed from 1959 all the way through the 1960s. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:38.539 But then it abruptly stops in 1971. Just completely 00:18:38.539 --> 00:18:41.380 halts. The final entry listed is an album called 00:18:41.380 --> 00:18:44.259 Gospel Now by Marianne Williams. Right, 1971 00:18:44.259 --> 00:18:46.400 is where the trail of records goes completely 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:49.099 cold. But the very first thing we established 00:18:49.099 --> 00:18:52.880 was that Stix Evans lived and remained active 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:55.240 in the industry until he passed away from a stroke 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:59.900 in 1994. Yeah. That is a massive 23 -year gap. 00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:03.140 So what was this master musical chameleon doing 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:05.519 for those final two decades of his life? It's 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:09.259 a huge question because from 1971 and 1994 the 00:19:09.259 --> 00:19:12.779 entire music industry experiences seismic technological 00:19:12.779 --> 00:19:14.880 transformation I mean we went through the birth 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:17.920 of disco the explosion of punk the rise of hip 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.720 -hop and most importantly for a drummer the digital 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.160 revolution the drum machines arrived exactly 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:25.759 did the relentless rise of the programmable drum 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.599 machine and synthesized bass in the 70s and 80s 00:19:28.599 --> 00:19:31.450 finally create a landscape that even the ultimate 00:19:31.450 --> 00:19:33.309 Session Chameleon couldn't blend his way into. 00:19:33.390 --> 00:19:36.349 It's possible. Or... Did he simply decide that 00:19:36.349 --> 00:19:38.789 after mastering every analog genre on Earth, 00:19:39.349 --> 00:19:41.829 his time was just better spent quietly teaching 00:19:41.829 --> 00:19:45.269 the next generation how to navigate the new world? 00:19:45.369 --> 00:19:47.950 Wow. It's something to mull over the next time 00:19:47.950 --> 00:19:50.930 you put on a record and listen to the pulse underneath 00:19:50.930 --> 00:19:53.170 the melody. A brilliant question to leave on. 00:19:53.609 --> 00:19:56.609 The invisible architecture never really disappears. 00:19:56.970 --> 00:19:58.869 You know, it just changes form. It really does. 00:19:59.329 --> 00:20:01.269 Until next time, keep looking for those hidden 00:20:01.269 --> 00:20:01.690 connections.