Original Medicine by Tommy Carroll

More than just a COVID album, Original Medicine is a document of my development of a personal drumming language that bridges groove-based and textural approaches to rhythm. It is also a tribute to reconnecting with the world’s musical heritage and the Earth, which provide humanity’s original medicines.

Every week since April 2020 I’ve been performing live for roughly an hour on Facebook. I often have guests, but the majority of the time I’ve been unaccompanied. Tackling this challenge has forced me to dissect my playing and hone in on each tiny sound I want to create. Over the months, I’ve felt myself breaking free of the compulsion to follow convention while simultaneously finding greater ease in being able to communicate direct stories through the drums without thinking too much. Initially it was hard to make the music feel organic. I wanted to explore texture, but I didn’t want to totally abandon playing beats. At first I felt my improvisations would be stuck either trying to play impressive flourishes over a recognizable groove or lost in an impressionistic landscape of rolling around the kit. However, experimenting with different drum setups and tones over the months allowed me to find versatile textures that could blur the lines and the repetition helped me to loosen my concept of musical form without losing it completely.

The tracks on this album are all completely improvised. Except for the first and last tracks, they were all recorded at home—some taken directly from my livestreams and others recorded using rough concepts I stumbled upon while improvising live. Each one tells a story and / or represents an important percussive influence in my life.

1. Isolation Ritual: This track was actually recorded in 2017 as part of a soundcheck for a studio recording session. I included it because I think it sets a nice tone and you can hear the seeds of the musical language I use throughout the album. It’s wild how circular time can be.

2. Original Medicine: I recorded this at 11pm after wrapping up remote recording for a friend’s project. At that time, the only things giving my days structure were practicing drums and learning to make herbal teas. Since then I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how beautifully ancient the arts of drumming and tea-making are. As a drummer I believe I have a sacred responsibility to play a part in bolstering my community. COVID has given me a lot of time to explore my voice on the instrument and I’ve been finding myself gravitating towards earthier sounds, whereas before I was very concerned with finding different ways to sound commercial. This improvisation is a sonic tribute to reconnecting with both community and nature. To go forward, we are going to need to go backwards and simplify in some ways. Drumming and teas are two original medicines I use to ground myself in the present.

3. TechnoEquality: However, there are many dangers in the idea that all we need to do is get back to our roots. As a disabled person, I am acutely aware that simpler times were not better times for us. The proliferation of modern technology has broken down so many barriers for disabled people. There is a balance to be struck between the constant push for innovation and a focus on equal distribution. I have benefitted financially from skills and education made accessible through technological developments, but not all disabled people have access to those technologies. The focus on profit has left technology and its potential for building broader inclusion unequally distributed around the world. TechnoEquality is an improvisation representing this phenomenon. In contrast to Original Medicine, I use harsh metallic textures emulating electronic sounds. At first, two simultaneous beats symbolizing the forces of big tech consolidation and regular everyday people push, pull and fight for dominance of the sonic space. Then, the density lets up to signify a hypothetical reconsideration of current economic models for technological development. The beat returns a little more certain of itself, but falls apart because building something better won’t be easy. Optimistically, after another bout of rhythmic reconfiguration, the beat comes back stronger than ever in hopes of a better future.

4. Midwestern Drumsong: I’m proud to have Midwestern roots. My parents are from Iowa and I’ve lived in and around Chicago my whole life. There’s just something that gets me about the simple rugged beauty of the Midwestern aesthetic. This improvisation is me trying to demonstrate that by playing drum melody over a simple loping beat.

5. Spiritual Onslaught: A tribute to the great Chicago percussionist Hamid Drake. I’ve been studying the history of Chicago music and Hamid Drake is one of the many under sung musicians who have been part of this city’s musical backbone. Seeing him perform live is a spiritual experience. He’s intensely musical and swinging, and he does it all with hard-hitting joy, which I can really relate too. No time to be quiet, especially in these times, but loud doesn’t always need to be angry.

6. Stately Thunder: Part two of the improvisation that started with Spiritual Onslaught. This one is a tribute to the great underrated drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson., who was my kind of Avant Gard musician and not to mention a phenomenal drummer / bandleader. Jackson’s solo album Pulse convinced me I could pull off this solo drum thing. His work as a sideman for Ornette Coleman’s electric band and many others and his work leading the Decoding Society gives me courage when trying to present radical musical concepts as directly as I’d present something well known and easily listenable.

7. Multidirectional Beams: This is a reprise of Isolation Ritual, but it also includes the synthesizers that were also being sound checked and the rest of the jam. I dedicate this one to Jack Dejohnette, my personal favorite of the jazz drumming pantheon. Jack Dejohnette inspires me because he is conversant in tradition while remaining ceaselessly adventurous. He takes risks and employs an undeniably interesting pallet of colors on the kit. He also isn’t afraid of incorporating modern concepts and technologies in his music, which has lead him to compose for and lead fascinating bands over the past 40 years.

Bonus tracks: Loud Spoken and Light Hearted are two more basement improvisations I’m including for those who purchase the album. They are influenced by the contrast between loud people who say gentle things and quiet people who say heavy things—and they demonstrate a very contemporary approach to the drums and traditional playing respectively.

Drummer / composer / producer from Chicago seeking to create the soundtrack to a more inclusive world.

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