Keeping the Beat
Ray DeMarchi

“I may not be a rich man, but I am going to smile”
Ray DeMarchi has been an exciting, energetic
staple of the Kansas City jazz scene for 27 years now. Versatile
as both a teacher and a player, DeMarchi teaches
percussion at William Jewel College and at the Toon Shop, in addition to
his regular performance schedule, which includes playing jazz with Joe
Cartwright and Gerald Spaits and playing hand
percussion with an acoustic rock group with Mark Valentine, Andy DeWitt, and
Terry Swope. DeMarchi, a fine reader, also plays with
the Kansas City Symphony, having performed with an
all-star line up in that capacity, including Chick Corea,
Tony Bennett, Manheim Steamroller, and The Who.
DeMarchi said that his parents stressed the importance
of being able to read music well. DeMarchi noted that
their influence made an impact, saying, “It has paid off.
I can read the fly shit on paper.” His father played trombone,
and his mother played classical piano. DeMarchi’s
father would take him to the American Legion Post to
play with him in the concert band on Wednesdays, and
on Thursdays he’d take him to German band rehearsal.
As DeMarchi put it, “Not many 14 year olds were doing
that.” So, early in his life DeMarchi was already
immersed in music and in performing.
DeMarchi came to KC in 1981 to complete his
Master’s degree in Percussion at UMKC, studying
under Charmaine Asher Wiley. DeMarchi noted that
although he arrived as a classical player, he also played
jazz under John Leisenring. During that time, Curtis
Pickering, a local promoter, was starting a Broadway
review show for Crown Center, and Russ Long chose
DeMarchi to play drums for it. DeMarchi said, “He
was nice enough to give me a chance. That started my
long association with one of the finest piano players
and musicians I had the chance to learn under.” Also
in the group was Gerald Spaits, and DeMarchi and
Spaits quickly became good, long-lasting friends. As
musicians, they were on the same page. As DeMarchi
put it, “When I work with Gerald it’s so easy. He just
floats along.”
As a musician, DeMarchi noted that he feels blessed
to have support from his family for his love and vocation.
His wife, having been a professional skater with
the Ice Capades, understands, he said, “when I work
strange hours or holidays…which allows me to show up
to work with a smile.” DeMarchi said he truly loves what
he does. “When you look at the world today,” he said,
“and how many people go to a job they are unhappy
in, I feel very fortunate.”
DeMarchi’s teaching seems to bring him joy, as
well. He has taught at Shawnee Mission East, Blue
Valley North, Belton High School, and Shawnee Mission
West, in addition to his private lessons and college
teaching. DeMarchi said that examining his own learning
process has helped him become a better teacher. “I
have always had to work very hard at everything,” said
DeMarchi. “Maybe that is why I find it easy to teach.
I tend to explain even the simplest concepts to my students
because nobody did that for me.” He aims to make
well-rounded percussionists, encouraging his students
to listen to a wide variety of music and to also write out
charts for what they are listening to. “I encourage my
students to bring their iPods,” he said. “I can see who
they listen to. We listen to the forms of songs, and write
out charts. That is something they can always use, no
matter what they listen to.”

Gene Krupa, and Elvin Jones. He noted that as a young
drummer he saw Rich six times. DeMarchi has an autograph
from Krupa, and with his parents he saw Jones.
“That was an eye-opening experience,” said DeMarchi,
“at the age of 15.”
DeMarchi said that he feels at home both driving
or steering a band. His father gave him advice on that.
“As I get older,” DeMarchi said, “I hear my Dad in my
head, telling me ‘playing behind a big band is like driving
the big fire truck. The driver in the front works the
gas, but the one in the back steers the machine. That
is the drummer’s job’…I am very happy being the guy
in the back making sure everything runs smoothly. If
I need to be in front, I can do that, too.”
DeMarchi truly loves the performing musician’s
life. He said, “I played a job the other day, and I told my
wife I was very sore. She asked if it was from lifting the
trap case. I said, ‘No, it was from laughing so hard.’”
At 49, DeMarchi said that he seems satisfied with
his life. He enjoys what he does. He put it this way,
“What we musicians try to pass on is ‘Enjoy what you
do.’ As I often say, ‘I may not be a rich man, but I am
going to smile.’”
—by Kevin Rabas

Sam Wisman, the “Jazz Insider”

“The key is staying challenged” Like many musicians, Sam
Wisman grew up in a home filled with music. “My mom
is a classical violinist”, Sam shared with me recently, “she
got a violin performance degree at Washburn University,
and started playing in the symphony there. She’s been with
the symphony ever since. She also taught violin at home, so
when I came home from school I would hear the lessons
going on. I’m not sure how that affected me – good or
bad! Maybe that’s why I became a drummer!”
Sam started drumming in elementary school, but it
was listening to Bob McWilliams spin jazz on KANU
that introduced him to this music. “It was interesting,
music I had never heard before. I started taking lessons
with Tom Morgan in Topeka, he taught at Washburn,
and urged me to listen. You can’t learn jazz just by playing.
When I was in high school I’d listen to jazz on the
radio every night. That’s how I learned a lot of tunes.
I paid special attention to the personnel, and when I
would hear a drummer I liked I would go get a record
they were on. I’d buy records just by the personnel.”
“The band director at Topeka High School was
really supportive of the jazz program. It was a pretty
strong program. He also encouraged us to listen. We
would play a lot of gigs in high school – banquets and
nursing homes, parties – people would call the high
school for the band, and would sometimes contribute
to the program, money for instruments, things like that.
So I was playing gigs when I was fourteen. What a great
experience! Playing a gig is a much more meaningful
experience than playing in a practice room.”
Bobby Watson and the faculty at UMKC made
Sam feel particularly welcome on his campus visit, so
this became his college choice. Encouragement from
Todd Strait and Kansas City’s active music scene were
positives as well. “Bobby Watson has great real-world
experience. I listened to a lot of Art Blakey in high
school, and it was certainly cool learning from a guy
who played with Art Blakey. And the rest of the faculty
is great. Jim Snell was a great influence on me. And I
learned a ton from the students. There are a lot of great
musicians in college; I think this is underemphasized
by many colleges. You spend most of your time with
students, playing together late at night.”
Being in a smaller school has the advantage of
providing many varied playing opportunities, and this
also fit Sam’s broad musical interests. “I got to play in
orchestra, wind symphony and drum ensemble, jazz
bands and jazz combos, and new music ensembles. At
a larger school, with many more percussionists, I would
not have had this variety.” Sam adds: “I love jazz, it’s
what I do most, but I don’t want to do one thing. I have
too active a mind… I’d go crazy. It’s too much fun to
play other kinds of music.” This variety continues in
some of his regular non-jazz gigs today. These include
the Owen/Cox Dance group, which is more classical,
and a traditional marimba music from Southern Mexico
group called Marimba Sol de Chiapas. “That’s a small
niche but so fun to play, so different from my normal
jazz gig.”
Sam has been doing a weekly afternoon jazz show
in KKFI for a couple of years now. It started with some
guest shots on Roger Wilder’s show, and after some
training there was an opening and Roger recommended
Sam for the slot. For one who had great experiences listening
to jazz radio when he was younger, this is exciting
and Sam sees it as a great responsibility, as “you never
know, there might be a fourteen year old kid listening
who never heard Billy Higgins before.” Listen to his
show on Monday afternoons from one until three, and
you can tell Sam has respect for the gig.

Benton’s, with Stephanie Laws, Bob Bowman, and
Wayne Hawkins. “Playing with Bob is fabulous. He’s
also from Topeka, and when I was there I would go
hear him, and would look up to him and Todd. I’m
amazed that I’m playing with him. There’s no amount
of practice that would be as valuable as playing with
them or any of the guys I play with, like Gerald Spaits
and Roger Wilder, it’s really a much longer list.” There
is also the work in the “Brad Cox world”, as Sam calls
it, along with Jeff Harshbarger and the “other misfits”.
There’s the People’s Liberation Big Band, an opportunity
to “be just as wacky as you want to be, playing
with minimal constraints.”
Sam has been blessed with some great playing opportunities,
including when Gerald Spaits asked him
to join the Westport Art Ensemble when Todd Strait
moved to Portland. “It never crossed my mind that I
would be playing with these people,” says Sam. “I was
a college kid! But he gave me a shot. I was probably
in over my head, but it did a lot for my playing. You
always want to play with musicians who are better
than you, and that was surely the case playing in that
band… Gerald, Roger, Josh Sclar, Jake Blanton. I was
lucky to be there. Trial by fire. But everybody has to
do that.”
With all of the playing opportunities in town, and
a community that is open minded and supportive of the
arts, Sam is quite content in Kansas City. “The key is
staying challenged, wherever you are. There’s no need
to rush into something. I am getting to play a lot of
great music. If it wasn’t for the variety of the marimba
group and Brad Cox, the Westport Art Ensemble, and
all these different things I get to do, I’m not sure what
I’d do. But I’m challenged every day. I have a lot to
learn, and there are lots of great drummers here to learn
from.”
“We have a great community of drummers here.
The guys JAM is covering in this issue are all good
friends. Tim and I trade gigs, that helps keep both of
us busy. I learned a lot from him, he was a little older
than me at UMKC. Brandon was a real sparkplug to
the scene and to the drummers, we really had to ‘up
our game’ when he came to town. That’s a good thing!
I’ve gotten to play with Joe Cartwright, thanks to Ray
DeMarchi suggesting me when he needed a sub. The
attitude here is ‘when everybody’s working, everybody’s
working’”

Tim Cambron

“If you are tasteful you can play in any situation”
It was in the cards that Tim Cambron would
be a musician. His mom is a music teacher
and professional violinist in Omaha, and his
older two sister played instruments.
When a neighbor was selling a drum set at a garage sale, Tim’s
parents bought it, on the premise that someone would
probably play it. Someone proved to be Tim. By sixth
grade Tim was taking private lessons (he would continue
private lessons until he graduated from UMKC).
Jazz came knocking when he was in junior high via a
sister’s friend, who introduced him to Kind of Blue and
Giant Steps. “I really got into the Coltrane Quartet,”
Tim recalls. “Elvin Jones was an early influence, his
power and passion, the spiritual aspects of that music.
It was later when I started taking apart Elvin’s playing
that I understood how amazing it was.”
From the start, Tim has sought out great drummers
to study with. In Omaha, it was Lewis “Luigi” Waites,
who was “one of the centerpieces of the Omaha scene
a drummer and vibraphonist. He had an important
role in bringing jazz education to the Midwest. He’d
go around to schools and educate the kids about what
jazz was, what the drums were. Victor Lewis is from
Omaha, he also studied with Luigi.
Another teacher is largely responsible for Tim’s
selection of UMKC. “I heard about Todd Strait from a
teacher I had at the time, she played me “What a Little
Moonlight Can Do” from Karrin’s CD, an impressive
duo track, just Todd and Karrin. She said if I went to
Kansas City I could study with him. Hearing that, I
thought that would probably work! I assumed there
was a scene in Kansas City, too, so I made a visit, took
a private lesson from Todd, and realized that I could
learn a lot from him. I liked the Conservatory. And I
liked having the Marr Sound Archive available.
Tim has continued to take private lessons from
a dream team of drummers, including John Riley,
Michael Carvin, Steve Houghton, and Carl Allen.
“I’ve learned a lot from them all. One lesson that was
particularly impactful was with Riley. He is a master
educator, an encyclopedia of jazz knowledge. He can
answer any question from his experience. Like, how
so and so did something, he’d know because he was so
plugged in. He has a gift of being able to analyze and
take apart different drummers’ styles. I learned how
to really get inside a drummers head, take apart his
playing, and get to the point where you can emulate
him. You learn to play like that drummer, not just his
licks.
But it was his time with Todd that he most cherishes.
“I studied with Todd for four years at UMKC.
And I would go hear him perform when I could, with
PBT, or Interstring, with anybody. He’s the guy I
wanted to emulate. He has unbelievable technical facility,
musicality, and never played something untasteful.
I figured that if I could play like that, then I’d always
work. You can be flashy, but if you are tasteful you
can play in any situation. Todd always places the band
ahead of himself.”
With this as a base, and his ability to understand
the work of other great drummers, Tim has worked
to develop his own style. “I needed to develop my
own style, keeping the musicality and taste but with
dynamics more like Art Blakey and Jack DeJohnette,
Roy Haynes, other drummers. That’s different than
Todd’s style.”
Breaking into the local scene after college went
smoothly for Tim. “Bob Bowman, Paul Smith, and
Danny Embrey were really helpful, they kind of adopted
me, and I became a favorite drummer for them to play
with, whether I deserved it or not. Maybe it helped
that I was reminiscent of Todd in some ways. I always
went to hear them when they played with Todd. So
they knew me, and I started to sit in with them.
“I had a private lesson with Bob, which was one
of the best experiences in my life; I learned a ton from
him. Shortly thereafter, he formed Bowdog, with
Wayne Hawkins and Jake Blanton, I’ve learned a lot
from playing in that band.”
There are others who have been great helps as well,
including Stan Kessler (“he formed his group Stan Kessler’s
Television, that was one of the first club gigs that
I had”), Laura Chalk (“she heard me in that band, and
she hired me”), and Kerry Strayer and Earlie Braggs.
With these gigs, his confidence has grown immensely.
“It’s only been the past few years that I’ve thought of
myself as a jazz drummer, I didn’t know if I had what
it took to be a jazz drummer. It’s a high bar, especially
for drummers, it’s different than other styles you can
play. The more I worked jazz gigs, the more I started
thinking that I can do this!”
Tim teaches privately from his house, at the Lee’s
Summit Toon Shop, and will start at the Music House
School of Music in January. This is school Aaron
Sizemore and Katrinka Riggs started in 2006, from
the ground up, out in Blue Valley, 151st Street and
69 Highway. Recordings include Paul Smith’s More
Soundtrek Sessions, the new D.J. Sweeney release Are
You the One?, Megan Birdsall’s Little Jazz Bird, Smile
by Monique Daniels, Stan Kessler’s Television, and The
Jake Blanton Quartet. The JBQ will be at Jardine’s in
early December. “That’s my true dream gig, to play
with that group every night. It’s a group where anything
is possible.”

Brandon Draper

“Rhythm is everywhere and in all of us” Drummer and percussionist
Brandon Draper, age 29, who has been in KC
two years now, is already invigorating the scene. Also
a composer, teacher, and bandleader, Draper has many
roles and plays with a variety of Kansas City groups.
Draper leads his own group; plays with John Brewer Trio;
plays in the Beau Bedsoe duo; is the musical director of
Quixotic Performance Ensemble; plays with his father’s
band (Draper); plays with Will Matthews Quartet,
The Roger Wilder Quartet, and Gerald Spaits/Charles
Perkins groups; and works with DJs in town, such as DJ
Kiko De Gallo. He also leads drum circles for health,
wellness, and community building.
As a drummer, Draper has a rich and deep pallet.
For instance, with John Brewer, as a duo called Organic
Proof, Draper plays drumset, world percussion,
and plays bass and does vocals. He also does looping,
and the two incorporate African Balafon, a pentatonic
xylophone into the mix. John plays multiple keyboards
in the group, along with percussion and vocals. The
group has a unique, eclectic, grooving sound. You
may be able to hear samples of this group, and others,
at Brandon’s MySpace page, http://www.myspace.
com/brandondraper. With Beu Bledsoe, Draper plays
dumbek, frame drums, cajon, riq, and other assorted
world percussion instruments, while Bledsoe plays
flamenco guitar and oud. Simply by looking at the
lists of instruments Draper plays, you notice that he
has impressive proficiency with a large range of instruments
from around the world. This takes time, dedication,
and talent. Finding the right mix of instruments
takes great taste and imagination—and ambition.
Draper was introduced to the musician’s life as a
child. His father is a professional Blues Hammond B3
organist, and as Draper said, “I grew up playing oatmeal
boxes, pots and pans, buckets.” He noted that he
received his first toy drumset at age 2, and he “broke it
by New Year’s that week.” He started lessons at age 5,
and he never stopped. He began touring at age 14. As
for schooling, he has earned a Bachelor’s of Music and
a Master’s of Music in percussion performance.
In terms of styles and listening, Draper’s world is
a diverse one. He listens to the music of Africa, India,
and Brazil, along with electronic music in many forms,
including DJs, breakbeat, house, downtempo, jungle,
and drum ‘n’ bass. Much of his listening he also applies
to his playing, creating his diverse pallet. He notes that
he enjoys the diverse history of drums and drumming.
He enjoys “getting to play many instruments and learn
the cultural ties between them all,” along with “being
able to make people get down and shake it.” His favorite
jazz drummers include Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach,
Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, and Jeff
Tain Watts.
As a teacher, Draper says that his students keep
him inspired. He teaches jazz drumset at UMKC, is
percussion director at Shawnee Mission West High
School, and is music director at Kansas City Academy.
He notes that teaching and playing, for him, are directly
connected, noting that “the music making process is a
life long endeavor, and my students inspire me to great
levels as well as keep me in check on my own growth.
It is my job to inspire them to achieve, and if I am not
continually growing, I am not a good role model.” So,
as a teacher he continues to grow, as his students do.
As a student, Draper said that his father taught
him some important lessons, such as “to groove” and to
“reach for things I can’t play yet, constantly growing.”
Draper also studied with Dean Kranzler, Scott Ney,
Luis Guerra, and Kevin Hays, among others.
Draper said “rhythm is everywhere and in all of us,”
and he also offered the inspirational quote of warning
made by Babatunde Oluntunji “When the drumming
stops, that’s when we get into trouble.”
Draper is a Vic Firth Artist and a Remo Artist
for hand drums and drum heads. He plays Zildjian
cymbals, and he plays a variety of drums and world
percussion instruments, primarily vintage ones.
— Kevin Rabas