Joel Turcotte on Independence, Career Moves, and Playing Everything in Sextuplets

Increasingly, I want to use the podcast to introduce you to players you may not have heard of, but who deserve wider recognition.

Whatever the drum analogy is for jiujistu’s fabled Danaher Death Squad - a crew of upstarts who came seeming out of nowhere and started dominating in competition - Joel is part of that “crew” or “cadre”, many of whom I want to feature on the podcast soon.

What happens in 2023 if you have world-class/guitar-center-drumoff-winning ability, but you haven’t “hit big” yet. Every drummer had to come from somewhere. Before he was headlining stadiums with Steely Dan, Keith Carlock was a local favorite at the 55 Bar. Before he was on every gen-z jazz drummer’s influence list, Ari Hoenig was quietly turning heads with players like Kenny Werner and Jean-Michel Pilc.

And Joel isn’t just a chopper.

Like many guests, he’s reinventing the idiom, little by little. Committing to a musical direction rather than trying to do what “everyone else” is doing.

Joel’s also proven his character in the world of social media, where clout-chasing, pile-ons, and “the next thing” are magnetic, by doing what he wants in public, and sticking up for other drummers in public when few others will.

Those are among the reasons I want to introduce you to one of my favorite young drummers. Some of you will doubtless have heard of Joel, but if you haven’t, I urge you to check him out by searching his name on the Google machine.

Chapters

2:00 - was there ever a time when drums felt like work? 8:28 - is social media an addiction? 14:39 - why is there so little emphasis on improv in traditional drum instruction 19:12 - does Joel get "hot dogs" hitting him up for lessons? 22:30 - how to get into odd-length groupings 30:11 - going from "magic" to "not magic" 38:50 - skating and bjj as analogies for flow 41:15 - a good-natured argument about independence