After moving to Seattle in 1994, I explored the musical city, hitting the drum shops, and eventually crossing paths with Gregg. Gregg is without a doubt one of the coolest characters I've encountered. He is a master of the hang. I remember going into American Music and the drum techs would just be smiling and chuckling as they watched Gregg in the enclosed glass cymbal room, "breaking in" a cymbal. Gregg is a cymbal connoisseur. He was always interested in whatever the newest, old sounding, cymbal came into the shop. He would hit it and say with his lazy inflection, "Sounds kind of tight." Gregg would then "untighten" the cymbal by taking it into the cymbal room to beat it within an inch of it's life. Sure enough, every time he returned with the cymbal, it sounded different, better, more alive. We were all pretty amazed. You knew it was going to be a good trip to the drum store when Gregg's tired old VW Bug could be seen in the parking lot.
It was a while before I got to hear Gregg play the drums. A master drum builder who ultimately began building his own cymbals and metallic percussion instruments, I knew Gregg would be a good player just talking to him, but I was profoundly surprised to learn what a raw, powerful voice he has on the drums. I knew that Gregg and Elvin Jones were close, and hearing Gregg just reinforced their relationship. Gregg has Elvin's raw, primal wash of sonic energy and a bent for immediate, in the moment expulsions of sound as ideas. To see and hear him play is like watching and hearing waves crash as the tide comes in. Insistent, pushing and propelling.
Gregg was an obvious choice for the Leading Questions project. I completed the interview and talked to him about meeting for a photo. Gregg had seen my photos and was very complimentary, but I don't think he realized that his photo was something I wanted to take some time with, to ensure we got something good. I explained that I'd like to get a picture of him pounding a cymbal or working at his bench on a drum, something that communicated the long history he represents not only in Seattle but in drumming. So, I had a couple of ideas going in. I wasn't prepared for what I would see when we met.
I knocked on Gregg's door and walked in to see him sitting in the corner of a veritable drum store, full of only the coolest stuff. Gregg stood and asked me what I had in mind for the picture and without pause, I told him to sit back down, because this was it. There was no question in my mind how to communicate who Gregg is in an image, it surrounded him.
This is the only idea I shot in the time I was with Gregg. It just took a few minutes to figure out to light this wide scene while maintaining the character of the room as I found it. I ended up using three sources of light. The window is one source of light, but it was surprisingly directional. Gregg was pretty much in shadow as was the majority of the room. The second source of light was one strobe on a stand pretty high up just to camera right, bounced into the ceiling. This was low power, just to lift the shadows around the room a bit.
The third source is the one lighting Gregg's face. With such a wide shot I couldn't bring a really directional light in to light him as it would be in the picture and I didn't want to light him from a distance as it would have spilled all around the room ruining the vibe. I took a silver reflector and positioned it to kick light from the window up into his face. Obviously, this was going to be in the picture as well. I looked around the room and saw two sheet metal cymbal blanks Gregg is going to hammer into cymbals. I leaned them against the stand on the floor in front of him and lay the dark towel over the top edge to keep the reflected light from going up the wall behind Gregg. I think the round cymbal metal worked great as a reflector and visually belongs in the picture.
In a lot of ways, I feel like this picture came about through some kind of divine intervention. I walked into the room and the entire thing presented itself to me. The final result is straight out of the camera plus a little bit of sharpening. Some days, it all comes together, and some days you really have to work for the right shot. Sometimes, we feel like we haven't done anything when it's easy. That's fine, I'll take them however I can get them.
Here is a link to Gregg's interview: http://seattlejazzscene.com/?p=3185
Here's a link to Gregg's website:
http://www.greggkeplinger.com/
His drum building site:
http://www.keplingerdrums.com/
Technical info:
The image was shot with a Canon 5D MK II w/ef 24-70 2.8L USM at f/16 1/2sec., ISO 160.
The lighting was provided by a bare Profoto Compact 600.
Triggered by Pocket Wizards
