Jazz Drumming

“Not quite my tempo” — Terence Fletcher, Whiplash

Nineteen years young, talented swag

Gotta be the next Buddy Rich, it's all I’ve ever wanted,

Birdland

Racked by Daddy’s mediocrity,

I dream of being one of the great s

Drumming is all I think about

Jo Jones — Charlie Parker

Jazz Drumming

I swing by, land a score at Shafer school

ambitiously focused,

Gotta purrfect my double-time swing

passion , desire

Elvin Jones — Peter Erkskine

Jazz Drumming

I’m up on the guy to teach me, the man to help me reach my dreams

Terence Fletcher... brutal tutelage,

Conservatory professor

Double time swing, he hears me ting,

The beads of sweat splash my drum

gripping my drumsticks, stinging my thumbs

he’s noticed me!

I stop

WHY?

I pick up my sticks and flip up my riff

Youthful confidence

Insults start, Imma wind-up monkey!

I show him my rudiments, double-time swing

da-dum da-dum crash — tinggg

he’s gone, smug shit

Fletcher picks me out, Nassau Band playtime beat

Double time swing

He charms to disarm, testing my skills ,

Were you rushing or were you dragging?

start counting… 5 and 6

Dammit, look at me!

HIS modus operandi is fear and intimidation

Military style authorization

Slaps my face, throws a chair

Do I look like I fucking care!!

Teases me, room B16 at 6 am!! No one’s there til 9

Beat that goddam drum

Fletcher,

sadistic, unrealistic, unachievable observations

Draconian degradations

Maniac—Malignant—Malevolent

Abuser Composer,

humiliating triangulation

Tanner, Ryan—Me

Alternate to Core, we all want that tour

I know my worth, I’ll fight this clown

Work for it — he shouts at me!

I practice like a madman, sacrifice my lover and my life

Beads of blood splash my kit, digital metronome blinks

I’m gonna nail a double-time swing

Drum solo, drips with blood,

band-aid after band-aid

Whiplash

Caravan

I know them off by heart

Lost Tanner's folder,

I’m back in the game!

Obsession for perfection,

raw sweat and twisted tears

Throbbing blisters, fixated fear, head-spinning drum double

Lincoln Center, here I come

Rose Theater

Allen Room

Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola

Diamond Education Center

It all goes wrong, crash bang

whiplashed in my car

YOU’RE DONE!!

I’m lost and finished, but things turn around

He invites me to a finale, and tries to fuck me up

Changes the score, coz I rattled him out

I come back and turn it around…

What the fuck are you doing!! He rages

I’ll cue you in….

The new me has come unbound

C-A-R-A-V-A-N

Good Job! he says and smiles

Whiplash was written and directed by Damien Chazelle in 2014

SUMMARY: “Whiplash’s plot is quite simple. Andrew Neiman is an up-and-coming Jazz drummer who has just made it into the illustrious Schafer Music Conservatory and is taught by the uptight and borderline sadistic band leader Terrence Fletcher, who is jaded by the current idea of Jazz in the modern world, and deep down desires greatness from his students.

After making it into the conservatory, Andrew begins to lose touch with everything else in his life, his family, his love life, and anything that could get in the way of him achieving perfection, an idea embedded in him by Fletcher. In the end, Neiman is brought all the way down, and he almost loses everything, but finds the greatness deep within him to succeed, and finally get the one thing he had focused on so much for his entire experience in the band: the approval of Terrence Fletcher.” SOURCE

Whiplash — Henry Jacob Hank Levy

Caravan — Duke Ellington Juan Tizol

© Chantal Weiss 2025. All Rights Reserved