Juilliard Jazz Prof Hears Nirvana For The First Time

Take a sneak peek into the mind of Ulysses Owens Jr.! (Small Ensemble Director at Juilliard) Watch as he listens to "In Bloom" by Nirvana for the very first time and attempts to play along. What is he listening for? How does he immediately craft an appropriate drum part? Tune in and find out!

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Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
00:27 - Lesson Overview
01:11 - Listening To The Song
02:41 - Song Analysis
04:27 - First Take
08:43 - Performance Analysis
09:13 - Listening To The Original Song
12:31 - Outro
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[crazycjk]

This style of video where the musician hears the drumless track and comes up with their own is 10/10

[StavrosKor]

The most amazing thing about this series is that they manage to find music professionals that haven't heard the most popular songs of the past few decades.

[DrgoFx]

It was pretty interesting how like Dave's drumming gives the song a much...slower, drawn out vibe while Ulysses gives it this almost upbeat, fast paced vibe. Like he makes the long drags of Kurt's vocals sound even longer, it's just kinda cool.

[stvcamilo]

The most amazing thing is how it sounded like Foo Fighters when the doubled the snare.

[walterarevalo]

The fact that Ulysses described Dave’s drumming as funk is awesome. Dave revealed to Pharrell, in another interview, that he pretty much pulled his drumming chops from funk bands like the gap band and cameo! Ulysses actually called it!

[TheEasyname]

It’s crazy how he instantly recognized the funk tune. Dave has always credited his funk influences in drumming for nirvana

[Jack_f_all_trees]

Yeah... there's a reason he teaches at Juilliard. Absolutely amazing.

[JacobC]

Let’s not forget to mention that the fill at the beginning and basically the whole song was made by the drummer before Dave, Chad Channing. Dave gave him credit when accepting the award for the hall of fame.

[SirPrizeMF]

I love how you can immediately see that:
- This man is an amazing musician
- He knows the shape of rock music, the skeleton
- He has no experience with the details of it
- His experience as a musician in general means he can try some stuff outside of his comfort zone, and make his unconventional choices work
- He is a jazz professor who learned to drum in a church and has the mouth of a sailor. Love it.

[mrpennyapple]

The fact that he pointed out that Dave's playing like a funk drummer when Dave himself has gone on record saying he learned drums by playing funk and disco songs it a testament to this man's ear and how much love he has for his instrument. Insane.

[zacharybinx]

That's exactly what makes Nirvana so good. The anger from Kurt's guitar and vocals backed up by Krist's layed back grooves and Dave's layed back but powerful tone.

[carlosjr.aguilar]

I want to see Dave Grohl's reaction to this video.

[PaulNigelWarner]

Dave Grohl has stated that the Gap Band and funk is the foundation of his drumming. The fact that Ulysses picked up on that is a testament to his knowledge!

[Aserion]

Crazy part is how closely his first pass, while listening for the first time, resembled the original better than when he analyzed and went through it again. Instincts are killer.

[logan]

It’s a great testament to the universal principles in music that Ulysses picked up Dave’s funk inspiration. And it really shows that Ulysses is a well rounded artist/musician/composer. The institution of Juilliard hired the right person for the job.

I also have to say I loved the vide change that Ulysses brought to the original.

[SwiftHDX]

I love watching professionals do what they do best - thank you Drumeo for showcasing these brilliant people!

[sharinglungs]

You can tell he’s a jazz drummer by how quiet he plays his bass drum. I love this series. It really messes with your head hearing a song you know with different drums. The chorus almost sounds poppy with how much faster the beat he played.

[Twannnng]

At 8:18 he inadvertantly does the exact triplet fill that Dave does in the original! What a great moment. Awesome performance, we need more jazz-grunge in the world.

[tessal]

I am in my rabbit hole in this channel, loving it soo so much from one video to another, and I am always waiting for the "THIS IS MINDBLOWING" that makes me smile and teary. The beauty of music.

[kitaki]

New favorite series by far. In the lab with these artists. It's not even about trying to challenge to compare in who's "better" - the insane talent & dedication it must take to be able to sit in on a drum less track whip up anything coherent in a couple plays!

His laughter when hearing Daves' part - that smile is great! There's a underlying respect in the joy that these drummers are showing when they react to the original drum track that's awesome