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John JR Robinson guests on Go with Elmo Lovano podcast and recounts when Quincy Jone’s challenged him to creating the ultimate intro for Michael Jackson “Rock With You”. Below is an excerpt from a Musicradar article that was written by Stewart Williams. A link to the full article is below.
There are session drummers, and then there’s John ‘JR’ Robinson – a legendary name who has supplied the drum tracks for countless other legendary names throughout his career. While JR’s CV contains Paul McCartney, Chaka Khan, Lionel Richie, Eric Clapton, Madonna, Daft Punk, The Weeknd and many others, he’s perhaps best known for his work with Michael Jackson.
John recounts: “We were cutting for the Off The Wall album, the song Rock With You. I was very fortunate to be the mainstay drummer through the entire record. Quincy [Jones] would cast different rhythm section guys and put them around me. So I was very fortunate to play on every song…
It started after I cut a couple of songs, and then they asked me to come back and do the rest of the record on Monday. It was basically Party Weekend Central before that. I got to the studio [on the Monday], boom, boom, we did Don’t Stop…and then I got asked ‘Okay, what’s your schedule like coming up? We want to get you with a band and record this song.’
I knew that Quincy knew, that it was a hit record written by Rod Temperton. That song happened to be called Rock With You…We were all cast, it was Hawk Wolinski on keys, Bobby Watson on bass and David Williams on guitar. We were in Westlake B – which ironically is where I cut with Gaga, they wanted the same vibe but X amount of decades later.
“So we go in, we start listening to Rod’s demo…now the drum part? No, there was no drum part, it was just motion. So, take one, I cut it with a click that I programmed. Back then it was a Urei old seven-frame film click…So take one…eh, no magic. Take two, maybe a little better, people are learning their parts.
“Time’s going on and I’m looking in the control room, I can see Quincy and Rod in there – Rod’s puffing on his red Marlboros. Take 3: a lot better, no magic. I see Quincy and Rod get up, come out of the door and Quincy stands right behind me. I’m going ‘Oh, shit’. Rod’s standing there, smoking his Marlboros with his English accent.
“Quincy goes ‘JR, if you could come up with an intro fill that the whole world would forever identify with this song, could you do that? Maybe on this next take?’. I looked at him like John Belushi, and I go ‘Sure!’.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do, so I immediately reflected back to Rod’s demo, which was weird, and I thought, ‘What do I hate most about drum fills?’. I hate when it’s straight sixteenth-notes and triplets, and putting them together. It’s just wrong. So I go ‘That’s what I’m going to do!’.
“But I did it more in a syncopated march world. So, I hear four clicks and I have to go. I just did it, used my military training, my march training and I added syncopation, and I made sure there was a hole that you could drive an 18-wheeler through to get to the next downbeat.
“It all came spontaneously in that one take, and we never did another take…we kind of knew we’d cut a Number One record…all of us looked at each other and went ‘We did it!’.”
Read the full article: HERE
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