Drumming News :
Kassa Overall wasn’t supposed to make a song that night. He was supposed to clean. Standing in his jam-packed backyard studio—drums stacked like sculpture, synths wedged into corners, cables curling across the floor—he made a noble attempt. But one sound led to another, and the next thing he knew, “I kept going… Now I got a whole song.” For Overall, that’s the gravitational pull of creativity. “The hardest thing to do is find that one thing that makes it dope… Once you’ve got that, you’re done.”
It’s this blend of spontaneity, discipline, and surrender that fuels CREAM, the Grammy-nominated drummer’s bold new album of jazz-soaked hip-hop reinterpretations. But the ease in his smile belies the long, jagged road he took to get here. After years grinding in New York, he spiraled into an artistic low point—“I wasn’t enjoying performing… I’m losing the love for this”—and even considered walking away. Then came the phone call that snapped him back: jazz titan Geri Allen inviting him to play the Village Vanguard. “One of the greatest piano players in the world wants me to come play at the mecca… You depressed? Go for a run, bro. Go get a massage. You gotta do this gig.”
He did. And the next 15 years reshaped him, from late-night gigs to drumming beside Yoko Ono and holding down rhythms for Jon Batiste on The Late Show. Returning to Seattle during the pandemic wasn’t planned, but now he relishes the breathing room: “I think I have more ability to practice and work here.”
Growing up torn between jazz and rap—“I felt so divided”—Overall learned to ignore the boundaries other people insisted on. “Just because the outside world divides something in some kind of way doesn’t mean you have to.”CREAM is the sound of that realization made flesh: Biggie with Coltrane shadows, Dr. Dre refracted through flute lines, Snoop Dogg filtered through the ghost of Elvin Jones.
A quick idea turned into a full-scale project, arranged with the care of a vintage Rudy Van Gelder session. And as Overall admits with a grin, “I guess I can’t really do anything halfway.” His fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
This is an overview of an article written by Eric Olson for Seattlemet.com, to read the original article visit HERE
