trust me playing nuttin but pocket can be boring lol like you cant really do any fancy fills just boring ones that fit in when you got skills like him im sure it can be boring he can slam tho when i was a kid he use to come to our church all the time my uncles and stuff know him better cuz of his d ad(bishop stewart) but yeah i seen him get DOOOOWWWWWNNN brotha got skills
THe thing about playing simply/pocket is that is i sreally a lot more complexe than most of us think. People who have really tight pocket generally have a really good understanding ov sub-division. They also have a very fluid relaxed body motions and independence.
Example: playing one-handed sixteenths or triplet sixteenths on a ballad with swung eigth notes on the kick and upbeat accents and ghostnotes notes on the snare while laying behind the beat but one time. This what has made Bernard Purdie, Steve Gadd, J.R. Robinson, Rick Morotta, Zorro, Russ Miller, QuestLove and Dennis Chambers rich.
Pocket is not boring. Most gospel guys with mad chops cannot play "Babylon Sisters" by Steely Dan w/Bernard "Pretty" Purdie on drums or "Rosanna" by Toto w/Jeff Porcaro on drums or "Third World Man" by Steely Dan w/Steve Gadd on drums (note the use of triple stroke rolls in this one). These jazz/fusion songs are excellent examples of of the complexities of playing pocket. This kind of maturity is almost a lost art. It is not displayed in most mainstream music of any genre. Learn to play these and you'll gain a new respect for the art of pocket playing.
