Billy's Store :: Two Hands Clapping
 "Two
Hands Clapping" is an album consisting of ten duets conceived
and produced by drummer Billy Ward. Billy has invited guest artists
to perform the duets with him based on their desire and ability
to embrace the unusual and play / sing something extraordinary,
stretching the normal boundaries that exist in band-type formats.
Each guest artist performs one to three songs, some being written
specifically for the album, and some being covers that beautifully
adapt to the duet format. Each guest artist has a chance in this
setting to step outside their normal boundaries.
What Billy has captured on the album is the intimacy and intensity
of performance and the wildness of live improvisation where anything
can happen at any time. With no overdubbing or "fixing"
of the tracks, the perfection and success of each duet relies solely
on the excellence of the musicianship, creating a tension and a
tightrope to walk (without a net), which is inevitably exciting
to play and exciting to hear. The duets vary in style according
to each pair of musicians. They range from full to stark, the binding
force of the album being that they are all blood and guts, straight
from the heart.
William F. Miller wrote in Modern Drummer:
Billy Ward must munch on a steady diet of hipness pills. Everything
he plays just sounds so cool. And with Two Hands Clapping, the journeyman
drummer (Leni Stern, Bill Evans, Yoko Ono, Ace Frehley) reveals
the awesome depth of his talent, dueting in a freestyle, one-take,
no-overdub setting with a list of celeb musicians. The result is
a remarkable album, my personal choice for drum record of the year.
When you lay a heavy load like that on an album one would expect
to hear a logjam full of drum chops. And yes, Ward has a forest
to draw from. But what really impresses here is Billy's emotional
and spirited performance; he's way beyond the notes, deep into the
moment. Adding to that is the drummer's quick mind- instantaneously
twisting and turning through the interplay with the given musical
partner- his fabulous touch, and the beautifully recorded skin and
metal sounds (exposed all the more by having only one other instrument
in the mix). Style-wise, the music leaps all over the map- vocal,
instrumental, bop, funk, trad, blues, world, even swamp-rock. All
ten tracks are standouts, but faves include Step Inside Again, a
percolating jaunt with keyboardist Jim Beard; Devaney's Goat/The
Whistling Postman, where Ward plays what sounds like shakers on
native toms while bassist extraordinaire Patitucci gets nimble;
the ripping nanigo-inspired Some Mortal Drama (oh, those double-pedal
fills!); and the haunting ballad Wee Small Hours, where Ward's tasty
brushwork caresses Joy Askew's Voice. While listening to this disc
there were times when I found myself laughing out loud at some of
the audacious stuff Billy laid out. At other points, he brought
me to a focused silence. Inspiring stuff.
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