Release Date: Dec 4
For the first time, Analog Tone Factory used an all tube Altec 250SU, one the best sounding mixing boards ever, to record Drum Stories. As always, we used our custom 1/2 inch 30 ips Ampex 351 tube tape machine. We are also pleased to offer Drum Stories as both a traditional 3-step pressing and a limited numbered 1-step pressing.
Drum Stories
Andrew Cyrille, Billy Hart, Bill Stewart, Nasheet Waits
AAA 180g Vinyl
The Standard Edition and Limited Numbered 1-Step Edition both feature AAA 180g Vinyl, cut by Bernie Grundman and pressed at Gotta Groove. Both versions include a high-resolution digital download at 192/24.
Track Listing:
Andrew Cyrille [Side A]
1. Cymbal Sonorities 4:14
Andrew Cyrille2. Haitian Shadows 4:53
Andrew Cyrille3. Freeway 3:55
Andrew Cyrille4. Freedom Waltz … A Drum Duet! 5:06
Andrew Cyrille & Billy Hart
Billy Hart [Side B]
5. The Aquarian Gospel 7:01
Billy Hart
6. Famoudou 9:11
Billy Hart & Andrew Cyrille
7. Sangoma 5:11
Billy Hart & Andrew Cyrille
Bill Stewart [Side C]
8. Boogie Person 4:35
Bill Stewart
9. Half Of A Half Of A Mile To The River 2:20
Bill Stewart
10. Aria 3:15
Bill Stewart
11. Brush With Lulu 1:37
Bill Stewart
12. Ensnared 5:14
Bill Stewart
Nasheet Waits [Side D]
13. Kind Brain 6:17
Nasheet Waits14. Farewell You Daddy, It’s Your Time Now 7:11
Traditional15. B In Exile 4:37
Nasheet Waits
About Drum Stories
Liner notes by Jason Moran
The drum is a universal sign for ritual.
A ritual can slide between the epic and the ordinary. When a drummer approaches their drum kit, they assess the set. Slowly they tailor the kit to fit where they are on that day. Questions arise: Is the drum stool too low, does the snare drum need more angle, which stick sounds good against what cymbal? Much of a drummer’s signature lies in these moments of adjustment. Fine tuning the drums, repositioning them, then listening. This is the ordinary ritual that sets the stage for the epic.
Andrew Cyrille, Billy Hart, Bill Stewart, Nasheet Waits: Drum Stories | Double
Release Date: Dec 4, 2026. Pre-orders will be available in October.
International shipping available for all albums.
Drum Stories captures an epic gathering. This collection is more than a mixtape; it’s like a gathering at the campfire. Four drummers—Andrew Cyrille, Billy Hart, Bill Stewart and Nasheet Waits—arrive at the flame. Each offers stories to the circle and a log to the warm light. These profoundly emotional stories carry much more than what emerges from the drums. We hear the breath, the control, the humor and the humility. They are in the sinews of the swing, or in the inventiveness that each of these musicians is championed for. It is a rare treat to hear them alone and in contemplative dialogue with their instruments. Each drummer brings their own sense of composition, punchline, and slang. As we listen, their language accumulates within us as we follow each syllable.
Andrew Cyrille and Billy Hart continue to define what it means to nurture a sonic garden. In Cyrille’s Haitian Shadows, his mallets flutter across the snare and toms. The piece finds the dance that recalls his mother’s social club. His dramatic whisper is just audible enough for us, showcasing the intimacy of his dynamics. Cyrille can locate rhythmic possibilities on any surface his sticks discover. In his hands, the drums become more ecological. They become a set of mirrors and his limbs construct visions for us to hear. He teleports us one tone at a time.
Billy Hart is a specialist at drawing you near. Hart examines a component as if he is checking each sound, allowing us to get accustomed to it. The opening display in The Aquarian Gospel presents all of the colors, and then he begins to mix them, slowly adding hues to the story as they begin to blur. Hart is supremely patient. He folds and rotates rhythms on their axis, calmly tumbling them down the face of the mountain. From the campfire, he gazes up the sky, telling us about the stars and the moon that anchor us.
The ultimate surprise are the three duets between Hart and Cyrille. In Famoudou they fervently toss snares and toms at one another in a juggling act. The result is electric. This story doesn’t unfold, it launches fireworks, a soulfully technical display ricocheting above us. The fire is alive.
Bill Stewart arrives with a fresh perspective. His stories of the past dream of a future where time overlaps. With clarity, Stewart exposes the form and delineates the line. Stewart is ferociously free, using the form to address freedom. In Half of a Half of a Mile to the River his color choices growl from the feet and give us a pocket. His sense of drum tradition makes this into a folk song that asks us to sing along. Find the phrase, repeat it, call it out! The ritual call and response that is the sign of humanity.
Nasheet Waits simultaneously pulls and pushes time. He gains momentum mid-phrase, gathering steam that disappears. It is something deeper than a crescendo, more akin to when a wave retreats from the shore while an oncoming wave splashes over it. In Farewell You Daddy, It’s Your Time Now he takes his time passing the song around to different characters. They use the beat to give their version of the tale. These drums answer themselves, in a discussion of their own, recalling the fine points. As soon as we think we know where the story is heading, Nasheet shifts the narrator, pulling our ear closer.
Drum Stories is an extraordinarily meditative listening session. It riles up and calms down.
I have performed with each of these musicians. They challenge the depth of the music with the way they exploit their freedoms. From my perch at the piano, I stare at each of them across the stage, watching every move they make to generate the sounds we hear. Their feet shuffle back and forth from the high hat to the bass drum. Their arms reach out to crash, or to roll a tom. Their seated choreography materializes the universal language. We collect their stories, and we are thankful for them.
- Jason Moran
