I’ll start this post with an enormous caveat that Brazilian music is not my field of expertise at all. Many people around me are learning Portuguese, making trips to Brazil and being very serious about […]
Month: March 2011
The DNA of swing drumming
I picked up this interesting book- Charley Wilcoxon’s Drum Method– as one of my local sheet music stores was going out of business. I’d been working with Wilcoxon’s more advanced Rudimental Swing Solos, but this […]
Todd’s Methods: Samba builder
Here’s a little method I improvised for developing some flexibility with the samba- I put this together pretty quickly away from the drums, so I’m sure I’ll add to it as I work with it […]
Page o’ Gadd
Still slow getting my own stuff completed this week, so instead you’ll have to enjoy this nice page of Steve Gadd motifs from Bang! the Drum School, a Brooklyn teaching studio. They have a blog […]
Krupa G.P.
Still light posting, but listening to the Mel Lewis history of jazz drums interview and they’re discussing a favorite move of Gene Krupa’s- during a shout chorus leaving a dramatic silence where there would normally […]
Massive Mel Lewis interview
More great stuff from Jon McCaslin at Four on the Floor: extended radio interview of Mel Lewis by Loren Schoenberg, discussing the history of the drums in jazz from Baby Dodds to Elvin Jones. An […]
Hal Blaine interview
Great article and interview with Hal Blaine at Jazz Wax, absolutely worth reading. If you haven’t heard of him, Marc Myers’ introduction should pique your interest: Except for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and a […]
Why we transcribe
Yes, I look the same when I’m transcribing as Duke did when he was copying parts- immaculately-coifed, reclining in my suit surrounded by reams of parchment. I’m a pretty big transcriber, and I thought I […]
Best Books: Basic Drumming by Joel Rothman
In case you haven’t figured it out already, I’m a big fan of Joel Rothman’s books. His many, many books- I think he has written about a hundred of varying lengths since the early 60’s. […]
Transcription: Joey Baron – Child at Heart
This is one of my favorite pieces of Joey Baron’s playing, from Bill Frisell’s Where In The World, playing some of the more prodigious snare drum backbeats in jazz. The “hip”, backwards, rhythmically-displaced part during […]
All About Jazz interview: Alvin Fielder
Here are some extended excerpts of an Allaboutjazz.com interview by Clifford Allen with drummer Alvin Fielder. Fielder was a student of Ed Blackwell’s, and a founding member of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative […]