Here is another one of my original transcriptions, this time by Elvin Jones. The track is one of my all-time favorites, Tunji, from the album Coltrane by John Coltrane. It’s kind of a small piece […]
Month: January 2011
Verdict: Android Retro Camera
The Android Retro Camera app is dead to me. After much intensive research (I took a picture and opened it in Photoshop), I’ve discovered that while the camera phone has a maximum resolution of 2048×1536, […]
March 1985 Modern Drummer interview: John von Ohlen
Interview with big band drummer John von Ohlen from Modern Drummer, March, 1985, by Scott K. Fish, with the many good parts pulled out here, by me. Von Ohlen toured with with the Woody Herman […]
Transcription: Roy Haynes – Solar
Here’s something from a nice jazz drumming blog, Tim’s Parlour– the opening of one of my favorite Roy Haynes tracks, from Pat Metheny’s Question & Answer: All of those &’s of 1 and 3 I’m […]
Kenny Clarke on the invention of the ride cymbal
…and modern drumming in general, excerpted from Ed Thigpen’s Kenny Clarke interview in the Feb. 1984 Modern Drummer. I originally posted this last year on the Drummerworld.com forum. From Thigpen’s introduction: It’s understandably difficult for […]
Drum! Magazine piece – Inside “Cissy Strut”
This is an educational piece of mine, entitled Inside “Cissy Strut” And Beyond, which ran in the Nov. 2010 issue of Drum! magazine. After reviewing New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore’s book Groove Alchemy for Oregon […]
Droid Retro Camera app is fun, sucks.
Right, so I found an “app” on my new Garmin phone, “Retro Camera” by Android, and thought the thing might actually be a Diana killer, at least on the road. Currently when I travel I […]
Sampled play-along loops
This is something I’ve been doing lately- making play-along loops from drumless parts (usually intros) of favorite tracks. My attorney tells me this is of dubious legality distrubution-wise, but until I receive a cease-and-desist letter […]
Vinnie Colaiuta transcription – Frank Zappa’s Packard Goose
This is one of the hairier transcriptions I have ever done- Vinnie Colaiuta’s drum part from the guitar solo on Packard Goose, from Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage. I originally transcribed this- along with much of […]
About my sites
PDX Drummer – My drum instruction site. Lots of hard-sell please-please-study-with-me stuff, but also very robust pages of my recordings, exercise/transcription/play-along downloads, and recommendations/tips on purchasing everything related to drumming. Also links to my Amazon […]
January 2011 update
TERSE ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m about to revive this sucker somewhat. Look for more music-related items and odd bits out of the photo archives. A lot has been happening since my last post- two European tours, a […]