Transcription: Tony Williams – Madness – ride cymbal only

Madness is the first track I heard on the first Miles Davis record I actually went and bought- before that I just had the old copy of Kind of Blue from my dad’s record collection. Either my teacher at the time, Tim Stodd, or my brother– probably both- told me this guy Tony Williams was the master of the ride cymbal and I should listen to him. So here’s just the ride cymbal from the first 100 or so measures of the tune. The metric modulation in bar 11 is a simple double time, which you will no doubt hear. Swing the 8th notes, of course.  

This is inspired by the Vinnie Colaiuta interview– I also used to sleep with this record going, though I didn’t use headphones- I just put the turntable on infinite repeat and it would go all night. Usually it was either this record or side 1 of Filles de Kilimanjaro.

There’s no YouTube clip of the tune available, but why don’t you own it already?

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