I guess it’s going to be nothing but Todd’s-this/Todd’s-that this week. Fine. This is preparation for an old thing of mine I was just working through with a returning student, and I realized I had […]
Year: 2012
Todd’s waltz
Or, the presumptuously-named Todd’s waltz, as I call it. I’m not attempting to claim the radical innovation of adding a hihat on the & of 3, it’s just how I often play a waltz, and […]
Four in three in four in 4/4
This an item inspired by Elvin Jones’ rolling triplet thing, written by my friend Stephen Pancerev- we just spent an afternoon rifling through his notebooks of original exercises, cryptic scribblings, etc, and this is the […]
Now available: Book of the Blog 2011 – Vol. 1: Transcriptions
UPDATE: I’m keeping this at the top of the blog this week- scroll down for new stuff. OK, it took me longer than I had hoped to wrap this up, but it’s finally ready to […]
Several big band drumming books
A couple of new/old big band drumming books dropped into my lap recently, so what the heck, I thought I’d round them up for you: Studio & Big Band Drumming by Steve Houghton – 1985 […]
Jazz percussion
This is a concept I’ve been kicking around for years, I think since the term first came up for me in reference to Tony Williams in the history section Jack Dejohnette/Charlie Perry book: Tony didn’t […]
DBMITW: Elvin Jones
I was going to include this as an example in the jazz percussion post, but it really needs its own entry: It feels wrong- totally point-missing- to bring it up, I couldn’t help noting the […]
DBMITW: Billy Cobham
Here’s a live version of another fusion classic: Billy Cobham’s “Anteres” – The Star, from a record I stole from my brother a long time ago, Alivemutherforya: That’s a rare use of the Tama Octobans […]
Really on the stands for real this time.
By the way, my new Drum! Magazine piece, Cross Rhythms Using Stone, is on the stands now- for real. Not a false alarm. Four action-packed pages, and we even made the cover. In the April, […]
Six stroke rolls around the drums
I’m just cranking them out today. I’ve been using the last paradiddles around the drums thing so much I decided to write up something similar using another familiar solo pattern, the six stroke roll (as […]
Groove o’ the day: Freddie Waits
This is a hip stick-and-brush thing Freddie Waits plays on the intro to If You Go Away, from Ray Bryant’s 1967 album Slow Freight. The regular note heads on the snare drum line are played […]