This line from Peter Erskine’s The Drum Perspective is pretty much an instant classic: I’ve felt strongly, for a long time now, that instead of seducing and encouraging the younger and learning drummer to practice, […]
Month: March 2013
DBMITW: Manguiera
The sound quality is not great, but this is worth watching all the way through— I just watched it three times: One of my favorite tamborim rhythms occurs here several times— you can use that […]
“Amazing” vs. “hired”
Received this in my email without comment from Portland drummer Ron Steen. Ron is an accomplished jazz musician, and has been running jam sessions locally for decades now, and has been the first gatekeeper encountered […]
Free shipping on book orders
I should let you know that Lulu, the company that prints our books, is offering free shipping on book orders over $50 through March 17— tomorrow night. So you can save big if you order, […]
Groove o’ the day: DC Go-go
In the late 80’s my old friend and cohort Kirk Ross went off to Berklee and brought back some tapes of Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers, and Trouble Funk— Go-go, Washington DC’s special variety […]
Bembe Wheel coordination
Here are some generic snare drum and bass drum coordination/performance patterns for use with the bell patterns in the Bembe Wheel. Each one of those patterns deserves at least one individually-tailored “page o’ coordination”, but […]
Clive Burr 1957-2013
Sorry to hear that original Iron Maiden drummer (he played on the first records, anyway) Clive Burr died yesterday, of multiple sclerosis, at age 56. Heavy metal drummers tend to be pretty anonymous sounding to […]
African bell pattern and its inversions
What we have here is the familiar 12/8 or 6/8 bell pattern (here called “short”; in the US it’s commonly called “Afro-Cuban”, or Naningo, or Bembé), run through several common inversions, each starting on a […]
Much more on the Baby groove
Here’s more than you ever wanted to know about a song you never heard until a few days ago, “Baby” by Caetano Veloso. It’s not exactly the most important thing ever, but it’s on my […]
Groove o’ the day: Ed Blackwell — Lop-o-lop
Another Ed Blackwell 6/8 today, from an album you may have some trouble finding, Dewey Redman’s Tarik, on Aktuel. The drums play in two, and the bass (Malachi Favors, I think?) plays a fast 6. […]
Writing drum charts
I just happened across a couple of nice posts on how to write a drum chart— that is, a handwritten page of notes sketching out whatever information you need to play through a song or […]
2013 Europe tour taking shape
This way to Hot Club Dates for my November, 2013 Europe tour are starting to firm up: Tuesday, November 12 Hot Club de Gand — Ghent, Belgium Sunday, November 17 Hannut Jazz Festival — Hannut, […]