I was listening to some Ohio Players, and this, from the intro of Fopp, jumped out at me. It’s not the greatest thing in the world ever, but it’s fun: The 32nd notes are legato, […]
Month: August 2013
DBMITW: happy 80th to Wayne Shorter
In honor of the 80th birthday of the great saxophonist Wayne Shorter, here is one of my favorite solos of his— or of anyone else’s, ever— from Miles Davis’s Complete In A Silent Way Sessions […]
More meter-within-meter phrases
Here’s a little supplement to the meter-within-meter introduction of a few days ago: some additional two, four, and eight measure practice phrases: It’s easy to get yourself into trouble with this, so it’s important to […]
Transcription: Greg Errico — Anti Love Song
I could’ve handled this one as a groove o’ the day, probably, since the variations over the course of the piece are fairly minor, but I felt like writing out the whole thing, and didn’t […]
Why you don’t need to get paid
This guy will tell youwhat you deserve. I see that the old downloader “culture”— always a sketchy-sounding crew, even in the early days when they were led by high tech vanguard types writing in Wired— […]
“Bulletproof”?
I was directed to a musician’s blog that’s quite good, and seems to be worth keeping up with on a regular basis. The name makes me cringe: it’s called The Bulletproof Musician, which I’ll say […]
Getting started with meter-within-meter
Playing meter-within-meter— playing in one meter during a tune in a different one— is a very common rhythmic element in jazz, which became fully realized in drumming during the 1960’s by Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, […]
VOQOTD: Al Foster on taste
“I’m trying to play less when keeping time behind a soloist,” Foster says, “not answering every phrase with the left hand and bass drum. You want to be on it, but not on everything. I’m […]
Transcription: Al Jackson — Over Easy
OK, since I do actually feel obligated to offer you something more than perversely elementary groove transcriptions and lectures on the state of drumming, here’s a transcription of the build-up section from yesterday’s tune, Over […]
Groove o’ the day: now exclusively an Al Jackson feature
I include these Al Jackson grooves not because you can’t figure them out for yourselves, but because in this current technocratic, amazingness-fetishizing period of drumming, I like to keep in the front of my memory […]
How to play the brushes, part two
I had never seen this before: Steve Gadd playing on a 2″ tape box. Along with Ted Warren’s videos, the only instruction you need for brushes: (h/t to Who Is Tony?)
On the field with a great drum line
Sorry for the preponderance of video clips of late— what can I say, we’re a little scattered this week. This is a remarkable recording made by an old drum corps colleague, Nathan Beck— he wore […]