Here’s a complete 30 minute Bill Withers concert on BBC from 1973. I’m not sure who’s playing drums with him— he gets almost zero screen time, and is severely under-lit. It’s not James Gadson, doesn’t […]
Year: 2013
Oh, hey…
Judging by this check I just received in the mail, I apparently have an article in the April, 2013 issue of Drum! Magazine— my third. Hopefully that’s still in the stores. The piece is my […]
Gary Chaffee linear patterns
In the coming days we’ll be doing a little extension of a thing found in vol. 3 of Gary Chaffee’s Patterns series— an appendix, really— and since that’s not an everyday title like Reed or […]
Page o’ coordination: in 4/4 — 01
Extending this coordination series a little further, way out there into 4/4. What he have here is a little Elvin Jones-like phrase, ending with an accent on the & of 4, with a space at […]
From the zone: Weckl’s paradiddle-diddles
It took awhile, but I finally stumbled across some old scribbled-out exercises conceivably worth sharing as part of this from the zone series. So far the only person brave enough to submit anything has been […]
VOQOTD: Stephen King
From Stephen King’s On Writing: If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s a musical parallel to that, and it […]
Odd meter samba?
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, […]
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 […]