Just learned that the drummer Dick Berk has died. He was best known for being Billy Holliday’s last drummer; he is also on recordings by Ted Curson, Nick Brignola, Milt Jackson, George Duke, Cal Tjader, […]
Year: 2014
Transcription: Tony Williams — Seven Steps to Heaven, trumpet solo
Continuing with our Seven Steps To Heaven transcription in installments, here is Tony Wiliams’s playing behind Miles Davis’s solo, starting at 0:43, on the version of the tune from the album Four & More: The […]
Todd’s African triplet lick
I call this an African idea, but really it’s just a thing that keeps happening when I solo with an Afro 6 feel; it’s African by vibe. And it’s not really a “lick”, it’s more […]
What to do with Reed
I stumbled across this in the depths of the Drummerworld discussion forum— drum instructor Jacob Kaye from Montreal has posted a little summary of some of the stickings used with Ted Reed’s Syncopation. I don’t […]
Transcription: Tony Williams — Seven Steps to Heaven, head in
Man, I am getting tired of writing words. Let’s get back to what you actually come here for: drum shit. In honor of the Superbowl— which they tell me is today— here is something that’s […]
Books are here!
With alternate covers Hey, the new books have arrived! Lulu.com cranks them out fast. If you haven’t ordered your copy of the 2013 Book of the Blog yet, there’s an added enticement to buy it […]
Art Blakey in a nutshell
Play it strong. Hard at work with new record stuff and next-tour stuff this week, so we’ll be on light posting for a moment. But here’s a little something from the Art Blakey web site: a brief […]
Groove o’ the day: Elvin Jones Latin
We want to get a sense of the texture of this groove, and just writing out one time through of it would be misleading, so here’s the whole intro from I Wish You Love, from […]
2013 Book of the Blog now available!
Now I remember why it takes me so long to do these things; it’s a lot of work, even when 98% of the content is already written. But! The 2013 Book of the Blog is […]
Oh, I don’t know…
Probable dialogue: “Come on, swing, you mother— SWIIIIIING! YEAH! YEAAAH!” So, I hear the big hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Whiplash, a movie about the tumultuous relationship of an abusive, hard-driving jazz […]
Lighting round: four new books
New to me, anyway— I think these have all been around awhile. I thought I’d give my rapid-fire opinion on some things I just got in the mail: Daily Drumset Workout by Claus Hessler We’ll […]