OK, this one is definitely a labor of love— that took way too long to finish and proof. But I’ve been living with this piece for a good twenty years, and performing it for much […]
Year: 2014
Teachable moment squandered
From an interview with drummer Shannon Leto, of the pop band 30 Seconds To Mars (who are evidently inducing seizures in pre-teens the world over right now) in this month’s Modern Drummer. This exchange, in […]
More options for cheap film rigs
After the last photo post I got excited to do more film photography, and what better way to motivate myself to do that than to BUY MORE GEAR. Usually that’s a bad idea; GAS, the […]
Groove o’ the day: Tony Allen — No Agreement
Finishing up a long Ed Blackwell transcription, so while U wait, here’s a pretty classic Afrobeat groove from Tony Allen. The tune and album are No Agreement, by Fela Kuti: The variations and fills are […]
Transcription: John Guerin — Dirty Harry, Main Title
Here’s a whole lot of kickass 70s stuff. The drumming here is by John Guerin, one of the great L.A. studio drummers of the era. He plays a large set here, with five concert toms, and, […]
Groove o’ the day: Todd Bishop — The Secret Agent
I’ve got a bunch of unfinished stuff on deck, so we’ll just keep doing GOTDs until I can get it together and be a writer. And what the hell, let’s do one of me. The […]
Tape for sale, cut up
Need to get rid of that horrible ring in yer snayer drum? Well, these guys are selling a product that may be said to be the answer: As the man said, that drum sounds awesome. […]
Safe to buy Wilcoxon again?
They obviously don’t quite get why people are buying these books, but OK. Here’s some good news: a student of mine brought in a new copy of Charley Wilcoxon’s Rudimental Swing Solos, and it appears […]
A cheap portrait lens for your Nikon digital SLR
Just did a little photo job, and realized something I should’ve figured out years ago— well, it something I knew about, but wasn’t exploiting. If you aren’t conversant in basic camera lingo, you might want […]
Page o’ coordination: Elvin’s waltz in 4/4
It could look an awful lot like I’m phoning it in with all of these Pages o’ Coordination— well, I am phoning it in, a little bit, but that’s not to say the pages aren’t […]
Groove o’ the day: more Public Enemy
…aaand another rocking groove from The Bomb Squad, this time on Bring The Noise, from Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions… album. Again, this is a composite of programmed and sampled grooves, which […]