Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson had a fun riff going over on the Twitter, which was to find iconic jazz tracks that were basically exactly 3½ minutes long; he was limiting it to music released […]
Month: January 2015
Two killer drum sets — UPDATED
UPDATE: Both sets have been relisted, with a significant price drop on the Sonors. Don’t make me call these guys and beg them to ship the drums to Portland, and incur some debt I don’t […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones — Lonnie’s Lament
I’ve transcribed Elvin Jones’s playing during McCoy Tyner’s solo, on Lonnie’s Lament, which you will have just listened to on the John Coltrane album Crescent. It’s medium tempo, with a subdued vibe for much of […]
Daily best music in the world: two drummers
The Modern Drummer website has a decent little list of great double-drumming tracks. I was ready to come down on them for not including the Butthole Surfers, but no, there they are— a bold choice for […]
Listening: Coltrane — Crescent
This conversation between Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson, saxophonist Joshua Redman, and composer/bandleader Darcy James Argue, about the John Coltrane albums Crescent, and A Love Supreme, happened on Twitter: Crescent was the first Coltrane album […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6/8 — “Guiro”
A new POC in 6/8, with a variation on our usual bell pattern, pulled directly from Ed Uribe’s excellent, horrifying, massive book, The Essence of Afro-Cuban Percussion and Drum Set. The pattern comes from Guiro, […]
Groove o’ the day: Bernard Purdie — Funk Down
Here’s a bright proto-disco groove from Bernard Purdie, on the tune Funk Down, from Mongo Santamaria’s Afro-Indio record: The snare drum filler notes on the es happen more regularly, and more emphatically, than notes on […]
Very occasional quote of the day: making In A Silent Way
Guitarist John McLoughlin on recording In A Silent Way with Miles Davis. Classic art can be very instantaneous: […] I had gone to New York to play with Tony [Williams] and Larry [Young], and I […]
Daily best music in the world, again: TOM TOMS, MAN
Here’s Billy Cobham playing with Ray Barretto in 1973. The tom toms are just outrageous— really exciting: You never hear that sound any more— Steve Gadd just wiped everybody else out for fusion tom tom […]
Daily best music in the world: Hal Galper Trio
Here’s my brother, John Bishop, playing with Hal Galper, with Jeff Johnson on bass, at The Blue Whale in LA: Post by The Hal Galper Trio.
Page o’ coordination: basic — 05
Here’s another basic funk/rock page o’ coordination, this time using a series of es and as on the bass drum— to me this exact rhythm is a very 70s thing, and doing it with an […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Herzog’s 24 maxims
From a Salon.com, here are 24 pieces of life/work/career advice from the filmmaker Werner Herzog: 1. Always take the initiative. 2. There is nothing wrong with spending a night in jail if it means getting […]