Happy holidays everyone. Instead of finishing the other transcriptions I said I needed to finish, I started a new, really long one: Ndugu Leon Chancler playing Earth, from Joe Henderson’s album The Elements. I don’t […]
Year: 2016
Very occasional quote of the day: classical in jazz
“[T]hese days I think there can actually be too much ‘classical’ sounding stuff in jazz. In a master class I heard Paul Bley warn about this. Bley thought it was better for young jazz musicians […]
Inner Drumming
One of the more interesting drum books ever written is Inner Drumming, by George Marsh. Marsh is a big Tai Chi practitioner, and his linear drumming method, using a novel, artistic system of notation, is […]
Daily best music in the world: Headhunters
A complete set by Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, with Mike Clark on drums, recorded in 1974. For most of the time I’ve been a drummer, there was no opportunity to see things like this— actually the […]
End of year news
Wow, posting has really slowed down to a crawl here in December. Truth is, I got way too ambitious with some transcription projects, and never got them finished. We’ll see if I can get at […]
Rock beats: simple displacements
Here’s a page of patterns for illustrating/learning some creative possibilities with a basic rock beat, using some simple displacements— playing one or more notes “late”, moving them over to the &: Learn the patterns individually, […]
FRANKIE DUNLOP SPEAKS
This is incredible: AUDIO from Scott K. Fish’s interview with Frankie Dunlop. A long, hilarious story— and ultimately hair-raising, when you get to the part with Tony Williams et al in the audience— about Monk […]
From the zone: another Vinnie Colaiuta transcription
We haven’t done a From The Zone post in a long time— handwritten scraps of stuff from peoples’ practice room floors. This one is actually a nice, complete thing, from Toni Canelli in Sheffield, England: a transcription […]
Groove o’ the day: Art Gore / Cosmic Funk
Listening to Lonnie Liston Smith’s album Cosmic Funk, I just today came across someone I had never heard of, but who I instantly loved— Cincinnati drummer Art Gore. I’m working on a transcription of his […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6 across the barline
We haven’t seen one of these in awhile— seriously, I have posted more stuff on this Afro 6 groove than anybody in the world, and if you have thoroughly practiced any three or four of […]
Chaffee linear phrases in 4/4 with inversions – 01
I’ve found it helpful to practice Gary Chaffee’s linear materials in inversions— not always starting the patterns on beat 1. We’ve already done that in 3/4 with 16th notes and with triplets; today we’ll do the […]
Groove o’ the day: Omar Hakim / Gil
The early 80s were kind of a heyday for hip hihat work. Stewart Copeland and Omar Hakim, really got my attention for that, anyway. Can two great players make a heyday? You decide. Here’s Hakim’s […]