Transcription: Billy Higgins – two breaks

Continuing yesterday’s theme, here are two slick drum breaks by Billy Higgins, from Hank’s Other Bag, from Hank Mobley’s octet album A Slice Off The Top. They happen at the beginning and end of the track; the first is six bars after the beginning, the second is at 6:55.

Higgins’s swing interpretation is very legato— by which I mean it’s closer to straight 8ths than is usual— and he actually plays straight 8ths for a couple of measures of the first break. There are a few different articulations here— a stick shot with a ruff, some buzzes played with both hands, and an open drag in measure 3 of the the second break.

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