From the Miles Davis album Quiet Nights, with conducted and arranged by Gil Evans. The tune is a Miles/Gil classic, and appears as a bonus track on the 1997 reissue of this album. The version […]
Year: 2019
CYMBALISTIC: new videos are UP
Cymbalistic news: I have posted videos for the latest batch of new Cymbal & Gong cymbals on the Cymbalistic site. We’ve added: • 22″ Holy Grail Jazz Ride • Two 20″ Holy Grail Jazz Rides • […]
I played with Coltrane when Elvin couldn’t be found
This is fun— Uncle Paul’s Jazz Closet, the extremely cool web site sharing recordings and other items from Paul Motian’s archives, has scanned and shared Motian’s business calendar from 1965-66. It has all his gigs, […]
Hemiola funk series – SB-BS
I like this series. It’s a little half-baked, and I’ll probably have to rewrite it eventually, but I feel we’re closing in on something. A theory of rhythm and playing the drumset not based on […]
Mingus riffs
A quick little transcription project, before I get into making a lot of cymbal videos. These are the rhythms for the horn riffs on some Charles Mingus tunes. A riff is a repeating background figure, […]
CYMBALISTIC: Cymbal day 2/26/19
Cymbalistic news: I visited Cymbal & Gong HQ in southeast Portland yesterday to play cymbals and acquire stock, and the word of the day was GREAT LITTLE RIDE CYMBALS. Phrase of the day. I played a […]
Rub-a-dub lesson: Fables of Faubus
Another example of rub-a-dub applied, using a passage from the Charles Mingus tune Fables of Faubus. In previous lessons we’ve just used this idea on the head of some tunes as an exercise. Here we’re […]
Beginning snare drum books
Winner 1 A brief roundup of some available beginning snare drum books— books for first year students who have never played before, roughly age 10 and up. May also use them with more experienced players […]
Syncopation p. 37 in 16th notes
Continuation of this item, in which I transcribe exercises by Ted Reed into 16th notes. Here I’ve done the famous page 37 exercise. I won’t be doing any other pages because that would be obsessive […]
Hemiola funk series – BS-SB
Further exploring hemiola rhythms in various meters and drum set orchestrations… there will be several more posts like this coming soon. It’s a simple idea that nevertheless needs to be written out, and it takes […]
Practice loop: Black Sabbath / Breakout
Practice loop sampled from Breakout, an instrumental jazz odyssey-type number from Black Sabbath’s 1978 album Never Say Die. Tempo is quarter note = 57 bpm. Nice and slow, good for getting into my very challenging […]
Page o’ coordination: that with interruptions
A rare opportunity to do a POC in 4, with lightning turnaround, no less. I attended a clinic by John Riley and Terrell Stafford in Portland this afternoon, and they were each telling what they […]