“The way guys like Bud Powell shaped their solos, they automatically left spaces for the drummers to contribute. A lot of times today, in student performers, I don’t hear that space being offered, because they’re […]
Year: 2023
Uptempo drill a la Riley
Major rehash alert: an uptempo jazz drill I was playing yesterday, using what John Riley once called “my C major scale”: an SSBB pattern in 8th notes, with notes omitted. The page below is very […]
Transcription: Buddy Rich – Big Mac
Buddy Rich drum solo on Big Mac, a prodigious funk/rock arrangement by Ernie Wilkins, from Rich’s album Ease On Down The Road— it’s actually better known from Roar of ’74, but I have it on […]
Very occasional quote of the day: sound and touch
“I’m not happy with my sound at all. I wish I sounded like Art Blakey or Elvin Jones. You have to be born with a certain feel or touch. Blakey had that African sound. It […]
Everything at once
Another archive item— these things are a very welcome brain cleansing for me. This is a clinic handout by Russ Tincher, from when I was a student at the U. of Southern California. Tincher was a […]
EZ simultaneous clave exercises
Awhile back we noted that if you play a simple rhythm in an alternating sticking: And move one hand to a different sound: …you are playing the Son Clave rhythm in the 3-2 and 2-3 […]
Stanley Spector news
I received an email yesterday, from a violinist named Xinou Wei, regarding the “Spector School of Drumming”— which sells itself as an official Stanley Spector enterprise, and apparently it is a complete fraud. Wei says: […]
Time is money
Another funny item I dug out of my archives. I believe it’s from the jazz festival at UC Berkeley in 1989— I was there playing with USC’s guitar ensemble. A bassist and drummer gave a […]
From the zone: feel the groove
Cleaning out my mom’s house I found a box of all the siblings’ music materials that she saved, including a bunch of my archive items, that are pretty interesting. The thing below was written and […]
Tyranny of the barline or something else
Headline: TED Video Irritating Alt headline: Media Company Declares Own Take On 15th Century Graphic Concept Groundbreaking Alt alt headline: tEd Dopes Find Music Unintuitive Getting back to my usual form: complaining about a […]
Funk samba: moving the 1
I was doing this with some students, using a similar groove to Omar Hakim’s Predator groove— vastly simplified. There are a couple of pages of “funk samba” grooves in Roy Burns / Joey Farris’s underrated book […]
Transcription: Mel Lewis comping
On Chess Mates, from a 1985 Joe Lovano record, Tone Shapes & Colors— a live recording with Mel Lewis on drums, and Kenny Werner on piano. A lot of what I’d call “non-independent” drumming here, […]