We covered this cursorily back in 2011, let’s talk about it again, with some more detail. “Kicks and setups” is big band drummer speak for one of the major jobs of a jazz drummer, or any […]
Year: 2023
Listening to Sorcerer
Phew, long post here, but the topic merits it. Let’s listen to the Miles Davis record Sorcerer, with his famous 60s quintet including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. I bought it […]
Very occasional quote of the day: privilege
“The only sensible way to regard the art life is that it is a privilege you are willing to pay for.” – Robert Henri, The Art Spirit
Transcription: Roy Haynes – Bad News Blues – 03
Part 3 of Roy Haynes playing Bad News Blues on his record Cracklin’. Booker Ervin’s tenor solo includes a chorus of stop time, two choruses of blowing, then he trades choruses with Roy. This is […]
Reed interpretation: slow tempo / fast singles
I guess you could do this with Reed— or just practice the page below by itself and start using it. NOTE: After completing this post, I see that I wrote two very similar things back […]
5/8 flam accents
Page of rudimental patterns in 5/8, based on a flam accent #1. We’ve just extended it a couple of notes. You could connect some of these with a whole lot of rudiments: flam drags, pataflaflas, […]
Reed singles drill
Simple system for working on singles, that I worked up with a student who plays a lot of Metal. I don’t know anything about Metal drumming, so we have to work together to come up […]
Paul Motian documentary
It took me awhile to get around to watching the Paul Motian documentary Motian In Motion— it’s great, here it is if you haven’t seen it: I liked this comment from Steve Swallow about his […]
That last Reed tweak: one further
Going one further with that last Reed tweak in 3/4, in which we played alternating triplets, beginning every measure with the right hand. Normally with alternating triplets, every second measure would start with the left hand, […]
Transcription: Roy Haynes – Bad News Blues – 02
Part 2 of Roy Haynes playing Bad News Blues on his record Cracklin’. This is Ron Matthews’s piano solo, starting at 1:51— four choruses, 48 bars. Things like this are a little bit of an […]
Transcription: Roy Haynes – Bad News Blues – 01
Roy Haynes playing Bad News Blues, from his album Cracklin’. We’ll be seeing more of this one, there’s a lot of interest in this recording. Playing a tune like this some people might simplify and […]