A flurry of drumming activity of actual interest on Bluesky this morning. So far much of the drumming content there has been pretty mundane, but they’ve added ~ ten million new users in the last month, and things are developing rapidly.
Anyway: here’s a new repository of the Mel Lewis history of drumming tapes, edited, cleaned up, and generously shared by Flip Phillips. Previously the digital files were divided up by show, under the heading of the name of the drummer they were discussing. Phillips has broken those up, with individual files for the recordings played, and subjects of conversation. It’s super helpful.
It’s a work in progress, so you’ll probably want to check in there for updates in coming months.
Also Gary Kennedy has shared a link to some Mel Lewis interviews I hadn’t seen before, with Les Tomkins, several times between 1971-88. That site has a whole ton of interesting interviews, actually.
And Jon McCaslin has written a new post on Mel Lewis you’re going to want to read.
Follow everyone on Bluesky:
@flipphillips.com
@fouronthefloorblog.bsky.social
@jazzsnob99.bsky.social
@cruiseshipdrummer.bsky.social