Oh, I was going to put out a book of intros, wasn’t I? Most of the transcribing for that project is actually done, and now I just need to do the not-fun part of laying it out in book form… we’ll see if I can get that done before the end of the year. Here’s a little foretaste of that, with Philly Joe Jones’s intro to Dance of the Infidels, from Hank Mobley’s 1957 Blue Note album Hank:
Philly Joe is just so high-classic bebop that it took me a long time to recognize that I could differentiate his playing from other bop drumming, and his thing is still kind of difficult for me to define. He’s certainly rudimentally-oriented. The triplets here are likely played as singles [Note: Or not! see the comments… -tb]— the first run is three beats long, and the second one 3+3 beats long, which might get you thinking it’s a good idea to get really fluent with playing triplets specifically in three-beat groups. That first triplet run is actually an 11-stroke roll, played as singles, and, including the fp pickup, will start and end with the same hand. It will take a little bit of practice to end the run of singles with a stick shot, which is played by pressing one stick into the head, and hitting it with the other stick.
Super excited about this book, Todd!It's a terrific idea, and I believe a great idea as an entre into playing jazz and applying a compositional approach. I'm ready to buy my copy at any time (if you decide you're going to pre-sell 'em).
-David Hurd
Great transcription, Todd. One of Philly's favorite licks (as you know) is to play continuous triplets while accenting every third beat. I always used to assume that he did it with singles, until I saw some John Riley transcriptions where Riley used the sticking Rll rlr rll (where the right hand is playing a 3/4 jazz ride pattern). Perhaps Riley visually observed Philly playing that way? That still wouldn't address how would stick a lick like the first one you mention, accenting the and of 4 followed by a softer stream of triplets (which, of course, is another of his favorite licks). I actually find singles easier than the other sticking, but maybe if my doubles were in better shape I'd think otherwise.
Thanks for the info, Ed– I'll bet Mel Brown can confirm that stuff, too. I had the opposite issue– I was never a good singles player (until I started working on them a lot a few years ago– I would always opt for a sticking with doubles.
David- Great, I'd better get cooking on this thing! Doing the layout is always a long slog, but I have to face it…