More Ben Riley! From the same record as yesterday— Thelonious Monk Live At The It Club— and in fact this is the very next tune they played at the gig, Bemsha Swing. So, two drum […]
Category: Ben Riley
Solo transcription: Ben Riley – Blues Five Spot
Solo by Ben Riley on Blues Five Spot, from the Thelonious Monk record Live At The It Club. Great record, and core literature. I think of Ben Riley’s playing as maybe the cleanest shot we […]
Ben Riley on musicality
Extended excerpt from Ben Riley’s Modern Drummer interview from 1986, by Jeff Potter, in which he talks about melodic drumming, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, and his other influences: JP: You have been called a “melodic […]
Thelonious’s ballad test
From Ben Riley’s 1986 interview in Modern Drummer with Jeff Potter: “In my first experience with [Thelonious Monk], in Amsterdam, we played ‘Embraceable You’ as a very slow ballad. Then he went into ‘Don’t Blame […]
Ben Riley comping
We lost a very great drummer this week, and one of a dwindling number of his generation: Ben Riley. He was best known for his playing with Thelonious Monk in the mid-60s, and with the […]
Transcription: Frankie Dunlop — Green Chimneys / Rouse’s solo
2024 UPDATE: Oops, apparently Ben Riley plays on this record. I need to look at the sleeve before posting these things. It sure sounded like Frankie Dunlop to me. Thanks to Andrew Wicks for the […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Monk on rehearsing
“What do you want to do, learn how to cheat?”— Thelonious Monk That’s from Russ Musto’s 2006 interview with Ben Riley on Allaboutjazz.com— highly worth reading. Riley had just been asked to join the band […]
MD interview: Ben Riley on Monk, more
Here are some excerpts from a Ben Riley interview I hadn’t read before- I didn’t know who he was when the September, 1986 issue of Modern Drummer came out. It’s a nice companion piece to […]
Straight, No Chaser – two interpretations
You know, I think I’m kind of a Monk guy? Here’s something I did for a student some time ago- a comparison of Ben Riley’s and Art Taylor’s approach to playing on the head of […]
Ben Riley on Monk
Thelonious Monk’s other great drummer from the ’60’s, Ben Riley talks about joining the band, and an early performance experience: Performance clips after the break. You could but shouldn’t write a bop drumming textbook from […]