Slow getting back into regular posting, but here are two great tracks that are better than anything I could write. If you don’t have a good jazz radio station in your city— you probably don’t— […]
Category: soul
Practice loop: Wilson Pickett – Mojo Mama
By the way, all of yesterday’s ranting and raving about people’s drum covers doesn’t apply to my sampled practice loops, which are lovely, highly recommended, and serve a totally different function. We’re not aiming for […]
Soul drumming history with Yogi Horton
Here’s an incredible video which I never knew existed: R&B legend Yogi Horton talking and playing the history of soul/funk drumming— this is just the best thing ever: h/t to my brother, John Bishop, for […]
Groove o’ the day: Neftali Santiago — Too Late
Because I don’t think your funk is 70s is enough, here’s some more Mandrill, with one of the greatest-named drummers ever, Neftali Santiago. And just a great drummer, period. This is Too Late, from the […]
Groove o’ the day: Bill Withers — Lovely Night For Dancing
This is by 70’s session drummer Alvin Taylor, who’s fairly little-known, but is on a lot of stuff. Here he’s with Bill Withers, on the album Menagerie. The song, Lovely Night For Dancing, is kind of […]
Groove and totally gratuitous lick o’ the day: James “Diamond” Williams — Fopp
I was listening to some Ohio Players, and this, from the intro of Fopp, jumped out at me. It’s not the greatest thing in the world ever, but it’s fun: The 32nd notes are legato, […]
Transcription: Al Jackson — Over Easy
OK, since I do actually feel obligated to offer you something more than perversely elementary groove transcriptions and lectures on the state of drumming, here’s a transcription of the build-up section from yesterday’s tune, Over […]
Groove o’ the day: now exclusively an Al Jackson feature
I include these Al Jackson grooves not because you can’t figure them out for yourselves, but because in this current technocratic, amazingness-fetishizing period of drumming, I like to keep in the front of my memory […]
Transcription: Superstition — groove variations and fills
Experimenting with a different kind of transcription here. Stevie Wonder’s Superstition— from the album Talking Book, drums played by Wonder himself— is mainly a groove piece, but the groove is highly variable, and writing out […]
Groove o’ the day: more Al Jackson
This one goes out to my man Ed Pierce; I’ve really been getting into the Al Jackson this week. Here’s most of what he plays on Soul Jam, by Booker T. and the MGs, from […]