Big band drumming tips from Butch Miles, from the Oct. 1977 issue of Modern Drummer. They apply to all types of music, of course: SUPPORT. If the band has a difficult passage, support them strongly. […]
Category: drums
Free jazz theater
I just- God. What? I… can’t… (h/t to Michael Griener in Berlin)
Tune of the moment: Misterioso
Thelonious Monk’s Misterioso is a strangely beguiling little tune: It’s a slow blues, with a melody of running even 8th notes. That doesn’t sound hard. Except somewhere in the playing of it, it always goes […]
Cymbal post coming up
We don’t write much about gear around here- there’s something of an epidemic of misplaced priorities surrounding the topic. But I’ve been on a cymbal-buying kick the past couple of weeks- a heavyish vintage Paiste […]
Groove(s) o’ the day: Jocko Homo
Another curiosity for the groove o’ the day, and the first drum beat I ever learned: Jocko Homo by Devo. Drums by… I forget if it was Bob 1 or Bob 2 [UPDATE: Oh, it […]
Light posting
Still on light posting, through the weekend most likely, while I finish up some other projects. So enjoy some Dom Um Romao: A whole lot more of Dom after the break:
VOQOTD: Elvin
“Don’t ask me to show you anything, because if I could show you, we would all be Max Roach.” – Elvin Jones, from part 2 of Ethan Iverson’s Billy Hart interview
Ethan Iverson interview with Billy Hart
Here’s part of another great interview by the Bad Plus’ Ethan Iverson, this time with Billy Hart: Miles and Tony Tony, for his age, seemed to me more thorough in the study of the jazz […]
Pinstripes reconsidered
Here drummer and Modern Drummer writer T. Bruce Wittet takes another look at the now-humble Remo Pinstripe. For a good part of the 70’s and 80’s they were the drum head of choice for many, […]
Drum chart: Along Comes Mary by Cal Tjader
Pillaging the archives while I’m working on tour/book-related junk, I turned up another Cal Tjader drum chart, written by me a couple of years ago. I’ll try to do more of these in the future- […]
Todd’s Methods: Stick Control in 5
So much for writing nothing. I’ve been doing a lot of practicing in 5/4 lately- I’ve always quite sucked at it, frankly- and finally getting it together for real has been a curious process. Very […]
All the grooves from Maggot Brain
Many of these are highly variable, so it may be presumptuous to declare that I’m giving you all the grooves from this record, but that’s the name of the series… I guess that’s what I […]