Continuing the talk about the use of the bass drum in jazz, particularly with regard to keeping time, aka “feathering”, here is an extended exchange from Down Beat Magazine’s March 1964 issue, between Elvin Jones, […]
Category: feathering
Billy Hart on the bass drum
I’m reading the Billy Hart autobiography Oceans Of Time right now— I’ll have a overview of it coming soon— but there are some parts where he talks about feathering the bass drum, and usage of […]
Very occasional quote of the day: time and feathering
“[T]here are certain things that will never change. Good time is good time, whether it’s Baby Dodds riding on a snare drum or Jack DeJohnette slammin’ a full kit. Time is time whether you put […]
Feathering by not feathering
Here’s kind of a funny video by Alvin Atkinson that was shared by a forum user asking about about feathering the bass drum in jazz— the technique for playing jazz time that includes running quarter […]
Listening to Blue Mitchell
Put on your headphones, here’s a little listening this morning: this is Blues On My Mind from Blue Mitchell’s album Out Of The Blue. A lot of blue there, and blues. Playing on it are […]
Grooving with a feathered bass drum
A couple of weeks ago I made some comments about hearing some younger drummers, and someone asked me to elaborate on this part of it: [I was hearing people] feathering the bass drum in a […]
Max on the bass drum
An exchange on the evolution of the bass drum in jazz, from Max Roach, circa 1981, from his Modern Drummer interview with Scott K. Fish. SF: Back in the ’50s and ’60s jazz drummers were […]
Subtractive patterns for feathering the bass drum
A collection of subtractive patterns for developing feathering the bass drum in jazz— for sketching it in, and making punctuations, anyway, since this will mostly not have you playing running quarter notes. Learning to support […]
Mel Lewis master class
Here’s a one hour master class lecture given by Mel Lewis in the early 80s at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). Embedding on blogger is weird now, so you’ll have […]
Bass drum rhythms for feathering
I wrote this up after listening to Mel Lewis’s history of jazz drumming tapes, where he was raving about the importance of playing time on the bass drum (he really gets into it after 43:30). He […]
Two minor Reed items
Two jazz comping practice suggestions, which aren’t big enough to merit a full-fledged treatment, for the full-page exercises in Progressive Steps to Syncopation. Play these on the snare drum (with bass drum added in 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 […]