Dropping a big ol’ stinkbomb in your lap as I prepare to wing off to Europe, here is a thing I’ve been working with, under Jack Dejohnette’s influence. I’ve been working on an extended transcription […]
Category: jazz
Reed interpretations: Billy Higgins-like uptempo method
Here’s a little thing suitable for jazz at fast tempos, resulting in a Billy Higgins-like sound. Billy Higgins at times. He’ll do a lot of unisons between hands, partial spangalangs, and alternating singles. There are […]
Five interviews with Paul Motian
It’s not no deep fuckin’ secret! People talk about this shit like it’s some kind of… – Paul Motian From jazz writer Ted Panken, several unedited interviews with Paul Motian— he posted this in 2014, […]
Jazz loops embedded – slow tempos
Some good slower tempo jazz practice loops. All maintain a pretty consistent triplet feel, no one’s double timing his cymbal beat. Forms on most of these are 12 bar blues, except Stella By Starlight is […]
Listening to Shelly Manne
A few notes while listening one track of a live piano trio record by Michel Legrand, with Shelly Manne, Ray Brown on bass. Recorded in 1968. The movie The Thomas Crowne Affair just came out, […]
I get in fights
Smart person, or contrarian? Or flat out giant pain in the ass? What is the difference between a contrarian and FOGPITA, anyway? I don’t know. I find myself disagreeing with a lot of things said […]
Page o’ coordination: jazz waltz with 4:3 – UPDATED
UPDATE: Eh, I decided I didn’t write that page very well. I’ve revised it and posted it below. If you want to get the old one, it’s there, too. A collection of practice patterns exploring […]
The Freedom Principle
I used to think I was a free jazz drummer, now I just want to play tight arrangements.– Todd Bishop The book The Freedom Principle, published in 1984, by John Litweiler, was my my listening […]
Cousin Mary
Working with the John Coltrane tune Cousin Mary. I feel about some of his tunes the way Jon Krakauer felt about Mt. Everest— too chunky, too broad of beam, too crudely hewn— and almost as […]
Reed interpretation: RH lead 16ths – swing
A little item I’ve been working with, adapting our familar right hand lead Reed system for 16th notes, giving the rhythms in the book a dotted-8th/16th swing interpretation— as we do with this paradiddle inversion […]
Transcription: Jack Dejohnette – On Green Dolphin St.
Here is Jack Dejohnette playing duo with Lee Konitz, on the head of Green Dolphin St., and the first chorus of Konitz’s solo, on Konitz’s album Satori, from 1974. I bought this record in 1988, […]
Larry Bunker / Shelly Manne / Donald Bailey on solo structure
In a drummer round table in Down Beat magazine (March, 1973), Larry Bunker, Shelly Manne and Donald Bailey discuss soloing: Larry Bunker: When I solo I always think in terms of the structure of the […]