Jazz context. Tunes we call standards— originally contemporary popular songs that everyone knew, that were a standard part of a working group’s book. These terms arose when there were regularly working bands and an active […]
Category: jazz
Alternating triplets, off the 1
Dealing with a lot of small items lately. We know all the big stuff, now we’re getting into how to practice it in a musically natural way, how to fit it naturally into a continuity. […]
Practice video: playing with Blues On The Corner
A few notes on this little practice video I did yesterday on Twitch— hit that link and follow me, please, it helps— working through some things with a medium tempo McCoy Tyner loop. You can […]
Careers in Jazz
Resurfacing an old chestnut, a piece entitled Careers in Jazz, by Seattle pianist Bill Anschell, which I visited briefly in the first year of the site, with a post called Making any money in jazz. […]
Very occasional quote of the day: loud and musical
“I am comparatively a heavy drummer. I like to play heavy, and I play forceful, and sometimes I tend to get loud, and it might be overbearing because I’ve seen some customers who sit close […]
Max fast – 02
Here are some pretty remarkable videos of Max Roach playing live. The first is in Norway in 1977. The tune with the group, “It’s Time”, is fast, and 20 minutes long, including a solo played […]
Best books: Beginning Drum Chart Reading
Here’s an excellent book, that is quite obscure— or was, to me: Beginning Drum Chart Reading by Gil Graham. It was written in 1983, and is only available from Graham’s site, as far as I […]
Jazz comping warm ups – triplets / SD-BD
A page of warmups for one of my students, connecting the right hand lead triplet system (which he knows well) into a triplet comping system (which he does not). They’re both major ways of working […]
Who and why: the 90s
Continuing this little series of thumbnail sketches of some important players. These are some people who came to my attention in the 90s, and/or were broadly influential then. It was a really fertile time in […]
Daily best music in the world: Ornette in Berlin ’71
Ornette Coleman playing in Berlin, 1971, with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell. It occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve seen any decent video of Blackwell playing before— there have long been […]
Transcription: Ben Dixon fours
Please forgive this clickbait, the kids do love a good Ben Dixon transcription. Here he is trading fours on Come Sunrise, from Grant Green’s album Sunday Mornin’. The record came to me through YouTube, I […]
Very occasional quote of the day: rehearsal with Charlie Parker
“I’d say, ‘Well, what am I supposed to do?’ He’d say. ‘Oh, you know what to do.’” – Max Roach, Down Beat Magazine, November, 1978, interview with Bret Primack