Thelonious Monk’s other great drummer from the ’60’s, Ben Riley talks about joining the band, and an early performance experience: Performance clips after the break. You could but shouldn’t write a bop drumming textbook from […]
Category: jazz
Transcription: Frankie Dunlop – Bolivar Blues
There is just a ton of good stuff on Jon McCaslin’s Four on the Floor blog– like this little 2010 piece on the great, under-appreciated drummer Frankie Dunlop, who was with Thelonious Monk for part […]
Princess Wee-Wee
In his 2008 interview by Marc Myers at JazzWax, Roy Haynes talks about Lester Young and his reaction to Roy’s first 20″ bass drum: Roy Haynes: [Lester] was a very humorous guy. He had his […]
Elvin Jones analysis – Big Nick
Here’s a little analysis- or catalog of ideas- extracted from my transcription of Elvin Jones playing on Big Nick, from Coltrane’s album with Duke Ellington. It’s a good introduction to Elvin’s playing for novice drummers- […]
Learning to comp with 16th notes is a necessary misery.
Here I’m elaborating on what some comments in a Drummerworld.com discussion on these pages/recorded example from Jim Chapin’s Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer: I could just be trying to drag everyone else into my […]
Humanizing the hard stuff
Over at Four on the Floor Jon McCaslin has posted several great duo videos featuring Max Roach, including clips with Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Weston, and this with Cecil Taylor: Max really warms up Cecil’s thing, […]
Favorite albums: Thelonious Monk Trio
Thelonious Monk – Trio Prestige 7027 Thelonious Monk – piano Percy Heath, Gary Mapp – bass Art Blakey, Max Roach – drums This record doesn’t seem to get talked about much, and I don’t know […]
Favorite albums: Where In The World by Bill Frisell
Where In The World by Bill Frisell 1991 – Nonesuch B000002H9S Bill Frisell – guitar Hank Roberts – cello Kermit Driscoll – bass Joey Baron – drums I and a lot of other drummers of my […]
1996 Paul Motian interview, part 4: Rumba Beat on a Tom Tom
Fourth part of my excerpts of Chuck Braman’s 1996 Paul Motian interview: FREE: Chuck: When you first heard people actually playing free, how did it strike you, coming from a background rooted so strongly in […]
1996 Paul Motian interview, part 3: ding ding GA-ding
Third part of my excerpts of Chuck Braman’s 1996 Paul Motian interview. TIPS AND COMMENTS: Chuck: Did any of the musicians you worked with ever offer you any advice or make musical comments that struck […]
1996 Paul Motian interview, part 2: I Don’t Have To Do S**t
Part 2 of my excerpts of Chuck Braman’s 1996 Paul Motian interview. Here Motian discusses his approach to the instrument. NOT THINKING DRUMSET: Chuck: What would you say is the central concept of how you […]
Larry Appelbaum: Before & After with Ed Thigpen
Over at Let’s Cool One, Larry Appelbaum, jazz specialist at the US Library of Congress, does a Before & After (his variation of the blindfold test) with Ed Thigpen, from 2005. My favorite part, on […]