This is from the 1955 album Hank Mobley Quartet (it doesn’t appear to have been reissued recently, so you’ll have to just buy the mp3). The tune is Avila and Tequila, and Art Blakey plays […]
Category: latin
Groove o’ the day: Elvin Jones — Tumblin’ Tumbleweed
Just back in town from a short quasi-vacation at the Oregon coast, and nothing on deck except, groan, another hip, generic “Latin jazz” groove, played by Elvin Jones on the tune Tumblin’ Tumbleweed on J.J. […]
Groove o’ the day: Copeland’s cha cha
Keith, not Stewart. Here’s a groove I’ve gotten some use out of recently while subbing with Pepe & The Bottle Blondes, a Portland salsa/swing group, for my man Ken Ollis. It’s a unique form of […]
Groove o’ the day: casually provided by Jack Dejohnette
Today’s groove is a little unusual, in that it comes from a YouTube cymbal demo and not from a real record, but since the demo is by Jack Dejohnette, I figured what the heck. He […]
Groove o’ the day: Paul Motian’s tango
I like this feature, and I’m going to try to do a lot more of these this year. Here’s a hip modified tango played by Paul Motian on the tune When We Go, from Rambler […]
Kernels of Cascara
My students have been doing so well with my “kernels” concept that I’ve decided to write up a real challenge for them: cascara with the clave in the left foot. It was the hip thing […]
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- […]
Coordination “kernels” – further examples
You may have noticed I’ve been on rather light posting this last week. Expect that to continue for the next several days; this week I’ll be recording my new CD for the Origin label, Little […]
Basic Mambo
I guess I had to eventually post something directly drumming-related on my drumming blog, so here is an older piece I’ll be sharing with a couple of students today- some variations on a generic, very […]
Afro 6/8 – basic coordination
This is something I’ve been working with daily for several weeks now- getting the usual jazz coordination/comping stuff together with the Afro-Cuban/Bembe/Naningo bell pattern. It’s pretty tricky, and it’s a good idea to do it […]
Todd’s methods: bongo beat
Here’s an easy system I developed for playing a generic Latin feel very bright tempos: A few notes there weren’t room for on the pdf: – Can be played very fast and very light. – […]
Drum chart: Mamblues by Cal Tjader
Here is a chart of Mamblues, from Cal Tjader’s album Soul Sauce, transcribed by me. It’s a pretty straightforward (but burning!) salsa tune on a blues form, with a cascara groove, mambo on the vibes […]