By now anyone who would read this site has heard that Al Foster passed away. Here are some notices: Ethan Iverson | Downbeat | NPR | WBGO – Foster @ The Village Vanguard in 2012 […]
Category: listening
First jazz albums
It wears me out seeing the same four records listed as the first things to get, when first getting into jazz: Moanin’, Saxophone Colossus, Kind Of Blue, some other bleeding obvious record. They’re great. Of […]
Essential listening for combo playing
Listening to jazz records for the specific purpose of knowing what you’re doing playing in a combo setting— playing “regular” mainstream jazz. We’ll leave listening related to very modern playing as a separate topic. And […]
I answer questions: rhythm analysis
Answering a question from a drumming forum— I can give a longer answer here, because a) it would be pompous to do that on a forum, and b) I don’t want to waste my time […]
Things to listen for – ballads
Some things aren’t easily dealt with in transcriptions— you just have to listen a lot and notice things, and use them when you play. Here we’ll look at ballads, and the information you want to […]
Daily best music in the world: Dannie Richmond with Don Pullen / George Adams
Title track from Earth Beams, a great record by George Adams & Don Pullen, with Dannie Richmond on the drums— all three are Charles Mingus band alumni. Richmond was a key partner in that relationship […]
Daily best music in the world: Tootie with McCoy
Here’s a nice performance on brushes by Tootie Heath, on Five Spot After Dark, from McCoy Tyner’s album Today And Tomorrow. I don’t know how it passed under my radar that he died just last […]
Buy records: a screed
Go to places like this and buy things. I was half an hour early for an appointment with Tim at Cymbal & Gong— picking out a career ride cymbal for one of my students— so […]
Listening to The Musings of Miles
Listening to a Miles Davis record I never really heard before: The Musings of Miles. It’s a lower profile item in Miles’s catalog. These listening to albums posts are a test for me, because I normally […]
Playing charisma
Charisma: Compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others. – some dictionary In becoming better drummers and musicians— and in being lovers of music, and of percussion in music— I think, finally, we’re […]
Elvin isolated
Obviously I’m posting really lightly lately, getting ready to head to Germany next week, so: here are some recordings Elvin Jones plays on, with his drums isolated. Enjoy! Here’s Passion Dance, from McCoy Tyner’s album […]
Listening to Somethin’ Else
Somethin’ Else is a very famous record by Cannonball Adderley, that really belongs in that “the one jazz record I know” list, along with Kind of Blue and Moanin’. When I was in school nobody […]