UPDATE: PDF link working now! I can’t believe I’ve never transcribed this one before. This is a very famous drum solo by Max Roach, on the tune Blue Seven from the album Saxophone Colossus by […]
Category: Max Roach
Cracking 5/4: listening
Here’s the first in a series on playing in 5/4. Since everything in music follows from listening (and this is the easiest type of post for me to write), we’ll start with some recorded examples: […]
Go watch now
The Max Roach story, at Four on the Floor. Here’s part 1/7:
VOQOTD: Elvin
“Don’t ask me to show you anything, because if I could show you, we would all be Max Roach.” – Elvin Jones, from part 2 of Ethan Iverson’s Billy Hart interview
Very occasional quote of the day: Jack on Max
“…and he could play the fastest tempos!” – Jack Dejohnette on Max Roach I thought this one deserved its own post.
Know your tempos: what’s meant by up
In case you were wondering how fast you need to be able to play, here are a bunch of your favorite tracks spanning the break between “medium up”- where it’s still possible to swing- and […]
Around the drums Max Roach-ily
More good stuff from Bang! The Drum School- a fun page of Max Roach-inspired fills. I like this kind of thing for just practicing getting around the drums- something I never actually did in isolation, […]
Some of them just can’t count.
There’s a great extended piece over at Four on the Floor on the subject of form in soloing, and how to hip the other musicians to the fact you are adhering to it: Of course […]
1978 Modern Drummer interview: Tony Williams
From the Modern Drummer digital archive, here are some excerpts from a 1978 interview with Tony Williams. I’ve edited out the large hunks of it where they discuss single-headed toms, the merits of fiberglass drums, […]
Transcription: Max Roach – Garvey’s Ghost
Here’s my brand new transcription of Max Roach’s drum solo over an Afro-Cuban vamp on Garvey’s Ghost, from Roach’s Percussion Bitter Suite. Includes a sample of the backing vamp, and of the drums on the […]
All About Jazz interview: Alvin Fielder
Here are some extended excerpts of an Allaboutjazz.com interview by Clifford Allen with drummer Alvin Fielder. Fielder was a student of Ed Blackwell’s, and a founding member of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative […]
Andrew Cyrille interview by Ted Panken
Here’s another in my series of choice, drummer-relevant bits of other people’s interviews, this time with Andrew Cyrille, by Ted Panken: Ted Panken: Are there different challenges for you in dealing with, let’s say, the […]