Vibe: a scientifically accurate illustration I’ve been thinking about something the saxophonist Donald Harrison said in a clinic some months ago: “Music is about vibe. Music is all about vibe.” It was a useful comment […]
Category: music
Cascara coordination — 01
OK, I am seriously in need of a break from working on the book— finishing the damn thing is always the hardest. So here’s a page of exercises for developing coordination with the cascara, a […]
Transcription: Milton Banana — Flor de Liz
As I mentioned before Milton Banana is one of the great Bossa Nova drummers, and since that tends to be an under-understood style (by the whole rhythm section, actually), I want to go a little […]
What it is: swing rhythm
Extremely preoccupied with tour preparations, obviously, but fortunately I have a couple of things on deck: Swing interpretation is something we use a lot here, and I’ve mostly assumed people know what it is— you […]
DBMITW: Sonny Sharrock
Having a very busy weekend with students, gigs, and tour preparations, so here’s one of my favorite records from the 90’s, Sonny Sharrock’s Ask the Ages— by far his best album that I’ve heard. With […]
DBMITW: The Hawaii 5-0 fill, redux
What this Hawaii 5-0 nonsense is about, for people under the age of 40-something. Get Tale Spinnin’ by Weather Report
Alan Dawson’s “Ruff Bossa”
We’re laying it on pretty thick with the Reed interpretations right now, but I just went over this with a student, so I need to put up one more. It’s a swing interpretation with partially […]
Rudimental Reed: ruffs
Today’s Rudimental Reed entry is pretty straightforward— just make a ruff out of any note that doesn’t have an (untied) 8th note before it. That’s an awkward way of phrasing it, but I think you’ll […]
Groove o’ the day: Art Blakey with Hank Mobley
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 […]
Groove o’ the day: Ed Blackwell — 6/8 variations
Here are some more variations on the Afro 6/8 feel, played by Ed Blackwell on the tune Mopti (an old favorite from Flatland days, which I’ll be reintroducing to the set on the Europe trip […]
Transcription: Ian Paice — Lay Down, Stay Down
[UPDATE: pdf download link works now!] I don’t get how herds work: suddenly everyone, everywhere is talking about four stroke ruffs. They happen to be all over this piece, played in 16th note triplet form […]