Here’s something from Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (usually dedicated to hyper-well-written humor): a straightforward interview with a cruise ship pianist. Good straight info for anyone considering that line of work.
Category: music
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 […]
Ron Carter on drummers
Here’s an excerpt from an old interview with Ron Carter, from Ethan Iverson’s Do The Math, concerning some of the great drummers Carter has worked with. Absolutely go read the whole conversation: EI: In the […]
Paradiddles with 16th note triplets
Here’s a companion to the other pages of paradiddles I’ve posted, this time using an embellishment used in Wilcoxon occasionally- a 16th note triplet in place of the double. Playing the triplet starting on an […]
Talent and practice
I guess the “Gen Y Entrepreneur and Investor” author of this piece Why natural talent is overrated knows this stuff from reading a book, but there are some good things in here about practice. Maybe […]
Know your tempos: Rolling Stones
I’ve been keeping a little tempos database, containing information on as many very familiar tracks as I can manage- mainly tempo, meter, and style. These are a handy mnemonic device for picking tempos out of […]
Umdaga, part 1
This is a very simple pattern I use a lot- I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the basic DNA instructions of my playing: right/left/bass. I didn’t exactly make it up, but […]
Bill Evans speaks
Here’s a nice, timely (given the last post) find from Ted at Trap’d: pianist Bill Evans talking at length about music:
You must hack
That imperative comes from Running Linux, a classic manual on the use of the Linux computer operating system. What it meant in context is that to take advantage of the full power of the OS, […]
My Vinnie Year – part 4 – PASIC, 1985
Here is what’s available of Vinnie Colaiuta’s performance at PASIC in 1985, which has since become somewhat legendary, and I was lucky enough to see in person. The quality is poor- plus there is such […]
My Vinnie Year – part 2 – Percussioner magazine interview
Sometimes I think the whole purpose of this blog is just for me to gather all the things I ever did, heard, read, or listened to about the drums a put them in one little […]