Time to get out your white-out again. This is something that had been bugging me for many years of working with A Funky Primer, by my old professor, Charles Dowd. Most of the book consists […]
Category: music
Groove o’ the day: Elvin afro-waltz
I’ve been working on a transcription of Elvin’s playing on John Coltrane’s Your Lady, from Coltrane Live at Birdland, but it’s not going to be ready today. Here’s a little teaser, though- the closest thing […]
DBMITW: Mingus
I am one lazy blogger- but what am I going to write that’s 2% as good watching Eric Dolphy during Johnny Coles’ solo? If that isn’t enough for you for today, go read Andrew Hare’s […]
Todd’s waltz
Or, the presumptuously-named Todd’s waltz, as I call it. I’m not attempting to claim the radical innovation of adding a hihat on the & of 3, it’s just how I often play a waltz, and […]
Four in three in four in 4/4
This an item inspired by Elvin Jones’ rolling triplet thing, written by my friend Stephen Pancerev- we just spent an afternoon rifling through his notebooks of original exercises, cryptic scribblings, etc, and this is the […]
Jazz percussion
This is a concept I’ve been kicking around for years, I think since the term first came up for me in reference to Tony Williams in the history section Jack Dejohnette/Charlie Perry book: Tony didn’t […]
Six stroke rolls around the drums
I’m just cranking them out today. I’ve been using the last paradiddles around the drums thing so much I decided to write up something similar using another familiar solo pattern, the six stroke roll (as […]
VOQOTD: Mel Lewis
“…you should start with a crash and end with a crash. I see drummers ending with a crash cymbal, but then choking it. When you hit that big chord at the end, let it ring. […]
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 […]
Favorite albums: Ballads by Paul Bley
Ballads by Paul Bley 1967 – ECM 1010 Paul Bley – piano Gary Peacock, Mark Levinson – bass Barry Altschul – drums Compositions by Annette Peacock This is kind of a funny entry to this […]
First-inversion paradiddles around the drums
2024 UPDATE: Wow, this page looks like crap. See my new bigger and better page of this. This came up in my own practice today— straight conditioning movements around the drums, using the very traditional […]