I finally got to record with the 22″ Sabian Raw Ride I was so excited tell you about awhile back. I’d say it has an unmistakable “A” sound- neutral-seeming, but very pretty, with a lot […]
Category: music
Favorite albums: Special Edition by Jack Dejohnette
Special Edition by Jack Dejohnette 1980 – ECM 001161902 Arthur Blythe – alto saxophone David Murray – tenor saxophone, bass clarinet Peter Warren – bass, cello Jack Dejohnette – drums, piano, melodica It’s been awhile […]
Bass drum variations for bossa nova
Bossa nova can be a very static style for novices- I’ve noticed in teaching that they have a hard time getting away from the standard, repetitive pattern. And, aside from Ed Uribe’s book, I really […]
DBMITW: Ndugu
Here’s one of my favorite funk performances ever, by Ndugu Leon Chancler on Watch Out, Baby!, from George Duke’s Reach For It. It’s pretty NSFW, so you may want to put on the headphones if […]
Making any money in jazz
Dollar bill. This is something I wrote last week, but decided against posting, as it can be kind of a downer. I have actually officially banned from my presence discussion of how much being a […]
It’s a five-off
Following the lead of Four On The Floor’s 5 Beat Groupings (including a hip way of using Stone on the drumset), and Trap’d’s 5 beat figures in triplets, here’s another variation of the paradiddle exercise […]
What I was doing yesterday
Here’s one of the rough mixes from yesterday’s session- Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman. I hadn’t planned on recording this tune, and we didn’t rehearse it, but we had nine tunes in the can, and a […]
DBMITW: models of simplicity
There are thousands of examples of simple pop drumming which achieve a kind of craftsmanly invisibility, but here I’ve chosen a handful of favorite tracks in which the drumming actually stands out artistically for its […]
Putting together a jazz drum set
The Gretsch Catalinas on my 2010 Europe tour. A good point in the comments of the How to be a jazz drummer post- the sound of your instrument is very important. If you’ve been playing […]
Coordination “kernels” – further examples
You may have noticed I’ve been on rather light posting this last week. Expect that to continue for the next several days; this week I’ll be recording my new CD for the Origin label, Little […]
A lot of hard sight-reading
No entry for getting lost, panicking, and soiling oneself. An interesting day yesterday- I played two sessions in which we played through a bunch of really challenging reading. It’s an interesting dynamic when a group […]