“There’s been times when I was fired from gigs because, lets say I had the ability to get my foot in the door, but wasn’t living up to the expectations that people had. In that […]
Practical comping lesson with Rothman
Joel Rothman’s books don’t get a ton of attention in the jazz drums-learning world, but they’re good. I like the comping materials in his book Basic Drumming (duplicated in his book Drumming And All That […]
Ndugu Leon Chancler with George Duke
Here’s a cool video of Ndugu Leon Chancler in the studio with George Duke, playing Dukey Stick, which ended up on his record Don’t Let Go. They start playing after about 1:45. The way Ndugu […]
Very occasional quote of the day: religion
“This is my religion. I take long breaks now when I don’t perform and I am not myself when I am not performing.” – Roy Haynes h/t Sheet Music Library
Antonio Sanchez on drumming in movies
From Anzonio Sanchez’s twitter feed, here’s a video of him commenting on some drumming performances in movies, including School of Rock, Sound of Metal, Whiplash, and some other things. Most of the examples don’t have […]
Tresillo unit
For a couple of weeks I’ve been working with an area of stuff covering several different styles— grooves with a tresillo rhythm, or part of it, in the bass drum. I’ve been polishing it for […]
Chop busters: syncopated flammed 16ths
More rooting around in my archives, with a stealth from the zone item. I found this in one of my notebooks from high school, and it’s worth playing, with some mixed 16th note rhythms with […]
From the zone: Danny Gottlieb solo break
Another archive item— lots of action around here right now, and not a lot of time to write. And I just found some more of my old writing. I wrote a lot of drum stuff […]
Pro vs. semi-pro
Another item from the archives— this is from Jack Wheaton (1932-2015), my jazz styles and analysis professor when I was at USC in 1988-89. In some context or other he gave us this list of […]
Very occasional quote of the day: feel gotten with respect
From Vernon Reid’s Twitter feed: Funk ain’t easy. Many ASSUME that it is. Swing is complex, but it doesn’t grant carte blanche over other styles. Every idiom has its nuances that demand respect & attention […]
Philly Joe set ups
Here’s a tune involving a lot of isolated kicks on the & of 2, where we get to hear a lot of different ways Philly Joe Jones sets them up— Blue Roz the Milt Jackson […]
Nothing to do with drumming?
Dave Elitch (L) with Rational Funk’s Dave King There was a fascinating exchange on Instagram, starting with the drummer Dave Elitch (formerly of the band Mars Volta, done a bunch of big gigs), who gave […]