CYMBALISTIC: More news, a new batch of Cymbal & Gong cymbals is coming next week. And, I will be offering a rare SPECIAL for the remainder of the month of December: Free shipping on US […]
Daily best music in the world: Freddie Hubbard
I’m hard at work writing this new book that you will want to BUY BUY BUY, so enjoy this Freddie Hubbard record Keep Your Soul Together, with Ralph Penland on drums. I’ve been playing this […]
Chop busters: flammed 16ths
Another small item, while I power through writing my new book: a page of 16th notes with flams, designed to be rather technically challenging, in the manner of Ron Fink’s book Chop Busters: Alternating sticking […]
Looking at The New Breed
Let’s talk about the book with the funny looking Ludwig drums with the Silver Dot heads on the cover— and all the ugly Paiste ColorSound cymbals, and Simmons SDS-5 hexagonal drum pads. Yes, I’m talking […]
Very occasional quote of the day: you call it swing
“You call it swing, but what I’m saying is it’s a rhythmic sophistication that causes a euphoric reaction, and on a folk level that reaction can go anywhere from sensual feelings, to partying, to dancing, […]
Wrong stickings game
I’m hard at work on a new book right now, and the only way I’ll finish it is if I write the whole thing at once, so here is an absolute throwaway item to keep […]
Practice loop: slow shuffle
Here’s a loop that be real useful to a lot of people, sampled from Soulful Brothers, from Kenny Burrell’s record Blues – The Common Ground. The drummer is Grady Tate, and he’s playing a shuffle […]
Cheap jazz cymbals
During that Washington residency one of the students asked me for a recommendation on an inexpensive jazz cymbal. It’s not really a budget category of cymbals, and I didn’t have a great answer for him. […]
Reed tweak: RH lead with LH drags
Reedtweakapalooza continues! I really need to round these up in a book. This is yet another thing to do with the straight 8th right hand lead Reed system. Refreshing your memory on that: reading from […]
Teaching in Washington
The drive home— the wilds of central Washington. I was out for a couple of days teaching some kids in the tri-cities area in central Washington state. The people who run the Portland Youth Jazz […]
Art Blakey: Jazz Messenger
Just came across this, quite an amazing documentary about Art Blakey, where they talk to Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller, many others. I haven’t gotten all the way through it yet. […]
Reed tweak: RH lead triplets – five stroke rolls
This is where my thinking is going lately, towards breaking up some Reed practice systems so they’re not pure formula. Which I have always done anyway, just not very systematically. We want to make our […]