A flurry of drumming activity of actual interest on Bluesky this morning. So far much of the drumming content there has been pretty mundane, but they’ve added ~ ten million new users in the last […]
Conductor of form
The general topic here is jazz comping— some general concepts thereof, getting into what I think is missing from a lot of students’ playing, even as they do the basic thing pretty well. The following […]
Hey, follow me on Bluesky
SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: I have now abandoned that festering hell site formerly known as Twitter, and invite you to follow me on Bluesky, a vastly more friendly environment for good and sane people. There’s a nice […]
Expanding a concept – 01
This is connected with all the fill related jive we’ve been dealing with lately. I share it with you to illustrate a thought process, not a particular set of licks. These are some things I […]
Transcription: Mickey Roker – Essence
I’ve gone a little nuts with the ghost note notation, but it’s accurate— a lot of the comping activity is very soft. We can assume he’s feathering the bass drum most of the time; I’ve […]
Reed tweak: RH lead triplets – fast within slow
This has been an item of interest for a long time— playing fast in a slow tempo. In a master class Peter Erskine mentioned that Jack Dejohnette was the only drummer he knew who could […]
Two measure Reed phrases – 02
Another cut-and-paste, hack-and-slash job, extracting some two measures phrases from the full page exercises in Syncopation. For when I want a particular kind of phrase, and don’t want to hunt around the eight pages for […]
More 3/8 fills – 01
Here are some things I was playing around with while playing my page of 3/8 fills— embellishments on things on that page. Some odd stickings, or normal stickings I would play in an odd way. […]
Daily best music in the world: Michael Griener solo set
Here’s an incredibly beautiful solo set by my friend, and friend of the site, Michael Griener. News of Roy Haynes’s death broke during the set, and it feels like we’re sending him off… At Richten 25, […]
RIP Roy Haynes
The last old master drummer has died, Roy Haynes, at age 99. He was the last of the “magnificent seven” (coined by Lenny White): Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Philly Joe Jones, […]
Fills in a 4/8 framework – 01
Continuing the concept of that last thing, Fills in a 3/8 framework. Here we’ve got four 8ths of space to deal with, a cymbal accent, and three 8ths of fill. I’m very pleased with how […]
Very occasional quote of the day: epic
From Hal Galper on Facebook: “I’d heard a recording of an interview with Coleman Hawkins that stuck in my brain. He said you had to go to the city twice. The first time to learn […]