A baseline thing to do with Reed funk methods is to practice in two measure phrases. For example: one measure cut time funk* / one measure RH lead**. * – CUT TIME FUNK: Reading from […]
CYMBALISTIC: 20 BLOW-OUT
5/26 UPDATE: OK gang, the special is OVER, but, happily, the cymbals are still a tremendous bargain considering that a) they’re great, b) you’ll use them forever, c) they’re not that expensive to begin with! By […]
Transcription: Max fours
I am not screwing around people, this is now an ALL Max Roach site. Here he is trading fours on Minor Meeting, from the record Sonny Clark Trio, from 1960— there’s another record by that […]
Reed tweak: alternating triplets in 3
This came up while I was practicing out of my book, Syncopation in 3. An extremely ordinary practice system used with Syncopation is to a) swing the top line rhythm, b) fill in the remaining […]
WSRHWL addendum!
A couple of pages to go with my wild, sprawling, scattershot world’s shortest Roy Haynes waltz lesson. That contains a lot of raw concepts for someone who is listening to a lot of Roy Haynes to […]
Transcription: Max soloing
On this second of two days of major acts of white supremacist violence here in this paradise we call “the USA”, let’s retreat into art, with part 2 of the thing from the other day: […]
Three camps: four variations
Four alternative ways of playing the rudimental piece Three Camps, that I’m practicing this week, accented 5 stroke rolls, flam accents, flam drags, and flammed 5s. Learn each measure individually, then play them in the form […]
Transcription: Max comping
That’s the theme of the week now: jazz comping. Here’s Max Roach playing on the horn solos on A Little Sweet, from his record The Many Sides of Max. Each solo is 24 bars long, […]
Groove o’ the day: Billy Higgins – Mystery Song
Let’s gooo, this is now a full-time Billy Higgins site. Here he is playing a New Orleans/Poinciana/Vernel Fournier kind of groove, on the Duke Ellington tune The Mystery Song, on Steve Lacy’s record Evidence: Swing […]
Beware of formulas
Making that Shadow Wilson transcription, I was reminded of this video fellow blogger Jon McCaslin shared with me (and Ted Warren of Trap’d), in which drummer Bernie Dresel shares his formula for comping with the […]
Transcription: Shadow Wilson comping
A little bit of Shadow Wilson’s playing on Nutty, from Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, at Carnegie Hall. This is Monk’s second solo chorus, starting at 2:33. The tune is 32 bars long, form is […]
Solo transcription: Billy Higgins – Dear John
More soloing from Billy Higgins, on Dear John, on Freddie Hubbard’s record Bolivia. The tune has the same chord changes as John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, which is a 16 bar form, but the drum solo […]