Some notes on a chart I had to play yesterday, on a festival gig with a pianist I’ve worked with quite a bit, Jasnam Daya Singh. He’s Brazilian, and quite a heavy composer. For a […]
Daily best music in the world: Al a la Roy
An interesting recording here, featuring Al Foster sounding for all the world like Roy Haynes— with the snappy, aggressive snare drum, occasional flamboyant tom tom moves, with a broken/open time feel the whole time. Much […]
Groove o’ the day: Max In Tunisia
A selection of grooves played by Max Roach on the Miles Davis album At Last!— a live recording made at The Lighthouse in LA in 1953, and released thirty years later. Max here has been […]
Transcription: Jack Dejohnette – Tumbleweed – 01
Jack Dejohnette playing on Tumbleweed, from Michael Brecker’s album Pilgramage— released a few months after his death. This is the type of playing much of what we do here is in service of. For a […]
More on that double timing tweak…
Clarifying the method behind that Reed tweak from last week, double timing the very familiar, friendly, happy, easy RH lead Reed system— RH plays book rhythm on a cymbal + bass drum in unison, LH […]
A worthless waste of time, so give it to me free
Vacancy Something sure to irritate and offend you, I’m afraid: an article written by someone named Joakim Book, Music Has No Economic Value. It’s all about how music has no economic value, because Spotify devalued […]
Very occasional quote of the day: better ideas
You know, there are no bad ideas. Only better ones. Let’s not say, “That wouldn’t work” or, “That’s a stupid idea.” If it’s a stupid idea, the rule is we don’t judge, we just keep […]
Reed tweaks: double timing RH lead
A collection of warmups for adding 16th notes to our good friend the right hand lead Reed system. You can work them up to practice them while reading from Syncopation, or these could be your […]
I answer technique questions
A question about technique from Ben in Australia: I have been working on my grip which has become prominently German. I’m finding that it’s very comfortable and natural for the slower aspects with grooves, sticking […]
Chaffee linear patterns – first exercises
I’ve needed this page several times recently— the first basic orienting exercises for the Gary Chaffee linear patterns: RLB / RLBB / RLRLB / RLRLBB / RLRLRLB / RLRLRLBB Mainly, playing the repeating patterns as […]
Groove o’ the day: Idris Muhammad boogaloo
A light little 60s pop beat by Idris Muhammad— I don’t know what to call it, part boogaloo, part bossa nova— from George Benson’s album Shape Of Things To Come. The whole record is like […]
Very occasional quote of the day: excitement
MD: You use a lot of dynamics and have a beautiful touch. JW: I’ve worked very hard on that lately: just getting the quality of my sound together. It’s not that I don’t want […]