UPDATE: Download link works now! There’s an ongoing political crisis happening in the United States right now, and it’s really hard to write, or do anything else productive. It’s very serious and basically every human […]
Happy end of that
1/7 UPDATE: Bumping this post from the distant past at the end of last month, when, in my sad, ridiculous naiveté, I thought the worst was behind us, and the depths of the current president’s depravity, […]
Reed tweak: bass in the middle of the triplet
Let’s take a break from watching the national degradation of the United States and its democratic form of government reach its apex live on Twitter/TV, wanna? Yesterday I was practicing one of my recent Reed […]
Hemiola funk series: all patterns combined
Continuing to work through the possibilities of the hemiola funk series, in hopes of eventually making a concise, coherent method out of it. It has been great for my students— adult beginners, and kids under […]
Listening: holy shnikeys
A couple of standards from the album The Hub of Hubbard, by Freddie Hubbard. With Louis Hayes on drums and Richard Davis on bass, plus Roland Hanna and Eddie Daniels. Recorded in Germany in 1969 […]
Groove o’ the day: Andy Newmark – Dreamweaver
UPDATE: Download link is active now! I really think people don’t know what groove is any more— I heard the worst thing in the world on the radio* a few days ago, and I WISH […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones – Chasin’ the Trane – 04
Happy actual new year, everyone. Here are the 19th-24th choruses of the ongoing Elvin Jones / Chasin’ the Trane transcription project. We’re about 25% of the way through. Not a lot new to report— there’s […]
Page o’ coordination: feet in the gap
Another little item inspired by the ongoing Chasin’ the Trane transcription— in which Elvin Jones does this a lot. Here we’ve got both feet in unison, played on the &s of 1 and 3, in […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones – Chasin’ the Trane – 03
Third minute of Elvin Jones playing Chasin’ the Trane, from John Coltrane Live at The Village Vanguard. The 13th-18th 12-bar choruses. I just noticed that the tempo— around quarter note = 235— is about the […]
Bass drum rhythms for feathering
I wrote this up after listening to Mel Lewis’s history of jazz drumming tapes, where he was raving about the importance of playing time on the bass drum (he really gets into it after 43:30). He […]
From the zone: two-note coordination patterns
From Manuel in Augsburg, Germany. We’ve met a couple of times in my travels— in Berlin and in Augsburg, and I got to help him put together a really nice set of Cymbal & Gong cymbals— a […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones – Chasin’ the Trane – 02
Happy Saturnalia everyone— although it seems a shame to call it that, with everyone celebrating in isolation. Nevertheless, here is the second minute of Elvin Jones playing Chasin’ the Trane— 1:13 to 2:13— from John […]