There was a period of about five years where I was listening to a lot of early free jazz— Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp. Ornette (and his circle) is the only one […]
Category: Ronald Shannon Jackson
Daily best music in the world: Ronald Shannon Jackson with Albert Ayler
Ronald Shannon Jackson playing with Albert Ayler on the Live at Slug’s Saloon album, recorded in 1966. Jackson wasn’t recorded a lot at this stage of his career, and it’s really interesting to hear him […]
Groove o’ the day: Ronald Shannon Jackson — Behind Plastic Faces
I guess I’m blogging in couplets this week. Speaking of one of my favorite records, Decode Yourself, by Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society— long totally out of print, from a not-very-collectible era in jazz— I’m glad […]
VOQOTD: Ronald Shannon Jackson
“I play music and I play rhythms. I play them and I work on it because I hear something, then I just go sit down and start working on it. It’s like when my wife […]
Groove o’ the day: Ronald Shannon Jackson — Yugo Boy
Today we’ll do Ronald Shannon Jackson’s groove from the other day, Yugo Boy, from his 1984 album Barbeque Dog. Jackson was always coming up with distinctive grooves, and I don’t know why I haven’t shared […]
Ronald Shannon Jackson 1940-2013
Very sorry to hear that the drummer and avant-garde master Ronald Shannon Jackson died today. This would be a great time to revisit his Modern Drummer interview from 1984, by friend of the blog Chip […]
1984 MD interview: Ronald Shannon Jackson
Here are some excerpts from an interview I reread many times on the long bus rides on drum corps tour, about the great avant-garde (that’s where he’s typically filed, anyway) drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. From […]