This is a collection of two measure practice phrases based on the concept of the partido alto rhythm, which typically has 3 or 4 quarter notes alternating with 3 or 4 upbeats. I’ve expanded on […]
Category: samba
Practice loop: Airto – Hot Sand
This is another loop I use a lot: Hot Sand, a bright samba by Airto, from his album Virgin Land. Great for use with my recent drumset batucada drill, and with my book Playing Samba […]
Groove o’ the day: Billy Cobham – The Dancer
Today we have a funk samba groove from Billy Cobham, playing The Dancer on Stanley Clarke’s School Days— one of the biggest fusion albums of the 70s. We’re actually throwing a bone to the open-handed […]
Bossa/Samba bass drum workout
It says “workout”, like it’s some kind of technical challenge, but it’s really a page of exercises for opening up some musical possibilities with your bass drum when playing sambas and bossa novas. A lot […]
Transcription: Airto — Hot Sand
Why am I not always talking about Airto? I’ve spent fewer hours listening to him than most other drummers at the top of my personal influences list; I never had a period of chasing down […]
Groove o’ the day: Elvin Jones – Rose Marie
Something from the record I’ve been running in my car all week: The Peacocks, by Stan Getz and Jimmy Rowles. The tune is Rose Marie, a song from the 20s which was a country hit […]
That insane Brazilian cymbal technique
It’s a thing with Brazilian drumset drummers to play really fast, even singles on the cymbal with one hand when playing samba; here Adam Osmianski has posted an excellent roundup of stuff on the technique […]
Partido Alto practice loop and basic grooves
Another practice loop, sampled from the tune Partido Alto, from the Azymuth album Light As A Feather. Ivan Conti is on drums. As I mentioned before, Partido Alto is the name of a Brazilian rhythm, […]
Milton Banana
Here’s a video of Milton Banana, one of my favorite Brazilian drummers, performing near the very end of his life. I don’t know how much he was slowing up chops-wise at this point, but the fundamentals of […]
Cymbal technique for Brazilian styles
It’s kind of a thing among Brazilian drummers to be able to play really blazing singles on the cymbal with the right hand, when playing a samba. Drummers in the modern American tradition— or maybe […]
Brazilian 3
Continuing our recent batch of downloads for odd meter Samba and Bossa, here are some parts for putting together some grooves in 3/2, or in 6/4. This isn’t an incredibly odd meter for Samba, but […]