Slow getting back into regular posting, but here are two great tracks that are better than anything I could write. If you don’t have a good jazz radio station in your city— you probably don’t— […]
Category: soul
Practice loop: Wilson Pickett – Mojo Mama
By the way, all of yesterday’s ranting and raving about people’s drum covers doesn’t apply to my sampled practice loops, which are lovely, highly recommended, and serve a totally different function. We’re not aiming for […]
Soul drumming history with Yogi Horton
Here’s an incredible video which I never knew existed: R&B legend Yogi Horton talking and playing the history of soul/funk drumming— this is just the best thing ever: h/t to my brother, John Bishop, for […]
Groove o’ the day: Neftali Santiago — Too Late
Because I don’t think your funk is 70s is enough, here’s some more Mandrill, with one of the greatest-named drummers ever, Neftali Santiago. And just a great drummer, period. This is Too Late, from the […]
Groove o’ the day: Bill Withers — Lovely Night For Dancing
This is by 70’s session drummer Alvin Taylor, who’s fairly little-known, but is on a lot of stuff. Here he’s with Bill Withers, on the album Menagerie. The song, Lovely Night For Dancing, is kind of […]
Groove and totally gratuitous lick o’ the day: James “Diamond” Williams — Fopp
I was listening to some Ohio Players, and this, from the intro of Fopp, jumped out at me. It’s not the greatest thing in the world ever, but it’s fun: The 32nd notes are legato, […]
Transcription: Al Jackson — Over Easy
OK, since I do actually feel obligated to offer you something more than perversely elementary groove transcriptions and lectures on the state of drumming, here’s a transcription of the build-up section from yesterday’s tune, Over […]
Groove o’ the day: now exclusively an Al Jackson feature
I include these Al Jackson grooves not because you can’t figure them out for yourselves, but because in this current technocratic, amazingness-fetishizing period of drumming, I like to keep in the front of my memory […]
Transcription: Superstition — groove variations and fills
Experimenting with a different kind of transcription here. Stevie Wonder’s Superstition— from the album Talking Book, drums played by Wonder himself— is mainly a groove piece, but the groove is highly variable, and writing out […]
Groove o’ the day: more Al Jackson
This one goes out to my man Ed Pierce; I’ve really been getting into the Al Jackson this week. Here’s most of what he plays on Soul Jam, by Booker T. and the MGs, from […]
Groove o’ the day: Al Jackson
Here’s something from the great R&B drummer Al Jackson, on the light little instrumental tune Overton Park Sunrise, from the Union Extended album by Booker T. & The MGs. On the A section he plays […]
Transcription: Roger Hawkins — Chain of Fools
Let’s see if I can crank this out before running out to see Brian Blade play— along with Kermit Driscoll from the Bill Frisell video below. Let it not be said there’s nothing going on […]