“[Y]ou don’t have to play the first beat of an odd meter loudly. You have to know where it is, and the musical phrases should flow through the downbeat. Usually that takes playing the downbeat […]
Category: very occasional quote of the day
VOQOTD: Hit it loud.
“Hit it! Don’t be afraid to hit it— loud, you dig? Hit it loud.” -Thelonious Monk <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/SkSbbiQeGpU” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>
VOQOTD: Keltner on Ringo
Ringo, Keltner, Levon Helm I will always be there to support him. He’s more than a dear friend. He’s like an idol. He’s everything to me. I still think of him musically every time I […]
VOQOTD: on learning jazz
Following Andrew Hare’s Why learn jazz? post: “[I]t seems to me that playing jazz gives a drummer more sensitivity for the drumset and much more of a rounded concept. It’s hard to explain that without […]
VOQOTD: Mel Lewis
“…you should start with a crash and end with a crash. I see drummers ending with a crash cymbal, but then choking it. When you hit that big chord at the end, let it ring. […]
VOQOTD: listening
Because it bears repeating: Through listening alone you can find ALL the answers. – Jamey Aebersold
VOQOTD: Elvin
“Don’t ask me to show you anything, because if I could show you, we would all be Max Roach.” – Elvin Jones, from part 2 of Ethan Iverson’s Billy Hart interview
Very occasional quote of the day: on forethought
“[T]his shit is an accident.” – Paul Motian
Very occasional quote of the day: on life choices
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make big choices in life. Because almost everything- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Monk
It’s vague to me how I was thinking. – Thelonious Monk, in Art Taylor’s Notes and Tones
VOQOTD: Joan Miró
In the beginning, it’s a direct thing. It’s the material that decides. I prepare the ground-by cleaning my brushes on the canvas, for example. Spilling a little turpentine can also work quite well. If it’s […]
VOQOTD: Pete La Roca on backbeats
What an insult for Fusion to impose the repetitive BackBeat on Jazz drummers! How ironic, since the BackBeat is merely the handclap used by American slaves when they were forbidden to have drums! How bizarre […]