I keep feeling like I have to justify doing so much with the Afro 6/8. I’m just working with it a lot, and here we are nothing if not personal and idiosyncratic. I also feel […]
Year: 2014
Transcription: Rick Marotta plays a waltz
UPDATE: The download link is working now. Here’s a portion of Spirit of Summer, from the album Deodato In Concert. If you don’t know who Deodato is, he’s a Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger, who was […]
Some observations on an Ari Hoenig performance
A few weeks back I saw Ari Hoenig play in Portland with Kenny Werner’s trio, and scribbled down a few notes after the fact. Hoenig is one of the leading current guys, but I haven’t […]
Groove o’ the day: Idris Muhammad — The Windjammer
Here’s a funk groove with a couple of unusual touches, and a New Orleans flavor, by Idris Muhammad. The tune is The Windjammer, from Grant Green’s 1970 album Green Is Beautiful. On the intro Muhammad […]
A few old photos
Digging through my archives for imagery for the cover of my new record, and rescanning some of my old negatives, today. Here are a few pictures I took in Rome several years ago:
Swing coordination: Dahlgren & Fine format — 01
In the swing section of their book 4-Way Coordination, Marvin Dahlgren and Eliot Fine created a fairly ingenious framework for writing related exercises in multiple time signatures. With my Pages o’ Coordination I’ve been following […]
Priorities
From a drum book with the questionable premise and title of Rhythmic Illusions: There is no Chapter 15, FYI. Don’t let this happen to you.
Todd’s methods: Reed with RB and BR
Playing Latin styles, you end up using a lot of sticking combinations of RB and BR— B meaning both hands together— so here’s a basic way of using Ted Reed’s Syncopation to work on that. […]
VOQOTD: the drummer’s job
I just try to play the compositions, not so much imposing any particular kind of rhythm on any particular tune or composition—but to try and interpret the composition as if I’m an accompanist, fundamentally. And […]
Do your verry best
From Edward B. Straight’s The Straight System, a drum method from 1922, here is a page of performance tips so you can thrive as a society/theater band drummer in the 1910s and 20s: Some of […]