Here are a couple of things I was listening to when I was at USC, which used to get me in trouble with some of the other students, for playing too… aggressively, let’s say. One […]
Year: 2014
Page o’ coordination: 5/4 with tie across the barline
Here’s a Page o’… for getting comfortable handling an accented note tied across the barline in 5/4: For the sake of clarity, I’ve written the page without the advertised ties; but you should be thinking […]
Groove o’ the day: two by Jabo Starks
Here are two grooves by Jabo Starks, played on James Brown’s original soundtrack for the movie Black Caesar. As you already know very well, Starks, along with Clyde Stubblefield, is the drummer most responsible for […]
Sonor Phonics are something else
As I mentioned, I just picked up a Sonor Phonic bop set, which I had been coveting for a couple of years. My overwhelming impression is that this is really the Tiger tank of bop drum […]
Daily best music in the world: brushes
Researching videos for another post, I came across this, by drummer Sebastian Whittaker, who is as good a brush player as anyone, ever:
Transcription: Funkadelic — Trash A Go Go
More funk. This is Trash A-Go-Go, from Funkadelic’s Cosmic Slop album. It’s not clear who the drummer is; our man Tiki Fulwood is only credited on one track, and I don’t think it’s our other […]
Getting tired of these
Mortality is a real bitch— just in the past couple of days we’ve lost Idris Muhammad, and Frankie Dunlop. I can’t ignore their passing, but I’m no good at just showering superlatives on people, which […]
Transcription: Cabbage Alley breakdown
Polishing my backbeats-playing for kind of a big record date later in August, I’ve been playing along with this track quite a bit: Cabbage Alley, by The Meters; and noting to myself how much more […]
Very occasional quote of the day: do what you want
“It’s just like when I was twenty and my father and sister got killed in a car accident. I thought, If this can happen to people, you might as well do what you want— which […]
Groove o’ the day: Elvin Afro 6
All I can say is, we’re all going to be masters of the 6/8 Afro groove by the time we’re finished here. That’s fine. It’s a lot of fun to play, to listen to, and […]