I’ve found it helpful to practice Gary Chaffee’s linear materials in inversions— not always starting the patterns on beat 1. We’ve already done that in 3/4 with 16th notes and with triplets; today we’ll do the […]
Year: 2016
Groove o’ the day: Omar Hakim / Gil
The early 80s were kind of a heyday for hip hihat work. Stewart Copeland and Omar Hakim, really got my attention for that, anyway. Can two great players make a heyday? You decide. Here’s Hakim’s […]
Transcription: Vinnie Colaiuta / Nightwalker
In the past I’ve posted some fairly cheesy things— with a purpose— but I’m afraid I’ll really lose you on this one (“This, he wants us to like THIS???”). But sometimes you have to be […]
Victor Bailey 1960-2016
Learned from Terri Lyne Carrington on Twitter that bassist Victor Bailey has passed away from a long-term muscular dystrophy-like disorder. I knew him best for his playing with Weather Report: All of the WR albums […]
Practice loop: The Meters / Cabbage Alley
Take care of your mental wellbeing and forget this political nightmare for awhile, with this cheery practice loop, sampled from Cabbage Alley by The Meters. Excellent for use with this late plethora of funk materials. […]
Transcription: John Guerin – Backfence Cattin’
Here’s some 70s funk in 3/4: Backfence Cattin’ by Tom Scott, with John Guerin on drums. You could call Scott L.A.’s answer to Dave Sanborn— big in the 70s-80s, R&B saxophonists who made some popular […]
FUNK CONTROL: alternative set 1 – complete
I’m working out the format for putting this “Basic Funk Ideas” series into book form, tentatively titled “Funk Control.” The top of the page, labeled “Basic rhythm and iterations” shows the source rhythmic idea for […]
Double bass drum: 5 and 7 stroke singles
A student request. This is the first thing I’ve ever written for double bass in my life— I don’t play it, it’s not my thing. It doesn’t matter. This page of exercises will work for […]
Daily best music in the world: Paul Motian Trio / Lisbon ’86
We’re very lucky. When I was first getting into this group around 1989, the only way to see them was to fly to New York, or catch them at a festival in Europe or maybe […]
Paul Motian documentary
Alerting you to a filmmaker raising funds to complete a documentary on the great Paul Motian. It looks pretty awesome, OF COURSE, and includes interviews with Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Gary Peacock, Masabumi Kikuchi, and […]