A couple of more travel days before I can get back to regular posting, but here’s something shared by Alex Emanuel, a New York actor currently performing in Stew Stewart’s play Family Album, along with […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Continued light posting
Looking at a fairly busy week here, so you’ll likely see very little of me: heading to LA this morning, to make a record with songwriter Kirk Ross, my old friend, along with pianist Geoffrey […]
Transcription: Jeff Watts — Upper Manhattan Medical Group
Here is Jeff Watts’s 32-bar solo on Upper Manhattan Medical Group, from Branford Marsalis’s album Trio Jeepy. It’s a sign of the times that Watts, a virtuoso himself, comes off as kind of un-technical compared […]
Daily best music in the world: tracks that used to get me in trouble
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 […]
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 […]