Mel Lewis plays a funk groove. The tune is Nat Adderly’s Jive Samba, and the album is Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, Central Park North, from 1969. The intro has some fun tom fills, so […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Skype lessons coming soon
OK, then: starting in March, I’ll be offering private lessons via Skype. And as I get my act together teaching this way, I think I’ll give away a few free lessons. Let’s do it like […]
VOQOTD: Elvin’s epitaph
“You got to remember, music is all about love.” —Elvin Jones From Drum Therapy: Elvin Jones 9/9/27-5/18/04, by Adam Mansbach, a very moving Jazz Times piece about Elvin’s last days. [h/t to AA]
Book review!
Hey, there’s a nice little review— my first book review ever, actually— of the 2013 Book of the Blog at Joe The Drummer’s place: “There is a theme of the 3:2 polyrhythm running through the […]
Groove(s) o’ the day: On the streets of Aba, Nigeria
I loved this video so much I wanted to lay on you a transcription of the whole thing, but we’re going to have to settle for just getting the basic groove. I hit a wall […]
Transcription: Ringo Starr — Isolation
I hate to keep beating up on our man Kollias— well, I’m not beating up on him, I’m making serious points about music… OK, I wasn’t making a serious point about music with the last […]
This/not this: death metal
By popular request (well, one guy), here’s another one of these— we’ll take this in reverse order: Not this: This: [h/t to Bo] Bonus Melvins after the break: Hog Leg, from Eggnog, still my favorite […]
Another page of Brazilian rhythms
Here is another page of Brazilian rhythms, written in 4/4. The last set was written as 8th and 16th notes in 2/4, the native meter of much of Brazilian music, but when playing lead sheets […]
C.K. Ladzekpo’s basic polyrhythms
From the This portion of the recent This/not this: polyrhythm post, I’ve written out C.K. Ladzekpo’s list of basic polyrhythms every Ewe learns while growing up, along with our now familiar 6/8 bell pattern: You […]
“When in doubt, groove.”
Branford Marsalis’s drummer Justin Faulkner gives a drum clinic at the Seattle, and says lots of great stuff: Part 2 is after the break: [h/t to S_Funk at Drummerworld]