While I’m working on some last-minute pre-tour adds to my book, I suggest reading this, from Digital Music News: The 13 Most Insidious, Pervasive Lies of the Modern Music Industry… One of my favorites: Lie […]
Author: Todd Bishop
How to play Stablemates
The bop tune Stablemates, by Benny Golson, is something of a test piece for drummers. As now-Portland pianist George Colligan said, “Stablemates can be revealing for a drummer….”, and Golson himself said “It moves around […]
A few new vintage Paistes
I guess the 80’s is vintage now. In the past few years I’ve been rebuilding my cymbal collection, after ruthlessly disposing of a lot of things during a lean patch, and have largely been focusing […]
Transcription: Jon Christensen — Keep It Like That- Tight
Here’s Jon Christensen doing some nice open, dynamic playing on a slow, static vamp: Keep It Like That — Tight from Terje Rypdal’s self-titled album on ECM from 1971. We love Christensen because he’s a […]
On playalongs, pt.1: use real music
That’s the idea. I was working on a single post about practicing along with recorded music— something I’ve been doing a lot of lately— but it was running long on me, and taking forever to […]
Daily best music in the world: Barbara Song
Here are several versions of Barbara Song, from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. I could try to write something about it, but what for? The content is self-evident and I see no need to flail around […]
Lou Reed 1942-2013
It’s a good day to give White Light, White Heat a listen in its entirety— news that Lou Reed has died is breaking all over the Internet right now. I first heard this record on […]
Transcription: Raymond “Monchito” Muñoz — Caminando
Here we have a Latin percussionist funking out a little bit on Caminando, a hip cha cha* recorded by Eddie Palmieri on his great album Vamonos Pa’l Monte. The drummer, Raymond “Monchito” Muñoz, brings very […]
2013 tour posters
All right, the posters for my upcoming Europe (well, Belgium, plus the outer tip of Germany and Luxembourg) tour are done! Here are the shows, once again, with times: 9:00, Tuesday, Nov. 12 Hot Club […]
Groove o’ the day: Ronald Shannon Jackson — Yugo Boy
Today we’ll do Ronald Shannon Jackson’s groove from the other day, Yugo Boy, from his 1984 album Barbeque Dog. Jackson was always coming up with distinctive grooves, and I don’t know why I haven’t shared […]