A couple of old favorites from the heyday of the cowbell and the four-stroke ruff down the drums ending on the bass drum (there’s got to be a better name for that lick): Get Lay […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Dispatches
Not that easy a life. Here’s a note I received from a British drummer currently working on a ship in the Mediterranean: “I’m presently doing a stint as a cruise drummer in the Med and […]
I am so smart
This from The Telegraph, a couple of years ago: ‘Drummers are natural intellectuals’ Drummers are better known for their beats than their brain power, but research has suggested that they might actually be natural intellectuals. […]
Billie’s Bounce deconstructed
That sounds a little sexier than it actually is- I was working on this tune with a student recently, and we ended up breaking it down phrase by phrase. I’ve written the lesson up for […]
Four cassettes
During the time I was living in LA in ’92 there was a period of about four months when I was working for a messenger service, driving around making deliveries to minor celebrities. I was […]
How we used to learn the open roll
I just got a very nice note from Jim Buckley about the following comment of mine from the Drummerworld.com. Jim is a major figure in corps- he marched snare with Ghost in one of the […]
Tune of the moment: Eiderdown
Eiderdown is a great tune by Steve Swallow that deserves to be played a lot more, and has been coming up a bunch lately in sessions and in my listening. The lead sheet is available […]
I love German drummers
First, the aptly-named Jaki Liebezeit of Can: Gunter Summer of Dresden, Germany’s answer to Tony Oxley, or maybe Hans Bennink: Paul Lovens doing a fun thing with Eugene Chadbourne: More after the break: More “Baby” […]
Oh, hey
Oh surprise, it looks like my 2009 record, 69 Année Érotique, is still getting some occasional radio play. The first tune here is us playing Serge Gainsbourg’s Bonnie and Clyde on good old WFMU (91.1 […]
Dick Berk interview on the Jake Feinberg Show
Another great interview from the Jake Feinberg show, this time with Dick Berk of the prodigious ride cymbal. Dick was Billie Holliday’s last drummer (after Jo Jones left the group), in a band that also […]