A Portland jazz educator asked me about what Elvin Jones was doing on the tune Olé, by John Coltrane, so I wrote this up. He plays a few different major patterns, and this might be […]
Category: 3/4
Velocity patterns in 3/4
Here’s something I’ve been working with, similar to the patterns in these alternative versions of Three Camps. They’re easy to play fast, and so are good for blazing, double-timey playing. These can be played on […]
Listening to Keith Copeland
Let’s listen some more. This is Charlie Rouse playing After the Morning, a tune in 3/4 by John Hicks. The great Keith Copeland, who left us too soon, is on drums. This is normal modern, mainstream […]
Syncopation exercise in 3/4: quarter / dotted-quarter spacing
Another Ted Reed-style syncopation exercise, designed for a special purpose. This one is in 3/4, with all notes spaced two or three 8th notes apart— quarter notes or dotted quarter notes, or their equivalents with […]
Practice loop in 6/4: Journey In Satchidananda
Another groovy practice loop, sampled from Journey In Satchidananda by Alice Coltrane. It’s a slow, 97 bpm swing feel in 6/4— good for getting into both of my ways of doing Chaffee’s jazz thing, as […]
Jazz waltz with Chaffee
Let’s detail something I mentioned in the Chaffee jazz post: using the patterns in that system as 8th notes in a jazz waltz. They’re three-note (or rest) patterns, so playing them two times = a […]
Page o’ coordination: basic 6/4
The first of three pages of fundamentals to go with that John Zorn loop from the other day. These POCs are a major part of my output right now, which is a little bit misleading— […]
Practice loop in 6: Tekufah
A fun practice loop in 6/4 with a strong suggestion of 12/8. It’s really a compound pulse where it’s both things at the same time. Hit the time signature labels at the bottom of the […]
Groove o’ the day: Chico Hamilton waltz
Here’s Chico Hamilton playing his version of an Elvin-type waltz in 1962. I’ve always assumed it was Elvin’s thing, that everybody else was copying. Maybe it was a type of groove everyone hip was doing, […]