There is so much heavy coordination involved in learning the Afro-Cuban styles that it’s easy to neglect simply getting the bell patterns right— which is a lot like playing jazz without spending any time working […]
Category: Afro 6
Page o’ coordination: 6/8 clave in the right hand
Hey, we haven’t had a page o’ coordination in awhile. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Afro-Cuban stuff lately, via our page of Mozambique, the 6/8 page from last year, and with […]
Groove o’ the day: Freddie Waits — African Village
Here’s another afro 6 alternative— we haven’t had any new ones lately. Played by Freddie Waits, on the tune African Village on McCoy Tyner’s Time For Tyner, released in 1968: I’ve written this in a […]
Bembe Wheel coordination
Here are some generic snare drum and bass drum coordination/performance patterns for use with the bell patterns in the Bembe Wheel. Each one of those patterns deserves at least one individually-tailored “page o’ coordination”, but […]
African bell pattern and its inversions
What we have here is the familiar 12/8 or 6/8 bell pattern (here called “short”; in the US it’s commonly called “Afro-Cuban”, or Naningo, or Bembé), run through several common inversions, each starting on a […]
Groove o’ the day: Ed Blackwell — Lop-o-lop
Another Ed Blackwell 6/8 today, from an album you may have some trouble finding, Dewey Redman’s Tarik, on Aktuel. The drums play in two, and the bass (Malachi Favors, I think?) plays a fast 6. […]
Groove o’ the day: Philly Joe with Hank Mobley
The 50’s were apparently also the heyday of the quasi-Afro feel— all of the hard bop guys seem to have had their own way of making it. This one is by Philly Joe Jones, on […]
Groove o’ the day: Ed Blackwell — 6/8 variations
Here are some more variations on the Afro 6/8 feel, played by Ed Blackwell on the tune Mopti (an old favorite from Flatland days, which I’ll be reintroducing to the set on the Europe trip […]
Busy
Busy all day doing tour-related junk, and transcribing charts– Blood by Paul Bley, Priestess by Billy Harper, following Gil Evans’s arrangement, and a couple of Don Cherry tunes I used to play in the 90’s. […]
Groove o’ the day: Ed Blackwell – another 6/8
UPDATE: Whoops, a typo, gitoutcher pencils– scratch that last tom note in the second measure. Here’s another entry in my little project of cataloging as many of Ed Blackwell’s grooves as I can figure out. […]