This is a page of jazz comping exercises based on Max Roach’s playing on Sonny Rollins’s Freedom Suite, which I’m transcribing right now. There’s a lot of interplay between the snare drum and bass drum, […]
Category: comping
Page o’ coordination: the with interruptions – 04
I don’t like giving you pages with too many patterns on them. When I do that, the idea is that you move through the patterns quickly, and cover them all in one unit of practice— […]
Page o’ coordination: That with interruptions – 03
I like this little series. Nothing radically innovative, but a slightly different way of thinking about normal jazz comping vocabulary, courtesy of John Riley. These pages aren’t ordered for total beginners— if I were teaching […]
Transcription: Charli Persip comping
There are a few drummers who I really, really love despite having not heard them on that many records. I have a relatively few albums I listen to all the time, and some people are […]
Page o’ coordination: that with interruptions – 02
Another page of basic jazz comping/independence patterns, coming from a slightly different angle. At a recent John Riley clinic, he talked about one pattern he had been practicing, with variations, for about 50 years: SSBB. […]
Mingus riffs
A quick little transcription project, before I get into making a lot of cymbal videos. These are the rhythms for the horn riffs on some Charles Mingus tunes. A riff is a repeating background figure, […]
Page o’ coordination: that with interruptions
A rare opportunity to do a POC in 4, with lightning turnaround, no less. I attended a clinic by John Riley and Terrell Stafford in Portland this afternoon, and they were each telling what they […]
Transcription: Brian Blade – Alabama
Here’s an easy look at some medium tempo playing by Brian Blade, on the swing portion of the tune Alabama. From Pursuance, Kenny Garrett’s album of the music of John Coltrane. The transcription begins where […]
Cymbal sounds: Art Taylor – Sonny’s Crib
This is a post I wrote about Art Taylor’s cymbals, for the Cymbalistic site blog, plus a few added comments for this site: Here is Art Taylor playing a very interesting ride cymbal that reminds […]
Dannie Richmond comping
Dannie Richmond is one of my favorite drummers, who we don’t talk about much mainly because he’s often hard to transcribe, and a lot of what he plays is so context dependent that it can […]