Here is Idris Muhammad playing a Mozambique-like Latin groove with Melvin Sparks, on Speak Low, from the album Sparkling. Muhammad isn’t on many of the records I listen to all the time, but he is […]
Category: grooves
Groove o’ the day: Soul Makossa
This is the groove from a track regarded as the first Disco song— Soul Makossa, by Cameroonian performer Manu Dibango. The drummer is Joby Jobs, and he has a bad right hand— he is apparently […]
EZ rock beats in 5/4 – 01
For one of my students, an easy page of rock beats in 5/4. We did one of these a few years ago, but this page illustrates the 2+3 / 3+2 phrasing of this time signature, […]
Groove o’ the day: Tombo in 7/4
More from Airto’s great record Fingers. I got burned last time crediting the drumming to Airto when it was really another great drummer da América do Sul, Osvaldo Fattoruso; this time I think it really is […]
Groove o’ the day: Jack Dejohnette – On the Nile
Here’s Jack Dejohnette early in his career, soon after his move from Chicago to New York. He’s playing in a very Elvin Jones-like mode with Jackie McLean, who is himself writing in a Coltrane Quartet-like […]
Groove o’ the day PLUS : Airto – Fingers
UPDATE: Correction from the comments, it is Fattoruso on drums! I’ll put the correct credit in the 2018 Book of the Blog. Until then, you’ll have to pencil it in onto your printout. Here is […]
Figure Control: 4/4 – Nexus riff
Let’s do one of these for the rhythm in the Nexus practice loop. You’ll recall, with this Funk Control / Figure Control series what I do is take a single performance rhythm and put a […]
Groove o’ the day: Rhumba
The Rhumba was a North American Latin style popularized in the 1930s by people like Xavier Cugat and Perez Prado, which has continued to hang around in the repertoire of jazz groups. There are also […]
Groove o’ the day: Evolution of Songo – 02
Here is the second groove from the Changuito history of Songo video; Changuito is the drummer for Los Van Van, and is a major innovator in Cuban drumming. The last entry covered a groove created […]
Groove o’ the day: evolution of Songo – 01
First of a mini-series of Afro-Cuban grooves o’ the day, transcribed from the history of Songo video below. Grooves are by Changuito, the percussionist who created the Songo drumming style playing with the Cuban band […]