Here’s Elvin Jones’s drum solo on that tune Crisis, from Freddie Hubbard’s Ready For Freddie, which we looked at a couple of weeks ago. It contains some classically Elvin stuff, and is good for some […]
Category: jazz
Very occasional quote of the day: you have to be there to play every night
“You have to work with the people for a while. I was talking to Jo Jones one day. He commented something like, ‘It’s very important how a person develops his own musical personality.’ He says, […]
Practice loop: McCoy swing
Here’s a crushing new practice loop I’ve been playing with a lot lately, sampled from the tune Little Brother, from McCoy Tyner’s album Song of the New World. People get so precious about their approach […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones – Crisis
Does the site need another Elvin Jones transcription? I don’t know. I’m just putting in my devotional time listening very closely to Elvin. What you all do with it is up to you. This is […]
Todd’s five-note pattern
Here’s a five note pattern that I play all the time, without ever knowing what I’m doing with it. I’ve written about a couple of these accidental items before— an 11 note pattern and my grocery […]
Subtractive patterns for feathering the bass drum
A collection of subtractive patterns for developing feathering the bass drum in jazz— for sketching it in, and making punctuations, anyway, since this will mostly not have you playing running quarter notes. Learning to support […]
Groove o’ the day: Jack Dejohnette – Soft Blue
Another item from Jack Dejohnette, playing on Jackie McLean’s album Jackknife— Dejohnette’s first major recording, made when he was 24 years old. We’ve seen a couple of other things from this album, a groove o’ […]
EZ solo method: six stroke rolls with brushes
I was doing this easy Reed method with a student— it’s a rare one for using the triplets-and-8th-notes pages of Progressive Steps to Syncopation, pp. 16-17. This is good for brushes, OK for soloing with […]
Most recorded jazz drummers
A list of the 134 most-recorded jazz drummers and percussionists, created by Mark Stryker, a Detroit jazz writer, which I’m pilfering directly, because it’s not currently live anywhere. I had to look at it through […]
Listening to Clifford Jarvis
Clifford Jarvis was always best known to me as Sun Ra’s drummer, and as the drummer on a number of records I saw in the store, but never bought. A hard bopper turned free guy. […]