Here’s a one hour master class lecture given by Mel Lewis in the early 80s at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). Embedding on blogger is weird now, so you’ll have […]
Category: jazz
Plain talk about fast tempos
“Billy, can we talk?” Henry Fonda time. I see we need to have this talk again. Everybody wants to talk about ride cymbal technique for blazing tempos. A little perspective on the subject: About 15 […]
Subtractive patterns for jazz snare and bass
Continuing to develop this subtractive method, here are some good patterns for snare drum and bass drum in a jazz feel. I’m digging the system. It allows me to put whatever part I want consistently […]
Analysis: Ed Blackwell – Strength and Courage
Here’s a boiled down version of the Christmas transcription, Strength and Courage, by Joe Lovano. It’s a real crash course in Ed Blackwell— a lot of what he plays on many albums throughout his career […]
Listening: Freddie Waits with Freddie Hubbard
Here’s the album I mentioned in that Freddie Waits Latin post— Fastball – Live at the Left Bank. Part of a cache of live recordings made at a club in Baltimore in the 1960s, discovered […]
Transcription: Ed Blackwell – Strength and Courage
Merry Christmas, everyone. Ho ho hoooeeere’s a LONG Ed Blackwell transcription for you, basically all of Strength And Courage, from Joe Lovano’s trio album Sounds of Joy, along with Alex Cox on the bass. The […]
Drum solo transcription: Tony Williams – Moment’s Notice – 01
In honor of what would have been Tony Williams’s 76th birthday, here’s the first part of a solo I’ve been listening to since college— Troyland apartments at USC, 1988, to be exact. I put this […]
Transcription: Billy Cobham – More
Billy Cobham playing a swing tune in kind of a show band setting here, on Stanley Turrentine’s album The Sugar Man. A lot of it hardly merits a full transcription, except it’s good to see […]
Daily best music in the world: Freddie Hubbard – Jodo
Absolutely killing tune here— Jodo by Freddie Hubbard, from his album Blue Spirits. Pete La Roca is on drums. Soloists are Hubbard, Hank Mobley, McCoy Tyner, and La Roca. I sometimes forget La Roca is […]
Transcription: Ralph Penland ensemble figures
From Freddie Hubbard’s Keep Your Soul Together album, here’s Ralph Penland playing an ensemble section from a very nice tune, Brigitte. I saw Penland play a couple of times in Los Angeles when I was […]