Happy Saturnalia everyone— although it seems a shame to call it that, with everyone celebrating in isolation. Nevertheless, here is the second minute of Elvin Jones playing Chasin’ the Trane— 1:13 to 2:13— from John […]
Category: jazz
Three Camps for drum set – inverted quarter note triplet fill – 07
I’m telling you this is a good system. It gives you the thing, some basic variations on it, starting on 1 or 2, straight and syncopated, and it makes you do it for as long […]
Page o’ coordination: jazz / RLRR
Working on this Elvin project the last couple of days, I noticed that, similar to Max Roach on another recording, he plays the snare drum in the gap in the cymbal rhythm a lot, for […]
Transcription: Elvin Jones – Chasin’ the Trane – 01
Ending a truly bleak, shameful year— and four years— in United States history, with an ambitious transcribing project. A little act of penance, devotion, purging, re-centering. I’m hoping to clean myself a little with this. […]
Another Reed tweak
Another minor tweak on a normal Reed method, in a jazz feel. It’s good to have some easy options to relieve the tedium, and to bring more of the texture of real playing into it. […]
Three Camps for drum set – quarter note triplet fill – 06
I started doing these because I wanted a composed drill, like Alan Dawson’s Rudimental Ritual, that I would actually play. It has worked out really well. This entry is the same as the first one, […]
Practice loop: Night & Day – Bill Evans
Here’s a brighter-medium tempo jazz practice loop, sampled from Night & Day, played by Bill Evans on his album Everybody Digs Bill Evans— one of my favorite records, period. The loop is one chorus of […]
Transcription: Bill Stewart solo
Something released in a year starting with a 2, for once. Here Bill Stewart solos during James, from Pat Metheny’s Trio – Live record. Stewart is a few months older than me, and is sort […]
Two minor Reed items
Two jazz comping practice suggestions, which aren’t big enough to merit a full-fledged treatment, for the full-page exercises in Progressive Steps to Syncopation. Play these on the snare drum (with bass drum added in the […]
Listening: Idris Muhammad grooves
Hey, I’ve concluded that Idris Muhammad is awesome. There’s a lot going on with him, that doesn’t necessarily give itself up to the casual drumming listener— it’s a very deep fusion of jazz, R&B, funk, […]