Hey, it looks like everyone but me is getting a lot writing done right now. I have a couple more of these “from the zone” items to share— a series where people send in their […]
Category: jazz
Page o’ coordination: Olé – 01
A Portland jazz educator asked me about what Elvin Jones was doing on the tune Olé, by John Coltrane, so I wrote this up. He plays a few different major patterns, and this might be […]
From the zone: cycling patterns
Since I am completely blocked for writing anything other than profane tweets right now, here are a couple of things from the practice room of our friend in Berlin, Michael Griener. It’s a very elegant […]
Transcription: Philly Joe Jones – Gone
From the Miles Davis album Porgy & Bess, here is Philly Joe Jones playing Gil Evans’s arrangement of Gone. It’s mostly just drums and horns, with a lot of drum breaks, plus a bridge where […]
Daily best music in the world: Elvin plays brushes
You would think with all of this extra quarantine time I would just be writing up a storm, but I’m actually kind of blocked this week. So here’s Tommy Flanagan’s Overseas—a nice record with Elvin […]
Transcription: more Max
More from Max Roach: his solo on the same tune from last post— Flossie Lou from Clifford Brown & Max Roach At Basin Street. It’s 32 bars long, and starts at 2:39. He plays quarter notes […]
Transcription: Max Roach comping
Part 3 of a little mini series, looking at some comping examples by Tony Williams, Mickey Roker, and now Max Roach. This is Max’s playing during Clifford Brown’s solo on Flossie Lou, from Clifford Brown & […]
Transcription: Mickey Roker comping
Mickey Roker’s accompaniment of Dizzy Gillespie’s solo— the first three choruses anyway— on Birk’s Works, from Gillespie’s album Big 4. Roker has a deep groove I associate with musicians who have played a lot of […]
Stick control patterns for jazz
Because some novice jazz students get hung up on the idea of left hand “independence”, here is a little set of exercises for helping coordination between the hands when playing jazz time. We’re using some […]
Tony Williams phrase endings
Some things Tony Williams plays at phrase endings on Moose The Mooche, from the Great Jazz Trio at The Village Vanguard. There’s a lot more to learn from Tony’s playing on this tune, but who […]