OK, I am seriously in need of a break from working on the book— finishing the damn thing is always the hardest. So here’s a page of exercises for developing coordination with the cascara, a […]
Category: latin
Transcription: Milton Banana — Flor de Liz
As I mentioned before Milton Banana is one of the great Bossa Nova drummers, and since that tends to be an under-understood style (by the whole rhythm section, actually), I want to go a little […]
Groove o’ the day: Art Blakey with Hank Mobley
This is from the 1955 album Hank Mobley Quartet (it doesn’t appear to have been reissued recently, so you’ll have to just buy the mp3). The tune is Avila and Tequila, and Art Blakey plays […]
Groove o’ the day: Elvin Jones — Tumblin’ Tumbleweed
Just back in town from a short quasi-vacation at the Oregon coast, and nothing on deck except, groan, another hip, generic “Latin jazz” groove, played by Elvin Jones on the tune Tumblin’ Tumbleweed on J.J. […]
Groove o’ the day: Copeland’s cha cha
Keith, not Stewart. Here’s a groove I’ve gotten some use out of recently while subbing with Pepe & The Bottle Blondes, a Portland salsa/swing group, for my man Ken Ollis. It’s a unique form of […]
Groove o’ the day: casually provided by Jack Dejohnette
Today’s groove is a little unusual, in that it comes from a YouTube cymbal demo and not from a real record, but since the demo is by Jack Dejohnette, I figured what the heck. He […]
Groove o’ the day: Paul Motian’s tango
I like this feature, and I’m going to try to do a lot more of these this year. Here’s a hip modified tango played by Paul Motian on the tune When We Go, from Rambler […]
Kernels of Cascara
My students have been doing so well with my “kernels” concept that I’ve decided to write up a real challenge for them: cascara with the clave in the left foot. It was the hip thing […]
Drum chart: Along Comes Mary by Cal Tjader
Pillaging the archives while I’m working on tour/book-related junk, I turned up another Cal Tjader drum chart, written by me a couple of years ago. I’ll try to do more of these in the future- […]
Coordination “kernels” – further examples
You may have noticed I’ve been on rather light posting this last week. Expect that to continue for the next several days; this week I’ll be recording my new CD for the Origin label, Little […]