While you’re feverishly working on yesterday’s GOTD by Ed Blackwell, allow me to throw at you a similar version of the same groove from later in the tune, which again is T & T by […]
Category: music
Groove o’ the Day: Ed Blackwell – T & T
Here’s another Ed Blackwell groove, from the intro to Ornette Coleman’s T & T, off the album Ornette: For clarity, here is the same groove written as separate rhythms, without the bass drum: We’ll be […]
Rock in 5/4: Water by PJ Harvey
Here’s a song I was working on with one of my students which happens to be timely since it’s in 5/4— Water, by PJ Harvey, with a great pop drumming performance by Robert Ellis. What […]
Afro 6/8: left hand variations – the basics
Here’s something challenging for you. I’ve been working with left hand variations within the Afro-Cuban 6/8 (or Bembe, Naningo, whatever term you use) in a variety of formats for about the last year– mostly applying […]
Cracking 5/4: further listening
Aaaand I thought we’d end this series with some more listening, starting with some more modern things: Jive Coffee – Brad Mehldau with Jeff Ballard Much more after the break: Jive Coffee – Bill Stewart […]
Cracking 5/4: issues and things, and conclusion
In this final-for-now post on playing in 5/4 I want to talk about a few stray issues, and things that you may observe happening, or happening to you. This is a work in progress for […]
Recording session post-mortem
I was in the studio last weekend, recording some very challenging, highly arranged, often counter-intuitive music for a 6-piece quasi-jazz outfit, and had a few random thoughts about it: Recording easy music for your own […]
DBMITW: Vibrafinger!
Here Gary Burton runs his vibes through a Big Muff. Great tune, but everyone’s really just waiting for them to play the little ’70’s-style hook at the end of the ensemble lick again. This is […]
More fun with waltzes
I’ve been using these Elvin’s Afro-Waltz things almost daily in my practicing since I started writing them, and they’re working really great for me, so here’s a new one. This uses the same concept as […]
Tune of the Moment: Out of This World
The tune Out of this World by Harold Arlen has been on my mind a lot recently– I’ve been listening to John Coltrane’s recording of it on the album Coltrane, then it came up in […]