My original bleak assessment of the future of this feature has mostly played out– I still just listen to the same batch of records over and over for days or weeks at a time. But a […]
VOQOTD: George Marsh on playing odd meters
“[Y]ou don’t have to play the first beat of an odd meter loudly. You have to know where it is, and the musical phrases should flow through the downbeat. Usually that takes playing the downbeat […]
Groove o’ the day: T & T, too
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 […]
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 […]
On Marv Dahlgren’s prodigious output and the purpose of a library
Three bucks to purchase, hundreds of hours to master. As I was idly visiting the Really Good Music Publishing site– the people, you’ll recall, who have reissued several out of print Marvin Dahlgren books- an […]
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 […]