Following Andrew Hare’s Why learn jazz? post: “[I]t seems to me that playing jazz gives a drummer more sensitivity for the drumset and much more of a rounded concept. It’s hard to explain that without […]
DBMITW: Lonely Woman
Maybe I shouldn’t be posting this so close to the release of my own CD with this tune, but it’s too good let go. Would you have the nerve to do what Paul Motian does […]
I remember when I was 21
First beer. Note: I wrote this a couple of months ago and set it aside, thinking I didn’t really need to go here. But then I saw that Ted Warren has written about a similar […]
Groove o’ the day: Gainsbourg
I love 70’s studio drumming. I was just re-listening to some old Serge Gainsbourg stuff- I made a record of his music in 2009 and did a couple of little Europe tours with it- and […]
Playing in 2
I got a nice note from Ben at the excellent Melbourne Drumming Online blog (adding him to the blogroll- be sure to pay him a visit), requesting that I write something about playing in 2- […]
Groove o’ the day: Elvin afro-waltz
I’ve been working on a transcription of Elvin’s playing on John Coltrane’s Your Lady, from Coltrane Live at Birdland, but it’s not going to be ready today. Here’s a little teaser, though- the closest thing […]
DBMITW: Mingus
I am one lazy blogger- but what am I going to write that’s 2% as good watching Eric Dolphy during Johnny Coles’ solo? If that isn’t enough for you for today, go read Andrew Hare’s […]
That was fast
I received my Book of the Blog order yesterday- remarkably fast turnaround from “thing on my computer” to “real paper book”, considering I only completed it and placed my order on Monday. Lulu.com makes a […]
Todd’s methods: triplet funk with Reed
I guess it’s going to be nothing but Todd’s-this/Todd’s-that this week. Fine. This is preparation for an old thing of mine I was just working through with a returning student, and I realized I had […]
Todd’s waltz
Or, the presumptuously-named Todd’s waltz, as I call it. I’m not attempting to claim the radical innovation of adding a hihat on the & of 3, it’s just how I often play a waltz, and […]