Here is what’s available of Vinnie Colaiuta’s performance at PASIC in 1985, which has since become somewhat legendary, and I was lucky enough to see in person. The quality is poor- plus there is such […]
Quick takes
– Jon McCaslin @ Four on the Floor shares this video of Marvin “Bugalu” Smith, who I had actually not heard of before. He was in Sun Ra’s and Archie Shepp’s bands in the 80’s. […]
My Vinnie Year – part 3 – superimposed metric modulation
This is a technical piece by Vinnie Colaiuta, which accompanied his 1987 Percussioner magazine interview, and he now shares with us on vinniecolaiuta.com. I spent considerable time with this- way too much, actually, considering that […]
Different values
I usually keep just one CD in my car for days or occasionally weeks at a time- recently for me it’s been Don Cherry’s Art Deco, an old favorite that had been languishing in the […]
My Vinnie Year – part 2 – Percussioner magazine interview
Sometimes I think the whole purpose of this blog is just for me to gather all the things I ever did, heard, read, or listened to about the drums a put them in one little […]
Sort of a Motown feel
Producer and drummer Tony Lash sent me this- I don’t think he likes all of my drum crap.
My Vinnie Year – part 1 – “My left hand is kind of funky.”
It was actually more like three or four years closely studying Vinnie Colaiuta’s playing, but this sounds better. Anyway, ’87 was when I was really deep in it- or so I thought- and he happened […]
Afro 6/8 – basic coordination
This is something I’ve been working with daily for several weeks now- getting the usual jazz coordination/comping stuff together with the Afro-Cuban/Bembe/Naningo bell pattern. It’s pretty tricky, and it’s a good idea to do it […]
Swiss triplets exercise
Here’s a fairly challenging swiss triplet exercise we used to play in my advanced practice pad group. The trickiest part seems to be the fourth line, with the 5/16 groupings comprised of a swiss triplet […]
Gainsbourg biopic
The film on the life of French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg (“GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE” Heh.), which was just being released in Europe after my last tour over there in 2010, is about to come out […]