Another great interview from the Jake Feinberg show, this time with Dick Berk of the prodigious ride cymbal. Dick was Billie Holliday’s last drummer (after Jo Jones left the group), in a band that also […]
Eric Jones 1970-2011
I just got news that an old friend from the U. of O. percussion department, Eric Jones, has died. He obviously went on to do a lot of things since I knew him, but I […]
The Hawaii 5-O fill
That’s the term I use for that universal 8th-grade-style fill down the toms effectively applied, ever since it was coined by Ralph Hardimon regarding a concert tom run of mine when I was in Santa […]
Quotable Bob Moses
A few stand-alone quotes from Drum Wisdom by Bob Moses: [T]ake one idea and expand it., instead of playing a lot of ideas. The greatest musicians are those who can take one idea and make […]
Transcription: Tony Williams – Madness – ride cymbal only
Madness is the first track I heard on the first Miles Davis record I actually went and bought- before that I just had the old copy of Kind of Blue from my dad’s record collection. […]
Vinnie Colaiuta interview – Percussive Notes, 1995
Vinnie with friend, c. 1982. From Vinnie Colaiuta’s web site, an interview from 1995 issue of Percussive Notes, by Rick Mattingly. My other big Vinnie thing on the blog is my Packard Goose transcription, which […]
Jon Christiansen @ 4OTF
Go read this post about Jon Christiansen at Four on the Floor– I haven’t even had a chance to read it yet, but it doesn’t matter. One of the great facilitators in drumming, I think […]
Tony Williams clinic
Here’s the full 1’06” of Tony Williams’ performance/clinic at Zildjian Day in 1985. That was my Tony year, I guess- I got to see him give a clinic at PASIC in LA that year, where […]
Matt’s paradiddle thing, pt. 2
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been working a bunch with the paradiddle page I wrote up for my student Matt F, usually combining single repetitions of each exercise, as described in the post. Last night I […]
Stanley’s Page of Bossa Nova
Here is a page of basic Bossa Nova patterns, which I wrote up for a couple of my students. I’ve included the standard pattern that will be familiar to a lot of people, a Partido […]