There was a period of about five years where I was listening to a lot of early free jazz— Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp. Ornette (and his circle) is the only one […]
Daily best music in the world: Sunny Murray
Getting ready to head to Germany in a week, so content will be a little light. Here’s a cool record by Sunny Murray— usually the outest free guy in the world, here doing some swing […]
CYMBALISTIC: travel set, 11th Anniversary rides
CYMBALISTIC: I paid a little visit to the Cymbal & Gong warehouse (aka, Tim’s basement) to play some cymbals for Michael Griener, a great drummer, friend, and supporter in Berlin. Michael is very active playing […]
Bill Frisell’s advice to musicians
Posting this article from Guitar Player in it’s entirety, because it’s too important to be permanently entrusted to their little site: Bill Frisell’s advice to guitar players, which applies to all musicians, and all humans […]
Chaffee linear phrases in other rhythms/meters
In the comments of the recent Chaffee linear phrases in 4/4 post, someone asked about other rhythm possibilities for the same phrases. The phrases there were ten notes long, so basically any rhythm and meter […]
The big 7
Please pardon the lack of content. I’ve been occupied with other things this week, like our upcoming cymbal meets in Germany, and those couple of gigs with all the odd meters. Which worked out well— I […]
Ben Riley on musicality
Extended excerpt from Ben Riley’s Modern Drummer interview from 1986, by Jeff Potter, in which he talks about melodic drumming, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, and his other influences: JP: You have been called a “melodic […]
5/8 control, part 2
Hastily scribbled practice notes It has been an interesting journey this week, preparing this challenging music— moderately challenging, I guess; there are a few grooves in time signatures I’m not used to, but I’m being […]
CYMBALISTIC: two bargain used Holy Grails
CYMBALISTIC: Two more bargain used Cymbal & Gong cymbals came in. Both were lightly used by an endorser for a tour. A 24″ Holy Grail Jazz Ride “Vishal”, a lush, complex light ride, still […]
5/8 control
Sid Catlett would always tell me, “Art, when you’re in trouble, roll. Just relax, you know what I mean?” Let’s talk about something I’m preparing for, kind of a hairy gig coming up next week, […]