Two new works by and about George Lawrence Stone have just been released: Technique of Percussion is a compilation of articles Stone wrote for International Musician Magazine in the 1940s-60s. It’s over 400 pages long, […]
Transcription: Mickey Roker comping
Mickey Roker’s accompaniment of Dizzy Gillespie’s solo— the first three choruses anyway— on Birk’s Works, from Gillespie’s album Big 4. Roker has a deep groove I associate with musicians who have played a lot of […]
UPDATE: Seattle cymbal hang CANCELLED
Never can be too many asinine plays on the word cymbal. EVENT UPDATE: COVID response in Seattle has really gotten serious, and we’ve decided it would be wisest to cancel this event. Hopefully outlook will […]
Stick control patterns for jazz
Because some novice jazz students get hung up on the idea of left hand “independence”, here is a little set of exercises for helping coordination between the hands when playing jazz time. We’re using some […]
Four on the floor drill – 01
This is a little lightweight thing that came out of practicing along with that recent Fela Kuti loop. I was playing four on the floor in a half time feel, with some variations on the […]
Tony Williams phrase endings
Some things Tony Williams plays at phrase endings on Moose The Mooche, from the Great Jazz Trio at The Village Vanguard. There’s a lot more to learn from Tony’s playing on this tune, but who […]
Billy Hart interview
Photo by Anthony Porcar Cano More Billy Hart. Michael Griener sent me this 1994 Modern Drummer interview by Ken Micallef, and it’s excellent. It gives a much fuller picture of his musical intellect than I […]
My new axe
I got a cymbal to replace a similar model I sold to our man in Berlin, Michael Griener, last year: a 20″ Cymbal & Gong Holy Grail Jazz Ride, 1893 grams. Has a special heavy […]
Progressive Steps to Syncopation – an itemized critique
I spend so much time talking about how great Ted Reed’s Progressive Steps to Syncopation (commonly known as “Syncopation”) is, and how you can do everything with it— and should— and how it’s the only book you […]
3+3+2
I’m really not happy with the quality of the available beginner/younger student drum set materials. For the most part they’re terribly designed. They’re either extremely dull, or they demand too much, or they’re just dumb— […]