Thanks to Calgary's Luis Tovar who shared this with me this morning.
I've watched this incredible documentary several times via streaming since it was released a couple years ago but looks like PBS has now made this free to watch via YouTube.
Check it out. It's beautiful.
As Sonny Rollins says so eloquently in this documentary, "Max is Heaven!"
Thanks to Chad Anderson who shared this great clip of Clifford Jarvis in action, a drummer that for some reason doesn't get mentioned enough, from a 1978 festival date with Archie Shepp in Warsaw, Poland:
And here's the complete concert with Archie Shepp:
Also make sure to check out Vinnie Sperrazza's excellent piece on Clifford Jarvis from his Substack column Chronicles: Chasin' the Bird: Clifford Jarvis
...and some nice (older) observations from Todd Bishop at Cruiseship Drummer.
Well, it's been a busy couple of Summer months, on the road, travelling across Canada.
I'm back home now after a bit of a break from blogging and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things (so to speak) with lots of exciting gigs and projects on the horizon and my regular teaching schedule starting up again soon at the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, AB.
I'd just like to take a moment for a quick shout-out to all the people and musicians who made this an inspiring and motivating couple of months, musically and otherwise:
Allison Miller, Makaya McCraven, Patrick Boyle, Dave Laing, Camil Belisle, Sean Craig, Chris Tauchner, Aaron Shorr, Jeff Gammon, Dayna Szyndrowski, Kirk MacDonald, Nick Costa, Ben Reimer, Shawn Mativetsky, Cristos Smirnios, Wakefield Brewster and Chris Dadge.
Anyways, it's been a really nice time to recharge my creative batteries and I'm looking forward to the months ahead.
Onwards and Upwards.
The Monday Morning Paradiddle - September 2025
1. Vinnie Sperrazza offers these fantastic pieces on Al Foster from his always excellent Substack series Chronicles:
2. Dave Douglas interviews Andrew Cyrille on the podcast A Noise From The Deep:
3. Pablo Held interviews/investigates Kush Abadey:
4. Dr. Jazz Samo Šalamon interviews a trio of great drummers including:
Johnathan Blake
Jeff Ballard
Dylan Van Der Schyff
5. Neon Jazz interviews Joe Farnsworth on the heels of his critically acclaimed latest release "The Big Room":
...and also by Jay Sweet for The Jazz Real Book:
6. Carl Allen and his trio from a recent performance at the San Jose Jazz Festival:
7. Reggie Quinerly in a drum and amplified saxophone jazz battle:
8. Marcus Gilmore!
9. The Drum Candy Podcast offers 10 Reasons to Love Bill Stewart:
10. Zildjian artists Adam Nussbaum, Paul Wells, Colleen Clark and Kai Craig play the new Kerope ride cymbals from the Avedis Zildjian Company:
11. Quincy Davis is a busy guy but he still finds time to produce and share his always wonderful YouTube jazz drumming instructional videos, packed full of very useful information:
12. Fantastic footage of the great Joe Lovano on the drums!
13. Thanks to Mark Eisenman who shared this video via Facebook of the late Mulgrew Miller on piano with Buster Williams on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums:
Joe Henderson "An Evening at the Village Vanguard" - Al Foster (drums)
Philly Joe Jones "Philly Joe's Beat" - Philly Joe Jones (drums)
Alan Jones Sextet "Climbing (rough)" - Alan Jones (drums)
Kevin Diehl "Onilu" - Kevin Diehl/Chad Taylor/Joe Chambers (drums & percussion)
Barry Elmes "Redshift" - Barry Elmes (drums)
Kendrick Scott "Reverence" - Kendrick Scott (drums)
Elvin Jones Trio "Puttin' it Together" - Elvin Jones (drums)
Joe Morello "It's About Time" - Joe Morello (drums), Gary Burton (vibraphone)
Tommy Flanagan "Lonely Town" - Elvin Jones (drums)
Roy Hargrove "Of Kindred Souls" - Gregory Hutchinson (drums)
15. And today's Final Word(s) goes to pianist/composer/arranger Jim McNeely (via Darcy James Argue) with some wonderful advice to all the composers out there (young and old!):
• Write down every idea that comes to you. Don’t judge it as good or bad. It simply is. Then play with it for a while. The magic is in the development. Don’t worry about where it should be in a piece. Let it sit for a while. It will still be there when you come back to it.
• A composer’s job is to speculate; ask “what if?” rather than “is it okay if I…?” or “Am I allowed to…?”
• No deadline? Write something just for the pleasure of doing it. It may lead to something, maybe not (see COVID-19, 2020-2022).
• Be in a place where you can hear your music played. Often. By the best players you can find. One of the most important things a young writer has to learn is the difference between the way a piece sounds on their computer and the way it sounds sight-read by real people, looking at dots on a page for the first time. You might be surprised!
• When you hear your piece read, listen with brutal honesty. Does it really sound the way you want it to sound? Yes or no. Don’t let your ego get in the way.
• You can be inspired by anything: another composer; Balinese music; a painting; a person’s laugh; the sound of construction; the size of the universe; the sound of leaves rustling on a tree; a three-note cell; a melodic figure that comes to you in the shower. Be open to it all. Acceptance is the key.
• With all the talk about creativity, it’s also crucial to master the basic techniques of rhythm, harmony, voice-leading, and orchestration. These are the tools that enable you to express that creativity so that it is playable by good musicians.
• Make sure your notation is as legible as possible. It makes it easier to read/play and reflects your respect for your music.
• Study scores written by musicians more experienced than you. Rather than guessing what they wrote, you can actually see how they wrote it. You’ll be surprised at what you find, especially how simple some of it is.
• When you hear a band live, listen with your eyes. You hear a combination you like. “How do they get that?” Well, look at the band! See who’s playing! “Trumpet in Harmon, Trumpet in cup, Flute 8va, Trombone 8vb. Aha!”
• Listen to and study big band (and not so big band) writers going back to Jelly Roll Morton. Don Redman. Fletcher Henderson. Benny Carter. Ellington & Strayhorn of course. So many masters to learn from.
• Starting at point A and arriving at point B is efficient but boring. Create events along the way. You might think of musical ideas as characters in a play: how do they interact? Does a third player unexpectedly enter? We start at point A, but stuff happens to thicken the plot before we finally arrive at point B.
• As Bob Brookmeyer said, “The way to write music is to write music.”
Well, we're in full Summer mode over here at Four on the Floor these days. It was a busy jazz festival season up here in Canada at the end of June and beginning of July and I just spent an inspiring ten days participating in an artist residency at the Leña Artist & Research Centre on Galiano Island, in the Gulf Islands, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. It was a productive week and I'm excited to share my new music and some exciting new projects in the year to come. Stay tuned.
This will be my last blog post for the time being while I take a break for the rest of the Summer. Regular blogging will resume in September.
In the meantime, check out John Riley's latest lesson from the folks over at the Memphis Drum Shop. In this video lesson Riley shares some very practical patterns and ideas for developing a sense of flow, moving around the drums. As always, John's lessons and teaching are excellent and well explained.
Check it out:
And while we're at it, here's a video of John demonstrating the new line of Kerope ride cymbals from the Avedis Zildjian Company. I haven't played these yet, but look forward to trying them out once they make it to Western Canada.
And I've shard these before but make sure to check out this excellent series of lessons featuring John from Zildjian:
Well, last week's post featuring Christian Vander's solo and duo drumming album really resonated with a lot of people who read this blog and I received many emails and messages regarding Vander's drumming following this post.
Thanks to Michael Griener for sharing this interesting French documentary on Christian Vander (subtitled in English): "Un Homme...Une Batterie" (1988).
There's some really unique, powerful and interesting Elvin Jones-inspired drumming here, and worth checking out for sure:
In this video, French drummer, composer and founder of the progressive rock band MAGMA, Christian Vander remembers how he started playing the drums, talks about his philosophy on music and his personal approach on drumming. He makes particular reference to the influence of John Coltrane's music and how Coltrane's spiritual quest eventually had an impact on him as a composer. Furthermore, it is obvious the influence of Elvin Jones, drummer of Coltrane's quartet.
This is a blog about jazz, jazz drumming and all things unrelated. Thanks for stopping by!
A Bit About Me...
Jonathan McCaslin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. Jonathan began playing the drums at the age of nine. He progressed through the Regina Lions Junior Band and the music program at his high school, Campbell Collegiate, soon developing a passion for playing the drums and jazz. Ultimately, Jon's interest in music led him to enroll in the Jazz Studies program at McGill University, graduating with distinction in 1999.
While at McGill Jon had the opportunity to study with some of the finest jazz educators in the country including Gordon Foote, Kevin Dean, Jan Jarcyzk, Chris McCann, Andre White, Michel Lambert and Dave Laing. He also attended the prestigious summer jazz workshop presented by the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1997, where he performed with Canadian jazz greats Hugh Fraser, Don Thompson and Kenny Wheeler.
Jon has also been fortunate to have performed with many of Canada's jazz elite including Charlie Biddle, Brian Hurley, Louise Rose, Alaister Kay, Mart Kinny, Gary Guthman, Mike Rud, Hadley Caliman, Greg Clayton, Chase Sanborn, Andre White, Tilden Webb, John LaBelle, Kevin Dean, Dave Turner, Ralph Bowen, Don Thompson, Dionne Taylor, Jim Vivian, Kelly Jefferson, Ian McDougall, Brad Turner, Jim Brenan, The McGill Jazz Orchestra, Jeff Johnston, Lorraine Desmerais, Steve Amirault, Hugh Fraser, Chucho Valdes, Kieran Overs, The Altsys Jazz Orchestra, Pat LaBarbera, The Regina Symphony Orchestra and The Montreal Jazz Big Band.
In the spring of 2002 McCaslin completed his Master's in Jazz Studies at McGill University where he studied jazz drumming, improvisation and composition.
In January 2003 Jon released his debut CD, “McCallum’s Island”. Featuring his quintet, the CD contains an exciting collection of McCaslin’s original compositions, featuring himself and his band. The release of this CD was followed by a twenty-day tour of Western Canada, performing to enthusiastic, capacity audiences. During March of 2003 Jonathan was the recipient of a fellowship from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and attended the “Betty Carter Jazz Ahead” residency in Washington, D.C. Along with twenty other distinguished young jazz artists, McCaslin was featured with such jazz icons as Terence Blanchard, Carmen Lundy, Winard Harper, Curtis Fuller and John Clayton.
McCaslin’s quintet performed at the 2003 edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival and was nominated for the General Motors Grand Prix du Festival (awarded to the most outstanding Canadian group). From 2004 until 2006, Jon toured North America, Asia and Europe with the high-energy, critically acclaimed music production troupe “Barrage”. Featuring a cast of seven world-class fiddlers and a four-piece band, this dynamic show featured high-energy music and fiddle traditions from around the world set to upbeat choreography and movement.
In 2015, Dr. McCaslin received his Doctorate through the University of Toronto and completed his dissertation on the conceptualization of contemporary melodic jazz drumming. He is currently based in Calgary, Alberta where he maintains a busy performing and teaching schedule across Canada.
