- Thanks to everyone who came and sat in at our jam session at the Beatniq Jazz & Social Club last Thursday featuring myself on drums, Jim Brenan on tenor and Rubim DeToledo on bass. Take notice everyone: there is a great crop of young Jazz students coming up through the ranks here in Calgary !
- This coming Saturday I'm hosting the Broken City Jazz Jam from 3-6pm with my latest (and as of now unnamed!) project with Ralf Buschmeyer on guitar and Derek Stoll on keyboards. Please come on by, say hello and sit in on Calgary's longest running Jazz jam session. There's no cover, the beer is always cold and the food is pretty darn good too. I'd suggest either the wings, nachos or burgers & fries (although I still think that the Rex in Toronto still has the best Jazz burger in the land....) or if you get a late start to your day, the breakfast at Broken City is pretty happening too.
- I recently took in an informative drum clinic at Calgary's Long & McQuade location. Local drummer Gavin Sorochan talked about his professional experience, layed down some very slick fusion grooves and demonstrated Alan Dawson's Rudimental Ritual while incorporating the toms into the rudimental patterns (I need to practice this! It's very effective) all over a left foot clave pattern a la Horacio Hernandez (impressive!)
Here's a clip of Gavin doing his thing:
- I think I'm cheering for the most frustrating sports franchise in the world....On Sunday afternoon the Saskatchewan Roughriders were up 14-0 and then they let the Stampeders walk all over them....Good grief !
- My wife and I took in pianist Don Thompson and tenor saxophonist Phil Dwyer play an evening of duets at the Beatniq on Saturday evening in Calgary. These two masters demonstrated their affinity and kinship for each others playing on a program of classic standards, all of which were made famous by Frank Sinatra. This was another great show I was fortunate to witness. These two guys have a musical relationship going back almost thirty years and it shows! Make sure to catch them during their Canadian tour as their playing together is something not to be missed. Their sense of TIME is ridiculous!!!
- Check out Jazz drummer Ted Warren's great blog Trap'd. Ted is one of Canada's premier Jazz drummers and you'll be hard pressed to find someone who has spent as much time with his instrument as Ted has ! I've been a huge fan of Ted's drumming for years now and he's also a great teacher (currently teaching at Humber College in Toronto) and an exceptional composer with several albums of his own to his credit. Ted is currently working on a new book dealing with the brushes and he has kindly posted a few of his inventive patterns on his site. Check them out. More to practice indeed ! www.trapdted.blogspot.com
- I've really been digging practicing out of Joe Morello's technique book "Master Studies" lately. Lots of great exercises and information to be found in those pages. How did this elude me for so long???
Morello's also got a couple of very informative videos out there and those are highly recommended as well:
Man, his "effortless" technique makes it all look so easy...
A student of mine also recently lent me JoJo Mayer's DVD "Secret Weapons For The Modern Drummer". I'm looking forward to checking this out, but I'm skeptical for some reason... : )
- Anyway, enough with the chops stuff and let's get the week off to a nice groovy, swinging start. Here's a segment from the Ken Burns documentary "Jazz" that features my hero Art Blakey on drums and his impact on the music:
Oh yes, if you are reading this post and you are a civic-minded Calgarian, don't forget to vote Naheed Nenshi for Mayor today!
www.nenshi.ca
Forever onwards!
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