When I Take My Sugar to Tea...

A few months ago I wrote a few posts about the benefit of playing along with drum-less recordings to improve one's time and overall musicianship on the drums.

Many people chimed in with many great suggestions of albums to play-a-long with. Adam Nussbaum suggested the early trio's led by Nat King Cole as a good place to start.

Well, here's a GREAT example from my old teacher, Montreal's Dave Laing, playing along, with the brushes, to the Nat King Cole Trio on "When I Take My Sugar to Tea":



All I have to say about this is yikes, wow and thank you...

Tony Williams & Billy Cobham Tokyo 1978

No video, just an audio clip today featuring a drum duet of epic proportions featuring Tony Williams and Billy Cobham circa. 1978:

The Monday Morning Paradiddle

Hello everyone and welcome back. It was a super busy weekend for me, having just finished up a very brief but action packed tour with my quartet featuring Jason Marsalis on the vibraphone. We played music that was all penned by the late Herbie Nichols and had a great time playing for some enthusiastic crowds in both Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. It was a lot of fun and we got our collective butts kicked by Herbie's quirky and challenging music. I hope to see this project continue again in the future.

Anyways, as always, here's a round of things to check out from around the interweb:


- Why is the Clave rhythm so awesome? Well, this is why:
http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2013/why-is-son-clave-so-awesome/


- Irish bassist and blogger Ronan Guilfoyle offers this fine tribute to the late Keith Copeland who passed away in February: http://ronanguil.blogspot.ca/2015/02/the-extraordinary-mr-copeland.html


- New York percussionist Bobby Sanabria penned this fine essay on the history of Salsa music and Latin Jazz in New York City: http://www.drummagazine.com/hand-drum/post/explosion-de-clave-afro-cuban-sounds/


- Ethan Iverson over at his blog Do The Math gives us this GREAT interview with the little known drummer Steve Lyttle (whose playing credits include playing with Duke Ellington and the Sesame Street band): http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/interview-with-steve-little.html

Also via Ethan we get "Traps, The Drum Wonder" by Mark Stryker, an interesting piece on Buddy Rich: http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/traps-the-drum-wonder-by-mark-stryker.html


- Here's Chick Corea with some ideas on how to improve your time: http://chickcoreamusicworkshops.com/blog/video-rhythm-time-secret/?inf_contact_key=9e31b5338eb48a9ba436b0df06344a5a82a34be9bcb095438c7333b0f38c7537


- From over at Jazz Profiles, here's a series of pieces on Joe Morello to check out:

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.ca/2015/02/joe-morello-in-big-band-setting.html

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.ca/2015/02/joe-morello-interview-with-les-tomkins.html

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.ca/2015/02/joe-morello-drum-talk-down-beat-march.html

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.ca/2015/02/a.html


- The University of Manitoba's Quincy Davis continues to impress with his series of very informative, weekly Jazz drumming tips:





As long as he keeps making these, I'll keep posting them!


- While unfortunately his efforts were not recognized by the Academy Awards, Antonio Sanchez still came up with a very brilliant improvised drum soundtrack to the movie"Birdman" (I've already seen it twice! And no, I haven't seen "Whiplash" yet....thanks for asking!)

Here's Sanchez in the BBC studios taking about and demonstrating his approach to playing drums for this film:






- Here's a nice one of Toronto's Robi Botos with bassist Mike Downes and Ali Jackson Jr. on drums:




- Playing with Jason Marsalis recently was a real eyeopener and learning experience for me. He's an incredibly dedicated drummer, vibraphonist and can talk enthusiastically at length about any topic related to Jazz and Jazz history (and we did!) And as you can see below, he's also a very creative and patient individual as well:




- And finally, here's a clip of New York/Cuban Jazz drummer Francisco Mela in action...




- What am I listening to these days?

Terry Gibbs Dream Band "Main Stem, Vol.4" - Mel Lewis (drums), Terry Gibbs (vibes)

Herbie Nichols "Love, Gloom, Cash, Love" - Dannie Richmond (drums)

Matt Wilson Quartet  "Humidity" - Matt Wilson (drums)

Jason Marsalis "In a World of Mallets" - David Potter (drums), Jason Marsalis (vibes)

Barry Elmes Quintet "Red Shift" - Barry Elmes (drums)

- Today's Last Word goes undoubtedly goes to this gentlemen:



Any questions?

Well, thanks again for checking in on my blog. Have a great week everybody!

New York Attitude

Two versions of a cool tune today, "New York Attitude" by Kenny Barron.

The first one is performed by Barron's own trio with Victor Lewis on drums:



And another older version featuring the New York Jazz Giants from the Newport Jazz Festival circa. 1992 with Mulgrew Miller on piano and Carl Allen on drums:

Lewis Nash Interview

When the Masters speak....we listen.

The Music of Herbie Nichols featuring Jason Marsalis

I've got a string of interesting gigs coming up these days including several dates leading a quartet featuring Jason Marsalis on vibraphone, playing the music of pianist Herbie Nichols.

I've been fascinated with Nichols' music for over ten years now. I was first introduced to his music while I was studying with Matt Wilson in New York City in 2004 and he was playing with the Herbie Nichols Project, a band co-led by Ben Allison and Frank Kimbrough that extensively researched and performed his music.

I'm also looking forward to finally working with Jason Marsalis. He's a force on the drums AND now the vibraphone as well!

We are at the Yardbird Suite in Edmonton, AB on Friday, March 20th:

http://yardbirdsuite.com/home.htm

And River Park Church in Calgary on Saturday, March 21st, presented by JazzYYC:

https://www.jazzyyc.com/jazz-events/illumin8-jason-marsalis-plays-the-music-of-herbie-nichols/

Here's a link to a little interview I did with JazzYYC in advance of our Calgary concert:

https://www.jazzyyc.com/jon-mccaslin-interview/?ct=t(Feb_92_9_2015)

Rufus Reid Trio with Lewis Nash

I believe this is from Rufus Reid's bass instructional DVD but the obviously the trio footage featuring Mulgrew Miller and Lewis Nash is pretty happening too:

Kendrick Scott - New York City Winter Jazz Fest 2015

Just a short post today...here's some up close footage of Kendrick Scott from the New York City Winter Jazz Fest 2015 to dig into:

Quincy Davis' Tip of the Week

Quincy Davis, who currently teaches Jazz drums over at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB has been posting his "Tip of the week" series over at YouTube.com, featuring some very important, useful and very well-articulated concepts: