WELCOME TO FOUR ON THE FOUR: A BLOG ABOUT JAZZ DRUMMING AND ALL THINGS UNRELATED, BROUGHT TO YOU BY JON McCASLIN

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Brad Mehldau "All The Things You Are" 7/4














Today's guest post is brought to us by Toronto pianist and my good friend Gerry Shatford. This is an extensive analysis of Brad Mehldau's 7/4 version of "All The Things You Are" from The Art of the Trio, Volume 4.

Shatford has painstakingly taken the time to transcribe AND learn Mehldau's playing note-for-note (see the videos below) and he was also kind enough to offer (at my request) an extensive rhythmic analysis of this performance.

Thank you Gerry for all your hard work putting this together.



























Monday, January 25, 2016

Vinnie Meets Zakir

Thanks to Chris Worthington who passed along these good ones of Dave Holland's band at the SF Jazz Center featuring Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Zakir Hussain on tabla:





Thursday, January 21, 2016

Andre White

Montreal's Andre White has long been a huge influence on me for over twenty years now. And not only is he an incredibly swinging Jazz drummer, he plays the piano with an affinity towards Bill Evans and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of Jazz history too. I learned a great deal from Andre during my days studying at McGill and still do, to this very day.

I recently heard Andre play in Gatineau, Quebec last October with Steve Grossman, Fred Henke and Ron Seguin (a sort of reunion band, as it were) and I was quickly reminded of how much influence he's had on my drumming and my being a Jazz musician over the years. Mr. White is all ears, all music and all about playing for the musicians around him.

Here's some recent footage of Andre in action with Toronto saxophonist Kirk MacDonald featuring Harold Mabern on piano.



Burnin' !

And here's a full concert from their recent appearance at New York's Jazz @ Lincoln Center:



And, lastly, here's a track from an unreleased trio album offered to us from Montreal's Mike Rud, a nice little swinging jaunt on "Cherokee":




Monday, January 18, 2016

Dave Black

Thanks to Phil Stewart who posted this one via the Facebook:



Black was one of the great post-WWII swing drummers who, among others, played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Apparently, as legend has it, he was also one of the very few drummers that made Buddy Rich nervous. From the footage above, perhaps you can hear why...

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Billy Drummond Clinica de Bateria

From a recent clinic in Buenos Aries, here's Billy Drummond doing what he does best:

Monday, January 11, 2016

Max Roach Interview
















As always, when the Masters speak, we listen:




Check out Roach's 1998 feature with Marian McPartland on NPR's "Piano Jazz":

http://www.npr.org/2008/02/22/19269815/drumming-legend-max-roach-on-piano-jazz



Thursday, January 7, 2016

Farnsworth en Italia

A few nice highlights of Joe Farnsworth's masterclass from a recent workshop in Italy: