Mid-Summer Paradiddle

It's been a few weeks since my last post (since I've been on the road playing Jazz festivals and teaching workshops for the better part of the last month!) But I'm back home now and blogging will hopefully be a bit more regular in the coming weeks. Canadian Jazz drumming legend Jim Blackley recently passed away and Mark Miller's excellent book on Claude Ranger has been released so look for some blog posts featuring both in the coming weeks.

Anyhow, thanks again for checking in and here's what we have to offer at this point, half-way through the summer season:

- A couple of interviews with Jeff "Tain" Watts from Drum Magazine:

http://drummagazine.com/jeff-watts-soul-of-a-drummer-mind-of-a-composer/

....and Neon Jazz:



- Milford Graves is featured at Dark Forces Swing:

http://darkforcesswing.blogspot.ca/2015/01/you-dont-get-it-in-front-of-blackboard.html

- Kendrick Scott interviewed over at the The Drummer's Resource Podcast:

http://www.drummersresource.com/kendrick-scott-interview/

- Peter Martin's excellent Jazz resource The Open Studio Network features vibraphonist Warren Wolf:

https://www.openstudionetwork.com/warren-wolf-interview-the-process-7/

- Todd Bishop keeps bringing us outstanding exercises and concepts to practice. His recent series of posts on funk drumming are worth some serious consideration. Here's a good place to start:

http://www.cruiseshipdrummer.com/2017/06/playing-funk-effectively.html

- John Riley was recently Down Under and here's a sampling of his performance at Sydney's Drummers Day:



- From Aquarian Drumheads here's a wonderful feature on Joe LaBarbera:


- Jerome Jennings is one of my favourite current drummers on the scene today. Here's some nice action footage of Jennings in action:



- Here's a documentary on the very talented and soon-to-be-very-famous Kojo Roney (also apparently a student of Milford Graves):

- I thought this was an interesting arrangement of Steve Reich's "Clapping Music", arranged for two snare drums:



- Joe Lovano is one my favourite contemporary tenor saxophonists and he's also a great drummer! Here's Joe laying it down on John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" (performed as a 3/4 waltz...):




- What am I listening to these days?

D.E.W. East "Introducing D.E.W. East" - Barry Elmes (drums)

Elvin Jones Trio "Puttin' it Together" - Elvin Jones (drums)

Elvin Jones Trio "The Ultimate" - Elvin Jones (drums)

Lee Morgan/Clifford Jarvis Quintet "Live in Baltimore 1958" - Ed Blackwell (drums)

Jazzmeia Horn "A Social Call" - Jerome Jennings (drums)

King Curtis "Live at the Fillmore" - Bernard Purdie (drums)


- And today's Last Word goes to the late Jim Blackley:

"Irrespective of the heights you reach as a musician and instrumentalist, irrespective of how outstanding your fellow musicians are, the most important ingredient that all can take to the bandstand is good human qualities, of love, patience, compassion, tolerance, and the treating of all lives as one's own."

- Jim Blackley