The Monday Morning Paradiddle

And...we're back. Well, it's been a minute since our last column but here's an assortment of interesting items for your perusal:

- Tributes to several great drummers who have recently left us:

Grady Tate

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/obituaries/grady-tate-dead-jazz-drummer-turned-vocalist.html

Ben Riley

http://wbgo.org/post/ben-riley-jazz-drummer-who-made-accompaniment-his-art-has-died-84#stream/0

Sunny Murray

http://wbgo.org/post/sunny-murray-drummer-who-pioneered-flowing-pulse-free-jazz-has-died-81#stream/0

- Jazz drumming legend Louis Hayes interviewed by The Trap Set with Joe Wong:

http://www.thetrapset.net/139-louis-hayes-cannonball-adderly-horace-silver-oscar-peterson-etc/

And a feature on Hayes via JazzTimes magazine:

https://jazztimes.com/features/drummer-louis-hayes/

- Jeff "Tain" Watts interviewed over at WGBH:

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/programDetail.cfm?programid=3496

- A feature on Canadian Jazz drummer Norman Marshall Villneuve from the Montreal Gazette:

http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/remembrance-of-jazz-past

- Holy smokes! A bootleg of Old and New Dreams "Live in Saalfeden 1986" with Paul Motian filling in for Ed Blackwell:

https://conditionwestrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/old-and-new-dreams-live-in-saalfelden-1986

- Interview with Rakalam Bob Moses:



I've really been digging Moses' new on-line lessons over at MyMusicMasterclass lately so be sure to check those out here:

https://www.mymusicmasterclass.com/artist-profiles/rakalam-bob-moses/

- Some brief footage of Lewis Nash in action with Steve Nelson, Mulgrew Miller and Bob Hurst:




- Thanks to Jimmy Katz for providing these next solo clips :

Francisco Mela



Marcus Gilmore



And from Chick Corea's podcast, dig this feature on Marcus Gilmore:

http://chickcoreamusicworkshops.com/podcast/lets-just-throw-it-down-marcus-gilmore/


- Some incredible footage of Antonio Sanchez' "Bad Hombre":



Sanchez talks about his latest project here:

http://drummagazine.com/antonio-sanchez-talks-about-his-new-album-bad-hombre/

- Thanks to Regina's Jim Gallagher for hipping me to this great one of the Oscar Peterson trio featuring the underrated Bobby Durham on drums:




- This is pretty amazing too, The Roots' Questlove demonstrating a Tony Allen beat:




- I asked Ted Warren http://trapdted.blogspot.ca awhile ago to comment on his favourite open drum solos and this is what he had to offer:

"I really like the aforementioned Jack DeJohnette on "Salsa For Eddie G". I like it because even though it's free, it does make reference to the tune and provides a beautiful intro. Plus, all the rimshots on the toms sound fantastic!!!! Secondly, I'll nominate " Steps/What Was" which is Roy Haynes on Chick's "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs". Wow! There's so much to like about this solo. First he opens it with a metric modulation of the jazz ride pattern (I'm not sure if he or Tony Williams recorded it first, but it's certainly a great early example). Then he gets this great interplay going between the rims of all the drums (going down the kit) and the Paiste 602 flat ride he's using, which apparently was owned by Chick (It's also amazing to note, since I don't think he had spent much time with the flat ride, how quickly he grasped it's qualities and sonic possibilities.) Then the floor tom comes roaring in. This solo is sooooo well constructed and exciting. He then plays fast bass drum underneath everything while he's playing all around the drums. He finally ends by taking a single stroke roll from the body of the snare drum to the snare drum rim, then switching to the flat ride and establishing the 3/4 groove for the next tune. It's such a creative beautiful solo that transitions between the two tunes that I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's my favorite drum solo EVER!!!"

- Thanks to Toronto's Nick Fraser for hipping us to this amazing Dexter Gordon/Gene Ammons record that features BOTH Steve McCall and Wilbur Campbell (two very important Jazz drummers out of Chicago) splitting the drum chair:




- What am I listening to these days?

Antonio Sanchez "Bad Hombre" - Antonio Sanchez (drums)

Christian McBride Big Band "Bringing' It" - Quincy Phillips (drums)

Wayne Shorter "Night Dreamer" - Elvin Jones (drums)

Turboprop "Rev" - Ernesto Cervini (drums)

We3 "Amazing" - Adam Nussbaum (drums)

The Three Sounds "Introducing" - Bill Dowdy (drums)

Rodney Green Quartet "Live Jazzhus Montmatre Copenhagen" - Rodney Green (drums), Warren Wolf (drums)

Matt Wilson "Honey and Salt: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg" - Matt Wilson (drums)

Milt Jackson Quartet "That's the Way it is" - Dick Berk (drums), Milt Jackson (vibes)

Mike Murley & Dave Liebman "Live at UofT" - Terry Clarke (drums)


- And today's Final Word goes to American poet Carl Sanburg (via Matt Wilson's latest release):

“There is a music for lonely hearts nearly always.
If the music dies down there is a silence.
Almost the same as the movement of music.
To know silence perfectly is to know music.”

- Carl Sandburg, "Good Morning, America"

Thanks again to you all for all your continued support. I sure appreciate your interest in what I have to share with the world. Don't forget to check out my ever evolving Instagram page at: https://www.instagram.com/fouronthefloorblog/