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

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Billy Drummond on Brushes















A short one today but this is a highly significant example from Jazz great Billy Drummond, demonstrating how to play a ballad with the brushes, using the melody of the standard "Laura" as a musical vehicle:



Drummond's brush strokes are beautiful and he creates a nice big, full and flowing sound...but his method of using the melody while playing is a nice reminder that "if you can sing it...you can play it!"

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

The New Drum Battle!
















Oh! Looks like Kenny Washington and Joe Farnsworth are at it again!

Monday, February 25, 2019

The Monday Morning Paradiddle














Welcome back and thanks for checking in for what is the very first Monday Morning Paradiddle column of 2019. Incidentally, this coming spring will represent the 10th anniversary of Four on the Floor. Holy smokes! We're still here! Anyways, as per usual, here's an assortment of interesting things to check out:

- Several great articles on the late, great Alvin Fielder (1935-2019) including:

  • A piece from NPR on Fielder and Joseph Jarman




- Dig this! An extensive audio interview with Kenny Clarke

As always, when the Masters speak, we listen!

- Ed Soph and Johnny Vidacovich both interviewed over at the Contraption Podcast

- Kate Gentile talks about her recent album release over at the Greenleaf Music podcast

- Ted Panken interviews Jeff Tain Watts with a "Before & After" listening session and another one from JazzTimes magazine

- Ralph Peterson Jr. interviewed by Neon Jazz:




- Pablo Held "investigates" Peter Erskine:




- A short, but quick AND spirited drum solo from Johnathan Blake:




- The Late Show's Joe Saylor with pianist Emmet Cohen:




- Lewis Nash reminds us all how to play a ballad (pay attention now everyone!):




- A very special thank you to Ted Warren, via his fine blog Trap'd, for finding this awesome, recent BBC documentary on the history of the drums, hosted by Stewart Copeland:




- And check out these cool George Way drums (and great drumming!) as played by Vancouver's Jesse Cahill:






- What am I listening to these days?

Terri Lyne Carrington "Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue" - Terri Lyne Carrington (drums)

Kirk MacDonald "The Atlantic Sessions" - Jerry Fuller (drums)

The Herbie Nichols Project "Strange City" - Matt Wilson (drums)

Kurt Rosenwinkel "Reflections" - Eric Harland (drums)

Dexter Gordon "Doin' Alright" - Al Harewood (drums)


- And today's Final Word goes to Anthony Tidd (via vibraphonist Joel Ross) over at the Facebook:


"Seven Steps to Solving Most Musicianship Issues"

If you are not good at something and, if you wish to improve, you should:

1) Identify said thing.

2) Admit that you are not good at said thing, and dispense with all ego.

3) Find somebody that is great at said thing.

4) If you can take lessons from this person or spend time around this person, do. If not, make a serious study of this person and the thing that you want to learn, using whatever means are at your disposal.

5) Practice incessantly.

6) Practice some more.

7) Repeat.

- Anthony Tidd, via Facebook (February 2019)

Friday, February 22, 2019

The Four on the Floor "Keep the Form!" Challenge























A simple conceptual exercise today, inspired by a lesson I took with Carl Allen many years ago and from Todd Bishop's recent blog post on playing music with "odd" forms. Check out his insightful commentary here.

Basically the above idea is an exercise that involves keeping the form while alternating between playing measures of Time and then improvising on the drums for a pre-determined number of bars. It's also an exercise in becoming comfortable with "odd" phrase lengths as well as shorter ones.

So here's the basic routine:

1) Choose a Time Signature (ie. 4/4, 3/4, 5/4, 12/8, etc.)

2) Pick a Style (Swing, Afro-Cuban, ECM, etc.)

3) Choose a Tempo (slower is always better!)

4) Play Time for the first section, then solo/improvise over the second half. Repeat. Then go on to the next one

5) The idea is that you are free to play whatever you want in each section BUT the form (ie. the number of measures in each section) and tempo must be clear and respected at all times

A few other variations:

- Trying changing the time signature every time you reach a new section

- Stick with one phrase length for the timekeeping sections but cycle through the lengths of the solo sections (ie. 8-8, 8-7, 8-6, 8-5, etc.)

- Mix up the order in which you play each section

- It is advisable to plan these routines out in advance and maybe even write them down such as I did for reference (ie. a road map!)

- Once you are comfortable with each phrase length and the transitions between them, challenge yourself to play over-the-barline phrases within each section.

- Be creative and have fun. Challenge yourself

Anyways, it's not rocket science but I find little games like this really help me break out of my usual vocabulary. Personally I find it can be a bit cold to play like this without any melodic reference or framework but it IS a good exercise in sharpening one's concentration skills and overall attention to phrasing (a tune like Victor Feldman's "Joshua", made famous by Miles Davis and his quintet, comes to mind...)

I also suggest recording yourself while practicing this, listening back afterwards for the clarity and definition of each section. Imagine that you are the saxophone player in the band, listening patiently to the drum solo and anxiously wondering when you need to come back in with the melody!


Thursday, February 21, 2019

Impressions with Jack
















This one was making the rounds of social media yesterday and I just had to share it. Here is a lesson in sustained musical accompaniment on the drums courtesy of Jack DeJohnette, backing up an all-star saxophone section featuring Michael Brecker, David Liebman, George Garzone and Joshua Redman, anchored by Geoff Keezer on piano and Christian McBride on bass (with a guest appearance by Dave Holland!) on the John Coltrane anthem "Impressions":



Amazingly Jack not only manages to keep a sustained energy and interest going through all those successive tenor solos, never once backing off, but then he takes an epic drum solo himself to cap everything off!

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Pete Lockett: Indian Rhythms Applied to the Drumset
















And...we're back.

I've been messing around with some interesting cross-rhythm excercises and the idea of poly-rhythmic "layering" lately (more on this later...) and this prompted me to revisit this excellent tutorial from percussionist and rhythm guru Pete Lockett. Take some time to check this one out as there is a lot of great and practical information to be found here:

Monday, February 4, 2019

Chris Smith - The Drum Hang Vol. 4 - Billy Higgins Solo Vocabulary & Feathering the Bass Drum!











I'm hitting the road shortly so I will be taking a break from blogging for awhile. However, in the meantime, be sure to check out these latest two instalments from Chris Smith over at The Drum Hang: an episode on Billy Higgins' solo vocabulary AND an excellent tutorial on the how's and why's of feathering the bass drum (perhaps one of the most misunderstood and underrated tools of Jazz timekeeping). These two segments are quite long each of themselves so plenty to dig into while I'm gone. Hope you learn something from these excellent videos. I sure have!