The Monday Morning Paradiddle

Well, summer is in full swing these days and we hope you are all enjoying your vacation months wherever you are and whatever you might find yourself up to.

This will be the final Monday Morning Paradiddle column of the summer season however I'll be blogging right up until the end of the month. I will also be taking a break for the month of August while I'm on holidays.

Anyhow, in the meantime, here's a few items to check out, read and listen to:

- Four on the Floor correspondent Tim Mah recently traveled to the Montreal International Jazz Festival and offered this fine list, his picks of the top jazz festival drummers that he heard over the past month:

"Tim Mah's Top Drummer Picks of the 2019 Montreal Jazz Festival"

1. Zach Danziger - with Donny McCaslin
2. Nate Smith - with Nate Smith's Kinfolk
3. Allison Miller - with Christine Jensen's New York Quartet
4. Corey Fonville - with Butcher Brown and Christian Scott's aTunde Adjuah
5. Kendrick Scott - with Kendrick Scott's Oracle, the Gilad Hekselman Trio and Keyon Harrold
6. Makaya McCraven - appearing with his own group
7. Leon Parker - with the Brad Mehldau Quintet
8. Smithsoneon - with Bigyuki

9. Al Bourgeois - with the Rachel Therrien Quintet and the house band for the organ jazz jam at Brutopia
10. Louis-Vincent Hamel - with Benjamin Deschamps No Codes 

(who also won the 2019 Grand Prix du Jazz award at the festival)

*Bonus (appearing at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival) - Greg Hutchinson with the Joshua Redman Quartet and Brian Blade with his Fellowship Band* 

Looks like there was lots of great music to be heard on the Canadian Jazz festival circuit this year!

Tim Mah hosts the weekly radio program Jazz Today which can be heard on CJSW every Thursday morning and is also archived for your perusal. Check out and LIKE his Facebook page for more information, frequent updates and playlists.

Thanks Tim!

- Geoff Clapp offers his take on New Orleans rhythms over at the You'll Hear It podcast.

Also check out these short drum lessons with Ulysses Owens Jr from the You'll Hear It blog.

- Andrew Cyrille featured by Rolling Stone magazine

- Max Roach and Tony Williams both featured at JazzProfiles

- Colleen Clark recently completed and defended her very informative dissertation on the evolution of the ride cymbal beat through the University of North Texas. Check out her excellent work here.

Incidentally, Colleen was also recently seen sporting her own limited edition, 10th anniversary Four on the Floor t-shirt while visiting Steve Maxwell's Drum Shop in Manhattan:

You can own one too! Although, you'd better act fast I only have a handful left and they are now only available in size XL.

The shirts (featuring a wonderful logo design by Chad Anderson!) are $30 (+$10 shipping).

Drop me a line at fouronthefloorblog@gmail.com and I'll set you up asap.

- Check out Chip Stern's webpage for some wonderful interviews with Elvin Jones.

And speaking of Elvin, here's an article from 1982 from deep in the archives of Modern Drummer magazine worth digging into (special thanks to Hans Verhoeven for sending this one along!)

- Also from Modern Drummer, a recent feature on Tyshawn Sorey
(he will also be on faculty at the Banff Centre for the summer)

- Herlin Riley featured at Jazziz magazine (on the topic of his recent album release)

- JazzTimes magazine offers this feature on 10 Drumming Composers of our time

- Speaking of drummer/composers, WBGO offers this one on drummer/composer John Hollenbeck

- A couple of great columns on Kenny Clarke, Shelly Manne and Baby Dodds from Scott K. Fish over at his blog Life Beyond Cymbals

- A piece from All About Jazz about the late, great (and troubled!) Phil Seamen

- New York's Christopher Smith has been up to great things via his informative YouTube series The Drum Hang but he's also a bad ass drummer in his own right as well. Check out this drum feature on an arrangement of the Game of Thrones theme song from a recent recording session:



- Bill Stewart groovin' with Peter Bernstein and Larry Goldings from a recent appearance at London's Pizza Express:



- Kendrick Scott in action with pianist Joey Alexander:



-The late Lawrence Leathers featured with Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet on a lively rendition of Sonny Rollins' "Airegin":




- What am I listening to these days?

Mike LeDonne "Partners in Time" - Lewis Nash (drums)

Johnathan Blake "Trion" - Johnathan Blake (drums)

Dave Robbins Sextet "Joan of Art" - Dave Robbins (drums)

Joel Haynes Trio featuring Seamus Blake "Transitions" - Joel Haynes (drums)

Kenny Wheeler "Songs for Quintet" - Martin France (drums)

Chris Mitchell "Spectrum" - Jerry Fuller (drums)

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers "At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol.1 & 2" - Art Blakey (drums)


- And today's Final Word goes to Jazz impresario Cory Weeds with this sage advice:

Well folks, this is all I've got for now. Thanks again for all your support and please come back again soon!