And...we're back and welcome to a special October 2022 Halloween edition of the Monday Morning Paradiddle.
And what better way to celebrate the scarier side of jazz drumming than with some classic Philly Joe Jones:
Don't forget to "bite your momma goodnight!" and then check out today's features:
1) Ted Warren offers this important piece on Drumming and Mental Health
2) Todd Bishop, author of the blog Cruise Ship Drummer, offers this spot-on assessment of chops, technique and musical freedom, creativity and context in his excellent column Brute Force Freedom
3) Stanton Moore interviewed by the Music Makers Podcast
4) Check out these solos from Rich Thompson's Modern Jazz Solos for Drum Set Series from the Avedis Zildjian Company
5) Thanks to George Sluppick who hipped me to this amazing new drumming sample loop app called Wheelhouse Beats https://www.wheelhousebeats.app/ that features such drummers as Bobby Previte, Carter McLean, George Sluppick, Corey Fonville, Derrek Phillips, Jeremy "Bean" Clemons, Brevan Hampden, Chris Gelb and more.
Ben Singer, the creator of this highly recommended app, was kind enough to take some time to tell us all about his cool and innovative new app:
I met Charlie Hunter when he moved to Greensboro, NC a couple years ago. I had been a fan for a long time, so this came as a fun surprise. I was wrapping up my programming job at PreSonus and looking for more apps to do as a indie developer.
The idea really came from him: a metronome app that uses loops from great drummers. I thought it was a great idea, and he hooked me up with some of his favourite players. Most of them have home studios, so I started by having them send me sessions where they would play the same beat at about five different tempos.
If this was a desktop app, I might have licensed some code to do time-stretching, but for mobile devices I needed something that was very efficient with CPU. I wrote a small playback engine that does this in one step. While it's playing the loop, it skips little pieces of the sound. Each drum or cymbal hit gets a little closer, making the beat sound faster. I speed up the loop until I can switch to the next recorded loop, the same way a keyboard patch would be sampled in multiple velocity layers.
After I split the sessions up into measures, I pick the best loops and sequence them into phrases. For most beats, there are versions with one, two, four, and eight measures. Some of the patterns, like Bomb Swing and Brush Groove, only have long phrases, so it's more like a jazz player.
We haven't tried to define a particular audience. It can be a guitar player shedding a tune, a drummer learning to play and feel these grooves, a songwriter using it for inspiration, or anything else. My strategy is just to make each beat sound as musical as I can.
The current drummers are going to be recording some more grooves and we will be adding new drummers too. I have sessions from the next two already, and I am very excited to get those in the app.
To learn more about this cool drumming app check out this link: https://www.wheelhousebeats.app/
The idea really came from him: a metronome app that uses loops from great drummers. I thought it was a great idea, and he hooked me up with some of his favourite players. Most of them have home studios, so I started by having them send me sessions where they would play the same beat at about five different tempos.
If this was a desktop app, I might have licensed some code to do time-stretching, but for mobile devices I needed something that was very efficient with CPU. I wrote a small playback engine that does this in one step. While it's playing the loop, it skips little pieces of the sound. Each drum or cymbal hit gets a little closer, making the beat sound faster. I speed up the loop until I can switch to the next recorded loop, the same way a keyboard patch would be sampled in multiple velocity layers.
After I split the sessions up into measures, I pick the best loops and sequence them into phrases. For most beats, there are versions with one, two, four, and eight measures. Some of the patterns, like Bomb Swing and Brush Groove, only have long phrases, so it's more like a jazz player.
We haven't tried to define a particular audience. It can be a guitar player shedding a tune, a drummer learning to play and feel these grooves, a songwriter using it for inspiration, or anything else. My strategy is just to make each beat sound as musical as I can.
The current drummers are going to be recording some more grooves and we will be adding new drummers too. I have sessions from the next two already, and I am very excited to get those in the app.
To learn more about this cool drumming app check out this link: https://www.wheelhousebeats.app/
6) A GREAT lesson with bassist Orlando Le Fleming on playing on, ahead and behind the beat:
7) Allison Miller featured with Artemis on her piece Galapagos:
8) Joe Farnsworth sets the pace!
9) Billy Drummond with saxophonist Charles McPherson, playing a beautifully musical drum solo on Cherokee:
10) Toronto's Kirk MacDonald with drummer Terry Clarke at the Black Bear Pub (nice t-shirt Terry!):
11) I was watching a new Oscar Peterson documentary on my flight home from Toronto a few weeks ago and was reminded of what a great and unique drummer Martin Drew was.
Dig this:
12) Quincy Davis continues with these excellent recent offerings via his excellent Q-Tips YouTube series:
13) Christopher Smith offers these great lessons on some important fundamental jazz drumming techniques via The Jazz Drum Hang. Chris is a great teacher!
Check these out:
14) Pittsburgh's Thomas Wendt offers this important lesson dealing with The Shuffle!
15) Gregory Hutchinson shares some wisdom with Open Studio in this episode of Hustlin' with Hutch:
16) Samo Salamon interviews Chicago's Chad Taylor:
17) The Drum History Podcast features the excellent new book Drumsville! The Evolution of the New Orleans Beat:
And here are some behind-the-scenes footage of the exhibit itself:
18) Dan Weiss' demonstrates his incredible rhythmic abilities:
19) Jeff Ballard featured in the series Stephan's Basement:
20) Billy Hart in action with Art Farmer circa. 1982:
21) Jazz Talk interviews Joe Chambers:
22) A nice tribute to El Rey Tito Puente from Google:
This 2008 piece from NPR's Jazz Profiles series Tito Puente: 'El Rey' is worth taking a listen to as well.
23) Mel Lewis with his orchestra featuring Joe Lovano, performing The Eye of the Hurricane:
24) What am I Listening to These Days?
PJ Perry "No Hugs" - Dave Laing (drums)
Sam Taylor "Let Go" - Willie Jones III (drums)
Watts, Turner, Le Fleming "Misterioso" - Jeff "Tain" Watts (drums)
Teodross Avery "Post Modern Trap Music" - Marvin "Bugalu" Smith (drums)
Sam Kirmayer "In This Moment" - Andre White (drums)
John Lee "The Artist" - Carl Allen (drums)
25) And today's Final Word goes to pianist Ahmad Jamal (via Reggie Quinerly):
-Ahmad Jamal
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*Oh yes, and before we head out trick or treating....The classic black Four on the Floor t-shirt is now back in stock and available in limited quantities*
The shirts are $30 each (+shipping)
If you are interested in purchasing one, please drop me a line asap at fouronthefloorblog@gmail.com or reach me through Facebook/Instagram/Twitterland and I'll set you up asap.
Last time these went pretty quickly so order now while supplies last.
Don't delay and get yours today.
Thanks for your support!
"The guys get shirts and that's just the way it is..."
- Paul Anka
Hey Jon, Ted here. Great work as usual and thanks for the plug! :)
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