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

Monday, February 27, 2017

The Monday Morning Paradiddle















Welcome back. Here's the latest collection of things to check out this week:

- From Paul Motian's memorial service, here's Andrew Cyrille and Jabali Billy Hart playing together in a serious "percussion discussion":

https://soundcloud.com/symphony-space/a-tribute-to-paul-motian-8

Thank you to New York tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry for passing along this gem!

- Irish bassist and blogger Ronan Guilfoyle offers an excellent article with some pragmatic ideas about the idea of innovation and tradition in today's world of Jazz music:

http://ronanguil.blogspot.ca/2017/01/i-dare-you-innovation-versus-tradition.html

- Brian Blade talks about his recent projects and outlook on music via offbeat.com:

http://www.offbeat.com/articles/brian-blade-talks-back/

- Toronto drummer Nick Fraser is interviewed over at Positively Underground:

https://positivelyunderground.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/the-uncoverables-podcast-nick-fraser-interview/

- NPR features percussionist Cyro Baptista:

http://www.npr.org/event/music/501564127/musical-cannibalism-with-cyro-baptista

- Yoron Israel interviewed over at WGBH:

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/Jazz-247-Conversations-with-Eric-Jackson-3496?episode=68794

- Susie Ibarra featured on Roulette.org:

http://roulette.org/an-interview-with-susie-ibarra/

- Not a drummer specific column (although he DOES play great drums!), here's some wisdom from tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi via Steve Tres:

http://stevetres.com/2016/11/jerry-bergonzis-secret/

- A couple of interviews with Arizona's most recent resident, Lewis Nash:

http://theshow.kjzz.org/content/437449/legendary-jazz-drummer-lewis-nash-teaching-next-generation-drummers-asu




- Quincy Davis returns with another "Q-Tip", this time demonstrating his transcription of Philly Joe Jones' snappy solo on the tune "Julia":




- Ari Hoenig demonstrates some comping ideas with the brushes:



And of course this led me down the YouTube.com rabbit hole where I came across this duo performance of "Togo"(of "Old & New Dreams" fame) with Chris Potter on tenor saxophone:




- Antonio Sanchez offers some wisdom in advance of the upcoming documentary feature entitled "The Art of Listening":




- Here's a couple of burning clips featuring Rodney Green on brushes:






- A nice demonstration of Vernel Fournier's classic drum groove on Ahmad Jamal's "Poinciana":



Fournier offers some personal insight into this unique drum beat here:




- Drummer/percussionist Lafrae Sci talks and demonstrates how to "make colours" on the drumset using sound and rhythm:




- What am I listening to these days?

Wayne Shorter "Schizophrenia" - Joe Chambers (drums)

Keith Copeland Trio "Live in Limerick" - Keith Copeland (drums)

Ellis Marsalis "The Classic Ellis Marsalis" - James Black (drums)

Jesse Davis Quintet "Live at Smalls" - Billy Drummond (drums)

Joe Lovano & Greg Osby "Friendly Fire" - Idris Muhammad (drums)


- And for today's Final Word, rather than leaving you with a one or two-line inspirational/motivational quote of some sort, here's two articles from upliftconnect.com that seemed to have resonated with me lately:

"A Japanese Technique for Overcoming Laziness"

http://upliftconnect.com/japanese-overcoming-laziness/

"The Daily Routines of the World's Creative Geniuses"

http://upliftconnect.com/routines-worlds-creative-geniuses/


That's all I've got. Thanks for checking in and have a great week!

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Nussbaum Way Up North

Adam Nussbaum has been up in Canada lately, touring with Canadian saxophone titans Pat LaBarbera and Kirk MacDonald. Apparently an album is forthcoming as well…(I even heard that a drum duet with Ted Warren may have occurred at some point???)

Lucky for us, here's a hint of their recent hit in Toronto (which features not only some very musical accompanying by Nussbam, but some stellar brushwork as well):

Friday, February 3, 2017

Billy Drummond: Freedom of Ideas

















Billy Drummond has long been one of my favourite contemporary Jazz drummers since I first started listening to him back in the mid 1990s. His albums "Dubai", "The Gift" and "Native Colours" as well the plethora of dates recorded for the Criss Cross record label have all been a big influence on me. I've always been inspired by his huge sound, driving cymbal beat and relentless, driving sense of swing.

Here's a couple of clips today of Billy Drummond's most recent project, Freedom of Ideas, to check out. I sincerely hope that this band records and releases an album sometime in the near future!





And here Drummond breaks down the 7/4 groove for his piece "Dubai" (as performed above):





And of course, watching all these videos quickly led me down the YouTube rabbit hole and I discovered this nice trio rendition of "There Is No Greater Love" featuring Drummond with Javon Jackson and Ron Carter (dig those nice yellow Gretsch drums!):