Thursday, December 3, 2020

Joe Farnsworth on Playing Ballads with Brushes Part 2


















Joe Farnsworth is back with more beautiful brushwork and ballad patterns, this time inspired by the likes of Louis Hayes, Vernel Fournier, Idris Muhammad, Roy Haynes and Jimmy Lovelace:


This video (and his previous one...) are SO important! Drummer's all too often take playing ballads for granted and just "stir the soup", get on with it and phone it in until the next (faster!) tune is counted off.

There is so much beauty in the subtleties and nuances that playing with brushes offers and, as Joe so eloquently demonstrates, playing a ballad is no different.

I don't think you'll find these patterns in a book, studying recordings will certainly help in terms of capturing the sound but since many of Masters are now gone, we are lucky to have someone share with us these brush patterns and choreography that he learned from the source (Adam Nussbaum and Steve Smith's The Art of Playing with Brushes is another good resource to check out too for that same reason).

Thanks Joe!
















Oh yes, I almost forgot....this is a beautiful clip of Max Roach demonstrating his own ballad brushwork, from an Italian masterclass that recently appeared on the YouTube, all while singing the lyrics to the standard "I Love You":

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