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

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

The Drums of Preservation Hall with Joe Lastie & Shannon Powell









I usually try to post something on Monday's but this week I got a bit behind. Fortunately I stumbled across these mini-lessons on New Orleans drumming featuring Joe Lastie and Shannon Powell and I think these are just fantastic!

Check these videos out for some great information, straight from the source.

As always, when the Masters speak, we listen!















Monday, September 20, 2021

John Riley's Drum Set Workout










A series of great lessons from John Riley today thanks to the Memphis Drum Shop and the Avedis Zildjian Company.

Check out his Art of Bop Drumming lesson series from Zildjian as well.

I had the good fortune to study with John on a regular basis last spring thanks to a timely micro grant from the Calgary Arts Development Authority (and I now have no lack of challenging things to practice for the foreseeable future!)

John Riley is an incredible educator and I encourage everyone to pay attention to anything he offers. 

 






Monday, September 13, 2021

Jon Hazilla - Master Studies: The Brush Book Joe Morello Never Wrote

A great series of brush lessons today from the Berklee College of Music's Jon Hazilla. As he explains in the first video, these are applications of Joe Morello's seminal work Master Studies using combinations of lateral strokes with the brushes (inspired by his lessons with Joe Morello, Mel Brown and Jeff Hamilton). 

There is lots of great information here. These are great concepts and techniques that will only deepen your approach to brush playing. Thanks for sharing these Jon!

Check it out:



Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Christian McBride & Carl Allen on Playing Fast Tempos

And...we're back.

Thanks for tuning in and Four on the Floor is now back and into the swing of things following a nice summer break. I hope that your summer months were restful and productive despite the challenges of our current circumstances which remain to be unresolved. As we settle back into the Fall months, blogging will now resume on a regular basis.

Here's a wonderful piece featuring bassist Christian McBride and drummer Carl Allen on the art of playing uptempos:

Is this part of a longer, upcoming instructional feature from Open Studio? I sure hope so!

And here's a couple of good examples of those concepts put into action with McBride's trio playing Cherokee featuring Ulysses Owens Jr. on drums: