Thanks for checking in and I hope everyone is enjoying their Summer holidays. This will be the last Monday Morning Paradiddle column for the foreseeable future and also my last blog post until September. I'm focusing on some other things in my world at the moment before I hit the road at the end of July with Calgary's Decidedly Jazz Danceworks company. We'll be in Quebec, Ottawa and then doing a week-long run at Jacob's Pillow (Massachusetts) in August so please say hello if you happen to be in the area.
Thank you to everyone who checked out the third instalment of my Four on the Floor Instagram *Live* series this Spring. A big shout out to Chad Anderson, George Sluppick, Geoff Clapp, Colleen Clark, Alvester Garnett, Peter Retzlaff, Jason Tiemann, Pete Zimmer, Tim Reinert and Keith Hall for sharing their time and knowledge with me and to everyone who tuned in. I hope to resume this series using Instagram Live again in the future, maybe in the Fall.
Calgary's JazzYYC jazz festival recently happened and I heard a ton of great drummers that week including Jacob Wutzke, Louis-Vincent Hamel, Marito Marques, Ernesto Cervini, Luis Tovar, Efa Etoroma Jr., Kyle Poole, Ben Brown and Jim Doxas. Thank you for your music!
And now, here's an assortment of recent things to check out that I happen to find compelling, interesting, inspiring, motivating and would like to share with you all (after all, this is what this whole blog thing is about!) There is plenty here to keep you occupied until I resume blogging in the Fall so please enjoy.
The Monday Morning Paradiddle - July 2023
1. Please check out the Practicing Drummer Podcast with great interviews featuring Dan Weiss, George Fludas, Billy Drummond, Colin Stranahan and Brad Webb.
Keep up the great work Craig!
2. Alan Dawson: Boston's House Drummer from Richard Vacca's blog
3. Thank you to the UK's Allan Cox for sharing this March 1984 Modern Drummer Interview with Jim Blackley:
https://allancox.co.uk/pages/an-interview-with-jim-blackley-by-t-bruce-wittet
I've also been shedding Blackley's seminal text Syncopated Rolls for the Modern Drummer and I've found it to be very helpful and useful in my own playing lately.
4. Dig this wonderful YouTube playlist compiled by drummer/blogger Francesco Vecchio featuring a wealth of great Brazilian music to check out, listen to, study and play along with:
5. Quincy Davis continues to knock it out of the park with regular instalments to his Q-Tips series on YouTube.
Dig this episode on dealing with soloing at Fast tempos:
Congratulations to Quincy on 10 years of fantastic content and lessons on his Q-Tips YouTube page!
6. The Drum Candy Podcast features Rochester's always hard swinging Mike Melito:
7. Dr. Jazz Samo Salamon with interviews featuring Dan Weiss, Antonio Sanchez and Jeff Sipe:
8. A couple clips of Joe Farnsworth in action, doing what he does best (or as Joe would say RIP!):
9. Here's a trailer for an upcoming publication featuring Billy Hart and Eric Thielemans entitled "Talking About the Weather":
This looks great!
10. And speaking of great, here's Brian Blade with a "short" drum solo:
11. And more fantastic footage of Billy Drummond this time from a recent hit at New York's Mezzrow jazz club:
12. Gregory Hutchinson in action!
13. Allison Miller and Ulysses Owens Jr. in a serious percussion discussion with tap dancer Tommy Wasiuta:
14. And here's more Brian Blade but here someone took the time to isolate his drumming track on Joshua Redman's infamous recording of Jazz Crimes:
15. Dannie Richmond....nothing else to add here!
16. Fasten your seatbelts folks, here's a 1978 percussive encounter and drum duet between Tony Williams and Billy Cobham:
17. This is only an excerpt from Andrew Cyrille's hard-to-find instructional VHS cassette but this is really great none-the-less, playing Kenny Clarke's drum composition Laurent (also recorded on Pieces of Time featuring Andrew Cyrille, Kenny Clarke, Famoudou Don Moye and Milford Graves...check this one out if you haven't already!):
18. Alrighty, and now here's some inspiring music to check out this summer and listen to until further notice:
Elvin Jones - On the Mountain
Zakir Hussain and Ustad Allah Rakha (thank you to the late Duris Maxwell for recommending this one...)
Sonny Clark Trio with Max Roach
(check out how Max Roach deals with his drum breaks and trading with no tom tom or floor tom)
Rose Room featuring Big Sid Catlett
Tony Williams - Some Hip Drum Shit
Mel Lewis - Rhythm (aka "That's All...")
Michael Stuart - The Blessing (featuring the legendary Claude Ranger on drums!)
19. What am I listening to these days?
Alexander Claffy "Good Spirits" - Joe Farnsworth (drums)
Keith Hall Trio "Made in Kalamazoo" - Keith Hall (drums)
Christian McBride's New Jawn "Prime" - Nasheet Waits (drums)
Artemis "In Real Time" - Allison Miller (drums)
Victor Feldman "The Arrival of Victor Feldman" - Stan Levey (drums)
Burton/Metheny/Holland/Haynes "Like Minds" - Roy Haynes (drums)
Lenny Breau "The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau - LIVE!" - Reg Kelln (drums) Thanks Ben!
20. And today's Final Word goes to Langston Hughes via Reggie Quinerly:
