Bobby Wiens - Focus

My good friend Bobby Wiens recently released his second album as a leader entitled Focus and he was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about his new music.

Learn about Bobby and his music here www.bobbywiens.com and check out his new album here:  www.bobbyjwiens.bandcamp.com/album/focus

Bobby Wiens "Focus"

Four on the Floor: April 2026

Tell us about your latest recording!

I feel that this album represents my current artistic aesthetic, sound, and also is a reflection of my everyday life presently. With one exception, it’s all original compositions of mine. The musicians on it are Gabriel Mervine (trumpet/flugelhorn), Tom Amend (keys), and Seth Lewis (bass). We recorded it at Mighty Fine Studios with the great engineer Colin Bricker at the helm; One of my favorite things he’s engineered and mixed is “Rainbow Sign” by Ron Miles…and since he’s right here in Denver it was an obvious choice for me.

How did you choose your repertoire and sidemen?

That went hand in hand…Tom, Seth and I work as a rhythm section quite often in other people’s bands and I feel there’s a great rapport there. I’ve worked with Gabe (who is just a downright scary trumpet player!) on and off, and every time I do I feel inspired, challenged, and also that there’s a real shared language between us. All 4 of us have a wide palate of musical tastes, and similar reference points.

So, all that to say… I called them all first, booked the studio, and THEN began writing the music…so I was thinking about them, and their sounds and our collective group sound as I composed.

What inspired you to pursue the vibe and instrumentation that you did?

Around the time I began thinking about doing another record I was revisiting a lot of my early influences…one of which is the Brad Turner Quartet, which is the same instrumentation as this record, so that initially got the wheels turning…I was also listening to These Rooms by Jim Hall quite a bit again, and even though I didn’t use guitar, I think having Tom do a mix of acoustic piano and a variety of keyboards, plus Gabe having a conception that is in a lot of ways aligned with Tom Harrell got us into that world a little bit.

Was there a particular message you were trying to convey to the listener?

Not particularly…I wanted to put music out there that I made ME feel different emotional colors…as I wrote it, recorded it and listened back to what now are the final takes. And if it speaks to other people too, even better!

I will say however, the last tune “With God on Our Side” (by Bob Dylan) is definitely a politically charged song, and so I was pretty intentional about wanting to include that on this album a) because the message is poignant one for those living in America, especially right now, and b) because I just love the song. The version that Aaron Neville sings on “Yellow Moon” is my favorite!

Who are your influences with regards to your style of playing?

So so many! A few prominent ones that I feel I consistently go back to are (in no particular order): Elvin Jones, Paul Motian, Vernel Fournier, Mel Lewis, Brian Blade, Adam Nussbaum, Warren “Baby” Dodds, Papa Jo Jones, Ed Blackwell, Zigaboo Modaliste, Al Foster, Idris Muhammad, Roy Haynes, and Billy Higgins.

What are you practicing/studying/listening to/researching these days?

Life is so busy right now with having a two-year-old, playing lots of gigs, doing records and working adjunct at a couple colleges…I try to make sure I get at least 20-30 mins. in (sometimes more, sometimes less). Usually I’ll go in this order: Spending time learning music for upcoming gigs, doing “maintenance” work (playing time/grooves, working on my touch, some coordination stuff to, as my teacher John Riley would say, keep the limbs lubricated, playing along to records), or learning new things that I’ll hear on a record or see in a video or live, and want to go figure out. Most recently I’ve been trying to shed some things Jeff “Tain” Watts does…so that keeps me busy :) Oh…and I always try to practice along to a little bit of Ahmad Jamal each day. Especially the things Vernel Fournier plays on.

What other current and future projects do you have on the go at the moment?

Currently working on booking shows and maybe a short tour with this current band to promote this new record. Throughout the month of April I’m leading a group at a club in Denver called Nocturne, and we’re doing the music of Eastern Rebellion each week as a residency. I’m also a member of a funk/fusion/jam band organ trio and we are going into the studio this summer to cut a record. Besides that, working on whatever stuff people call me for!

How do the drums and your overall approach to rhythm factor into your album concept?

That’s an interesting question…honestly, just in a minor way. I didn’t treat it any differently than any other session, where I’m just trying to find the best “drum part” to fit the vibe of the tune.

What drummers (or other musicians/composers) do you consider as influences?

Again, so many! For drummer composers I’d say: Paul Motian, Al Foster, Brian Blade, Jeff Ballard and Bill Stewart. For any other instrument/style some prominent ones that come to mind are: Ellington, Strayhorn, Monk, Wayne Shorter, Debussy, Bartok, Kenny Wheeler, Stevie Wonder, Daniel Lanois, Keith Jarrett, Thad Jones.

What advice do you have for younger, aspiring jazz musicians and jazz drummers?

Spend as much time playing with people and listening to records (like REALLY listening!) as you do shedding the drums.

Go hear live music whenever you can. 

Prioritize playing good time with a good sound that blends with the band (this can’t happen if you don’t play with other people!)

Learn lots of tunes and always be the one on the bandstand who has done the most homework…since we have to simultaneously be the conductor, arranger, producer and drummer (even when it’s not YOUR band), make sure you really know the music you are playing — whatever the style.

Tain - Black Nile

Just a quick post today as I'm on the road on Canada's West Coast for the next week.

Anyways, this track from Jeff "Tain" Watts' piano trio album Wattage featuring Kenny Kirkland on piano came on the radio the other day as I was driving home from a gig. This is a really great album and it was a nice reminder hearing this (I think I bought this CD at Jazz Record Mart in Chicago around 2005!).

And thanks to Peter Retzlaff for sharing this quick clip of Tain playing Al Foster's ride cymbal at Good Hands Drum Shop (New York City):

  

Billy Martin on Improvisation

Some fantastic lessons on drum set improvisation from a recent masterclass with Billy Martin:

Martin is a creative force and I've admired his multifaceted approach to the drums and music for a long time.

Make sure to check out his excellent film Life on Drums and his book Riddim: Rhythms of African Origin:

Billy Hart Solo!

Thanks to Craig VanDerSchaegen, author of the Practicing Drummer blog and podcast, for this epic (and I mean EPIC!) solo from Billy Hart:

Bebop: Kendrick Scott & Warren Wolf

More incredible music from SFJAZZ's Alone Together series featuring Kendrick Scott on drums and Warren Wolf on vibraphone, playing Dizzy Gillespie's Bebop:

Joe Farnsworth plays "Cute"

Epic drumming from Joe Farnsworth today, featured on Neal Hefti's classic "Cute", with pianist Emmet Cohen:

Drum Gratitude Part 1: Beginnings - The Regina Lions Band (1986-1995)

Well, I’ve been writing this jazz drumming blog since 2009 and sometimes I get stuck or busy with life and not quite sure what to post and share. However, someone once gave me a good piece of advice, something along the lines of “If you don’t know what to say, say something nice!”. I've also recently been inspired by Colleen Clark and Vinnie Sperrazza's recent ongoing Substack posts lately and I think their writing is fantastic. So in the spirit of gratitude I’ve decided to write a series of columns and record some drum solos that acknowledge the many drummers, percussionists and teachers who are very much part of who I am today.

Drum Gratitude Part 1 - Beginnings: The Lions Band 

Regina, Saskatchewan 1986-1995

I started my drum journey in 1986 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada at the age of nine. I had already been playing the piano for a couple of years but hated practicing (!) so I decided to try something different and started on the drums (go figure!) My parents enrolled me in the Regina Lions Band, an incredible youth band program that already had a reputation as a premier music education institution in Western Canada, under the direction of Bob Mossing. The program focused on year-round concert bands and competitive marching bands, along with jazz bands, “dixieland” bands and, for us percussionists, playing in drum lines with an emphasis on rudimental drumming. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for the experience and instruction I received in the Lions Band, from the ages of nine to eighteen.

Here’s a few of the people who shaped my experience and to whom I am eternally thankful:

Jack England was an older gentleman (a retired a jeweller I believe) and a local amateur percussionist who was enlisted by Bob to teach the beginner percussionists during my very first week of band practice in 1986. He taught me how to hold my sticks!

My first regular drum teacher was Richard Toth, who was older than I, in high school and a member of the senior Lions “A” Band (we all started in the beginner “D” Band and progressed through the C and B bands until we reached the coveted senior “A” Band by high school (aka the “Pride of the Lions”). Richard was a wonderful teacher who made drumming fun and encouraged proper fundamentals, particularly in learning to read rhythms. The first year I took lessons with Richard I won first prize in a junior snare drum competition, performing a solo called “Pet Rock”.

John Worthington coordinated the percussion sections and drum lines for the entire Lions Band program, up until I reached high school. John was a retired police officer and had played percussion with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “Big Dog” as he was called, was a tough old-school snare drummer who demanded the students take their drumming seriously and there was no messing around with his drill-sergeant like intensity, discipline and accountability. To this day I am very thankful for his emphasis on rudimental drumming and he set the bar very high for us young drummers, even back to my first interaction with him was when I was only about 12 years old. He taught me to take my drumming seriously, to take pride in what I was doing and to do the work. This was meant to be serious business. No shortcuts, no excuses, no B.S. and no messing around OR ELSE!

The Lions Band program (now defunct, unfortunately) had been active since the 1940s and relied on older members and graduates of the program to offer instruction and mentor younger students. I was very fortunate to take many drum lessons with Jody Mario (who was five years my senior) and he was really my introduction to contemporary DCI style rudimental snare drumming. He was also a mean drum set player who knew all of Neil Peart’s drum solos with RUSH and I always marvelled at his epic open drum solo that he played with the Lions #1 Stage Band (still a strange term for a big band I think Lol) on Frank Mantooth’s arrangement of “If I Were a Bellson” (a drum feature written for Louie Bellson).

Chris Worthington (Big Dog’s son) was also a significant influence although he had already graduated the program by the time I reached the “A” band but would return frequently to help out, teach and hip us to the latest drum corps trends he was learning on the West Coast in California. Brent Jefferson (who was also an important local drum set influence of mine - more on him in a future post) was also a regular sectional instructor. Brent, Jody and Chris were all very accomplished drummers, had fast hands and also marched with the Santa Clara Vanguard and the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps respectively. We spent many hours lined up in the RCMP drill hall, in empty parking lots, inside the old band hall on Dewdney Avenue and in the gymnasium of the “new” band hall on Pasqua Street beating out drum exercises with these guys correcting our mistakes, striving for precision and pushing our limits with every beat.

We were also very fortunate to work with many regular guest drum line clinicians as I got older, with esteemed DCI luminaries such as Tom Float, Paul Rennick and Glen Crosby. I worked with Glen on a few occasions over the course of a few camps and summer tours and distinctly remember his emphasis on always striving to get a good quality of sound and tone out of the instrument and to spend time developing my touch. I didn’t really get it back then (!) but I do now and am very thankful that he planted those seeds even way back then.

Keep in mind that this is back in the early 90s, well before the internet was a thing as we know it, so the information, concepts and exercises that they shared and left with us up in Saskatchewan were significant at the time and I certainly didn’t take it for granted. I still practice and share many of those exercises with my students today.

Robb Muller was recruited from the USA as an assistant director by the time I got to high school (working alongside the amazing Luther Appel). Robb brought a different perspective to drum line and rudimental drumming, albeit informed by his time on the East Coast and from his experience with the legendary Bridgeman Drum & Bugle Corps. His partner at the time, Amy James, was an incredible marimba and mallets player (who had also played with the Garfield Cadets). Amy was one of the sweetest human beings and teachers I ever met and I regret not taking more mallet lessons with her at the time (of course I was stubborn and it was all about honing my snare chops and getting into the drum set).

I also worked with Helen Barclay towards the end of high school. Helen was a great percussionist who had graduated from McGill University and relocated to rural Saskatchewan. She would come to Regina frequently to teach and run percussion sectionals for the Lions Band and gently offered a sense of purpose in my being a complete and musical percussionist in addition to my focus on the snare drum and jazz drumming.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of many of the great drummers and friends that I marched with and drummed with over the years, side-by-side for hundreds of hours of long parades, marching band competitions, countless drill rehearsals in empty parking lots and on grassy football fields, hundreds of drum line rehearsals and warm ups in the old band hall (sometimes spilling outside onto the sidewalk on Dewdney Avenue as cars and delivery trucks drove by) and trading licks on rubber Real Feel practice pads. These include my pals and forever drum brothers Les Schaeffer, Timothy LaBelle, Sean McDougall, Scott Polowyk, Dean Pelzer, Jim Hobson, Jim Milton and many, many others (you know who you are!). Playing drums with other drummers is a real privilege and I am thankful for the opportunities and experiences I had that were afforded to me when I was growing up.

So this where I got my start and these are the people who shaped my early music education as a drummer in the Regina Lions Band. In my next post, Part 2 will focus my first introduction to jazz drumming and early development on the drum set.

Please enjoy this short improvised drum solo dedicated to everyone listed above, a Philly Joe Jones inspired variation on a classic old Lions Band marching snare drum cadence called "Mark's Blues 2026”: 

Antonio Sanchez - Storytelling on the Drums

I was having a great conversation over coffee with pianist David Restivo last December and we spent the afternoon talking all things drumming and drummers (Dave's also a great drummer!). Eventually Jack DeJohnette, Billy Hart and Joe Chambers became the hot topic of conversation and one theme that David emphasized in the context of these amazing drummers (and other jazz musicians) was the concept of musical storytelling. I think one can agree that the way great improvisors can develop an abstract yet compelling sort of musical narrative and development through the course of their solos is something real and something important (the opposite being just stringing together a series of unrelated phrases that individually might work but as a whole might not really lead anywhere or add up to much...)

Antonio Sanchez is one of my favourite storytellers on the drums and he's obviously given a lot of specific thought to developing ideas and musical narratives on the drum set. Check it out:

 

Here's a few other favourites of mine featuring even more great "storytelling" from behind the drums featuring Antonio Sanchez:

Billy Hart "Multidirectional"

Just a quick Billy Hart appreciation post today featuring Billy's quartet and his new album Multidirectional on Smoke Records:

Here's a couple of pieces from earlier this year featuring Jabali from SFJazz:

And, if you haven't done so already, check out this incredible book!

Elvin Jones - Berlin 1972

Some amazing concert footage of Elvin Jones and his quartet with Dave Liebman, Steve Grossman and Gene Perla performing in Berlin circa. 1972 recently appeared on YouTube:

I believe I shared some black and white footage of this band, from the same European tour, many years ago so it's cool to see this one in colour. If you aren't familiar with the Elvin Jones Live at the Lighthouse recordings that feature this same band, I highly recommend it!

Joe Farnsworth!

Thanks to Australian jazz drummer Andrew Dickeson for this fantastic and in-depth interview with Joe Farnsworth. 

It's Time to Swing!

The Monday Morning Paradiddle - January 2026

And...we're back.

And for like many of you I'm sure, it's also the beginning of a new year and it's time to get back to work and back to school.

Thanks for checking in for today's post, the very first of the year, the January 2026 edition of the Monday Morning Paradiddle, my occasional all-things jazz drumming variety column.

It's been awhile since I've posted one of these. Life takes over sometimes and it was a pretty busy Fall last year, so blogging was bit lite for awhile. It's hard to believe that my last column was back in September! But I'm still here and not planning on going anywhere anytime soon so please enjoy this month's collection.

The Monday Morning Paradiddle - January 2026

1. More excellent writing and great commentary from Vinnie Sperrazza's Substack Chronicles including:

For Andrew Cyrille 

For Andrew Cyrille: Part Two

One World, One Music: Jack DeJohnette

On Oceans of Time

Second Annual Tony Williams Playlist

2. Todd Bishop's Cruiseship Drummer is still one of my go to drumming blogs. His excellent and concise latest piece Who and Why: The Magnificent Seven is an example why.

3. This is an older interview that I've shared before but it's worth revisiting, George Colligan's interview with Jack DeJohnette from George's dearly missed blog Jazz Truth.

4. The Drum Candy Podcast interviews Kush Abadey

5.  The Art of the Story podcast features Joe Farnsworth in 'Playing Free' is what drummer Joe Farnsworth is all about

6. Portland's Alan Jones with Phil Dwyer (piano) and Ben Dwyer (bass) on Bean and the Boys by Coleman Hawkins: 

7. Check out Gregory Hutchinson's new YouTube series In the Pocket with Hutch. He's dropping some pretty serious knowledge and wisdom here, so take the time to check these out. Here's a preview of a couple recent episodes:

 

 

8. Thanks to the JP Bouvet Method for this interview with Dave King:

9. Inspiring drumming from Shakoor Hakeem and Kweku Sumbry: 

10. Johnny Vidacovich shares some deep wisdom on groove and feel:

11. Footage of Marvin "Smitty" Smith from Calabria circa. 1991:

12. Pat LaBarbera talks all things drums, drummers, Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones with Michael Vosbein and Adam Nussbaum at Drummer Nation: 

13. And, of course as always, many more fantastic lessons from Quincy Davis' Q-Tips jazz drumming lesson channel on YouTube:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make sure to check out and sign up for Quincy's latest endeavour Q/munity.

Quincy has done a great job creating a very engaging ongoing, on-line jazz drumming community.

So come join the fun, get to work, learn something and....Let's Goooo!

Check it out here: https://www.skool.com/jazzdrumming

14. What am I listening to these days?

Well, I'll likely elaborate more on this in a future blog post but aside from listening to and learning music for specific upcoming gigs, the main focus of my music listening over the past couple of months has intentionally been jazz music with no drums! It's all part of a specific musical exercise I'm putting myself though and I'll explain my rational later but in the meantime check out this fantastic duo recording of Joe Lovano and Hank Jones (with no drums!):

15. And today's Final Word goes to Kenny Washington:

"It doesn't take much for a drummer to make a band sound good."

- Kenny Washington (via Gregory Hutchinson)

*editor's note:*

...and I'll just add my two cents (Canadian!) here as well:

"...and it doesn't take much for a drummer to make a band sound bad either!"

- Jonathan McCaslin