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

Tim Mah's Recommended Canadian Jazz Albums of 2025

Four on the Floor jazz correspondent Tim Mah is back once again to offer his extensive annual year-end list of music released by Canadian jazz artists over the course of the past year 2025.

As previous years, there continues to be lots of great music coming out of Canada these days and, unfortunately, a lot of it goes under the radar. Tim is an informed advocate for new Canadian jazz music and he has a taken a great deal of time and effort to give us a perspective on the current state of jazz music happening today across our country.

Check out Tim's weekly radio program Jazz Today which can be heard on CJSW Radio 90.9 fm (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) on Thursday mornings from 530-7am MST. It is also streamed on the CJSW website and available through Apple and Google podcasts and the CJSW mobile streaming app. 

Hopefully you'll see and listen to some new Canadian jazz music you weren't familiar with. 

Thanks again Tim!

Tim Mah's Recommended Canadian Jazz Albums of 2025:

Recently, the Globe and Mail newspaper published an article which reported that Canadians streamed three billion songs for the week of December 15, 2025. Nearly 15 million Canadians subscribe to music streaming platforms.

After reading this article, I recalled Liz Pelly’s book “Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist” that was published in January. The book “takes us to the inner workings of today’s highly consolidated record business, showing what has changed, as music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized, and autoplayed.”

It was fascinating to learn about how the system is geared towards generating anonymous background music, that immense amounts of personal data are harvested and sold to advertisers, and how mood-based playlists and the algorithmic music recommendation systems are designed to “reduce the cognitive work that the user has to do when they open the platform.” Furthermore, “ghost artists” and artificial intelligence generated music are populating many of these playlists.

I trust that the readers of this blog are active music listeners, who are not interested in “ghost artists” and artificial intelligence generated music. Rather, the readers are people who attend live performances and are curious about new music and artists.

Some of my live music highlights over the last year in Calgary were: 

• The Falling Bullets Jazz Band- a group of New Orleans musicians, led by trumpeter and vocalist Marla Dixon, who performed in the Decidedly Jazz Danceworks production “Call and Response”

• Makaya McCraven - during the Sled Island Music & Arts Festival

• Eric Chenaux Trio - part of the New Works Calgary season

• The Atlantic Jazz Collective - part of the BuckingJam Palace season

• Artemis - during the JazzYYC Summer Jazz Festival

Another significant book published this year was “Oceans of Time: The Musical Autobiography of Billy Hart (as told to Ethan Iverson).” Billy Hart defines swing as “a musical system that causes joy, euphoria, and optimism.” May you find music that brings you “joy, euphoria and optimism.”

There was an abundance of new releases this year. Below is a list (in no particular order) of favourite albums from Canadians (or co-released by Canadians), released between December 1, 2024 to November 30, 2025.

Nicola Miller “Living Things”

Renee Rosnes “Crossing Paths”

Laura Anglade “Get Out of Town”

Webber Morris Big Band “Unseparate”

Kate Wyatt “Murmurations”

Andrew Rathbun “Lost in the Shadows”

Nancy Walker “Deeper Down”

Mary Ancheta “Rituals”

Sarah Belle Reid (and Vinny Golia) “Accidental Ornithology”

Josh Cole “quartet + strings”

Dun-Dun Band “Pita Parka, Pt. II: Nim Edguf”

Eucalyptus “Topology of Time and Up Express Etc.”

Lina Allemano Four “The Diptychs”

Karen Ng “Backwards Blue”

Steph Richards (and Qasim Naqvi) “Miss America”

Ambre Ciel “still, there is the sea”

Jacob Chung “Live at Frankie’s Jazz Club”

David Occhipinti “Camera Lucida”

Atlantic Jazz Collective “Seascape”

Zack Lober “So We Could Live”

Ostara Project “Roots”

Aretha Tillotson “Kinda Out West”

Tommy Crane (and David Binney) “The Isle”

Curtis Nowosad “I Am Doing My Best”

Caity Gyorgy and Mark Limacher “Asking For Trouble” and “Caity Gyorgy With Strings”

Sanah Kadoura “The Ancestors”

Noah Franche-Nolan “Rose-Anna”

CODE Quartet “Code Red”

Devin Patten “The Afton Project, Vol. 1: between fading photographs”

JABFUNG (Julian Anderson-Bowes & Anthony Fung) “EPOCH”

stef.in (Stefan Hegerat) “Icterus II”

Nicolas Ferron “Multiverse”

Julie Hamelin “Chapitres”

Yoon Sun Choi (and Jacob Sacks) “Memory Ghosts”

Rich Brown “NYAEBA”

L’Oumigmag “Ce qui tourne dans l’air”

Michael Sarian “Esquina”

Rachel Therrien “Mi Hogar II”

Carlos Jimenez Quintet “Deja Vu”

Salin “Rammana”

Erin Rogers (and Kelsey Mines) “Scratching at the Surface”

Kneejerk “The Speed of Dark”

H ii Regions “II”

Kelly Jefferson (with Jon Cowherd) “Reunion”

Alexis Baro Y La Big Band “Afrokando”

Misc “Beat Bouquet”

Aaron Shragge “Cosmic Cliffs”

Alex Goodman “Good Morning Heartache”

Justin Gray “Immersed”

Kendrick Scott: "Drummers are the navigators"

Another fantastic piece from SF JAZZ featuring Kendrick Scott before the holidays:

I first heard Kendrick back in 2003 while I was a participant in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the KENNEDY Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He was performing with Terence Blanchard's group and I was immediately impressed with his dynamic sound and concept. 

I also recently participated in a Zoom session with Scott thanks to Quincy Davis' Jazz Drum Set Q/munity via Skool (be sure to check out this excellent resource!) and really enjoyed Kendrick's detailed approach to learning compositions, internalizing melody and dealing with form. 

Blogging around here has been a bit lite lately over the past few months (for a variety of reasons) however frequent contributor Tim Mah will be back next week with his always impressive and informed list of significant Canadian jazz releases of the year 2025.

Thanks again for all your ongoing support and interest in what I have to share. Looking forward to the year ahead 2026 and remember, keep swinging as always!

Art Blakey 1965

A brief interview with Art Blakey and some concert footage featuring Blakey with Freddie Hubbard, Nathan Davis, Jaki Byard and Reggie Workman.

Drummer Nation: A Tribute to Mel Lewis

I really enjoyed watching this Zoom "round table" on the legacy of Mel Lewis, hosted by Michael Vosbein featuring John Riley, Adam Nussbaum and Mel Lewis.

Seriously, if these guys had a weekly talk show, I would watch it!

*Mel at home "telling it like it is!"