Juan Pastor Chinchano
I’m left wanting to hear the rest! Here’s a preview of Chicago drummer Juan Pastor’s new album, Chinchano featuring Jorge Roeder on bass, Stu Mindeman on piano, Rich Moore on sax, and Marquis Hill on trumpet, all fantastic musicians deserving of wider praise. Paul Mutzabaugh works his magic to …read more
Patterns: Part 2 – Endless Possibilities
Maybe I’m just a math geek, but I love exploring patterns on my horn. A plethora of jazz literature is available on scalar/pattern studies (Jerry Coker, Oliver Nelson, David Baker, Slonimsky, etc.), each offering a veritable buffet of patterns for you to get under your fingers and have in your back pocket. You COULD just open one of these books, flip to any page, read the lick, and transpose into all 12 keys, and repeat. But for …read more
Bebop Solos for Drumset
Bebop Drum Solos
One of the challenges in teaching jazz drumset to younger musicians is connecting the dots between their existing physical technique and a stylistic concept of what it means to play jazz/bebop vocabulary. John Riley has authored three incredible books: The Art of Bop Drumming, Beyond Bop Drumming, and The Jazz Drummer’s Workshop; all of which prove helpful to students over the course of their …read more
Patterns: Part 1 – Why Practice Patterns?
Let’s start by eliminating what patterns are NOT:
Most patterns are NOT solo material. Plug in your David Baker diminished pattern lick over the first altered dominant chord you can find at your next gig, and your solo will be about as tasty as soggy, cold French fries. Yes, they are still French fries, and technically they qualify as food, but would you ever walk into B.K. and ask …read more
