Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had nice holiday in your respective parts of the world. I had a very nice break over the past few weeks but still found time to practice, play a few gigs and check out a few interesting things while enjoying the holiday break with my family.
Here are a few things I've been checking out lately:
-Adam Nussbaum forwarded me this very thought provoking article on Elvin Jones written by Irish blogger, bassist and rhythm guru extraordinaire Ronan Guilfoyle:
http://ronanguil.blogspot.com/2010/11/theres-something-about-elvin.html#comments
-Saxophonist (and recent NEA Jazz Master recipient) Dave Liebman is truly a master jazz musician and I always enjoy reading his perspectives on music.
Here's a couple of articles that I found very insightful:
The Creative Process In Jazz and Dave Liebman on Jazz Rhythm
-Interested in checking out some crazy tunes ? I can highly recommend Herbie Nichols: The Unpublished Works by Roswell Rudd. Pianist Frank Kimbrough hipped me to this great resource/fake book and insight into one of Jazz music's forgotten geniuses a few years ago while I was doing some research about Nichols at the University of Toronto. Well almost forgotten...Canadian Jazz writer Mark Miller has also written an excellent biographical tome about the life of Herbie Nichols entitled Herbie Nichols: A Jazzist's Life Both are worth checking out and offer a glimpse into a genius that fame and recognition, for the most part, managed to pass by. However, thanks to people like Rudd, Miller and Kimbrough (and Ben Allison and the rest of the Jazz Composers Collective crew that recorded Nichol's unique compositions) we can learn from Herbie Nichol's brilliant compositions and musical legacy.
-Looking for another interesting drum method to add to your collection? I've been getting a lot of use from George Marsh's unique drum method entitled "Inner Drumming" lately. This is a very unique approach to movement and coordination on the drum set that incorporates elements of Tai Chi and a unique method of notating physical movement around the drums (using boxes and arrows). George was very nice to send me a copy of his book awhile ago and it has certainly opened my eyes and ears to how I physically move around the drums. Matt Wilson also alluded to George's method and how to develop a sense of physical "flow" on the drum set when I studied with him several years ago. George sent a couple copies of two of his album's entitled "Game, No Game" and "Yes And" that feature him in various improvisations with a couple of different pianists. You can learn more about George, his method and his music here.
-Wynton Marsalis was recently featured on 60 Minutes. Check out this interesting interview here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/29/60minutes/main7195058.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
Whether you like his music or not, it's hard to not to appreciate his passion for the music. Personally, I dig the man and his music.
-To finish the first Monday Morning Paradiddle of 2011, here's a fun clip of J@LC drummer Ali Jackson Jr. playing an homage to Max Roach's "Mr. Hihat" solo taken from his concert last year, "The Beats of New York":