I took a break from the blog and podcast this summer and am getting back to it after some travel and a busy few months at work. New podcast interviews are being scheduled and I’ve been diving deep into some players that I wasn’t too familiar with.
If you’re following along, thanks for the patience as I ramp up to episode 10. I think it’ll be a good one.
I’m also going to start posting here more often as a way to document what I’m checking out week to week without trying to stress too much about stepping on what Jon is posting over at the fantastic Four on the Floor blog. Let’s get started.
Colin Stranahan
A few months ago I started taking lessons from former podcast guest, Colin Stranahan. I love his playing and musicality. The lessons end up being a lot of talking and deep dives into some newer music that I haven’t spent much time checking out. Colin is such a kind person and it’s been really inspiring to spend time with him, even if only virtually.
Kurt Rosenwinkel
One artist that Colin has inspired me to check out is Kurt Rosenwinkel. I’ve been aware of him but have never really dug into his music, which is great. He’s had so many great drummers over the years and it’s fun to hear how they all deal with his music.
This summer Kurt put out a book of charts for all of his compositions. Since I tend to be a visual learner, this book has been a great way for me get familiar with Kurt’s music. You can get it here: Kurt Rosenwinkel Ultimate Book of Compositions – Highly recommended!
JK Kim
I’ve been checking out JK Kim a lot lately. I really like his playing and his playful energy is infectious.
This tune from a Jazz Gallery livestream is so lush and JK’s use of auxiliary percussion (I think that’s a small gong on the snare) is interesting. I’ve been experimenting with small gongs and other auxiliary percussion (from Stack Ring Percussion) since seeing this. I’m not sure if that will become a regular thing for me, but it’s been fun to experiment with new sounds.
I’ve also been listening to Aaron Parks Little Big project a lot and they have a nice live album. I really like the tune Rising Mind and it’s fun to play.
Hoping to talk to JK on the podcast in the future.
Dan Weiss
If you know you know, but Dan’s Patreon is infinitely inspiring and he’s put out new videos every week for years. His dedication is as impressive as the content.
When he put out a new video course last year, I got it right away, despite that it was around the time that I was out of commission for several months. I recently started going through it and there are some really great concepts and rewarding things to work on. The video quality is incredible as well. I recommend it. I’ve heard that a second course is in the works and maybe I’ll get him back on the podcast to talk about it when that’s out.
I had the good fortune to see Dan a couple of weeks ago. Here’s his killing solo on Un Poco Loco.
Drum Candy podcast
I could listen to Tom Wendt and David Throckmorton talk about music every day. I’ve been loving the “10 reasons to love” series that they do on the Drum Candy podcast. Most recently they did a couple of episodes about Peter Erskine that are great. Check out all of their episodes.
Drummer Nation
Adam Nussbaum has been co-hosting some great interviews and a new series called Trading Fours. Billy Drummond and Ed Soph were on the first episode and there was lots of great Ed Blackwell talk. Always a good thing.
Here’s the Ornette Coleman concert from 1971 with Ed Blackwell that they were talking about.
Thanks for reading!
