videos – Practicing Drummer

The Art of Playing with Brushes

I’ve been working on my brush playing and rediscovered this absolute treasure from Hudson Music. It’s fantastic.

The Art of Playing with Brushes (instant video / DVD) is an amazing resource with over 7 hours(!) of footage that features:

Billy Hart
Eddie Locke
Joe Morello
Charlie Persip
Ben Riley
Adam Nussbaum
Steve Smith

What makes this so unique is that you’re not just watching a single instructor explain patterns—you’re seeing multiple masters demonstrate their personal approaches, all playing to the same set of backing tracks.

The backing tracks are included, and they’re some of the best I’ve encountered for practicing—whether with brushes or sticks. Tempos range from 40–320 bpm, with a couple of them in 3/4 and a few Latin tracks as well.

Here’s a sample that features Billy Hart:

I can’t recommend this highly enough! If you haven’t checked it out and you’re a jazz drummer, I’d say it’s a must-watch.

It’s available as an instant video from Hudson Music or on DVD.

JK Kim w/ Aaron Parks

I’ve been a huge fan of JK Kim since Colin Stranahan told me about him a couple of years ago. He has a beautiful way of playing dense grooves while keeping them dynamic, musical, and relaxed.

I keep up with most of the projects he’s a part of, but what I’m currently drawn to is his playing with Aaron Parks. The music is gorgeous and has such a deep flow. I think the first thing I heard was a live recording that Aaron Parks recorded on his iPhone and released on Bandcamp: Live in Berlin – Little Big.

The band has been out on tour over the last few months and there have been a lot of great videos available. At the end of the post is a nice drum cam version of one of the tunes. I feel so lucky that we live in this era where shows are recorded at such high quality and available online.

Enjoy.

Nik Bärtsch’s RONIN

I learned about Nik Bärtsch via a documentary on YouTube a few months ago and am surprised I didn’t know about his music before this, especially since he’s had albums on ECM!

Just minutes into the documentary I became obsessed. His compositional style and dedication are really inspiring, and I find the music to be undeniable. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The full documentary playlist: Nik Bärtsch’s RONIN

Nik calls his music “ritual groove music.” It’s based on polyrhythms and is incredibly hypnotic as the rhythms and harmony build on top of each other.

I rarely travel to see shows, but was compelled to fly to Cleveland to see them at Bop Stop while they were on a short tour of North America. I figured it was my best chance to see them live and a lot easier than going to Switzerland.

The band features Kaspar Rast (drums), Jeremias Keller (bass) and Sha (reeds). It was a thrill to meet them all after the gig.

Kaspar is a great drummer and a very nice guy. After the show he brought me to the bandstand so I could check out his cymbals and the snare drum he travels with. He even brings his own bass drum beater on the road with him!

I highly recommend seeing the band live if you can.

Also, Cleveland has stunning architecture. This is the Hyatt hotel and it was only $150 a night!