Practicing Drummer

The Drums – Papa Jo Jones

My drum teacher recently told me about the album The Drums by Papa Jo Jones. ~~The album isn’t available anymore, so here’s the copy I found on Youtube.~~

What surprised me most is that I hadn’t heard it until now. It’s amazing.

Not only is it entertaining to listen to because of Papa Jo’s unique delivery, his stories and insights are wonderful.

Next up is to get the book Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ISYjH89uY

Full double LP 1973 release from vinyl.

1. Drum Solo N°1
2. Basics- Gadgets – Effects
3. Rudiments – Drum Roll, Flams, Single Stroke
4. Rim Shots – Tom Tom
5. Drummers That I Met – Baby Dodds
6. Josh
7. Unnamed Drummer From St Louis
8. A.G. Godley – Alvin Burroughs – Gene Krupa
9. Sid Catlett
10. Unnamed And Unplaced Drummer Walter Johnson
11. Sonny Greer
12. Billy Gladstone Manzy Campbell
13. Chick Webb
14. Baby Lovett
15. Dancers That I Met
16. Pete Nugent
17. Eddie Rector
18. Baby Laurence
19. Bill – Bojangles – Robinson
20. Colours
21. Drums Solo N°2
22. Sweet Sue By Willie The Lion Smith And Jo Jones

This item sometimes comes up used online and Amazon has a listing that I’ve been keeping my eye on.

Update: It appears that this is available again on CD as an import. Find it on Amazon.

Meet the Bass Player

While I still practice with a metronome every day, I like to mix it up, especially when practicing jazz independence and sticking exercises. Lately I’ve been using Meet the Bass Player by Allan Cox. It’s a staple of my practice routine.

This playalong is simple, just bass and rhythm guitar that doesn’t get in the way.

There are a good range of tempos from slow to fast that make it usable whether I’m working on something for the first time or trying to push myself.

I’m currently working a lot on feathering the bass drum (with a strong hi-hat on 2 & 4 and a standard cymbal beat). Meet the Bass Player has been invaluable.

I end each practice session by focusing on my feathering technique with the bass tracks at 180bpm, 220bpm, 260bpm and 300bpm. Just two weeks ago my max was 260bpm, so I’m encouraged.

Here’s a detail of the tracks and tempos:

The other thing this jazz bassline playalong is great for is when working on brush patterns. Having a clean bass line to focus on really helps to hear the brush rhythms and highlights any weaknesses that may need to be worked on.

This is very easy to recommend and a great value at around $10.

Alternatives to Ted Reed’s Syncopation

I wanted to write a quick recommendation for a couple of drum books I use as an alternative to Ted Reed’s Syncopation.

If you’re a jazz drummer, then you probably know why this book is so popular and how it can be used. If you don’t, Alan Dawson will do a much better job of explaining than I do, so I recommend getting his book, The Complete Drummer’s Vocabulary. His exercises that use pages from Syncopation as a foundation are legendary and I spent a lot of time practicing them when I studied with John Ramsay at Berklee.

Having been through Syncopation so many times, my teacher recently recommended two books by Louis Bellson that are excellent. I’m surprised I had never owned either of them until now. One is in 4/4 and the other handles odd time signatures.

Modern Reading Text in 4/4 & Odd Time Reading Text