Tag: kweku sumbry

Journal #9 – Kweku Sumbry, Philly Joe, Tain, Chop Busters

Florence, Italy

It’s been a lot longer than I planned on between journal entries. The summer has flown by, partially thanks to an incredible trip to Italy.

I’m working on some new podcast episodes and am planning to be back here posting at least once every couple of weeks.

Here are some things from the last few weeks.

Ron Fink – Chop Busters

I got this recently and honestly can’t remember where I heard about it. It’s a snare book of individual technique exercises and it’s become my morning warm-up this summer. Very fun and just challenging enough.

Ron Fink Chop Busters

Chop Busters at Steve Weiss Music

New Philly Joe Jones videos!

Billy Drummond shared these two recently and they’re incredible. It’s always great to see new footage of him.

The Pace Report – Jeff “Tain” Watts

The Pace Report has been showing up in my YouTube feed lately. Brian Pace has been doing these interviews out of Harlem for years and there’s a deep archive there. This new one with Tain is great.

Kweku Sumbry

Kweku has quickly become one of my favorite drummers. I mostly know him through his work with Immanuel Wilkins (check out the live albums from the Village Vanguard), but here’s a concert he played with Charles Lloyd. There are two incredibly musical drum solos. The first is at 47:26 and the second at 67:57.

Bonus: Go-Go

I’ve been going down a go-go rabbit hole lately and this video is mesmerizing. I first heard about go-go from some D.C. drummers when I was at Berklee in the 90s.

Have a great weekend.

Kweku Sumbry in concert

Seeing Kweku Sumbry on drums with Immanuel Wilkins earlier this year was incredibly inspiring and memorable. I think about that concert a lot and if you heard my interview with Colin Stranahan you heard me geeking out about it. Kweku is such a special player.

The rest of Immanuel’s group is fantastic as well. Micah Thomas is an incredibly gifted piano player who I’ve seen perform as part of Billy Drummond’s Freedom of Ideas. Bassist Rick Rosato has a great group with Colin Stranahan and Glenn Zeleski. Their “Live at the Jazz Standard” album from a few years ago is one I still put on.

While catching up on YouTube the other night I was thrilled to discover a recent Immanuel Wilkins Quartet show from Amsterdam that’s available thanks to Bimhuis. The quality of their streams is excellent. I hope you enjoy this group as much as I do.