LEARNING JAZZ DRUMMING

You're right 'bout them smitses. Steve Smith and Smitty are very strong players..

Here's one good way to approach free jazz. First go through the jazz traditions, so that the vocabulary has been established. Learn what the older cats did, way before Smith or Smitty. It is through these traditions that modern jazz can be better approached. It's easier then to make intelligent alterations. I daresay this is what steve smith and smitty have both done.

Go through the Chapin book. Learn to solo with the left hand and right foot (right handers) while going ding jing-ga ding with the right hand and left foot, at all tempos, and do the first three pages of stick control with samba feet beneath (R.LR R.LR). This is a must. This builds the basic facility.

Having done that, or while working on that, put on records of Satchmo, Basie & Ellington & their drummers, Miles & his badass early drummers, Art Blakey, Max Roach and more from that time & learn what they're doing. ONLY THEN go to Tony Williams and Elvin Jones, spend a year or two on them. Learn to play the old tunes from the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. Not these exact tunes necessarily, but tunes like...

• Stella by Starlight
• All the things You Are
• Night in Tunisia
• Song for my Father
• Night and Day, Naima
• My Favorite Things
• Take Five
• My Funny Valentine
• Ipenema
• Spain
• Moaning
• Solitude
• Cherokee
• ?(I just pulled these off the top of my head. There are hundreds more that could work as well.)

With all this under your belt, LET GO. Let your mind run free. Now you are approaching the ability to intelligently participate in free jazz. Most people are not willing to put in the time it takes to do the homework and get the background. Hy hat's off to those that do...

Check out Elvin Jones' solo from the album 'A Love Supreme' by John Coltrane:

http://www.rhythmweb.com/real/Elvin_Jones_Pursuance.mp3

-- MattWalsh - 25 Jan 2002