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When I met Max Roach my main interest was jazz drumming and what I could learn from him. We did clinics together in Hollywoood. He was the master and I was the (well-rehearsed) student. As I got to know him, beyond what I could learn about jazz drumming, I understood that Max was very intellectual, and a kind of Renaissance man. He is mostly identified with the birth of hard Bop, but was very committed to advancing civil rights for blacks, and for all people. He put that conc

It's a little know fact that Elvin started out playing blues guitar. His favorite players were John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, and the Mississippi Delta-like players, very earthy... just like his drumming. Check out his guitar on Heavy Sounds with Richard Davis. Earthy Delta blues comes from the deepest of bittersweet human emotion, and hard earned wisdom. There is a saying: "Above all else, get wisdom!" That feeling that Flamenco calls "Cante Hondo," Deep Song, and wisdom

Limited offer for 2026 First answer a few questions; What is your full name and age? Ages 12 to 21 or ages 18 to 40 only. How long have you been playing? As you grew up, what was the earliest kind of music you were exposed to? What kind of music do you listen to and would like to play drums in? Are you self-taught, or have you had any formal lessons by a professional drummer or educator (rudiments, reading drum notation, etc?) For example, none, little, moderate, skilled, 4-w

The Evolution of My Drumming Over the Years... What's Yours? Age 3 Classical piano - with my aunt. Age 6 Began drum lessons with Master Sergeant William Hartman. 12 Years of school band - High School teaching assistant. 1960s Trinity University Classical Percussion with Harvey Biskin, Houston Symphony. Mid 1960s Moved to LA. Staff percussionist with CBS. Active in LA jazz scene. Met Elvin Jones at Pro Drum Shop. He borrowed my trio for his local gigs. I received intensive dru

The sheer volume of Latin rhythms is far too extensive to be included in any one book. There are numerous excellent books that cover the literature and many examples with and without notation on the internet mostly on you tube. Listen to as many as possible to hear the variety over a core pattern, play along with some, invent your own. Sing it. If you can sing it, you can play it! Nevertheless certain pre- invention of the drum set rhythms are firmly embedded in    the root

I would like to touch briefly on playing rudiments on the drum set. Rudiments have a very profound history and tradition, as they are the dominant technique necessary to play classical and marching snare. They have been adapted many ways for use on a drum set sometimes in  a particular style in use by many drummers, especially in big band drumming and bebop.  Other times it is up to the individual player’s taste and creativity. A thoughtful systematic approach is useful so as

The drum set is an instrument that was made for playing poly-rhythms and their use is the difference between one at a one time dimension player and drummer who is a master of multiple time feels. European music tends to emphasize the primary beats of any time signature, which is to say the down beats/ In 4/4, ONE  2  THREE 4. In 3/4, a waltz, ONE, 2,3. UMM pah pah. On the drum set we emphasize the   upbeats, or the backbeat. In 4/4, 1 TWO, 3, FOUR, music This is where the po

There are many ways to hold a drumstick and there are advantages to all of them and disadvantages to all of them too. All of them are called a grip. That is because all of them grip the drumstick between the thumb and an opposing finger. There are different opinions as to which finger, but establishing a stable fulcrum (pinch) by pinching the stick is the simplest grip. What is important is not so much how you hold the stick but how you execute a drumstick stroke and it is am

This explanation is kind of long winded and takes the long way around to get to the point so stick (pun intended) with it! It is necessary to understand how to play authentic American drum set grooves. There is a very special drum set time keeping feel. All the great drummers have it whether they play jazz or rock, blues or funk, etc. Just about every classic American hit with a drum set track has a touch of it to some degree,  but as music became more and more heavily produc

I European Orchestral and Rudimental Drumming   I am often asked by young rock drummers why they should bother to learn the snare drum rudiments since they don’t seem to have as much application to drum set as much as snare drum either orchestral or marching. I agree on one point drum set skills go way beyond the execution of all the   rudiments properly played on a snare drum ., but there are good reasons for knowing the basic rudiments, all 40, or 26, or 13, or 7, but who’s