Marcus Gilmore is one of the most interesting and creative jazz drummers playing at the moment. He played for 10 years as part of the Vijay Iyer Trio. Here they are performing some of the tunes from their album "Break Stuff" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Jimmy Cobb's playing on Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue" is a lesson in the art of jazz drumming. Here are three licks or fills that he uses to propel the time into the next section.
Once you have become comfortable with playing jazz in 4/4, you will need to work on playing in 3/4, a jazz waltz. You will start to find that there are some popular tunes played in 3/4 - a good exam is “All Blues” from the Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue” - and that on a gig a couple of the tunes are likely to be in 3/4.
Now into his eighties Wayne Shorter is one of the living legends of jazz music. He is one of the great jazz composers as well as tenor saxophone players, so when he gives advice it is well worth listening to. And what’s his advice? Read a lot.
