Al Harewood ideas

Guitar great Reg Schwager recently posted this great Horace Parlan track on social media




It features the almost criminally ignored Al Harewood. I lifted 2 timekeeping ideas from this, although the track is chock full of comping gems.

In the first one, which appears in bar 7 of the head, he plays this great double time phrase on the snare. It's very reminiscent of something Roy Haynes might play at a similar tempo. ( See example 1)

Note: The ride cymbal and snare should not line up in this case. Try to keep the snare straight and the cymbal swung. Also crescendo the snare throughout and accent the last note. Okay, here's the second idea, played during the piano solo.

This is a great variant on the "Philly Joe click on 4" thing because it creates a 2 bar rather than a 1 bar phrase. Cool! Now let's look at a partial list of ways I've worked this material over the last few days.

With idea 1)
-play snare drum idea on bass drum
- play "" "" on snare and bd together
-play idea on bd and snare alternating
-play idea alternating between SN. , BD,  and hi-hat
-play idea on snare while playing rest of 8ths in bar on hi-hat alternating hands w/ samba bass drum
-play idea as double stops on snare and cymbal w/ samba bass drum
-play idea as is with double time swing time keeping
-as above but with 2 feel on cymbal
-play snare idea with rh while filling in rest of 8ths with left and left foot clave and tumbao bd
-play snare idea on closed H.H. w/ right hand while playing 2 & 4 on snare w/ LH and BD pattern of your choice
-play idea in half time w/original rest of beat
-as above but with double time 2 feel on RC and HH

…..Phew, as you can see there are a lot of options and you know what, find your own variations on the 2nd idea. The only limit to any of this stuff is your imagination! :)