I stumbled onto this great footage of Art Taylor playing with Dizzy, Johnny Griffin and Stan Getz playing Stella By Starlight in "71, so let's start with that…..
Great, right? It's so awesome to hear Art Taylor playing, and the great big sound he gets when he's comping but here's the thing, it's very easy in a swing situation to get obsessed with all the independent stuff and ignore our main voice in the situation. That would be the ride cymbal of course. Rewind to earlier today when Dan Weiss was talking on his instagram page about practicing only ride cymbal. I have done this as well, and I think if one is serious about getting their Jazz ride cymbal playing together, it's well worth doing.
As I was mentioning before, it's easy to get distracted by the other parts of the drum set. When we play ride cymbal alone, we're getting to the heart of the time. There is nowhere to hide, and no way to wow people into thinking the time is strong with a bunch of chops-based baloney! We also have to really feel the space between the ride cymbal notes. Check it out, it'll totally change your playing.
…And what i mean by practicing ride cymbal is to play just that instrument along to recordings and make it strong and groovy.
Right after i checked out the Dizzy vid, a Joe Henderson came up with Al Foster playing. Here it is. They are also playing "Stella"
Also great. Working on copying the ride feels of Air Taylor and Al Foster would be a great way to start to design one's ride feel. Enjoy and have fun!
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