Early Access - Clarence Penn on Teaching Improvisation and Creating a Movement

In this interview you’ll catch a lot of references.

That’s because Clarence was one of the most influential drummers on the early-2000s “jazz renaissance” that happened in New York, and on me.

No matter who the artist was that was drawing out New York jazz students on a Tuesday night, you can bet the drummer was Blade, Ari Hoenig, Dan Weiss, or Clarence. (And later Eric Harland and Marcus.)

And if you look up the personnel from practically any of the most influential bands of the era, you’ll see Clarence in the drum seat.

Two of my favorite examples:

Strange Liberation, which I mention in the interview (“slow down” part is at 6:52)

The Visitor (live version), which contains one of my favorite Clarence solos. (Solo begins at 5:20)

From these examples you’ll get an idea of the “tension” I mention in the interview between tighness/snappiness and looseness/irreverence, and you’ll hear Clarence’s “punk rock mixed with deep love for the tradition” style.

It took a couple of months before Clarence had a spare moment in his busy schedule, which includes commuting from Florida, where he lives with his family, to LA, where he’s on the faculty of USC, but it was worth the wait.

In this conversation, we speak a lot about teaching and learning, a subject of current fascination, given that I’m coaching a small group of 1:1 jazz students. I get Clarence’ philosophy on teaching improvisation, and the limitations of written material.

We also speak about “safe spaces” (not in the politically charged way), and the tension between helping students by holding them accountable, but wanting lessons to be an “oasis” in their week instead of inducing stress.

And of course I can’t waste the opportunity to ask Clarence about what it was like being part of a jazz renaissance, and how he feels that’s different from the current climate…

…not to mention the boundaries of the word “jazz”, and why people who were in the New York scene in the early 2000s define that word differently than “kids these days”.

If you can’t tell from my writing, this was one of my favorite interviews so far, and I know you’ll enjoy it too. If you dig the interview, please follow Clarence on instagram and give him a shout.

And if you haven’t caught this week’s youtube video, about a doublestroke exercise that Dave Weckl inspired, that’s below.

And here’s the free download to accompany that lesson.

Enjoy!

Early Access - Catching Up With Forrest Rice + Clyde Stubblefield Funk Beats

In 2016, I had no business being welcomed into the West Coast drum family with open arms. I had a tiny YouTube channel, and didn’t even play all that well.

But that didn’t stop Forrest Rice from inviting me over to shed, and letting me hang with him and friends at that year’s NAMM convention.

Forrest first came to prominence after playing in grand finals for the Guitar Center Drumoff, may it rest in peace, in 2014. He’s played drums for Covet and Wolfy, and currently plays with saxophonist Ian Roller. But most importantly, he’s a deep thinker about the drums and music in general.

In this conversation I ask Forrest about why he told me to learn the Tony Williams ride cymbal technique in 2016, the differences between jazz and math-rock, east-coast versus west-coast drum styles, “with the grain” versus “against the grain” practice, and more.

And he also tells a ten-minute story with a “behind the scenes” look at the Drum-Off, then joins me in a round of ridiculous speculation about how one might resurrect the Drum-Off, without many of the downsides.

I know you’ll enjoy this one.

And if you haven’t caught this week’s youtube video, about a 5-step way to learn Clyde Stubblefield/Nate Smith funk beats, you can catch that below.

And here’s the free download to accompany that lesson.

Enjoy!

List Exclusive - Complete University of Montana Clinic

If you haven’t caught my clinic from West Coast Drum Shop, I’ll link that below.

Finally, if you’re interested in the entire process of booking and delivering the clinic tour, my vlog on that is below:

Early Access - Greg Hutchinson on...Well, Everything

Greg and I have had a few conversations over the years. I took a lesson from him way back in the early 20-teens. We spoke most recently this past February, when internet connectivity unfortunately interfered.

But Greg graciously agreed to come back for another chat, and this time the quality came out great.

If you know Hutch at all, you know him as the outspoken, funny, larger-than-life presence he is, and look no further than his instagram to see him weighing in and not holding back on…well pretty much whatever crosses his mind.

And if you’re an OG fan, you probably remember that he was one of a small group of musicians who - practically on their own - rekindled acoustic/”straight ahead” jazz, after it had been “left for dead” after 2 decades of fusion. The Marsalis brothers and Jeff “Tain” Watts arguably started the trend, but it grew to encompass artists like Josh Redman, Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, and drummers like Brian Blade and Greg.

If you listen to Greg’s playing on any early-2000s recording, it sounds fresh and retro at the same time. One of a number of “new benchmarks” for drummers learning the art, who wanted avatars of contemporary players interpreting the past greats. Drummers like me.

The punchline is that though Hutch can be fiery and iconoclastic in his opinions, at his core he’s a very warm and generous human, and it doesn’t take much conversation to uncover how much he cares about mentoring the next generation of musicians.

I know you’ll enjoy this multifaceted chat with the one and only Hutch.

And if you haven’t caught this week’s youtube video, about how I put together, sold out, played, and broke even on a drum clinic tour, you can catch that below.

Enjoy!