Podcast – Ronnie Burrage

This episode is available in most places that you listen to podcasts and on YouTube.

Recorded March 2024

Podcast interview with drummer Ronnie Burrage.

From performing with Duke Ellington at just nine years old, having his own band with Marcus Miller and Kenny Kirkland, to playing with Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, McCoy Tyner, and countless others, Ronnie has had a really impressive career. 

He’s currently staying busy teaching, working with his non-profit called World Rhythm Academy, and playing with his band, Holographic Principle.

Links:

The song featured in this episode is Village of the Darned from the album Neohippus by Jack Walrath.

My blog post that I mentioned at the top of the episode:
A Hearing Test Saved My Life

The drum intro is from Charles Ruggiero’s Loop Loft sample pack.

Noble and Cooley Serial Numbers

I was trying to find information about a used Noble & Cooley snare drum last week and when searching for information about their serial numbers, all of the results mentioned to contact them to ask for info.

It was hard to believe that the info wasn’t available anywhere, but after searching for a while longer, I finally decided to follow that advice and went to the contact page on the Noble and Cooley site.

To my surprise, the answer to my question was right there in the placeholder text of one of the form fields! Because I’m a nerd, it makes sense to me why that placeholder text isn’t being indexed by Google, so I’m sharing it here with the hope that it’ll be more easily found by others in the future.

Noble and Cooley Serial Numbers

Here is the official info from Noble & Cooley:

For drums made before 2000, the first two numbers of the serial are the last two numbers of the year it was made, but reversed. So ’19’ is 1991, and ’89’ is 1998.

For drums made after 2000, the first two digits of the serial are in proper order, so ’16’ was made in 2016.

Noble and Cooley contact form

Walking Bass Play-Along Recordings

It’s been several years since I posted about Meet The Bass Player. Since then there have been some new bass only recordings that I’ve added to my practice routine.

What I like about practicing with a walking bass line is that I’m forced to listen to (and play) the form, even if it’s a simple blues. It adds another layer to each session that I enjoy and can be an extra challenge.

Most of you probably know about Quincy Davis’ play-along tracks. He has several of them, but the two that I use are:

The blues tracks are great! There are 14 of them, ranging from 60bpm – 320bpm with an average length of about 4:30.

The rhythm changes pack is pretty new. The set includes one 37 minute track that gradually speeds up, starting at 55bpm and ending up at 335bpm. In addition to the long track, Quincy includes 15 individual tracks. They’re chopped up versions of the long recording, so each track is only about 2:30. I wish they were a little longer, but they’re still really useful.

Finally, the newest addition to this category comes all the way from Switzerland! I’ve been a fan of Peter Primus Frosch on Instagram for a while. Many of you likely are as well. His breakdowns of bebop licks are great. He’s a smooth player with a nice feel and touch.

Peter recently released Walking Bass Play Alongs – Blues. There are 32(!) tracks ranging from 50pm – 340bpm and totaling 160 minutes! Almost every track is over 5 minutes, so you can really dig in and get a workout. Highly recommended!

If you know of any other jazz bass play-along recordings, please let me know. I love adding to my collection.