Jazz – Practicing Drummer

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.

Jazz Gallery Summer Pass

Here’s a quick plug for The Jazz Gallery Summer Pass. It’s just $60 and gets you either a seat in person or a free streaming pass for all shows in July and August 2023.

Not only is this a great deal (streaming passes are usually $20 per show) but the list of shows and musicians is pretty exciting. I’ll just list a handful of the drummers you’ll be able to check out: Dan Weiss, Brian Blade, JK Kim, Miguel Russell, Adam Cruz, Nasheet Waits, Kayvon Gordon, Jimmy Macbride, and many others.

Don’t miss out on this deal.

This is NOT a sponsored post. I’m just really excited about Jazz Gallery’s summer programming.

Summit of Great Gretsch Drummers

For years my friend and mentor, drummer Phil Hey, has been telling me about the 1973 Gretsch Drum Summit in Central Park that he was lucky enough to attend. I’ve often daydreamed about being there and how unbelievable it would be to see Elvin Jones, Mel Lewis, Freddie Waits, and Papa Joe Jones all in the same afternoon. Incredible!

In telling me about that afternoon, Phil raved about Papa Joe’s solo hi-hat performance and that Jones joked from stage that his solo was a “TKO: Time Killer Only.”

There’s a great post on the official Gretsch site with lots of detail about this afternoon. Better yet is that audio is available! This may be old news to some of you, but it’s new to me so I thought it’s worth sharing.

You can find the audio on Wolfgang’s vintage archive. If you click on the large “play” button at the top of the page you’ll get the impression that you can only listen to samples. Don’t let that fool you. Clicking on each track will allow you to listen to the entire thing and I believe you can also purchase the recording.

This is a real treasure and I’m thrilled to have discovered it after hearing about it all these years.