Jazz Tunes

[Sponer]

What are some basic songs/bands I can jam along with to practice some jazz? Nothing too hard, but not too easy either. I know how to play jazz (played for two years in middle school jazz band, and one with high school... quit, cause that director sucks), but I never practice anymore. I'm just looking for some stuff to play along to, to sort of motivate me to try and practice it some more I guess.

[super_kick08]

Glenn Miller - In The Mood

[billdrum]

Look for alot of the Standards.....Take The A-Train, In The Mood, Satin Doll, etc. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Glenn Miller. Any of those groups will work. Be sure to really listen to what the drummers are playing, rhythmically, and stylistically.

[Undisco Kidd]

If I were you I would pick up the Aebersold disk 'Rhythm Section Workout.' Real great playalong cd, I got it for 5 bucks I think.

[Ill Mitch]

Basie charts are great charts to learn how to lead into band hits. Might I suggest It's Oh So Nice, and for a little bit more of a challenge Basie Straight Ahead.

[MNdrummer21]

Get John Riley's Art of Bop Drumming, there are some great play along tunes on there. Then once you get your jazz chops in order, get out there and play with some folks. Immersing yourself in the music by playing it extensively is the best way to really learn jazz.

[SparBZ]

T-Monk: Round Midnight, Straight No Chaser, In Walked Bud, Blue Monk

Take the A Train, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, A String of Pearls, some basic Charlie Parker. That's what I started on. Even Moondance by Van Morrison.

[some jive turkey]

60's era Wayne Shorter albums.

1) Some great drumming.
2) a lot of his charts are in the real book
3) not many uptempo or odd times,....so it fits your "not too hard" criteria

[Retarded Chipple]

Get John Riley's Art of Bop Drumming, there are some great play along tunes on there. Then once you get your jazz chops in order, get out there and play with some folks. Immersing yourself in the music by playing it extensively is the best way to really learn jazz.

Thats a great book.

I think jazz is a bloody hard genre. It requires the most concentration, you have to be pretty alert and very musical.

If you're like me and switch off and kinda go onto playing autopilot then jazz is quite the challenge. I can do all the comping exercises, solos etc but doing that and following how many bars you've played, the form/structure of a piece is an absolute nightmare.

After almost a year of studying out of that book I'm still not confident enough to join a jazz band...hopefully it'll "click" soon though...

[SparBZ]

Chipple -- Learn how to become your own metronome. It's the easiest way to progress in jazz. What I mean is to practice counting out the measures played in the back of your head while concentrating on the time played in the front. Because in jazz, time is way above everything else, like in every other genre.

[Retarded Chipple]

Yeah fo sho.
Thats what I'm saying though, I really suck at that. My concentration is really poor when it comes to counting.

Recently I've been trading 4's with myself (or at least trying)...like 4 bars of time, 4 bars of solo. I find my counting goes all over the place (1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 4 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4 - see the problem there?) which gets very confusing. Sometimes my counting is ok but then I find my solos are based too much on the 1st quarter note of each bar - i seem to accent them or something.

Then there's following lead charts, the whole 12 bar form, 32 bar form, A sections, B sections, AABA, choruses etc! I get completely lost there too. I don't really fully understand it. I try counting the bars and working out the form to some jazz tunes and find myself counting something silly like 25 bars!

Lol, I must really suck!

[SparBZ]

Don't be silly dude! This is all natural what you're telling me. First, the only real way to improve concentration is to start concentrating more and more. Get a pair of isophones and start counting to yourself, get a metronome and start listening to that and play along, or count aloud and play syncopated beats. Counting and subdividing is some of the most important things in percussion!

If you're having problems with counting the first quarter notes, it's just practice. Don't be stubborn about it, just let it fly. It's something that has to be worked on over time.

Solos on the other hand can be written out, or improvised. If you decide to improvise, you really have to be counting. My suggestion is to write out a solo first (A simple 12-bar, 4/4 solo, syncopated), and count the whole way through, playing it a good 4-5 times until you have it down perfectly with the counting. This will syncopate your counting and get it down flat.

Just remember, keep practicing your counting!

[Patrick323]

chipple, maybe transcribe some 4s/solos. You could try Philly Joe's 4s on Tenor Madness (on the Sonny Rollins album of the same name). It'll really help you see how phrasing works in 4 bars.

Also some of the Wilcoxon rudimental stuff i've been doing might help, if you pay attention to the phrasing. All of it's phrased in 4 bar phrases (or 2 bar, whichever way you want to look at it), almost all in 16 bar clusters. The book is the All-American Drummer: 150 Rudimental Solos. Not everything is the most musical unfortunately, but I'm listening to Blakey and you can really hear the rudimental influence on him.

But yeah, these might help you learn how to shape 2 and 4 bar phrases. If you listen to anything from improvised charlie parker to written out chopin, you see that so much of it is just strings of 2 bar musical ideas.

[some jive turkey]

SparBZ has some good thoughts on counting there.

One quick thing I was going to add to what he's saying is that, you don't have to be playing drums to practice counting. You can practice counting your way through musical forms, basically anywhere. (at work, driving your car, shopping etc...) Put on a song and start counting along with it. 1234 2234 3234 4234, 5234 etc.....
Try to figure out how many bars are in the A section & B section.

This becomes easier with practice. The mind is like muscle, you have to exercise it.