charlie parker dizzy gillespie thelonious monk what do all of these jazz greats have
in common they've all played with the legendary drummer art blakey
now if you're unfamiliar with art blakey he started his drumming career in the late 1930s
working with musicians like fletcher henderson and then later in the 40s and 50s he played with
musicians like billy eckstein thelonius monk charlie parker dizzy gillespie miles davis and
bud powell only to name a few but most notably he was known for his work with his own band the jazz
messengers who he recorded nearly 70 albums with which is just crazy blakey was a monster behind
the kit and was considered one of the innovators of modern bebop drumming in the 40s and 50s he had
showmanship and aggressive swing style influenced by drumming pioneers like chick webb and sid
catlett and according to max roach art was perhaps the best at maintaining independence with all four
limbs and he was doing it before anybody else was needless to say there was a lot to go through so
for this lesson we're going to break down some of his most famous drum grooves so you can learn
more about his playing style and really what made art blakey one of the most in demand jazz drummers
of the 20th century before we get started make sure you hit those like and subscribe buttons
below this video along with the notification bell so you don't miss any upcoming releases
here on the drumeo channel and with that let's get right into the first groove which is caravan
so there you just saw a clip of art blakey and the jazz messengers playing caravan
their opening track off the 1963 record named caravan
and this is a really cool groove because we're dealing with sort of a nego
6 8 afro cuban feel and there's a really cool bell pattern that art blakey is playing in that clip
another key part to really making these grooves sound authentic is of course using equipment
that allows you to get that authentic sound and it's really cool because here we actually have a
mid 60s gretch progressive jazz kit which is the same series that art blakey played with the jazz
messengers back in that era in the same sizes and almost the same finish he had a red sparkle
kit and this is a tangerine sparkle but these are all things that will help you get that authentic
sound that you hear on these records from the 50s and the 60s so to start off we're going to play
a quarter note pulse on the left foot with the high hats and then we're going to be playing the
syncopated afro cuban bell pattern over here over beats 1 and 2 we have this quarter note
triplet figure and then on beats three and four we're playing on the first and second triplet
partials so slowly this is what the hi-hat foot sounds like along with the ride cymbal pattern
so once you've got that down we're going to add in the left hand now here we're playing
on the last triplet partial of each beat from the cross stick up to the rack tom back to the
cross stick and then to the floor tom it's the same placement all the way through this groove
so let's put the whole thing together slowly with the ride the hats and our left hand orchestration
and remember we're using the butt end of the stick to play those cross sticks for
that authentic art blakey sound just gets a much thicker and fuller sound out of that cross stick
all right let's bump this up to 150 bpm which is the tempo that the jazz
messengers are playing this on that live recording
so in the video that we watched with our blakey you will notice that he doesn't actually add
a bass drum on beat one or any part of this groove but it's still good to practice this
with a kick on the downbeat so let's try this with a click 150 here we go
so i hope you're enjoying this video so far and i just wanted to take a second and let
you know that we have full note for note transcriptions of every single song we're
covering in this lesson plus thousands of other songs available inside of drumeo
including songs by buddy rich john coltrane miles davis and many many other artists and lots
of these jazz recordings were recorded decades ago and it can be really tough to hear exactly
what's happening in the drum part so these are a game changer if you really want to learn exactly
what these legendary jazz drummers are playing on each song just click the link
right below this video or the button right here on screen to start a free 7-day trial to drumeo
so this one is one of my all-time favorites a night in tunisia by art blakey and the jazz
messengers this was first released in 1958 on the album at night in tunisia and then re-recorded in
1961 on another album of the same name what's going on here is double strokes between the
floor tom and the rack tom we've got a mozambique bell pattern happening over here and then we have
our feet alternating between one two three four and that kind of happens all the way through the
groove so to start let's look at the mozambique bell pattern the trick here is going to be staying
relaxed while you're playing this because the tempo is crazy upwards of around 290 bpm
so once you've got that bell pattern down let's
add in the feet alternating between the hi-hat foot and the bass drum
so the last step is probably the most challenging and it's the one that took me the longest to get
down and basically what's happening is double strokes between the floor tom and the rack tom
all happening on beats two and four so take this one really slow at first of course art
blakey is playing this at a blazing fast tempo but you've got to start slow when you're working
this stuff out so slowly this is what the whole groove sounds like with all four limbs
so once you've got all of that down work your way up slowly in tempo our blakey is around 296
in the live version that you watched earlier i'm going to try this around 280 here we go
so
so the last group we're looking at here is from the song monen which is probably the
most famous art blakey groove and this is the original jazz shuffle this was released in 1959
on the album of the same name and let's get into what's actually happening in this groove
so this is a jazz shuffle and one of the reasons it's called that is because we're
playing a standard jazz ride symbol pattern over here and then where the shuffle actually
happens is with our left hand on the snare drum with the ghost note pattern and adding in some
back beats on beats two and four so slowly we're gonna put this groove together let's
start with just the ride symbol pattern and then adding in the hats on beats two and four
next up we're going to add in the back beats so just playing your snare on beats two and four
and we'll add in the ghost notes after
all right next up we're going to add in the bass drum just playing quarter notes on the kick
we're going to add that with the snare on beats 2 and 4 for the backbeat
and with the ride cymbal and the hi-hat foot here we go
so the last thing we need to do is actually make this groove shuffle and that's where all of the
ghost notes come in we're going to be adding in ghost notes on the first and third triplet partial
of beats one and three and then also on the third triplet partial of beats two and four
so you really have this shuffling motion happening on the snare while all of those
other limbs are playing at the same time this is what the whole groove sounds like slowly
all right let's put this all together with a click up to 129 bpm which is the album tempo
so in the video you watched of art blakey playing this groove live you would have noticed that his
left hand pattern was a little bit different essentially all we're doing is taking out
two ghost notes at the end of b2 and the end of beat four so let's try this with a click 129 bpm
all right so that wraps up our lesson on the playing of art blakey hopefully you enjoyed
this and got something from it now i'd love to hear from you first of all which groove was your
favorite could be one of the three or maybe it's a completely different art blakey groove
or maybe there's another art blakey song that you love that has an awesome groove
to it leave a link below and some names of songs to check out let's leave a bunch of
suggestions for other drummers to check out and basically leave it as a tribute to art
blakey so be sure to check those out and with that i will see you in the next lesson cheers