This is the capstone of the jazz track. Everything from the previous nine lessons converges here: bop vocabulary, uptempo time, broken time, modal comping, comping vocabulary, free-jazz texture, post-bop independence, the Elvin triplet feel, the Williams quarter-note ride. Modern jazz drumming — the language of Brian Blade, Eric Harland, Marcus Gilmore, Jeff Watts, Bill Stewart, Antonio Sánchez — is a fluent recombination of all of it.
The exercises below are five concrete vocabulary studies. Three are paraphrased from structures in the 50 Phrases of Brian Blade collection — not the phrases themselves (those are Blade's transcribed work) but the structural ideas: a short anchor figure that returns; an 8th-note flurry that lands on a syncopated point; a snare-as-conversation device that responds to an implied soloist; the use of broken time as a stable groove rather than a special effect. The fourth uses a Carlos Vega-style flexible swing feel (from the 20 Transcriptions). The fifth puts everything together as a 12-bar form.
The Phrase Studies
- Phrase 1 — paraphrased from a Blade structural device: a short anchor figure (snare on the &-of-3) returning every two bars within otherwise improvised comping.
- Phrase 2 — paraphrased from a Blade flurry-and-resolution device: an 8th-note triplet flurry on the snare that lands on the &-of-3 of the next bar.
- Phrase 3 — paraphrased from a Blade kick-conversation device: kick on a syncopated point in bar 1, snare answering on the same point in bar 2.
- Phrase 4 — Carlos Vega-style flexible swing 8ths: the same ride pattern played first with straight 8ths, then with deep triplet feel, in adjacent bars.
- Phrase 5 — a 12-bar capstone combining all four phrases with broken time in bars 9–10.
Exercises
Anchor figure structure (paraphrased from the recurring-fragment device in the Blade phrases): the snare lands on the &-of-3 in bars 1 and 3 — that's the anchor. Bars 2 and 4 are improvised (varied snare placements). The repeating &-of-3 hit gives the phrase an internal logic that the listener can track even though the comping is otherwise free.
Flurry-and-resolution structure (paraphrased — an 8th-note triplet flurry that lands on the &-of-3): bar 1 is normal ride. Bar 2: ride on beat 1, then six snare 8th-note triplets across beats 2 and 3, resolving to a strong accented snare-and-ride hit on the &-of-3. Bar 3 returns to the ride pattern. The flurry creates tension; the resolution is the snap on the &-of-3 — that placement is the whole device.
Kick-and-snare conversation structure (paraphrased — kick states a syncopated figure, snare answers it): in bar 1 the kick lands on the &-of-2, accented — that's the call. In bar 2 the snare lands on the &-of-2 (same beat-position, different voice) — that's the response. Two voices passing the same rhythmic figure between them. This is one of Blade's most-used phrasing devices and shows up across the 50 Phrases collection in many forms.
Same notated ride in all four bars; only the 8th placement moves. Bar 1: dead straight. Bar 2: standard swing. Bar 3: deep triplet feel (notated as triplets for clarity). Bar 4: standard swing again. Don't change the notes — change where they sit. That's the Vega flexibility.
The capstone. Bars 1–2: Phrase A anchor. 3–4: Phrase C — kick on &-of-2, snare answering on &-of-3. 5–6: Phrase B flurry. 7–8: Phrase D, bar 7 straighter, bar 8 swung. 9–10: broken time. 11–12: return and resolve with the Philly Joe lick. Once it runs, improvise your own placements inside the same 12-bar shape.