Sunday, June 24, 2018

Drum intro: Billy Higgins - For Minors Only

Another intro, with a Latin feel, played by Billy Higgins on For Minors Only, from Jimmy Heath's album Picture of Heath. The cymbal rhythm is reminiscent of a Mozambique-type rhythm, with an 8th rest on 1 of the second measure of each two-measure phrase.




This is a Latin feel in a jazz context, which will typically not observe clave. The tempo is bright, and he cooks right through it. The doubles were apparent when I was transcribing it, but you don't really hear them on the recording played normally. The triplet in the second measure is just a legato double, and since Higgins swings his 8th notes slightly, it makes a legato triplet. Don't sweat any of that.

One thing I noticed writing out all those dozens of solo intros for my forthcoming(?) Book of Intros, was how many drummers don't play the hihat with their foot. It has become an expected thing, but of the things I wrote out, very few have the hihat played on 2 and 4 throughout.

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