Brian Blade on Ask Me Now
by Tim Lake
Brian Blade has got to be one of my favourite drummers. What's so inspiring about his playing is the depth of his musicality, it's never about chops or technique it's about making great music and he is able to do that in almost any style.
This transcription is of the track "Ask Me Now" from the fantastic standards album "Real Book Stories" by Wolfgang Muthspeil.
Whilst not complicated, it's particularly interesting for the slow tempo and Blade's use of semi-quavers (16ths) and triplets to divide up the beat in the comping.
It's a wonderful insight into Blade's subtle and musical approach to playing this kind of standards jazz. It should give you a few ideas!
The PDF contains a full 32 bars of transcription for you to look at.
This was originally posted on "Jazz Drumming Blog" back in 2012.