Customer Reviews

The Jazz Drummer's Workshop: Advanced Concepts for Musical Development

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The Jazz Drummer's Workshop is indoubtedly a great addition to John Riley's former books. Although it is not intended for beginners, those with a limited knowledge about jazz drumming can take a great advantage of the book. It is written in a very pedagogical way. The playing of Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Billy Higgins and Philly Joe Jones is clearly analysed and explained. The author deals with concepts like Time, groove, soloing, second line, etc. Many examples are demonstrated and explained. The final chapter about technique is also particularly interesting and useful. Following John Riley's advice can really trigger the aspirant jazz drummer's musical development.

John Riley is an excellent writer and instructor, and his last work makes no exception. In depth analysis of masters' drumming (Roach, Higgins, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Williams), odd times comping and soloing, basic snare drum training routines, and much more. This book really is the ideal companion to Riley's first two books, and I warmly recommend it to every serious jazz drummer.

Anyone who's worked through an introductory text on jazz drumming, and gained some level of proficiency, will reap much from this book. It would challenge the intermediate as well as the advanced drummer (I believe, I'm not so advanced). The book takes previously understood concepts, and then views them in the playing of some of the Greats with explanations of exactly what was occurring behind the drum kit. Additionally, Riley offers more chop-building options for the drummer that is looking for additions to rudiments and other warm-up exercises. This book is EXACTLY what the title states: a "Workshop" for the jazz drummer, and it's an essential addition to any jazz drumming library.

Once again John has written a magnificent "how to" book that should be in EVERY serious drummers' library. The examples (and the stories of the great musicians behind them)are wonderful for use in actual performance situations not just in a practice room or private lesson session. It'll keep me and my students quite busy for some time. Wish I'd thought of this one.

BUTCH MILES

John Riley continues to amaze me with his books. He can put a lot of information down on paper that most people can't explain in person. A great thorough study of the great drummers with helpful tips on how to get better in your own playing.

Highly recommended, can't say much more. It's really well explained and doesn't leave you floundering under a dense mass of information, even
though it gets into some advanced concepts. Riley always keeps your mind on the important issues about being a good musician and makes you never lose sight of the point of the excercises.

This book really hits some difficult yet essential topics like how to create and maintain happening swing within a band, how to integrate non-jazz influences in your playing and tips for uptempo comping. Definetely for the advanced jazzdrummer, but accessible for everyone because of the clear and analysing texts that are a joy to read! A must have for those seeking to improve towards professionality. Enjoy!
Franc auf dem Brinke-Drummers Initiative Amsterdam- [...]

John Riley delivers a ton of totally relevant information through his entire collection of books. I can't emphazise enough on the importance of check his material out. It doesn't only covers chops", it also covers the Main Thing: The Importance of developing TIME in a way that will make you practice and experimenting with rythms forever. Just buy all of them:=) They simply Rock!

There really is nothing more to say. Everything he says is important and should be taken seriously. Regardless of what genre of music you play, all of the exercises in this book (along with his previous two, and all of his recent articles in modern drummer) will open your mind to infinite musical directions. If you value your technical ability, hell if you value playing good music at all, you will find everything you can find from John Riley and work through it for the rest of your life.

This is one of Drumming's great books. Irrespective of whether you play Jazz or not you'll learn more from this book than most drummers ever know.