If you haven’t caught my clinic from West Coast Drum Shop, I’ll link that below.
Finally, if you’re interested in the entire process of booking and delivering the clinic tour, my vlog on that is below:
Early Access - Greg Hutchinson on...Well, Everything
Greg and I have had a few conversations over the years. I took a lesson from him way back in the early 20-teens. We spoke most recently this past February, when internet connectivity unfortunately interfered.
But Greg graciously agreed to come back for another chat, and this time the quality came out great.
If you know Hutch at all, you know him as the outspoken, funny, larger-than-life presence he is, and look no further than his instagram to see him weighing in and not holding back on…well pretty much whatever crosses his mind.
And if you’re an OG fan, you probably remember that he was one of a small group of musicians who - practically on their own - rekindled acoustic/”straight ahead” jazz, after it had been “left for dead” after 2 decades of fusion. The Marsalis brothers and Jeff “Tain” Watts arguably started the trend, but it grew to encompass artists like Josh Redman, Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, and drummers like Brian Blade and Greg.
If you listen to Greg’s playing on any early-2000s recording, it sounds fresh and retro at the same time. One of a number of “new benchmarks” for drummers learning the art, who wanted avatars of contemporary players interpreting the past greats. Drummers like me.
The punchline is that though Hutch can be fiery and iconoclastic in his opinions, at his core he’s a very warm and generous human, and it doesn’t take much conversation to uncover how much he cares about mentoring the next generation of musicians.
I know you’ll enjoy this multifaceted chat with the one and only Hutch.
And if you haven’t caught this week’s youtube video, about how I put together, sold out, played, and broke even on a drum clinic tour, you can catch that below.
Enjoy!
Early Access - JP Bouvet + Nate's WCDS Clinic
I’ve been meaning to catch up with JP Bouvet since I first saw his clinic videos around 2015. At the time I was gearing up to do my own first clinics, and I had no idea what to do or say.
JP had been on my radar, of course, since the Guitar Center Drumoff, and the Berklee Chops video.
But recently, he’s been putting out some really thoughtful content about improvising on the drums. Of course that caught my attention, because it’s something I’m super focussed on as well.
And, as you’ll hear, he and I arrived at a lot of the same conclusions after examining the landscape of drum instruction. In the years since the Drumoff, JP has thought more deeply about how to play interesting things on the drums, what’s going on in his own head as he improvises, and how to communicate that to students, than practically anybody else I’ve spoken to.
JP and I also get into bandleading, learning songs quickly, and whether or not you should sing what you want to play - a bit of seeming disagreement. (But was it really? ;)
Hope you enjoy this conversation with JP.
And if you haven’t caught my full clinic from West Coast Drum Shop, you can watch that below.
Enjoy!
Early Access - Audience Q&A, Hi Hat Combos
This week was a rare opportunity to dish. And I didn’t hold back. I fielded questions about Dilla Beats, life satisfaction, how to play fast in pocket and jazz contexts, how long it takes to get good at something, and more.
I even discuss online enemies, and why even though allowing negative people to live “rent free in your brain” is bad, so-called “haters” can fuel you. (Hmmm come to think of it, not exactly a hot take, laugh emoji.)
The response from my list to this inaugural Q&A was great. You guys came through with the questions. Based on that, I’ll likely do more of these in the future - maybe one every few months.
But if you’re tired of listening to me drone, fear not: we’ll be back next week with a J.P. Bouvet interview I recorded yesterday. J.P. did not hold back, and I know you’ll love this convo.
And if you haven’t caught my weekly youtube video, about trying to make the world’s weirdest hi hat combo, that’s below.
Enjoy!