Category Archives: SKF Blog

Neil Peart on Tony Williams’s ‘Fred’

SKF NOTE: My friend and music writer par excellence, Chip Stern, had a very good, albeit short-lived, idea for a drummer’s magazine. I did some writing for Chip’s magazine, but I don’t know that any of it saw the light … Continue reading →

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Music and Kindness from Strangers

SKF NOTE: Yesterday I came across my monthly column written for the December 2011 Bangor Metro magazine. The column topic was, Who Got You Into Politics? I wrote, “Kindness from strangers 25 years ago was exactly the encouragement I needed … Continue reading →

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Clifton James: I Wanted My Own Style of Playing

SKF NOTE: If you have read any of my Modern Drummer History of Rock Drumming backgrounder interviews on this blog, you need only know that this interview with drummer Clifton James is another backgrounder interview. It, as with all the … Continue reading →

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John Coltrane: How to Listen to Albums

SKF NOTE: Somewhere — among my magazines, I think — there is a John Coltrane interview in which Coltrane’s how-to-listen-to-albums idea helps my ear training and gives me great joy. Maybe it will do the same for you. John Coltrane told … Continue reading →

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Philly Joe: Apex of Hard Bop with 3 Drums, 1 Cymbal

SKF NOTE: Somewhere there’s a Tony Williams quote about Miles Davis‘s Milestones being at the apex of hard bop albums. It is a great album: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Red Garland, and Philly Joe Jones. The … Continue reading →

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