Third lesson, jazz drum set

Listening

Horace Silver (1928-), Song for my Father. I have yet to receive this CD

Chick Webb (1905-39), jazz and swing drummer, band leader, including Stomping at the Savoy, Harlem Congo, Liza, others. Died at 34 years old of spinal tuberculosis, kept band in employment because of depression, despite dying at the time. This impresses me, given the faceless people we have on this planet today.

Doing

With the paradiddle, my shortfall on the left hand is not containing the stick sufficiently and not allowing the stick to rise enough, through wrist movement. My right hand also does not allow the stick to rise enough. Use a tempo of 100bpm with metronome set for 50bpm on second and fourth beats, on visual, audio or on phones, check.

Using a tempo of 100bpm with a metronome set on 50bpm to count the second and fourth beat, playing ride cymbal and snare drum together with the bass drum on quarter notes and the hi-hat on second and fourth beat. My main challenges are to keep the snare drum quiet in comparison with the ride cymbal and to allow the ride cymbal stick to rise enough, or at all really! This is actually okay, I can nearly manage!

Now, here is the challenge! Maintain this rhythm but introduce a swing on the ride cymbal, a quarter note followed by two sixteen notes, the whole repeated. The first note is to the right of the normal position, the first sixteen note has the accent and is to the left of the normal position, moving across the cymbal to the right. First, do this without the snare drum. This is challenging!

A final word

The chance of any drummer being remotely close to the calibre of Jason visiting Zambia at any time and being available for teaching is slim. If you want to learn jazz drum set, take advantage of this opportunity.

A big message about what we the voiceless think of politicians

I just love this picture. While maybe not subtle, it extends from ordinary but well-educated (in bookshop) woman with no voice to ordinary but well-educated person with no voice. It sums up the desperate frustration we all face with our increasingly pathetic politicians worldwide. It is very much of our times and suggests perhaps the end of democracy, or at least increasing intolerance to political incompetence. It ought to be in a gallery. (Sorry to move it Nats but Facebook is not always very useful.)

Carmina Burana, Lusaka, front page of the Times Entertainment section

Front page of Entertainment section of the Times shows Lulu and children performing in Carmina Burana.

Les Promenades Musicales at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

The final concert of the Promenades Musicales was to a packed Alliance Francaise de Lusaka last night. The concert featured a 36-piece orchestra and the finale was Carl Orff's spectacular Carmina Burana. It was a fabulous evening.

Royalty free photographs of the Lusaka International Music Festival at the Alliance Francaise de Lusaka, 28 September to 5 October, 2013 are available here. Click on an image to enlarge, and then right click to download. Please acknowledge copyright to Langmead & Baker Ltd 2013 if used in the press or on the internet. Please contact if you need a larger file.

Carmina Burana rehearsal at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

This is the Carmina Burana rehearsal: two pianos, definite and indefinite pitched percussion with voices. The profane songs about wine, women and love are in medieval Latin and will be performed tonight at the 'last night of the proms' at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka at 19:30hrs, together with other well-loved pieces.

Damyna, Damyna, my opera, which is in rehearsals for December performances, is in the Daily Times today. #Lusaka

A rice farmer with his son in Lambwe Chomba, Zambia

The first attempt to photograph Mosi-oa-Tunya was by hunter, trader and photographer James Chapman, on an 1859-63 expedition with Thomas Baines, after the latter had been dismissed from Livingstone’s expedition (Ryan, 42). This attempt failed. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Stuttgart Percussion Duo in concert at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Last night at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka's Promenade Concert,there was an amazing display of percussion by Se-Me Hwang and Lukas Ehret of Germany. Both percussion with definite pitch, like the marimba, and indefinite pitch, like drums, were played with consummate skill and finesse. Percussion, although the oldest of the music groups, continues to be excluded in much popular classical music. There are exceptions, Bartok, Chavez, Milhaud and Orff, but percussion only really began to gain a foothold in contemporary classical music the 1960s, with Takemitsu, MacMillan and Reich. The percussion music played last night was a rare opportunity to hear very recent work from professional musicians, distinctly a cut above. If you missed it, you really missed something, and you will have to wait for the Promenade Concerts next year.

There is no concert tonight but the 'The Last Night of the Proms' is on Saturday night at 1930hrs, which includes Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana', which is distinctly percussive as well. Again, it is not something to be missed.

Commercial wheat harvest, Chisamba, Zambia

Although Charles Livingstone was required to photograph ‘characteristic specimens of different tribes’, this was difficult due to lengthy exposure times and the lack of familiarity local people had with being photographed. This may also explain why, in early expeditions, the expeditionary team was not photographed; every picture had to be posed for several minutes. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Andreas Ritzinger, Agnese Eglina and Theo Bross play at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Andreas Ritzinger, a German violinist, and Agnese Eglina, a Latvian pianist, delighted a large audience last night at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka as part of the Promenade Concerts, with duets by Beethoven, Op 12/1, Paganini's 'Devil's Laughter', No. 13, and three pieces by Tchaikovsky, No. 42. They were joined later in the performance by Theo Bross, a German cellist, for Mendelssohn's Trio, Op 49.

There is a very exciting percussion Duo playing this evening's concert. Given that serious percussion has only just, relatively, found its way into composition and orchestras, this kind of performance is rare and is not to be missed, from 19:30hrs at Alliance Francaise.

A beekeeper, Mumbwa, Zambia

The camera arrived in the geographic area now called Zambia with David Livingstone’s brother Charles, the photographer on the Royal Geographic Society’s (RGS) 1858-64 official British expedition to the Zambezi led by David Livingstone. There is one surviving photograph of 40 by Charles, a stereoscopic picture of a baobab, which is in the Livingstone Museum (Ryan, 32). Dr Kirk, also a member of the expedition, was a keen amateur photographer, but he used Talbot’s calotype, and ironically many of his pictures still survive. The expedition did not include Mosi-oa-Tunya. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Vox Zambezi sings a cappella at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Vox Zambezi, an 'a cappella' (church-style) choir at the Promenade Concert last night at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka, performed a wide range of music, from traditional African to classical European and jazzy American.

Barefeet to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Manda Hill, Lusaka, Zambia

Although photographs were taken in Zambia early in the history of photography, they were not the first in the region, and there may be others undocumented. The earliest surviving photograph taken in southern Africa is of a Native Woman of Sofala, Mozambique, claimed to be Queen Xai Xai, taken by E. Thiésson in 1845 (Haney, 35). Photographic equipment and chemicals were reportedly available in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth from 1847 (36). ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Agnese Eglina plays Laura Gustovska's Silk at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Last night the international Latvian pianist Agnese Eglina played Laura Gustovska's 'Silk'. This is a very new and different piece from this Latvian composer. It is a great privilege to see this performed anywhere, let alone in Lusaka. Should you have the opportunity to see this, do not miss it. It is recognisable by the piano being, well, played all over: a piece of silk is draped on the strings of a grand piano and the hands and glass beads are used to play the strings inside the piano and the keys outside. The pictures shows Agnese collecting the glass beads after the performance.