An Essential Guide to Supporting the Large Jazz Ensemble

No other ensemble is so readily identified with jazz music than the big band. Every component, from the saxes to the brass and rhythm sections, has drawn audiences for over a century with high-energy hits, lush ballad textures, and toe-tapping rhythms. The vehicle for the groove of the band lies with the drums, which dictates the intensity, drive, and feel of the entire band by drawing on a large arsenal of time-keeping tools. In this book, acclaimed Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer, composer, educator, and producer Ulysses Owens Jr. (Christian McBride, Gregory Porter, Ted Nash, Wynton Marsalis, and many others) explains how to authentically support a jazz big band with authority, confidence, and finesse.

Features:

• The difference between combo versus big band drumming

• Standard and modern big band grooves

• Big band chart vocabulary

• Orchestrating on the drum kit

• Choosing the right gear

• Auditioning for high school and college big bands

Plus, we have 15 recreated drum charts that Ulysses used to play on the UOJ Big Band (Rising Star Large Ensemble 2022, DownBeat magazine) release Soul Conversations! In addition to this, many of the exercises in the book feature accompanying audio tracks with Ulysses himself demonstrating the grooves and patterns you'll learn.