The Art of The Vamp

As you might recall, I previously blogged about Art Taylor and his masterful uptempo timekeeping. Tonight, I’d like to focus on another aspect of his legendary drumming: playing over vamps.

art taylor 300x268 The Art of The Vamp
Art Taylor

For those of you who are new to this term (my wife just asked why I was writing about vampires), here’s a quick definition: A vamp is a repeating musical figure or accompaniment. A vamp may consist of a single chord or a sequence of chords played in a repeated rhythm

This sounds deceptively simple, but locking in with a band making it all swing is the hard part. Check out Art’s playing on John Coltrane’s “Syeeda’s Song Flute” to hear what I’m talking about:

Loop #78

Tonight’s loop is an 8 bar vamp that emphasizes the “1″ and the “and” of 2 of each measure. This is one of the more traditional rhythmic phrases in jazz vamps and is usually supported along with the piano and bass… and guitar (couldn’t leave Wes out).

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220 BPM


Related posts:

  1. Lunchtime Lesson – The 3/4 Vamp

3 comments

  1. lowlife

    Been having some trouble downloading the Rex files as of late. BTW, dig the 2nd volume of Gruss Loops! More jazz beats! (and don’t be afraid of approaching some more reggae and dub.)

  2. Ryan

    Thanks Lowlife (I don’t feel right calling you that, especially when you’re a paid subscriber). I just fixed the Rex file links (and promptly fired my assistant)… I didn’t realize they were broken. Glad you’re enjoying Vol II. I’ll mix it up even more on Vol III.

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