This past weekend, while clearing out one of the bedrooms in my house to make way for a nursery (yes folks, there's a little Gruss set to drop in December), I stumbled upon an old shoebox containing dozens of old cassette tapes from my years at Berklee. A literal time capsule back to 1996-2000, these tapes captured everything from late night jam sessions in 150 Mass Ave, board tapes from various gigs with Jonah Smith, instrumental funk tracks featuring a classmate named John, and most important...
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Via sonicstate.com via thelooploft.com:
Bundle of Funk from The Loop Loft on Vimeo....
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Loop #132
This is what it sounds like when you take a drum groove with no muffling (even on the kick) and run it through a completely overdriven Brownface amp.
[caption id="attachment_5892" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Not just for guitars"][/caption]
[audio:108_WideOpen.mp3]
Get the .wav file here.
Get the .rx2 file here.
Get the .aiff file here.
108 BPM...
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The latest news from The Loop Loft:
"The Loop Loft is proud to announce the release of two new loop packs: Odd Meter Grooves Vol 1 and Funk Essentials Vol 2.
With Odd Meter Grooves Volume 1, we've produced a loop pack entirely focused on beats that go beyond the traditional framework of 4/4. While other loop sites only take these things as far as 7/8 (and charge twice as much!?), we've delved much deeper into the possibilities of space, feel and time. From Zappa-esque grooves in 27/16, t...
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Check out this live video of The Pointer Sisters from 1974 featuring an excellent solo from drummer, Gaylord Birch (starts at 3:03). The dude is FUNKY.... and how has he been off of my radar for so long??
Hat tip to Sam for bringing this to my attention.
...
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Such a pun-laden headline could only mean one thing: Another funk loop. And rather than picking up the sticks and burying the VU meters into the red, I decided to to go the subtle route and use brushes to lay down the back beat.
[caption id="attachment_5263" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jim Keltner - Master of brushes, forks and pens."][/caption]
Loop #119
I'll admit, I'm not breaking any new ground with today's groove. Drummers like Steve Jordan, Jim Keltner, and even the ...
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If you consider yourself a true music fan and live in Boston, then odds are you've been to Wally's. Since 1947, it's been a Beantown institution, known as a stomping ground for both Berklee students and touring musicians alike. The size of a small apartment (it's literally the ground floor of an old brownstone), Wally's is about as intimate as a venue can get. In order to safely walk to the bathroom, you need to squeeze past the hi hat and pray to god the drummer doesn't do a fill.
While ...
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There is a special feel that was born from the brass bands of New Orleans. It first emerged around the turn of the 20th century and eventually worked its way north, merging into other styles of music along the way. This is a groove that is neither triplet nor sixteenth note based. It's not straight funk and it's not totally swung. It's somewhere in between. It's a feel that's literally impossible to notate on sheet music and even harder to play.
[caption id="attachment_710" align="alignl...
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Ok, get those violins out. Today I'm a bit under the weather AND I've got a bum wing.... well, wrist actually. I'm hopped up on flu meds, painkillers and I'm wearing a splint that makes me look like a professional bowler. I've actually been mistaken for Ernie McCracken three times today. Being a huge fan of Kingpin, I'm going to chalk it up as a compliment.
I was going to take the day off, get some rest and recover a bit, but then I thought about Rick.
[caption id="attachment_589" ...
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