Now that I've whet your appetite, let us look at the recipe (ie. music notation) of Cindy's performance along with all the necessary ingredients you'll need in order to cook up this tasty entrée for yourself.

Before I give you the recipe and break it all down for you, let me first give you a little taste of what Cindy's cookin' behind the drums!

I recently fell in love with a hip drum groove I heard/saw Cindy Blackman Santana perform at the beginning of Part 1 of her with Vic Firth . What I hear Cindy playing is a wonderful mix of New Orleans funk, latin and jazz influences all rolled into a fantastic feeling groove — I'm calling it her Smooth Struttin' New Awlins Gumbo.

Ingredients

Let me explain the necessary ingredients (ie. individual parts) we will need in order to master and perform this groove ourselves.

Whenever I'm transcribing and/or learning a new drum groove/beat, I like to first start by isolating and identifying any regularly recurring parts or ostinatos — if any. From there, I like to build the groove from the bottom up, meaning that I start with the feet and work my way up to the hands. The reason? Often times (not always) the feet lay a foundation for the groove and are playing less complex patterns/rhythms.

Cindy's Smooth Struttin' New Awlins Gumbo certainly fits my approach in that the feet (bass drum and hi-hat foot) are playing an ostinato pattern throughout the majority of what Cindy is playing — an exception being the occasional embellishment.

Cindy is also playing a rhythmic ostinato on the ride cymbal; a gallop pattern commonly heard and used in uptempo swing as well as some latin grooves.

It is important to be able to play these two ostinato patterns, the feet and right hand, individually for extended periods of time before putting them together and/or progressing on. Assuming you've done that, here are the two ostinatos played simultaneously. Remember to work this slowly and stay relaxed. Take your time as you master the coordination while listening critically for proper execution





If you've got all this happening, you have mastered 80% of the groove, although probably not the most difficult parts.

To finish off the Smooth Struttin' New Awlins Gumbo. we've got to introduce the left hand — the premier ingredient to this dish.

The left hand is not only playing "melody" on the snare drum but also some accompaniment via the ghost-strokes. Let's build the first coordination obstacle between the hands with an exercise; playing off-beat sixteenth-notes in the left hand while playing the right hand ostinato. Notice that all of the left hand strokes are ghost-strokes or very light (quiet) taps; you should almost feel them more than hear them.

The next coordination hurdle is being able to play the sequence or grouping of sixteenth-notes that we see/hear on the snare drum. As an exercise, let's play continuous sixteenth-notes with the left hand on the snare drum while playing the ride cymbal pattern with the right hand.

Before we start trying to implement all of the accents and rhythmic figures that we see/hear on the snare drum, let's take the two previous exercises and apply the foot ostinato to them.

Now we are ready; we have almost 99% of the coordination down. What remains — adding the accents and rhythmic groupings of the left hand on the snare drum, as well as few syncopated patterns in the bass/kick drum.

As you put the final touches to this groove, remember to listen to your execution and phrasing. Watch and listen to what Cindy does with this groove, emulate her, then take this tasty groove entrée and make it your own by flavoring it with your spice and creative embellishments.

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