Rodney Holmes' groove analysis

Jonathan Curtis

Silver Member
Take a look at this wonderful video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFxUoPqnXEU&sns=em

I'm working on the cowbell groove from the 15-30 second mark. Am I right in thinking he's working a baiao/tresillo pattern? I know there's a lot of improvised embellishment in there, but it seems to me to be based off this basic pattern.

The cowbell is basically playing the tresillo, with the snare accenting beat 4 of the backbeat. Am I right?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

The whole video is killer, by the way.
 
No replies doesn't mean no Rodney fans...

You could capture the sound and slow it down with some prog.
Might make it easier to break down what's going on as the original tempo is crazy high.
 
Discovered this thread by accident actually! I was listening to Rodney's solo
album (check out the track "Was It A Dream" - it's on iTunes - his "famous"
cowbell groove) and searching for Rodney Holmes on DW right now.

Yes, very much a Rodney fan! I love his groove playing, and I was amazed
by his MD festival performance! He played his amazing cowbell groove.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mB6n3u8wAA

A transcription of that cowbell thing was floating around some time ago. I'm
sure I have it somewhere in my practice space.

Your video was awesome, too, never saw that performance.
 
Take a look at this wonderful video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFxUoPqnXEU&sns=em

I'm working on the cowbell groove from the 15-30 second mark. Am I right in thinking he's working a baiao/tresillo pattern? I know there's a lot of improvised embellishment in there, but it seems to me to be based off this basic pattern.

The cowbell is basically playing the tresillo, with the snare accenting beat 4 of the backbeat. Am I right?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

The whole video is killer, by the way.

Sounds like you're on the right track. It's definitely a Baion (sp?) pattern, with the remaining spaces ghosted with the left hand. When there is a snare/tom accent on beat 2 or 4, then there is that cowbell lick. The snare accent on beat 4 is preceded by a right-hand double on the cowbell on the prior 16th note (the "ah" of beat 3). After the accent on beat 4, the right hand plays the "e" and the "ah", leading into the next baion phrase. The bass drum plays along with the cowbell figure during these "fills".

You could count it: "ONE (e &) AH (two) AND THREE (e &) AH FOUR EE (&) AH"

(Here, the cowbell double stroke occurs on the "ah" of beat 3.)

At 0:25, there's a pretty sweet set of left hand accents on the tom!
 
Sounded good to me.

I'm glad you know what to call that pattern because I sure have no clue. You guys must read a lot of books and stuff.

My favorite stuff he did was (of course) with the Steve Kimock and Friends band. There are a few gigs on Archive.org with him in the band, if you can find them.
 
Sounds like you're on the right track. It's definitely a Baion (sp?) pattern, with the remaining spaces ghosted with the left hand. When there is a snare/tom accent on beat 2 or 4, then there is that cowbell lick. The snare accent on beat 4 is preceded by a right-hand double on the cowbell on the prior 16th note (the "ah" of beat 3). After the accent on beat 4, the right hand plays the "e" and the "ah", leading into the next baion phrase. The bass drum plays along with the cowbell figure during these "fills".

You could count it: "ONE (e &) AH (two) AND THREE (e &) AH FOUR EE (&) AH"

(Here, the cowbell double stroke occurs on the "ah" of beat 3.)

At 0:25, there's a pretty sweet set of left hand accents on the tom!


Wonderful! Thanks for this, it confirms what I was thinking.
 
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