Transcription: Ignacio Berroa fills

Another thing I caught on Portland's great jazz radio station, KMHD: Cleopatra's Needle, by Steve Turre, with some cool featured drum fills played by Ignacio Berroa. The tune is simply a repeating 8-bar fusion riff in 4/4, with a 6/4 bar at the end for the drum fill.

The fills are very hip, with nice melodic use of the bass drum. I'm always aware of making two-tone melodies between the bass drum and snare drum. It's an unusual performance in that Berroa repeats the same fill several times— the first one is played twice verbatim, and then several more times with variations. Maybe it's a Cuban thing. Apart from the fills, it's also worth paying attention to how he changes his cymbal rhythm over the course of the tune.

There are three tom toms used on the recording. Hearing where the fill begins may be difficult for some people at first; the last ensemble accent before the fill is on beat 4 before the transcribed fill. At the end of the tune, the end of phrase figure is repeated, with only a four-beat drum fill. The last fill on the page begins on that ensemble hit on 4.

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Groove o' the day: Ignacio Berroa 12/8

Another funk Afro 12/8 groove, played this time by Ignacio Berroa, on his record Codes, on the tune Woody'n You. From the intro:

As you can probably see he's playing rumba clave on the cowbell. The hihat foot part is not present on the recording; I've included it to emulate the shekere, which is played. What he plays in the first measure is the foundation groove— practice that by itself, too.

Ignacio is on tour with Chick Corea right now, which you'll want to catch if you can.