Improvising music is a thrilling and precarious thing to do as a musician. I’ve linked a video of me improvising with Day VS Night. Generally the busier one of the other musicians gets, the quieter I get on drums, giving them room. Each time I feel like I’m ready for my band to take the exit, one of my musicians does something awesome to kick it up a notch and make it even better. This is part of the thrill of improvisation. I can tell you that I have some musical tropes that I rely on when I’m confused or feeling unimaginative about making something new. Check out our live performance here -

Some of the gimmicks I pull out include a salsa rhythm, a reliable James Brown era funky beat, an accelerating snare roll over my steady latin foot work, and some toms for extra oomph on the latin beats.

We started the show with this 2nd jam. I started my groove with an appropriated rhythm from Steve Gadd, called the Mozambique, but I play the voicey rhythm on the ride cymbal instead of a tom,, lending to it a jazzy tone.