John Riley’s The Master Drummer is based on the premise that all the greats excel in four areas: technique, groove, creativity, and musicianship. Each of these areas is explored in detail with extensive video content, exercises, and transcriptions. While the main sections of video were previously released on DVD, the extensive additional text, notation and analysis in this book create a much more complete, effective course of study. In addition, expert transcriber Terry Branam has notated each of John’s drum solos, and John breaks these down and explains the musical concepts he is using in each solo. Whether working on your technique, timekeeping, soloing, rhythmic vocabulary, or your overall understanding and execution of jazz drumming, The Master Drummer is a must-have.

The book comes with online video that is clearly marked with icons throughout the text.