On a family trip, recently, I had occasion to listen to some music while the rest of the family tuned into a movie. (I hate movies in the car -- I'm compelled to turn and look instead of watching the road!) So, I perused the music on my Zune and found an album I hadn't listened to in quite awhile: Try! John Meyer Trio Live in Concert. It wasn't long before I remembered why I love this album so much.

The always incredible Steve Jordan lays down some of the funkiest grooves I've ever heard on this album, serving Meyer's guitar lines very well and grooving in perfect lockstep with Pino Palladino's bass lines. Specifically, there's a groove Jordan plays on Who Did You Think I Was and their innovative cover of Jimi Hendrix's Wait Until Tomorrow. While both grooves are similar in feel, Jordan mixes them up to serve each song independently. Also, once I learned these grooves, I found myself incorporating bits and pieces of them into the parts I'm developing in the studio with Lake 32.

Who Did You Think I Was

Jordan's line on this tune seems bent on kicking Meyer's guitar part. Here's a transcription of the part:

The power of this groove comes from the heavily accented snare hits on beats 2 and 3 of each measure, with a quick hit on the offbeat of 4.

Wait Until Tomorrow

The first measure of this groove is essentially the same as Who Did You Think I Was. The change comes in the second measure where there is almost a double time feel when compared to the first measure. Here's a transcription:

Notice that in the first measure, the only real difference between this and previous transcription is that the kick drum staggers out from a straight eight note pattern to a shuffle with the second hit coming a sixteenth note later. The major difference is in the second measure where the two eighth notes on the second beat give the groove a double time feel compared to the first measure, with beat three showing a paradiddle between the snare and the kick. Finally, the fourth beat of the second measure, with the kick on the second and fourth sixteenth notes, really propels the sound back to the measure one patter again.

Here's a video showing how to play both transcriptions:

Try these out and play with them. I think you find some nice parts you can incorporate into stuff you're already playing.