Connecticut Halftime

With Josh Dion in Brooklyn this Monday June 15th

Jun 13, 2026

Josh Dion is a Renaissance drummer. Well-known for his voice-keyboard-drums setup in paris_monster, Dion’s skill and unstoppable charisma flow naturally from his deep historical awareness; Josh’s passion for music and musicians both famous and less-famous (Miles Davis’s Blue Moods, Debut Records, Cecil Taylor Jazz Advance, Yes’s 90125) is impressive and infectious.

Josh and I are great friends, and have been since our teens. Our musical and personal camaraderie is the foundation for our show in Brooklyn on Monday, June 15th at Ibeam.

I will play solo, Josh will play solo, and we will close the evening with a duet performance of “Connecticut Halftime”, the drum solo credited to rudimental master and Connecticut resident J. Burns Moore (1872-1951).

Back when drum lessons were, as Baby Dodds says in Talking and Drum Solos (Folkways, 1947), “just drum pad. No drum, no snare drum, just a pad”, lessons were organized around “Connecticut Halftime”. Play that, and play it well, and you are on your way.

Unlike “The Downfall of Paris” (based on a folk song) and “Three Camps” (from cornet and fife repertoire) “Connecticut Halftime” was conceived as a drum solo, often used in rudimental competitions. The drum solo of our imagination— the drummer’s hands ablaze as the volume and intensity rise, the audience on the edge of their seats— is mostly the inheritance of Gene Krupa, who himself was building on Chick Webb’s example. But the rudimental contest, and the rudimental tradition, remain a spectral presence.

Philly Joe Jones virtuosic fours and eights and choruses are built on a bed of rudimental solos, cleverly repurposed and disguised. Elvin Jones however, would just lustily play huge chunks of straight-up rudimental snare drum, really evoking the vibe and excitement of an outdoor marching band:

Is there anything more exciting than Jones’s intros to “Zoltan” from Larry Young’s Unity (Blue Note, 1965) and “Keiko’s Birthday March” from his own Puttin’ It Together (Blue Note, 1968)? Though Jones’s use of the buzz roll would probably keep him from advancing in a rudimental competition, Elvin is showing us the way: make the rudiments, and by extension, the whole tradition of Western music, your own.