VIP Members can download a play-along track that I created for "Cissy Strut", it's located in the Resources section here at the Drummer Cafe.

I took the first 4 measures of "Cissy Strut", looped it for about 3-minutes, and used it to study and practice the groove. This is the same track I used when making this video lesson. Anyway, this play-along track is available to you if you'd like to use it to practice the A section of "Cissy Strut" for yourself. If you want to get into how Zigaboo performed this groove, especially the feel of the tune (which is where it's at), playing along with this track will really help! 

If you want to really get into what's happening in this groove ... try listening to each individual part. One thing that I noticed is that the Kick drum part is more straight sixteenth-notes with little or no "lilt" to it. The HiHat part is the key element in getting the same feel that Zigaboo did in the original recording.

Also, as I demonstrate in the video lesson, you can take this groove and apply it in a lot of different ways. If you are playing this tune with your own band, you could play the groove straight or swung or anywhere in between. Just keep in mind that everyone has to find their place in the groove and work together in order for it to feel good.

Most important ... whatever feel you are establishing for the tune (any tune for that matter), you need to maintain throughout the song. The exception would be an intentional feel change from you or the entire band. Practice the feel to the point that it's part of your vocabulary. If you are uncomfortable with the feel, and try to pull it off live, you run the risk of moving the note placements (eg. straight then slightly swung) and destroying the feel.

Thank you Andy ... glad you dug the lesson!
Coming from another instructor/educator, your kind words and encouragement mean a lot.

Has anyone ever seen Steve Gadds version of Cissy Strut when he played it in the army? Its on his Zildjian DVD. When he was given the life time achievement award. Such a solid video, if you have the DVD it's under special features.

Thanks for breaking down this great groove in the DCTV drum lesson.  As I listened to your various interpretations I think you concept of playing the strong notes with your right stick and weak (unaccented) notes with the left really has merit.  I could hear a noticeable change in the feel when you did this.  When you can actually see Stanton Moore in the Galactica vid, he is using both hands on HH and snare similarly to what you  explained.  I have long been a fan of using both hands and mixing up the sticking when playing linear patterns.  As much as we practice to make our hand even, there is always seems to be a natural accent with one hand.  Maybe it has to do with "right-handedness" or perhaps our natural internal groove that shows up when we don't try to suppress it.

I will be making a printable lesson page on this in the next few weeks. Others have notated it, like On The Beaten Path ... but in that book the notation is incomplete (ie. wrong).

As far as grooves that fall between the perfect duple/triple ... I guess my interest comes from all the years I spent in Texas playing shuffles. I'm a student of groove and feel more than chops. 

What one might perceive as "feel" often times comes from the note placements. I'm drawn to "feel" more than anything, and grooves that aren't metronomically perfect duple or triple seem to really interest me. Dare I say the majority of the Legendary Drum Licks (that everyone wants to learn) fall into this category. It's not just the notation or coordination of the groove ... but the feel that one player has over another.

Very original and unique direction brother.

Steve Jordan approaches the tune a little differently in his performance on the cocktail kit with John Mayer (see video clip).

Steve reverses the accents in the first two HiHat notes in the groove. This placed the accent on the AND of 1. Steve also leaves out the sixteenth-note after beat 3. Both of these changes in the groove definitely makes it easier to play when working at faster tempos than the original tempo of the "Cissy Strut" single release, which was 88 bpm.

Also Steve plays all the HiHat notes with the right hand; left hand on Snare.