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Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Art Blakey Excerpted from the September 1984 issue
The first rays of dusk suffuse Art Blakey’s Greenwich Village apartment with shards of amber gray light, and as the shadows dance upon his brow, Blakey’s face takes on a totemic grace. The snow-white hair fades out of the foreground…
Jack DeJohnette Excerpted From The October 1989 Issue
“I’m having more fun with music,” says Jack DeJohnette. “Now that I’m in my mid-40s, I don’t take everything so seriously. As I let go of a lot of past fears and false illusions about what music is supposed to…
Billy Cobham Excerpted from the August/September 1979 Issue
Billy Cobham is one of the strongest innovative forces on the drumming scene today. Both his technique, and drum set up are awesome. We met at Starr Recording Studios where Cobham was to record an instructional tape for the Tama…
Moments in the Mist
I didn’t realize how badly I had mucked it up until years later. I started Sound & Vision Studios in 1983—transforming the former annex of a metal shop in San Francisco’s bohemian-artist backwater of Potrero Hill—with band mate Neal Breitbarth.…
David Garfield Salutes Vinnie Colaiuta
Vinnie Colaiuta is considered by many in the international drumming community as one of the most accomplished drummers of all time. In his early years, however, after arriving in Los Angeles from the East Coast, there was surprisingly a bit…
Bubinga Bonanza!
It took nearly two years of research, more than a couple of strategy and design meetings, and gear from four very different companies—including some rare Dragon Drums—but Ed Coughenour finally built his dream kit. There was also some hand wringing…
Dominic McNabb
It doesn’t take long to become enthralled with South African drummer Dominic McNabb. His chops are next-level, his creativity is beyond-his-years masterful, his grooves are extremely tight and tasty, and he plays with an electrifying, inspiring energy. He has been…
That Great Gretsch Sound!
The sign says it all. The Gretsch Company, which has been manufacturing instruments since its founding in Brooklyn, New York in 1883, now has a permanent museum to celebrate its legacy, promote music education for future generations, and even make…
Graeme Edge
March 30, 1941 – November 11, 2021 All the greatest bands have memorable drummers: Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, John Bonham, Keith Moon. They are the furnace that powers a band’s engine. We have to add Graeme Edge to that list,…
Charlie Watts Quartet
Four Different Collector Covers Honor the Legend The Modern Drummer staff wanted to do something ultra-special to celebrate the life and artistry of Charlie Watts, and we decided that a single cover—however great it might look—simply would not do. We…
It’s Only Rock and Roll
Welcome to a very special MD tribute to the Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts. I grew up in that era where a question like “Beatles or Stones?” sort of told you about someone. I always thought it was crazy, because although…
Charlie’s 50 & Counting Rehearsal Kit
We’re taking this space away from Modern Drummer readers this issue, but we hope no one will mind, because the Kit of the Month for October 2021 belonged to Charlie Watts. (We’ll showcase reader kits again starting next month—you weren’t…
Capturing That Charlie Vibe
As great as he was as the starship-powered engine of the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts didn’t have a distinctly obvious drum sound on the order of John Bonham’s bombastic room rumble, or Tony Thompson’s gleefully grandiose ‘80s Power Station tracks.…
Remembering Charlie Watts
Ringo Starr Excerpted from his Change the World Press Conference Charlie Watts was a beautiful human being—a great guy and a lot of fun. He had a harder band than I did to keep together. He was like the quiet…
