Features
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.
Chris Slade — Technique And Heart
Inside one of New York’s most elegant hotels, the new rock conglomerate, The Firm, has taken up residence, calling the place “home” for the last leg of its first U.S. tour. In the hotel’s bar, I’m waiting for Chris Slade’s…
Mickey Roker — The Natural
The City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, lays claim to a set of freedom-founding parchments, a legendary local kite flyer, a big cracked bell, and a roster of incredible jazz artists, including a fiery drummer who proved himself on these historic…
Eddie Bayers — Overcoming The Obstacles
While growing up, Eddie Bayers dug R&B and the likes of Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin. It seems like a far cry from his position as one of the primary drummers in Nashville, recording with such notables as…
Roli Garcia, Jr.
Roli Garcia, Jr., is a drummer from Laredo, Texas, with an unusual string of accomplishments to his credit. In just eight years of playing the drums, Roli has jammed with Vinnie Colaiuta’s band, appeared as a guest artist at several…
Jeff Watts
Arms drawn up short like Joe Louis, ready to deal up dynamite from six inches or less with either hand, Jeff Watts stalks the groove, poised to pounce between the cracks of space and time with panther-like displacements: one second…
Vinny Appice — Playing For The Band
Sometimes before interviewing a musician, I find myself fighting a preconceived image I’ve gotten of the person. Perhaps it was a picture painted by another journalist in some other publication, or maybe the image was conceived in my own mind…
George Lawrence Stone — Dedication to Drumming
It’s a fairly safe bet that, if you took a poll to find the single drum book that has been used by the largest number of drummers, Stick Control, by George Lawrence Stone, would be the easy winner. Perhaps there…
Jon Christensen - European Jazz Master
Jon Christensen is probably one of the few European jazz drummers who has made a name for himself in the U.S. In Norway, of course, he is the father of a whole generation of drummers, easily recognized by the way…
George Brown — Kool Funk
Mention New Jersey to anyone in the music business these days, and the name Bruce Springsteen comes to mind almost automatically. But Springsteen and his E Street Band aren’t the only world-class acts to originate in Jersey—and still call the…
Adrenalin’s Brian Pastoria
I first met Brian Pastoria while his group, Adrenalin, was rehearsing some tunes from their recent album American Heart. The group’s road manager, Thom Kuchulan, noticed me standing outside the studio and invited me in to listen. The band was…
U2's Larry Mullen, Jr.
Since ancient times, the sound of drums has prevailed at human rites of passage: war drums, funeral drums, marching drums, drums of life, and drums of death. It was the call of a “different drummer” that guided Henry David Thoreau.…
George Grantham — Dedication
It was the ’60s—an exciting time—and Southern California was developing its own answer to the “British Invasion, “San Francisco’s psychedelia, and Detroit’s Motown. L.A.’s scene was creating country/rock/folk with exciting newcomers like Jackson Browne, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the…
Frankie Dunlop — Making It Swing
I first heard Frankie Dunlop’s drumming in the best way possible. When I was about 17years old, I was visiting a friend who had Two Hours Of Thelonious on the turntable. The drumming on that record went straight to my…
Herman Rarebell — Keeping The Basics Together
HAVE you noticed how more drummers seem to be getting involved in writing? Many people regard this as a very healthy thing. Drummers are becoming more than just the people in the back who keep the time happening. The obvious…
