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.
Clutch’s Jean-Paul Gaster
After initially coming together on the 2001 album Pure Rock Fury and again for the 2004 fan favorite Blast Tyrant, Clutch and producer Machine have joined forces once again on the Maryland-based band’s tenth studio album, Earth Rocker. TO READ…
Portraits: Pierre van der Linden
He’s a free-jazz drummer playing in a Dutch progressive rock band. He finds inspiration in the work of French philosophers and twentieth-century classical composers. And he’s probably the only drummer you’ve heard trade fours on an international rock hit made…
Carter Beauford
A full fifteen years after the Dave Matthews Band drummer’s last MD cover story, he and his mates remain as popular as ever. In that time, much has changed in Carter’s world—but much has not, including an unceasing dedication to…
Influences - Billy Higgins
The year was 1959, and in New York City, Ornette Coleman’s quartet was creating a bona fide controversy with its six-week run at the Five Spot. The music was rhythmically loose and had at its core a melodic and harmonic…
Brian Chippendale
Portraits Brian Chippendale by Hank Shteamer Pretty might not be what he’s aiming for. But when Lightning Bolt’s drummer sits behind the kit, people move, and they think. What more could you ask for?When you think of a drummer playing…
Zigaboo Modeliste
Zigaboo Modeliste Story by “Pistol” Pete Kaufmann Photos by Jay Blakesberg How is it that his drumming approach is so unusual yet so fully representative of the breadth of New Orleans’ remarkable rhythmic legacy? In his first-ever Modern Drummer cover…
Zig’s Signature Beats
Here are some of Zigaboo Modeliste’s funkiest grooves and fills with the Meters, most of which fall in the cracks between straight and swung TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Michael Miley
Rival Sons are on the crest of a wave of bands dead set on reviving the true essence of classic rock. It’s a path not so easily taken in 2013, as the group’s drummer explains here. But if the Sons’…
Steve Smith on Narada Michael Walden
Modern Drummer recently popped in on Vital Information drummer and 2013 Pro Panelist Steve Smith to chat about one of his favorite albums, the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Visions of the Emerald Beyond. The 1975 LP was the sophomore outing by Mahavishnu’s…
Up & Coming - The Summer Set's Jess Bowen
Jess Bowen is no stranger to the “boys’ club” mentality that female drummers have dealt with for decades. “I was playing a show at the Roxy a few years ago,” she says, “and the first thing the sound guy said…
What Do You Know About...Connie Kay
Widely admired for his long tenure with the influential Modern Jazz Quartet, Connie Kay made equally important contributions as a house drummer for Atlantic Records in the early 1950s, when he laid down a long list of historic tracks that…
Dino Danelli
When Little Steven Van Zandt said those words in May of 1997 while inducting the Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he spoke for a great many drumming fans.Now Van Zandt has put his money, his time,…
Portraits - Arturo Stable
More than most, this percussionist understands that necessity is the mother of invention—and you never want to leave Mom hanging. So whether he’s collaborating with heavyweight jazzers or leading his own unique ensembles, he always answers the call to create…
Jon Wurster
Since joining the hugely influential indie band Superchunk in 1991, he’s gone on to save the day for a host of highly regarded artists, from Marah, Bob Mould, and the New Pornographers to Guided by Voices, Ryan Adams, and Jay…
