JAZZ INSIGHTS

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.

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Simple Truths

It feels like a good time to state some simple truths… THE BESTS The best-recorded drum sounds (in my opinion)… Buddy Rich’s Rogers kit on the first two big band albums he recorded for Pacific Jazz. Wally Heider was the…

By Peter Erskine
Jul 1, 2025

Variety is the Main Ingredient, The Rule of Threes

365 days in a year. That’s 52 weeks. 12 months. 525,600 minutes. And so on. While some minutes will be more exciting, interesting, or pleasurable than others, every minute is to be cherished. Lucky you, just LOOK at how many…

By Peter Erskine
Jun 1, 2025

Have You Been Practicing?

I’m no stranger to the mental time machine, going back a few or many years to revisit something I said or a choice I made. Of course, life does not allow us to go back and change history, but we…

By Peter Erskine
May 1, 2025

This New Year

Happy 2025. That “Happy” being said, this year has been off to a rough start so far: fires, flooding, deaths, and political upheaval. It seems like everyone I know has been touched by both sadness or madness. Me? My cheerful…

By Peter Erskine
Apr 1, 2025

VIENNA TO HOLLYWOOD

Album projects come in different sizes and shapes. Some albums are, literally, “straight ahead” and function like a snapshot capturing a moment in time, and since jazz is a music of the moment (or, in the moment), the essence of…

By Peter Erskine
Mar 1, 2025
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Brush Playing, Not Air Conditioning Part 2

“And the seasons, they go round and roundAnd the painted ponies go up and downWe’re captive on the carousel of timeWe can’t return, we can only lookBehind, from where we cameAnd go round and round and round, in the circle…

By Peter Erskine
Feb 1, 2025

Brush Playing, Not Air Conditioning

Getting Started Brushes are generally associated with jazz drumming more than they are with other styles of music, but they can be played and used effectively in most any genre or category of rhythm section-based music. While the following column…

By Peter Erskine
Jan 1, 2025

The Rhythm of One’s Life

Walking from one end of Milano Malpensa to the other, the sheer size of the airport terminal is as impressive as it is daunting. My Apple Watch tells me that I’ve already met my exercise goal for the day and…

By Peter Erskine
Dec 1, 2024

The Sounds We Make

“Chances Are.” Composed by Robert Allen and Al Stillman. Sung by Johnny Mathis. Recorded in Columbia 30th Street Studio, where Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue was also recorded.1957. I was three years old when the Mathis single was released, and I can…

By Peter Erskine
Nov 1, 2024

Klook-Mop: A Rhythmic Signature of Bebop

The drum set is a uniquely American instrument that has played a central role in jazz from its inception. The invention of the bass drum pedal enabled one drummer to cover multiple percussion parts, and as the different styles of…

By Brian Carmody
Oct 1, 2024

Broadly Speaking

Near the conclusion of an album project being recorded in New York City at Sear Sound, I was overdubbing a simple shaker part to a track we had just recorded. Unnoticed by me, the arranger and pianist Alan Broadbent was…

Peter Erskine
Sep 1, 2024

It Pays To Listen

The standard advice is to listen. A common admonishment is, “You’re not listening.” There are some good quotes about listening. Malcom Forbes said, “The art of conversation lies in listening.” Stephen Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Highly Successful…

Peter Erskine
Aug 1, 2024
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Jack Magnet Science

As I was flying high above the clouds en route from Reykjavik, Iceland to the USA. I’d only heard of Reykjavik when I was a younger man in connection with the summit held there in 1986 between the United States…

Peter Erskine
Jul 1, 2024

Shelly and his Mannerisms

This month’s column is written by Kevin van den Elzen who hails from the Netherlands and now makes his home in Los Angeles. Kevin received his master’s degree at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California…

Kevin van den Elzen
Jun 1, 2024
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