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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
