Philly Joe Jones

Charli Persip, one of the premier jazz drummers of the second half of the twentieth century, passed away on August 23 at the age of ninety-one. Persip was born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1929, and began playing on the fertile Newark, New Jersey, jazz scene after graduating high school. …

My background is heavily steeped in jazz and rudimental drumming, but I grew up listening and jamming to lots of heavy metal and classic rock and roll.

Longtime New York City drummer Tony Leone is currently on the road with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.

Allen is a revered figure in the field of forward-reaching, swinging jazz rooted in the tradition. When he first made waves in the jazz world, joining Freddie Hubbard’s band in 1982 at the tender age of nineteen, elder giants took note.

Over the course of his forty-year career traveling the globe to teach, perform, and conduct clinics, Dom Famularo has interacted with some of the finest drummers and drum instructors in the world. The following list contains many of those names, organized by country/continent. If you’re looking for top-notch drum instruction, …

For my tenth birthday my mom gave me a Hollywood kit in the sizes 12″, 14″, 18″. Back then I listened to bands and artists such as Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin. The way the drums sounded on recordings from the ’60s and ’70s really attracted me. I …

Here, as a companion to our August 2014 Influences piece on Mason, we speak with the drummer about his new album, his early days, the drummers who inspired him, and more….

Click here to check out a video lesson to accompany the Jazz Drummer’s Workshop article on applying standard tunes to the drums from the February 2014 issue.

Click here to check out part 4 of our In the Studio series, “Seeing Sounds,” which covers classic jazz drum tones.

Click here to check out a new Jazz Drummer’s Workshop article on the stick shot.

Mark Guiliana may be best known for his work as a sideman with jazz musicians such as Avishai Cohen and Brad Mehldau, but the drummer has been increasingly involved with his own solo project, Beat Music….

What makes a great drum book? There’s no single answer, as different books have been written to address a wide variety of styles and techniques. But judging by a recent poll in which Modern Drummer readers were asked to name their favorite volumes, a few characteristics stand out….

Look here to see the contents of the April 2013 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, featuring Tommy Igoe….

We asked the members of the MD Education Team if they think it’s important for their students to study jazz. Here’s what they had to say….

Pete LaRoca Sims, aka Pete LaRoca, whose résumé included jazz greats like Sonny Rollins and Freddy Hubbard, passed away on November 19 after a battle with lung cancer. He was seventy-eight….

We asked the members of the MD Education Team if they think that reading skills are crucial. Here’s what they had to say….

I’m Tim Walsh of the Stepkids, and I’m excited to be on here and hope to add to the wealth of knowledge that is MD’s awesome thirty-five-year history…

Ben Riley commands respect from the moment he hits the bandstand. While he is best known (and beloved) for his years spent in Thelonious Monk’s quartet at the peak of that master’s powers, Riley has also recorded and performed with many other jazz greats.This article orginally ran in the February …

Billy Higgins, who would come to play on more than five hundred albums, including three of the biggest jazz crossover hits of the 1960s (Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,??? Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder,??? and Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance???), was born in 1936 and grew up in Los Angeles. He began …

Right up until his passing on October 11, Freddie Gruber was a source of deep and important knowledge for many top drummers.

Welcome once again to the MD Readers Poll, where the greatest drummers on the planet are honored by the most educated drum fans around. Let’s get right to it: the envelope, please….

Jimmy Cobb was one of the most popular drummers of the late 1950s. He began playing at an early age and found his influences among the bop pioneers. “Max Roach was the hippest music going,??? remembers Cobb. “I also listened to Kenny Clarke, Shadow Wilson, and Sid Catlett. Then a …

If you ask Steve Jordan who his favorite drummer is, be prepared to get hit with a never-ending list of influences, ranging from the obvious—like jazz greats Kenny Clarke and Philly Joe Jones and funk innovators David Garibaldi and Stephen Ferrone—to the more obscure, like Motown/disco session drummer Andrew Smith, …

Charli Persip was born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1929, and began playing on the fertile Newark, New Jersey, jazz scene after graduating high school.

Cozy Cole, an incredibly adept player, was strongly rooted in the rudimental style, but he contributed much to jazz drumming…

After leaving Oliver, Dodds worked with Freddie Keppard, Johnny Dodds, and Lil Armstrong, and later recorded with Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven…

Philly Joe Jones is one of the greatest of the hard boppers. His contributions to the art of jazz drumming are immeasurable. He was a virtuoso with a pair of brushes, and a genius at turning the rudiments into fluent musical ideas. More than any of his peers, it was …

Hudson Music has recently released Steve Smith’s DVD Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants, which Smith describes as “a detailed look at the drumming of some of the jazz giants who have helped create the vocabulary and concepts of drumming in general.???

The March issue of MD (out now) features Billy Ward’s fascinating conversation with Simon Phillips, Doane Perry, Marco Minnemann, Thomas Lang, and Jerry Marotta about the grooves that inspired them to play drums early on, and that continue to today. It seemed to make perfect sense for MD’s editors to …

“I stopped focusing on the muscles in my arms and started focusing on the big fat muscle in my head. That’s where the good stuff comes from.???

Simply put, Max Roach brought jazz drumming into the modern age. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell revolutionized jazz with new melodies and concepts; Max matched these musical geniuses with startling rhythms and reactive, action-packed drumming that still influences drummers on a profound level today….

Few jazz drummers have had careers as rewarding and successful as Jeff Hamilton’s. And with several new releases and projects in the works–and an MD Readers Poll win–2006 may be one of his finest years yet.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet was the most popular jazz group of that time. “Take Five,” featuring a drum solo by Joe Morello, was a million-seller. This group toured the world playing concerts instead of location club gigs. I can’t think of one jazz group today that approaches the level of …

The drumming legend gives his most revealing interview.

In between those gigs he’ll squeeze in a performance with Ricky Martin, Stevie Nicks, or Jennifer Lopez, among other top acts. But Danny’s brain is always thinking: How do I make my playing better? Equally important to him these days: How do I make the instruments I play better? Enter …

When twenty-five-year-old Eric Harland was a teenager, he weighed an astonishing 380 pounds, making him a target of cruel children, mean-spirited teachers, and sometimes, his own family. “I would walk into a clothing store and the employees would just laugh,” recalls the Texas native. “Man,” they would say, “we don’t …

John Blackwell always listened to his dad’s advice, and it’s paid off, big time. “Growing up, my dad used to tell me, ‘If you want to make any money in this business, play in the pocket.'”…

You have to be careful who you show off in front of, as Joe La Barbera learned early in his career. “I was working with a singer named Frankie Randall,” Joe recalls. “He had an offer to open for Buddy Rich in Las Vegas for a month. So I was …

Clarence Penn’s third album as a leader is called Somay, a word whose roots lie, as do many elements of contemporary music, in Africa.

The scene: a cold night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at North On Sixth, a multi-level hole in the wall jook joint where the bathroom graffiti is more political than obscene. Attracting a crowd of Manhattan intellectuals and Brooklyn deadheads, North On Sixth is tonight showcasing Ben Perowsky’s Moodswing Orchestra. A collection …