Will Kennedy

High profile drummers, along with thousands of semi-professionals are limbering up to play for 250 hours non-stop, raising millions for mental health charities.  DrumathonLIVE 2022, the event for all drummers is set to raise millions for mental health charities, live streamed on social media channels the full week between 14th – 21st May …

New Music USA Partners With Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice to Launch New Program Next Jazz Legacy For a More Inclusive Jazz Future Three-Year Program – With Major Funding From The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation – Will Increase Opportunities For Women and Non-Binary Musicians Through Apprenticeship, Financial Support and Promotion NEA …

Review By Rob Coen St. Louis, home of great bar-b-que, the Gateway Arch, the Chesterfield Jazz and Wine Festival and drumming legend himself, Dave Weckl. Filmed and recorded at the 2019 Chesterfield Jazz and Wine Festival, this The Dave Weckl Band Live album is a triumph of musical mastery. Accompanying …

Almost as soon as the pandemic hit this past spring, Sean J. Kennedy had the idea of recording some rudimental classics with a bunch of friends, virtually. The initial group was composed of brass players and percussionists, which Kennedy called the Rolling Buzzards Brigade as an homage to the musicians …

The Mountain Goats Getting into Knives (Jon Wurster) This past March 1, the Mountain Goats’ Jon Wurster (also drummer with Bob Mould and Superchunk), bassist Peter Hughes, multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas, and singer/songwriter John Darnielle entered the legendary studio Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, Tennessee, with producer Matt Ross-Spang, who engineered …

Hey all! I wanted to share a project that is a little different than my usual jazz/fusion content. Although I don’t get the opportunity too much these days, I’ve always loved playing with, for, and behind great vocalists. I really enjoy finding the right drum part and feel for the …

The nominees for the 39th Annual Blues Music Awards, presented by the Blues Foundation, represent a prestigious collection of acclaimed performers and rising stars that reflect the breadth and diversity of today’s blues m

Hello Modern Drummers! John Mader here. I’m the drummer on the first national tour of Hamilton. I am thrilled to be speaking to you via MD, as I have been a reader for long time. I have been very fortunate to have been selected to audition, perform live, and/or record …

The all-new Dave Weckl online school includes HD video lessons with sound mixed by Dave, full play-along packages, and exclusive live footage from current tours with “lessons from the hotel room.”

Hello! On July 31, we played our first show as Donald Fagen and the Nightflyers, kicking off a two-month tour (twenty-eight shows) around the US and Japan. It was a monumental night for my bandmates and me as we had spent the last eight months preparing and a lifetime dreaming …

Nancy Wilson of Heart with special guests Steven Adler (Guns N’ Roses) and Gregg Bissonette (David Lee Roth Band)- headline the next Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp June 29-July 2, 2017 in Los Angeles, CA

Nancy Wilson of Heart with special guests Steven Adler (Guns N’ Roses) and Gregg Bissonette (David Lee Roth Band)- headline the next Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp June 29-July 2, 2017 in Los Angeles, CA

See what’s in the October 2016 Issue of Modern Drummermagazine featuring Toto’s Shannon Forrest!

Grammy-winning guitarist/producer Lee Ritenour will host the biennial Six String Theory Competition for the fifth time with applications accepted in guitar, bass, piano/keyboards, and drums. Registration is open until May 15, 2016 on the website by submitting two YouTube videos….

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, …

The Los Angeles–based group Wand, featuring drummer Evan Burrows, singer and guitarist Cory Hanson, and bassist Lee Landy, are among the most prolific of the current crop of galaxy-gazing garage-rockers, producing three full-lengths in just over a year. Burrows makes the most out of the group’s ambitious music-world view, muscularly …

Though I’ve drummed my way across the spectrum, with acts as disparate as comedian Jerry Van Dyke, icon Joan Baez, and Dead Kennedys, my one true musical love has always been the band I started with Steve Barton, the ’80s cult fave Translator….

This past November, Jason Aldean drummer, Rich Redmond, led a weekend of drumming education, inspiration, and entertainment in Nashville. Highlights of this second-annual event included hands-on training with Liberty Devitto (Billy Joel), Chris Fryar (Zac Brown Band), and Sean Paddock (Kenny Chesney). Other teachers included percussionist Billy Hawn (Colbie Callait) …

Hello there, MD readers! I am very excited to be hosting my second “Drummer’s Weekend??? in Nashville this October 31 through November 2….

Jazz drumming great Louie Bellson, who passed away in 2009, will be honored with a ninetieth-year celebration of his enduring works, organized by the Louie Bellson Legacy. There will be a full year of activities, beginning on Bellson’s birthday, July 6….

Legendary GRAMMY® winning guitarist/producer Lee Ritenour has announced the stellar list of musicians assembled as judges for the 4th Bi-Annual Six String Theory Competition.

Jazz drummer Foreststorn “Chico??? Hamilton died this past Monday at the age of ninety-two. Hamilton was notable for his refined approach to the drumset, which leaned more heavily on creative orchestrations than on flash, an approach that in the 1950s inspired the movements of cool and chamber jazz. Notably, Hamilton …

What makes a working drummer? Here, the top R&B player Gorden Campbell defines the gig in artistic and practical terms….

Hello there! My name is Mike Kennedy, and I am a twenty-five-year-old drummer for the band the Wonder Years….

This March 19 and 20, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will join former New York Yankee and Latin Grammy-nominated jazz guitarist Bernie Williams, plus leaders of the music instrument and products industry, in Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress on the importance of comprehensive music education in our …

Held on the eve of the annual Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), the U.S. finals for the 2012 Roland V-Drums World Championship exposed exceptional drumming talent….

On December 10, 2007, founding Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant, joined by late Zep drummer John Bonham’s son Jason, headlined a concert at London’s O2 Arena in tribute to their dear friend, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun….

DROM presents Euphoric – Celebrating the Life & Music of Chico Hamilton.

This past winter has been a bit slow but productive. I’ve taken advantage of the calm pace to finally complete my latest CD, Status Cymbals.

Hey, MD readers. I’m percussionist/ performing artist LeeAnet. I’ve opened for Alicia Keys, Bono, Sheryl Crow, Gwen Stefani, and Chaka Khan, and I can be seen in Rihanna’s video for “What’s My Name??? and in the film Downtown Express.

As Jane’s Addiction continues its successful Theatre of the Escapists tour, a new generation of fans is being hipped to the ecstatic tribal glam event that is a Jane’s show—and to the uniquely galloping drumming approach of Stephen Perkins. In the latest installment of Modern Drummer magazine’s Influences series, we …

Ringo Starr’s seventeenth solo studio record, Ringo 2012, will be released on January 31 in the United States and January 30 internationally. The album, which was produced by Starr, was recorded in L.A. and mixed in England by Ringo and Bruce Sugar. For more, visit www.ringostarr.com. Kenny Aronoff is still …

Marc Dicciani is Dean of the College of Performing Arts and is Professor of Drumset and Music Business at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia….

This article originally ran in the September 2005 issue of Modern Drummer magazine.

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….

Hey, MD world, I’m Paul Wandtke, and I’m here to tell you what I’ve been up to, as it’s been a while since I’ve spoken to my MD friends….

Very few drummers have had as dramatic an impact on the entire drumming industry as Dave Weckl…

It’s all about rocking three-chord riffs for Jason Aldean’s neo-country drummer. Here, some of Redmond’s close musical associates provide insight into Rich’s talents….

I’m a drummer and percussionist from Cleveland, Ohio, and I’ve been touring with my favorite group, the Four Tops…

I’m a drummer and percussionist from Cleveland, Ohio, and I’ve been touring with my favorite group, the Four Tops…

Though legendary hardcore punks The Dead Kennedys are still officially together (minus frontman Jello Biafra), they’re currently enjoying a self-imposed hiatus.

Konnichiwa, everybody! My name is Nanami (a.k.a. NaNa)! I’m from Kagoshima, Japan. I’ve moved to America to take over the US music scene! Ha ha ha! Just kidding! Well—maybe it’s true!? I think US music scene is boring! Everything is about $. Anyway, I moved to LA when I was …

Konnichiwa, everybody! My name is Nanami (a.k.a. NaNa)! I’m from Kagoshima, Japan. I’ve moved to America to take over the US music scene! Ha ha ha! Just kidding! Well—maybe it’s true!? I think US music scene is boring! Everything is about $. Anyway, I moved to LA when I was …

Twenty-four year old Thomas Pridgen unleashes the most rabid drumming in recent memory on The Mars Volta’s The Bedlam In Goliath. Of course, the band’s fans have come to expect madness and mastery from the innovative Long Beach, California group…

Hello, MD family! 2008 has been a blessed and busy year, with more great things to come! My name is Marcus Baylor, and I am the drummer with The Yellowjackets.

It's always a pleasure to punch in with my fellow drummers and the MD community. We are all fortunate to belong to a group that takes interest in one another, shares and swaps ideas, and above all, makes friends!

I’m convinced that, ten years from now, we’re going to look back at 2007 as an unusually fertile time in music and in drumming.

I have a hard time when I hear a drummer say, “I saw you play with Billy Joel fifteen times, and there were so many questions I wish I could have asked you….”

With several projects coming to fruition, Carmine Appice seems poised to reclaim his throne as one of the baddest heavy rock drummers ever….

Punk-rock revivalists The Distillers have hit on a musical formula that could spell big success for their much buzzed-about major-label debut. Coral Fang infuses the old-school passion and lyrical relevance of hardcore punk legends like LA’s Germs and Black Flag with melodic, radio-friendly pop appeal….