December 2014 Archives - Modern Drummer Magazine

December 2014 Issue – Volume 39 • Number 12

Articles in December 2014

Features

Gregg Bissonette

Sure, he can floor you with chops. And his lightning-fast ability to understand and play exactly what the song needs is legendary. But it’s his heart and soul that always seal the deal.   It’s no secret that the music…

Story by Miguel Monroy | Photos by Rob Shanahan
Mar 2, 2018
Catching Up With

Catching Up With Ginger Baker

A recent documentary on the legendary drummer warns us to beware of Mr. Baker. But the latest record by this unsinkable, grooving, global bohemian delivers a more positive and powerful message: Behold Mr. Baker! This past June, legendary Cream and…

by Jeff Potter
Oct 7, 2019
Jazz Drummer's Workshop

All Together Now! Focus on Unison Exercises

Practicing unison exercises is an excellent way to determine the accuracy and precision of your four limbs as they function together. Like links in a steel chain, the sturdiness of your groove depends on the strength of your weakest limb.…

by Steve Fidyk
Mar 2, 2018
Up & Coming

Aric Improta

It’s all in the work. When Night Verses’ firebrand isn’t touring the world, he and his bandmates are holed away for hours and hours, refining, improving, refining, improving…   When we spoke with Aric Improta, his band, Night Verses, had…

by Ben Meyer
Mar 2, 2018
Features

Omar Tavarez

Miami is the quintessential melting-pot city, where no one blinks when a country-hip-hop ditty like Pitbull’s “Timber” tops the charts. But simplicity can be deceiving, and the drummer/ musical director in charge of making the rapper’s multicultural style sound perfectly…

Story by Robin Tolleson | Photos by Mike Jachles
Mar 2, 2018
Rock 'n' Jazz Clinic

The Paradiddle Polyrhythm Pyramid

Sharpen Your Rhythmic Awareness and Control The following exercise was going to be called the Paradiddle Polyrhythm Rudiment, but I felt that it was too long to be just one rudiment. Instead, it makes for a formidable polyrhythm exercise in…

by Peter Magadini
Mar 2, 2018
Strictly Technique

Consecutive Flams Part 1: Spaced Out

This month we’re going to kick off a challenging three-part series on flams. All of these exercises will consist of single flams followed by sets of two, three, and four flams. Then we’ll reverse the order to end up back…

by Bill Bachman
Mar 2, 2018
In Memoriam

Frankie Dunlop

Francis “Frankie” Dunlop, a great jazz drummer of precision, sensitivity, inventiveness, and deep swing, passed away this past July at age eighty-five, after a long struggle with illness. Born December 6, 1928, into a musical family, Dunlop possessed determination that…

by Jeff Potter
Mar 2, 2018
Features

Dan Weiss

Oh, he knows his jazz history, and his rock as well. But by immersing himself in concepts far afield of traditional Western drumset approaches, he’s developed a pure musical voice, a highly sensitive ear, and a world of ideas to…

Story by Ken Micallef | Photos by Paul La Raia
Mar 2, 2018