December 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 12
On 10th Jan 2022
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Articles in December 2021
By the Numbers MD Covers Reveal Drum-Culture Stats
Forty-five years provides a lot of perspective on the artists, styles, and techniques Modern Drummer has covered, as well as how those subjects informed the drum community from year to year. Any magazine editor will tell you that choosing cover…
Remembering Ron Spagnardi
Quotes from the Original Fearless Leader No plan. No staff. Just a grand passion, the personal savings of Ron Spagnardi and his wife Isabel, and the sweat entity of his dad and their daughter. There was little hope that a…
Art Blakey Excerpted from the September 1984 issue
The first rays of dusk suffuse Art Blakey’s Greenwich Village apartment with shards of amber gray light, and as the shadows dance upon his brow, Blakey’s face takes on a totemic grace. The snow-white hair fades out of the foreground…
45 Years of a Vibrant Community
It’s just unbelievable how quickly 45 years can go by. It was 1977, when founder Ron Spagnardi launched what the world would come to know, love, and behold as Modern Drummer magazine. Modern Drummer is much more than a magazine.…
Jack DeJohnette Excerpted From The October 1989 Issue
“I’m having more fun with music,” says Jack DeJohnette. “Now that I’m in my mid-40s, I don’t take everything so seriously. As I let go of a lot of past fears and false illusions about what music is supposed to…
Gene Krupa Elected to Hall of Fame in 1979
Excerpted from the October/November 1979 issue “I’m happy that I succeeded in doing two things: I made the drummer a highpriced guy, and I was able to draw more people to jazz.” The above quote of drum master Gene Krupa…
Alan White
Excerpted from the February/March 1980 issue Yes is one of the few bands who combine exploration of musical art forms with the vitality of rock music. Their arrangements are impeccable and their playing skills, superb. What’s more, those guys can…
Choosing The Correct Job
Some readers might look at this heading and think, “What? It’s hard enough to find any job!” But I’m quite serious about the ramifications—musical, emotional, and financial—of knowing where to put yourself. Of course, we all know there are monetary…
Carl Palmer
Excerpted from the June/July 1980 issue How did you first meet Keith Emerson and Greg Lake? It just so happened at the time in London when Emerson and Lake were getting together I was kind of the only guy in…
Buddy Rich Elected to Hall of Fame in 1980
Excerpted from the January 1977 issue When it comes to interviewing Buddy, one must learn to expect the unexpected. You can end up with a first rate story, or no story at all. He’s a very intense human being, with…
Larry Mullen A candid interview with the drummer
Excerpted from the August 1985 issue Let me say first of all that I don’t do interviews, ever. I did them when the band started, and then 1 stopped because I didn’t enjoy them. I’ve seen issues of Modern Drummer.…
Max Roach Excerpted from the June 1982 issue
Max Roach is a vital link in the chain of drum history. He was recognized as the man who pioneered a modern drumming style for his work with bebop giants like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In the ‘50s and…
Neil Peart Elected to Hall of Fame in 1983
Excerpted from the April/May 1980 issue How did you become involved with Rush? The usual chain of circumstances and accidents. I came from a city that’s about 60 or 70 miles from Toronto. A few musicians from my area had…
Billy Cobham Excerpted from the August/September 1979 Issue
Billy Cobham is one of the strongest innovative forces on the drumming scene today. Both his technique, and drum set up are awesome. We met at Starr Recording Studios where Cobham was to record an instructional tape for the Tama…
Stewart Copeland
Excerpted from the October 1982 issue How did the Police come about? I was on tour with Curved Air. We had a night off and a local journalist took me around to see his favorite local group, which was a…
Bill Bruford
Excepted from the January/February 1979 issue Bill Bruford has never attained the widespread fame of Carl Palmer or Billy Cobham. But whenever Bruford’s name is mentioned, it is almost invariably prefaced by the term ‘’drummer extraordinaire” or ‘’precise percussionist.” Bruford,…
Phil Collins
Excerpted from the March/April 1979 issue Phil Collins’ muscular arms are flowing as his hands snap out the illusive 6/8 beat. The music swells around and through him while his piercing eyes look inward, directing his movements. Collins is an…
Roger Taylor Excerpted from the March 1985 issue
What prompted you to start playing drums? When I was at school, I used to listen to the radio and records a lot. When I was younger, it was sort of the start of the techno-rock thing. I was brought…
12 Iconic Punk-Rock Drummers Sound Off
We spun through the MD archives to collect some brash, aggro wisdom from punk-rock, punk-pop, or post-punk drummers who have shared their musical insights in these pages. Punk isn’t always about diving blindly into intensity with limited technique, and some…
