January 2021 – Volume 45 • Number

Single-Headed Toms: Cool or Not?

Very cool, bring them back!Lorenzo Rosmini I greatly prefer single-headed drums.Pete Wilson They provide that classic bark!@welafever The coolest!Pete Bultitude I’m adding 8", 10", and 12" concert toms to add some high-end crack to my 13", 16", and 18" double-headed…

Attack Drumheads - The Baron Red-Dot Batter

A durable, easy-to-tune option with just the right amount of built-in dampening. Attack Drumheads has been around since the ’80s, under different ownership. In October 2018, the brand was acquired by Cardinal Percussion of Youngstown, Ohio. This was my first…

Roland V-Drums Acoustic Design VAD506 Kit

The ultimate immersive e-drums experience. Can you believe it’s taken forty-plus years for an electronic drumset to emerge that looks and feels nearly identical to an acoustic kit? Well, the time has come, folks. Roland’s new Acoustic Design series of…

Individuality

Part 1: Where Did It Go? Individuality is defined as the unique characteristics and traits that make someone or something one of a kind. I thought a discussion about being yourself was important to bring up, and I will be…

Todd Sucherman - A Smattering of Hits Outside the Prog-Rock Sphere of Styx

Todd Sucherman is one of the modern greats of the drumset. His powerfully precise drumming has been driving the legendary prog-rock band Styx for a quarter century and is still going strong. Todd’s versatility also finds him in great demand…

In the Studio with Wes Little

A New York transplant cranking away in Nashville Wes Little moved from New York City to Nashville in 2008. In NYC he attended the Manhattan School of Music to study jazz and performed regularly with several different bands, including Confrontation…

CRITIQUE

RECORDINGS Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, and Damu the Fudgemunk Ocean Bridges A delightfully swinging hip-hop-meets-jazz excursion that sounds composed yet is completely improvised. Ocean Bridges features tenor great Archie Shepp; his nephew, rapper Raw Poetic; and Earl “Damu the Fudgemunk”…

Coordinating the Body

Exercises for Better Alignment In this lesson we’ll explore exercises that can be utilized to strengthen the alignment of your limbs. Although these ideas are designed to help alignment between the hands and feet, they also challenge subdivision accuracy, consistency…

Savannah Harris

She’s all over the jazz, avant-garde, and crossover scenes, playing gigs with everyone from stately ambassadors like Kenny Barron to the fierce hip-hop collective Standing on the Corner. Here the drummer discusses her ideas about playing and composing—including how kindness…

Max Roach

When drummers are playing, horn players should color the way we color behind them. To me, it’s a matter of imagination, and it also has something to do with humility. Drummers have a great deal of humility in order to…

The Killers’ Ronnie Vannucci Jr.

His secret to drumming greatness: passion plus musicality.As a pair of new albums demonstrate, it’s a recipe that never fails him. Somewhere around the midpoint of “My Own Soul’s Warning,” the lead-off track on the Killers’ new album, Imploding the…

January 2021 - Volume 45 • Number

Flipbook

Terry Bozzio Interviews Nick Mason of Pink Floyd

“Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” This month we have an excerpt of a special interview between legendary progressive drummer and composer Terry Bozzio and rock icon Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. The questions came in from…

Liberty DeVitto’s Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness

When conversations turn to great drummers of the classic-rock era, Liberty DeVitto’s name is invariably near the top of the list. After appearing on the scene in the mid-’70s, the New York native began a thirty-year stint with pop icon…

Doc Sweeney - Pure Series Snare Drums

Three solid-shell snares designed to let the timber speak for itself. The last time we checked in with Rancho Santa Fe, California–based boutique brand Doc Sweeney was in the May 2020 issue, when we reviewed the gorgeous 1920s-inspired Classic series…

Nick Mason

The long-delayed release of a live album by his new Saucerful of Secrets band provides a good opportunity to catch up with Pink Floyd’s sticksman—much better late than never. This past March, two years after launching Nick Mason’s Saucerful of…

Get on the Good Foot!

Part 3: Hi-Hat Comping in 5/4 Welcome to the third and final part of our lesson on hi-hat comping. This article explores hi-hat rhythm variations in 5/4. The phrases included are intended to help develop dynamic balance between your hi-hat…

Daru Jones

We last heard from him when he was backing Jack White, a rock icon with a deep appreciation for hip-hop. The drummer’s latest project is pure beats-n-rhymes, with a rock-hard soul. For certain drummers, it’s all about playing with a…

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