October 2020 Issue – Volume 44 • Number 10
Articles in October 2020
Chad Smith
The longtime Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer is enjoying a wave of great reviews for his work on the new, critically acclaimed Ozzy Osbourne album, Ordinary Man. The takeaway? If there’s one contemporary drummer on the planet who wholly embodies…
In the Studio With Miles McPherson: Touring Pro Turned Session Ace
Miles McPherson moved to Nashville in 1986, when his father, Jerry, relocated the family there so he could work in the studios as a session guitarist. Miles was expecting to be a guitarist—until he sat at a drumset for the…
13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History
A deserving tribute to one of rock’s most iconic groups provides an opportunity to delve into the work of two under-considered sticksmen. Few bands have influenced rock ’n’ roll as deeply as the 13th Floor Elevators. They are the kind…
Rudy Royston
His new solo album, PaNOptic, gives listeners—especially drummers—the opportunity to commune with the mind, heart, and soul of Rudy Royston, perhaps more fully than ever before. Modern Drummer has often praised the marvelous first-call jazz drummer Rudy Royston for meeting…
Deep Purple’s Ian Paice
Of all the remarkable rock drummers to have originated in the late 1960s/early 1970s, none was more astonishing than Ian Paice. If John Bonham was the zeppelin, Carl Palmer the tank, and Nick Mason the perpetual clock, Ian Paice was…
Joe Morello
Chops Master and Musical Poet Joe Morello inspired thousands of drummers during his long career, which spanned from 1957, the year of his first recording session with Dave Brubeck, to 2011, when he passed away. Morello’s legacy reached a wide…
Nektar’s Ron Howden
The progressive-rock elder statesman has survived life-threatening medical issues to celebrate his iconic band’s fiftieth anniversary with a fine new album. Throughout its five-decades-long lifespan, Nektar has generated a cult following, sending music listeners on mind-bending conceptual sojourns. Likewise, the…
Rick Shutter
“Day by Day,” the gargantuan hit single from the Grammy-winning musical Godspell, gets by with some tasteful cymbal swells and tambourine shaking—until drummer Rick Shutter blasts the ride-out with a driving rock groove. It’s a classic moment on a timeless…
Meat ’n’ Potatoes—With Some Spice
This month’s KOTM is a hybrid rig that the owner uses on semi-acoustic shows with his rock band Floater. The “groovy meat ’n’ potatoes” of Portland, Oregon–based drummer Mark Powers’ set consists of a vintage Yamaha bass drum, a new…
Zildjian - I Family Cymbals
A modernized approach to entry-level bronze. Released earlier this year, Zildjian’s new I Family of cymbals was designed to provide bright and expressive sounds at ultra-affordable prices. These traditionally finished B8 bronze additions replace the discontinued ZBT series and comprise…
Stick Technique Revisited
Part 4: Alley-Oop The alley-oop technique is what I call a wrist/finger combination used for playing double strokes (diddles) and triple strokes. While it can be likened to the push/pull technique, which is a wrist stroke followed by a finger…
Trivium’s Alex Bent
The metal phenomenon has an irrepressible drive to succeed—and he’s done so stunningly, slaying two of Trivium’s best albums to date, earning a Grammy nomination, and touring Europe and the U.S. extensively since 2017. Alex Bent has lived many metal…
John Herndon
The drummer and cofounder of the influential Chicago band Tortoise details the gear and methods he used to get “jagged and weird” on his new solo album. John Herndon is best known as a drummer/percussionist in Chicago’s Tortoise, the instrumental…
Remembering Neil Peart
Part 2: “De Slagwerker” Drum Solo Neil and I often talked about improvisation. He told me why his solo in “De Slagwerker” was so important to him. What follows are some of Neil’s own words, taken from his Drum Channel…
Samba Funk
Modern Fusion Beats Based on Traditional Brazilian Rhythms Hi, everybody! It’s a pleasure to be back writing for Modern Drummer and sharing some of my Brazilian culture with you. This time I am talking about my application of samba funk…
Covet’s Forrest Rice
The drummer, who’s honed his skills with a number of math-rock groups, brings ever more sophistication and fire on the new Covet record, Technicolor. MD interviews him and also chats with the band’s compelling guitarist, Yvette Young, to learn about…
Amy Aileen Wood
The drummer played an outsized part in bringing one of the most anticipated and well-received albums of the year to fruition. Amy Aileen Wood is a comfortable conversationalist, modest and engaging even when she downplays her immense skill as a…
Bill Stewart
Striving for Clarity His appearance on the new John Scofield album marks thirty years of one of modern jazz’s great partnerships. But of course that’s only part of what he’s been up to lately. When Bill Stewart made his first…
The Great Jazz Drummers
Sidney “Big Sid” Catlett Though Sidney “Big Sid” Catlett came out of the swing era, he is best remembered for a drumming style that had a marked influence on the bop drummers of the 1940s. Catlett bridged the gap between…
