Jazz Drummer
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Karl Latham
Hello, Modern Drummer readers! It’s been a while since I last checked in from “the North Woods.” I see all is great in drum land—so many amazing new talents every day! Over the past couple of years I’ve been very…
Chico Hamilton: 1921–2013
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…
Sonny Igoe Passes
Noted jazz drummer, educator, and MD Advisory Board member Sonny Igoe has passed away, at age eighty-eight. Igoe was born in New Jersey and began playing drums at an early age. When he was sixteen he won the Gene Krupa…
Mel Lewis: A Quiet Fire
This is an adaptation of the Mel Lewis In Memoriam article that ran in the June 1990 issue of Modern Drummer magazine. Often, when Mel Lewis was playing with his Jazz Orchestra, he would break into this little smile.…
Peter Erskine: Taste, Skill, And Artistic Ambition
Peter Erskine, one of the most articulate, enduringly popular drummers of the past few decades, has played drums since he was four, graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, and studied under famed percussion instructor George Gaber at Indiana…
Influencer: Alan Dawson
Alan Dawson was an outstanding jazz drummer and a legendary teacher. He was strongly influenced by Papa Jo Jones, and his first break came in the early ’50s with the Lionel Hampton band. By 1951 he was working with Sabby…
Philly Joe Jones: One Of The Greatest Hard Boppers
Philly Joe Jones is one of the greatest of the hard boppers. His contributions to the art of jazz drumming are immeasurable. He was a virtuoso with a pair of brushes, and a genius at turning the rudiments into fluent…
Lewis Nash: Jazz's Most Valuable Player
by Ken Micallef Swing, swang, swingin’! Splang-a-lang! Snap, crackle, pop! These well-worn words go a long way toward describing this thing of ours we call jazz, but they also illustrate the style of one of the idiom’s modern masters: Lewis…
Jeff Hamilton: Swinging to Success
by Robyn Flans Few jazz drummers have had careers as rewarding and successful as Jeff Hamilton’s. And with several new releases and projects in the works–and an MD Readers Poll win–2006 may be one of his finest years yet. The…
Steve Smith Update
There have been some major changes lately in Steve Smith’s two touring bands. “Over the past eight years Buddy’s Buddies has developed a unique ‘small big band’ sound and direction,” Steve explains. “We’ve moved away from exclusively playing music associated…
Roy Haynes
To help celebrate this milestone, we thought this a perfect opportunity to revisit Mr. Haynes with a cover story. And we asked veteran jazz writer (and longtime friend) Ira Gitler to interview Roy. The following story reveals a lot about…
