Cover Photo by Jonathan Parkhurst Brown

JONATHANMOVER

Having recently attracted a lot of attention as the drum-mer with guitarist Joe Satriani, Jonathan Mover first cameto international attention with GTR. Here, he discusses hisbackground, and explains why "odd" times have neverbeen a problem for him.

by Teri Saccone

CHRISWHITTEN

When Paul McCartney hits the road later this year, he'llhave the drummer from his Flowers In The Dirt albumwith him, Chris Whitten. Chris recalls the events that ledto the McCartney gig and discusses other highlights of hiscareer, including his drumming on the Edie Brickell &The New Bohemians album, Shooting Rubberbands AtThe Stars.

by Simon Goodwin

DOOBIEDRUMMERS

Following a successful tour that reunited everyone whohad ever been in the Doobie Brothers, the original lineupdecided to get back together full-time. Drummers JohnHartman and Michael Hossack, along with percussionistBobby LaKind, offer their thoughts about the past as wellas the present.

by Robyn Flans

INSIDEPURECUSSION

MD pays a visit to the company behind the innovativeRIMS drum mounts and PureCussion Drums.

by William F. Miller

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ROCKPERSPECTIVES"The Wheel"

by Kenny Aronoff42

JAZZ DRUMMERS'WORKSHOPFinding InspirationAway From The Set

by Adam Budofsky44

ROCK 'N'JAZZ CLINICDrumset Warm-ups

by Rod Morgenstein46

CONCEPTSArtists AndEndorsements

by Roy Burns

48

STRICTLYTECHNIQUEThe Drori Exercise

by Joe Morello62

BASICSAlternativePractice Ideas

by Tom Brodbeck66

ROCK CHARTS"Don't Be Cruel"

Transcribed by JamesMorton

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MASTER CLASSPortraits In Rhythm:Etude #20

by Anthony J. Cirone78

PRINTED PAGE96

PORTRAITSBeaver Harris

by Ed HazelI50

PRODUCTCLOSE-UPSabian Jack DeJohnetteSignature Cymbals

by Rick Mattingly38

Sabian CarmineAppice SignatureChina Cymbal

by Rick Van Horn39

Yamaha RemoteWire Hi-hat

by Rick Van Horn40

Yamaha SuperRack System

by Rick Van Horn41

SHOP TALKSimple RemediesFor Tired Drums

by John Clarke64

NEW ANDNOTABLE

102

EDITOR'SOVERVIEW

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READERS'PLATFORM

ASK A PRO12

QUESTIONABLE16

DRUM MARKET118

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INDUSTRYHAPPENINGS

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VOLUME 13, NUMBER 11

UPDATE

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IT'S

MD Books:Where We've Been—Where We're GoingAround seven years ago, I announced that Modern Drummerwould be forming a Book Division. In 1983, we made our debutwith the release of Joe Morello's Master Studies. This past year,Joe's book went into its third printing. Master Studies is nowstandard study material for many drummers worldwide, and isfast becoming a classic in contemporary drum literature.

Our second project appeared a year later in the form of DrumWisdom, by jazz great Bob Moses. Now in its second printing,Bob's innovative concepts continue to help thousands of seriousjazz drumming students.

The late Gary Chester's unique system was praised for yearsamong his private students and close associates. In 1985, we hadthe privilege of presenting Gary's ideas through The New Breed.Now nearing its third printing, The New Breed has stirred thecreative development of drummers all over the world.

Among our English colleagues, two players stood out, thoughneither had released a book under his own name. In an attemptto correct that situation, we presented Carl Palmer's AppliedRhythms and Bill Bruford's When In Doubt, Roll! under the MDbanner. These books truly represent the outstanding musicalachievements of both artists.

The most recent addition to the Book Division was publishedto fill a need for a complete text on electronics. MD's NormWeinberg, one of the nation's most respected authorities on thesubject, was assigned to the task. The Electronic Drummer maybe the most comprehensive text currently available on the sub-ject.

What about the future? Well, for starters, we'll be releasingRonald Vaughan's Drumset Owner's Manual, telling you every-thing you ever wanted to know about drums—and then some!Another project is Power Beats For Drummers by Jim Pfiefer,who's been one of MD's most popular rock columnists. The MDClassic Series, also in the preparation stage, is a collection of thevery best interviews, articles, and transcriptions from past issues.We'll begin with the Heavy Rock edition, and follow it with theJazz, Progressive Rock/Jazz, and Mainstream Rock versions. WhileI'm on the subject of classics, MD's Bill Miller is also hard at workon a collection of all-time great transcriptions for a Classic Tracksvolume scheduled for publication next year.

Still another very ambitious project is The History Of RockDrumming, by Scott K. Fish. Currently in the research stage, thebook will provide an illuminating view of the great players of ourgeneration, and should be in every serious drummer's library!

Though Modern Drummer Magazine continues to be our pri-mary focus, we've enjoyed publishing a body of work that'shelped drummers learn from some of the best in the business. Wehope you've enjoyed what we've done so far, and that you'll gaineven further insight from our upcoming projects.

EDITOR/PUBLISHERRonald Spagnardi

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERIsabel Spagnardi

SENIOR EDITORRick Mattingly

MANAGING EDITORRick Van Horn

ASSOCIATE EDITORSWilliam F. MillerAdam Budofsky

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTCynthia Huang

ART DIRECTORTerry Kennedy

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTORScott G. Bienstock

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGERTracy Kearney

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTJoan C. Stickel

ADVERTISING DIRECTORBob Berenson

DEALER SERVICE MANAGERCrystal W. Van Horn

CUSTOMER SERVICELaura J. Martin

MAIL ROOM SUPERVISORLeo Spagnardi

CONSULTANTTO THE PUBLISHERArnold E. Abramson

MODERN DRUMMERADVISORY BOARDHenry Adler, Kenny Aronoff,Louie Bellson, Bill Bruford, RoyBurns, Jim Chapin, Alan Dawson,Dennis DeLucia, Les DeMerle,Len DiMuzio, Charlie Donnelly,Peter Erskine, Vic Firth, DannyGottlieb, Sonny Igoe, Jim Keltner,Mel Lewis, Larrie Londin, PeterMagadini, George Marsh, JoeMorello, Andy Newmark, NeilPeart, Charlie Perry, Dave Samuels,John Santos, Ed Shaughnessy, SteveSmith, Ed Thigpen.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSSusan Alexander, Robyn Flans,Simon Goodwin, Karen ErvinPershing, Jeff Potter, Teri Saccone,Robert Santelli, Robin Tolleson,Lauren Vogel, T. Bruce Wittet.

MODERN DRUMMER Magazine(ISSN 0194-4533) is publishedmonthly with an additional issuein July by MODERN DRUMMERPublications, Inc., 870 PomptonAvenue, Cedar Grove, NJ 07009.Second-Class Postage paid atCedar Grove, NJ 07009 and atadditional mailing offices. Copy-right 1989 by Modern DrummerPublications, Inc. All rightsreserved. Reproduction withoutthe permission of the publisher isprohibited.

EDITORIAL/ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES:Modern Drummer Publications,870 Pompton Avenue, CedarGrove, NJ 07009.

MANUSCRIPTS: Modern Drummerwelcomes manuscripts, however,cannot assume responsibility forthem. Manuscripts must be accom-panied by a self-addressed,stamped envelope.

MUSIC DEALERS: Modern Drum-mer is available for resale at bulkrates. Direct correspondence toModern Drummer, Dealer Service,870 Pompton Ave., Cedar Grove,NJ 07009. Tel: 800-522-DRUM or201-239-4140.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $25.95 per year; $46.95, two years. Single copies$2.95.SUBSCRIPTION CORRESPONDENCE: Modern Drummer, PO Box480, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0480. Change of address: Allow at leastsix weeks for a change. Please provide both old and new address. TollFree Phone: 1-800-435-0715.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Modern Drummer, P.O. Box480, Mt. Morris, IL 61054.

ISSUE DATE: November 1989

CHRIS FRANTZI greatly enjoyed the wit and candor thatChris Frantz displayed in his cover story inyour August issue. He's an honest, unpre-tentious guy who plays solid drums for onesuper-successful band and one up-and-coming band, and he's learned a lot fromboth experiences. I've been amazed thatthe members of Talking Heads have stayedtogether this long in the face of DavidByrne's ever-increasing media status—de-served or otherwise. It's a credit to Chris'snature that he (along with Tina) has turnedhis energies toward his own band and out-side production projects like Ziggy Marley,rather than grousing in the rock press andcreating dissention in the ranks of his "pri-mary" band. I've enjoyed Chris's work onthe drums for many years. He's nobody'stechnician, but he sure makes the musicsound good. I wish him success with TomTom Club, and I thank MD for the excel-lent interview.

Bill NormanPortland OR

MYLAR HEADSWhat a tremendous article on "The Devel-opment Of The Mylar Drumhead" by Char-les "Woody" Thompson. [August '89 MD]I haven't read such a good and informativearticle since I first bought your magazine.Not only did Woody get all the informationcorrect, but he did his homework on thenames and companies of all the partici-pants and set the facts straight. His researchwas impeccable.

Thank you, Woody, for writing such agreat article. I'm sure some people out therelearned a lot of facts that they only as-sumed they knew or acquired by word ofmouth. I hope your next article is equallyas entertaining to your readers as this onewas to me.

Ralph TrussellPittsburgh PA

tive in Manhattan, who told me about thecontest and sponsored me. Second, thepicture should have been credited to JamesKlosty, who was kind enough to take thetime to photograph me.

I'd also like to take this opportunity tothank all my idols who performed at theMemorial Concert for making it a truly in-spirational event.

Toby RalphNew York NY

Editor's note: Toby was the winner of thefirst annual Buddy Rich Memorial Scholar-ship. He received his award on stage at theconcert held in New York in April of thisyear.

MOVER SOUND SUPPLEMENTOut of all your Sound Supplements, I haveto say that "Put Up Or Shut Up" by Jon-athan Mover is absolutely the best! I'm abig Joe Satriani fan, and have always ad-mired Jonathan's work on Joe's live mate-rial. But this piece represents Jonathan in adifferent light because there's more of asoloistic approach on his part. Also, theguitarist and bassist on the piece were in-sane! I loved the harmonic intro. I'd like tooffer congratulations to Jonathan Mover forcomposing and performing an intense pieceof music!

F.P.Stratford CT

CORRECTION FROM CARDUCCIIn the June '89 issue of your magazine, myformer drum teacher, Roy Burns, states inhis column titled "It's Never Too Late" thatI "was playing all the shows at Caesar'sPalace in Las Vegas in the house orches-

SCOTT ROCKENFIELDAt last! The interview so many drummerslike me have been waiting for: Scott Rock-enfield. [August '89 MD] This guy's talentjust leaps out at you when you see himplay live—far more than even his excellentplaying on Queensryche's albums demon-strates. I was fascinated by the informationScott shared in the story pertaining to hissounds and style: his lack of sampling, thedevices he uses for processing in the stu-dio, the gear he uses to record, his feelingsabout where to use—and not use—doublebass drums...it was all great. Scott's band

THANKS FROM TOBYI have been reading your great magazinesince I was eight years old. I was in awewhen I saw my picture included in yourcoverage of the Buddy Rich MemorialScholarship Concert in the August issue. Itwas truly a great honor to be involved inthat event. It is an honor to be in yourmagazine, as well.

There are a couple of errors in the articlethat I must clear up. First of all, I am fromNew York City, not Long Island, and I wantto thank the people at Drummers Collec-

may be "a little out there for some people,"as he puts it, but he's definitely right thereas a drummer. Thanks for the great story.

Billy EflingerSchenectady NY

Chris Parker

By now, he's beginning to getused to it—showing up for ses-sions and being greeted with aroom full of Bob Dylan imper-sonators and the half-kiddingawe of, "Hey, it's Dylan'sdrummer!" For Chris Parker,now in the midst of his secondsummer backing the bard fromHibbing, Minnesota, such oc-currences are business asusual.

As we speak, Bob Dylan'stouring band is in rehearsal forthe upcoming tour, rehearsalsin which Dylan is putting theband through their paces onsuch unusual choices as theWho's "I Can See For Miles,""You Keep Me Hanging On"—the slow, Vanilla Fudge ver-sion—and the Beach Boys'"Cod Only Knows." As the fol-lowing story illustrates, onething you can never do is pre-dict what Bob Dylan'11 donext:

"My setup includes two pic-colo snares," Chris says, "oneto the left of the hi-hat and,because I sometimes break ahead on one, a spare off to theside. So the other day we wereplaying 'Queen Jane' or 'JustLike Tom Thumb's Blues' anddoing it kind of march-like,and Bob picked up this otherpiccolo snare and startedmarching around with it. Hereally liked the way itsounded, so at the end ofrehearsal he said, 'We shouldhook this up so I can play it.' Isaid, 'Sure, no problem.' Thenext day we got a marchingsnare drum strap and amarching bass drum harnessand hooked it up so that hecan hold the snare sideways

across his chest and play it.He's been doing that on acouple of tunes. It's funny, Inever in a million years wouldhave thought he had anyinterest in drums at all,because when he makes acomment to me, he doesn'tusually articulate, 'Play thisdrum or that drum,' like a lotof people do."

For Parker, the challenge ofhis job isn't in worrying aboutthe "classic-ness" of a "Like ARolling Stone," but in comingto terms with the song'srelatively simple structure."Because they're basicallysimple songs with simplechord changes," Chris says,"the demanding part is makingeach one sound different fromthe one before and giving it afeel that's going to make itinteresting."

Thinking back to a Buck-wheat Zydeco cover of Dylan's"Such A Night," I ask Parker ifhe feels that there's a funkyswing to Dylan's material thatpeople don't readily acknowl-edge. "That's what I'm alwaysplaying with. He definitely hashis own kind of swing. It feelslike shuffled 8th notes, butsometimes the 8th notes arepushed, so there are timeswhen you think it's got a 3/4lilt to it, but it really doesn't; IIike that a lot."

With such a sense of historyevident in Dylan's gig, howconcious is Parker of the spec-tor of past Dylan drummers?"I've certainly tipped my hat toLevon [Helm] on tunes like'When I Paint My Masterpiece'or 'I Shall Be Released,' but Ithink the presence I feel moreis that of somebody like Rich-ard Manuel or Garth Hudson.It's like, how did those guysembellish these tunes? Whatdid they do to make them soplaintive and full of drama,like on 'Tears Of Rage'?"

Lest we forget, Chris Parkeris also the house drummer forSaturday Night Live, a positionhe's held for the last four sea-sons, and he's a regular on theNew York City sessions circuit,having recently worked withartists as diverse as Salt 'n'Pepa, Jonathan Butler, Cher,and Placido Domingo. In theweeks leading up to the Dylantour, he'd done a jazz recordwith Jeff Beale and laid down

the beat on a recent Lou Rawlsalbum. He also appears on theMarvin Hamlish-composedsoundtrack for The Experts.Chris says his most unusualjob lately was being in a com-mercial on which he wasasked to "act" like he wasplaying a set of toy drums, anacting performance he likensto doing "Animal from theMuppets."

—Danny McCue

How often is it that a guy be-gins to play drums at age 20,and three years and three al-bums later finds himself in oneof the most talked about newbands in the country? PeterTimmins of Cowboy Junkiesfinds himself in that position.Timmins was always interestedin playing drums, but says henever had enough money torent a kit until his brother Mi-chael decided to start jammingwith Al, the band's bass player.Their need for a drummer ledPeter to give it a shot. Thenthey brought their sister Margointo it, and the band startedtaking shape. Although he'spicked it up rather quickly, the23-year-old Toronto nativeknows his playing has "a longway to go," and says he learnsthings as he goes along.

After touring the U.S. withtheir first album, Whites OffEarth Now!!, Cowboy Junkiesrecorded their second inde-pendent project during a mara-thon 14-hour session atToronto's Church of the HolyTrinity. Hence, The Trinity Ses-sions was born. Right afterthey finished the project theybegan getting a lot of supportfrom college alternative

stations in Toronto. "We had alot of help from CKLN inToronto, and then recordcompanies started comingafter us, like Elektra and RCA.Elektra wanted us to changethe name because they didn'tthink we'd ever get any radioplay." But Timmons says theband didn't want to changethe name, even though it reallydoesn't have any particularmeaning; they just wantedsomething unusual.

The production of The Trin-ity Sessions was rather un-usual. The entire album wasrecorded with one room mic',giving the ethereal, simplearrangements an even morepronounced "back to basics"sound. For those who feel thattoday's music wallows inproduction excess, this albumis a real find. There are nooverdubs, song edits, or post-production mixing. To some,the simplicity of this techniquemay be too basic. For PeterTimmins, though, it's ideal.Timmins feels his niche is bestfound as someone who reallyfeels the drum parts. He seeshis strength being in this"feel," but is sometimesfrustrated because of his lackof musical training. "I don't getany chance at all to practice,"Peter says, "because we'realways playing. As far aslessons, well...it's hard findinga drum teacher, because theyall want to teach you weirdideas like how they think itshould be done. But I foundthis one guy called RichardBernard in Toronto, and I seehim whenever I can. I'm onthe road a lot, though, so Ihardly get time to see him. It'sa real drag. It's sort of like JohnBonham. He never really knewwhat he was doing, but he justdid it and it came out right.That's how I look at myplaying. I'm not a technicaldrummer at all. I mean, when Iscrew up I screw up big, butwhen it comes to feeling it out,it turns out alright. As a youngdrummer I'm trying to get mytechnical side up."

Because he is so into "feel,"it's apropros that one of Tim-mins's favorite drummers is JimKeltner. He has also been in-spired by the drummers Emmi-lou Harris has used over theyears. Timmins grew up listen-

Peter Timmins

ing to Dylan and says he'sbeen greatly affected by thetype of music his bands haveplayed, too. Although Cowboyjunkies seem to be movinginto more of a mainstreamdirection, the essence of theband at the moment is acombination of blues, country,and folk. Timmins sees theirnext album as a lot moreupbeat and less "spacy" thanThe Trinity Sessions.

—Stephanie Bennett

MattChamberlainIn the process of doing theirfirst album, the New Bohemi-ans hired Chris Whitten to re-place their original drummer.At the completion of the re-cording, they had to find a per-manent drummer and held au-ditions in their hometown ofDallas. Enter Matt Chamber-lain, whose recent year hasbeen full of changes. "I'veknown them for years," Mattexplains. "I played in a bandin Dallas that played a lot ofthe same places, and we alljammed out a lot. I livedownstairs from the bassplayer, and we do a lot of jazzgigs together in Dallas. In fact,we had a band called theDudes, and everything wasreal improvisational; we justmade stuff up, and it was realjazz-oriented."

That background proved tobe good training for the gigwith the New Bohemians, whoMatt says play close to 40%improvisation during live gigs."Some nights we'll just write asong while we're on stage—and some nights we won't," helaughs. "It's pretty much theultimate gig for a drummer; it'salmost like playing in WeatherReport because of the freedomI have to really interact withpeople, and there are a lot ofstyles involved. There is a lotof real heavy in-the-pocketstuff, and a lot of straight-ahead, 'just lay it down andgroove your butt off playing.But there is also a lot of realairy, spacey sort of DannyCottlieb-ish playing with a lotof ride cymbal and jazz,almost like an AllanHoldsworth type of thing. Wehave a percussionist in the

band named John Bush, andwe do a lot of interacting, too.We're out to sound like aperson with eight limbs. Whenwe write songs, we jam, and Ileave spaces open for him toplay in. We'll try to intertwineour sound so you can't reallytell who is playing what, butthere's a groove going on theresomewhere."

The next album, which theband will record in Novemberafter tours with Bob Dylan andDon Henley, will not carryEdie Brickell's name out front,which Matt says was a recordcompany decision in the firstplace.

"It's a band. We write songstogether; it's not one person.We all have our parts. Wehave 30 or 40 songs for thenext album. Usually I'll comeup with a groove or the guitarplayer will come up with aline, and we'll all just startimprovising. Edie improvisesalso, and just comes up withwords. Everyone just comes upwith their own thing; some-times it works and sometimesit doesn't. Usually it's fromsoundchecks that we'll getideas. We taped our sound-checks all during the last tour,and at the end we went over itall.

"This next album will have alot more energy to it," Mattsays. "There will also be a lotmore percussion on it, becauseon that last album, the percus-sionist got a lot of his partsreplaced by keyboards, whichdidn't really leave him muchroom. On this next albumthere will be more syncopa-tion, some real funky stuff, andmore ethnic-sounding stuffwith the percussion in there."

The night of the Grammysproved even more eventful forNevitt and Shadowfax. Theband won the coveted awardfor its debut album on CapitolRecords, Folksongs For A Nu-clear Village.

A funny thing about Folk-songs, though—Nevitt and theother members of Shadowfaxthought the album less effec-tive, musically, than their pre-vious recording efforts. "Welike to joke and say theGrammy was kind of like aLifetime Achievement Award,rather than an award for justthe Folksongs album," Nevittsays. "Winning the Grammy iseasier for us to comprehendusing that frame of reference."

Nevitt and Shadowfax arepoised to prove they are aGrammy-deserving band,however. The group iscurrently in the recordingstudio putting the finishingtouches on the as-of-yetuntitled follow-up to Folk-songs.

Nevitt reports that he andbass player Phil Maggini havebeen working on Balineserhythms to include on the newrecord. He also says there's aptto be a return to more acousticelements in the new songs—more, certainly, than wereheard on Folksongs.

Although Shadowfax is moreabout "world music" than newage, "we're probably baggedinto the new age category for-ever," laments Nevitt. Yet fewnew age groups, if they have adrummer at all, have one whoemploys so many kinds of in-fluences and rhythmic ideas asNevitt. "I'm interested instudying and learning all I canabout what other cultures haveto offer in terms of percussionand rhythms," says Nevitt."The opportunities are reallyendless."

Nevitt and Shadowfax hopeto bring that kind of musicalphilosophy to fruition withmovie soundtrack work, too. "Ithink we're a natural for doingsoundtracks," Nevitt says. "It'sjust a matter of time before weseriously pursue movie proj-ects."

In the meantime Nevittteaches drums in SouthernCalifornia and helps in thesongwriting and recordingstrategies of Shadowfax. "I'm

working hard," says Nevitt. "Idon't think Shadowfax hascome close to realizing itspotential. I want to do my partto make sure that it does."

—Robert Santelli

News...Jet Red recently released theirdebut LP with Billy Carmassion drums. Carmassi also re-cently worked with a Frenchartist by the name of RobertCharlebois as well as havingbeen in the studio with JeffWatson.

Lynn Hammann touring withKenny Rogers.

Paul Wertico on PatMetheny's Letter From Homeand on the road with Methenythrough March of next year. Hecan also be heard on cellistEugene Frisen's recent release.

Ed Shaughnessy has beendoing scattered dates with hisquintet as well as with The To-night Show Band.

Alvino Bennett on the roadwith Sheena Easton. He canalso be heard on FrankPotenza's latest album.

Doane Perry is on JethroTull's current Rock Island aswell as the Twenty Years OfTull five-record anthology. Heis on tour with Tull through theend of the year. Other recentprojects include: programmingand playing on albums by ElisaFiorello and Paul Gordon,playing on LPs by BillyBrannigan and Alex Gregory,playing for a PBS rock showcalled Rockin' The NightAway, on TV's What's AlanWatching, and the effort for theArmenian Earthquake victimscalled "For You Armenia," inaddition to writing the under-scoring for a 30-minute shorton American Indians and doingsome live gigs with Peter Allen.

Percussionist Adam Rudolphworking on Jon Hassell's proj-ect.

Gordon Gale in the studiowith Maxine Nightengale.

Bud Harner back on the roadwith Barry Manilow, and on arecently released new UncleFestive album with percussionby Luis Conte and Lenny Cas-tro.

Roger Hawkins on new EttaJames LP as well as Jim Horn'supcoming LP (along with Jeff

Robyn Flans

Drummer Stu Nevitt knows themeaning of humility. When hefound out his band, Shadow-fax, was nominated for aGrammy last spring in theNew Age Performancecategory, he was not onlysurprised, but moved. "I nevereven considered the nomina-tion a possibility," remembersNevitt. "I didn't care if we wonor not. I was totally contentwith just being in the runningfor the award."

Stu Nevitt

ROBERT SWEETQ. I'm writing to inquire about your bassdrum miking techniques. I've noticed thaton your albums, your bass drum soundsexceptionally deep. How do you mike thedrums, and what kind of muffling—if any—do you use to get that "thick," heavy soundout of them?

Brint BerryMilledgeville GA

A. Basically, what I do is start with two18x22 bass drums. I pad them down with agood-sized pillow and add a ten-poundweight to help hold the pillow down. Thisadds definition and high-end to the attackof the kick. On each bass drum I've got anAKG D-12E and a Sennheiser 421 right

inside and a Neumann U-47 about twofeet out in front—all three types on eachdrum. The engineer blends the mic's in themix. On the To Hell With The Devil al-bum, we put wood on the floor and thenput PZMs (Pressure Zone Microphones) onthe wood. I use a wood beater, whichmeans I have to change the head everyfour or five songs. But it adds a lot of"click" to the bass drum attack. We gener-ally record in a nice size room with somegood feeling to it. And finally, I just hit thedrums as hard as I can.

BILL BRUFORDQ. Before I ask any questions, I'd just liketo say how much I really enjoy your music.I've been listening since One Of A Kind allthe way up to Earthworks, and you havedefinitely made my soul dance throughoutthe years. My question pertains to yourknowledge of jazz theory. You seem toknow quite a bit about not only jazz drum-ming, but also jazz writing. I am also adrummer/songwriter who is interested injazz, but I don't know enough about thisstyle of music to create it. I am curious asto where or with whom you studied inorder to gain such knowledge. Thanks againfor the moving music!

Dave IngrahamLansing Ml

A. Thanks for your kind comments. Like alot of drummers, my harmonic and me-lodic knowledge is patchy. I have had noformal instruction in theory or harmony, sowhen I needed to write for my own band(with Allan Holdsworth!) in the late '70s, Ispent a year or so with the books and hadto sweat. I cannot remember a time when Ididn't know what a 12-bar blues was, har-monically, and I've always had keyboardplayers to show me stuff that I didn't un-derstand. Don't be afraid to ask when youhear something in rehearsal you like butdon't understand. Other musicians are ex-tremely generous (and also love to patron-ize us dumb drummers). So play ignorantand soak up the information. There are

plenty of elementary to advanced jazz the-ory books on the market that should help.Jazz, in particular, has a lot to do withunder-writing rather than over-writing;you're just trying to set musicians up with aharmonic movement or atmospheric tex-ture that makes them want to play. All andany musical knowledge that I may havecame ultimately from the same two places:trial and error.

One further tip: Try not to be intimidatedby the fact that other guys—like Beethoven,Bartok, and Gil Evans—got pretty good atthis writing business. Music is for every-one. If you can hear a tune in your headand can impart it to another musician,you're writing!

ED MANN

Q. Your playing over the years with FrankZappa has been very inspiring and has re-ally helped to motivate me to practice. Myfirst question is: When Frank gives you anextremely difficult part, how do you ap-proach it? Next, I am having a hard timefinding copies of Repercussion Unit albums(or CDs) or your solo album. What can I do

to obtain copies of these? Finally, sinceFrank has decided to stop touring, what areyour plans for the future? Thanks for thehelp.

Todd HowellElmurst IL

A. Thanks for your letter and feedback. Inpreparing difficult parts, such as those writ-ten by Frank Zappa, the first thing I do istry to understand as much about the con-text of the part as possible. Is it lead orsupport, countermelody or harmony, bat-terie or combination of various elements?Learning to play the written notes involvessimply playing through the entire part veryslowly, then later on spending concentratedperiods of time on difficult passages andconnections, gradually working up to per-formance tempo.

Actual orchestration of the part usuallyoccurs during rehearsal, where I can hearwhat else is happening in the piece. Some-times the percussion part gets spread outamong the various instruments (marimba,vibes, glockenspiel, xylophone, chimes,synthesizers and sampled instruments, etc.).

Often I will opt to highlight, or play onlycritical fragments or important single notesfrom a given phrase. With percussion, thisapproach can result in some stunning ef-fects. Other considerations include extraparts that will be added to complete thefinal arrangement: a gong here, timpaniand chimes there...will I have to imitateBob Dylan, and, if so, will I have to use thetiny harmonica?

Repercussion Unit's In Need Again (CMP#31) is available in the Midwest throughImpact Distributing, which probably serv-ices a retail store near you. CMP records,tapes, and CDs can also be mail-orderedfrom Wayside Music, P.O. Box 6515-0517,Wheaton, Maryland 20906. As of this writ-ing, we are preparing the release of my firstsolo album, entitled Get Up, also on CMPand available through the same sources asof September.

As for my touring plans, I'm real excitedabout Get Up, and look forward to touringwith the recording band. That includedChad Wackerman, Walt and Bruce Fowler,Doug Lunn, and Mike Hoffman.

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Q. About 15 years ago I purchased a 15" Meinl crash. The logostates that it is of the Romen series and made in West Germany.The cymbal is very thin and has a silvery color. Over the years, mycymbal has been dinged, dented, and even turned inside-out (by a250-pound tuba player sitting on it—no joke!), and it just recentlycracked. Through all of this it has retained its excellent sound.Because of the crack, I only use it now on special occasions.

I would like to know the history of this cymbal, the year ofmanufacture, the suggested application, the alloy, the originalprice, and the current value. I love this cymbal and even getcompliments on it from non-drummers. Any help from you wouldbe greatly appreciated.

A.C.North Miami Beach FL

A. According to a spokesman for the Meinl company, your cymbalis an original Meinl crash, manufactured in Neustadt/Aisch, asmall town in southern West Germany. The cymbal is made of analloy called nickel-silver, and is probably 76-77 years old (whichwould indicate that it wasn't very old when you purchased it). Thecompany can make no estimate of the original price, becauseMeinl manufactured cymbals for sale to a U.S. distributor, who setits own prices. As far as current value, the cymbal would havewhat Meinl terms a "connoisseur's price" to drummers who espe-cially favor its type of sound (which could be almost any amount,depending on demand), but would not have accrued any specialvalue based on age, rarity, or other qualities normally associatedwith an "antique."

drums be worth? All the drums are clear Vistalites in absolutelymint condition.

J.T.Phoenix AZ

A. As is the case with any "rare" or "collectible" drumkit, much ofthe value lies in the "eye of the beholder." Obviously, conditioncounts, but a great deal more depends on how much your poten-tial buyer wants what you have to sell. Interest in Vistalite kits hasbeen pretty high lately, based on a certain cosmetic appeal thatthey offer, and the fact that John Bonham used one for a while.

We contacted Ned Ingberman, of the Vintage Drum Center, forhis opinion on what your kit might be worth, and how you mightgo about putting it up for sale. Ned gave us the following com-ments.

"If you found a collector who wanted all those sizes—includingthe different-sized bass drums—and was willing to go without amatching snare drum (which gives you a pretty limited targetrange) you could probably get between $ 1,350.00 and $ 1,450.00,give or take a bit, based on what I know other vintage Ludwig kitssell for. There aren't a whole lot of Vistalite kits floating around, sothey are premium items when they are available. If you want tomarket the drums strategically, you should run a classified ad inMD for a few months. In that case, you might be able to ask—andget—a good deal more for the kit, depending on how much timeand energy you were willing to expend to narrow in on a verysmall target, and how long you were willing to hold on to the kituntil you got your price. If you found someone who really had thehots for drums of this type in exactly these sizes, I could seesomeone spending $2,000.00 for them. But, it would require a lotof footwork on your part. Otherwise I figure $1,400 would be amiddle-of-the-road price, and I'm sure you could move them veryquickly at $1,000.00."

One option you might want to consider is breaking the drumsup into two single-bass kits, matching the 6", 8", 12", 13", and 16"toms to the 24" bass drum, and the 14", 15", and 20" toms to the26" bass drum. It might be easier—and more profitable—to selltwo kits with drums that conform to a more familiar size relation-ship than it would be to sell the entire group as one kit. That willall depend on what your potential buyers are looking for.

Q. About 1984 or '85,1 discovered a product known as Stick Cripor Stix Crip. It was a tape used to wrap around drumsticks toprevent them from slipping. It was available at drumshops up untilabout a year ago. Well, now it doesn't seem to be available anymore. Store owners have replaced it with Pro-Mark Stick Rapp—afine product all its own. But I prefer the Stix Crip and am hopingyou can provide me with an address for a source of this product. Ithought I had seen it advertised in Modern Drummer, but I checkedall my copies and couldn't find it.

F.G.Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

A. Although we don't know of a product by the names you offer,there was a stick-wrapping tape product in the early '80s knownas Power Grip. It may be that product that you are referring to, andit is, indeed, no longer available. However, a similar stick-wrap-ping tape, known as Stick Handler, is available from MechanicalMusic Corporation, 3407 North Ridge Avenue, Suite B, Arlington,Illinois 60004, telephone (312) 398-5444. It differs from Pro-Mark's Stick Rapp (which is a fairly soft, smooth material) quite abit, since it is composed of a fabric somewhat similar to a ban-dage-type gauze, and so is a bit rougher in texture.

Q. Help! I need a bare-bones reference on electronic drumming. Iknow little to nothing about what I need to get started. Is there abook, video, or past MD issue that would help me?

J.F.Yokosuka, Japan

A. Since 1986, MD has been running such departments as ElectronicInsights, The Machine Shop, and MIDI Corner. You might findsome useful information on specific subjects among the articlescontained in those departments. However, for a one-stop source ofintroductory information, we suggest you check out Norman Wein-berg's new book, The Electronic Drummer. It's a comprehensivebook on the subject of electronic drumming offered through MD'sbook division. You'll find an order form elsewhere in this issue.

Q. I have read that Ludwig Vistalite drums are both rare andvaluable. Is this true? If so, approximately how much would a setconsisting of 6" and 8" concert toms, 12", 13", 14", and 15"mounted toms, 16" and 20" floor toms, and 24" and 26" bass

Q. I have been an enthusiastic drummer for eight years now. I'vebeen in my share of garage bands and I have encountered aproblem a number of times when I play. The problem is that I getblisters on my hands. I've tried many different things, like gloves,athletic tape, and even Band-Aids. My question is: What can I doto keep from getting blisters in the first place?

C.D.Jacksonville FL

A. Blisters are the result of friction between your skin and yourdrumsticks, and are usually caused by a combination of grippingthe sticks too tightly and hitting too hard. There are several solu-tions you might try. First, if you are playing so hard that blisters aredeveloping, you might be using a stick too small to meet yourvolume requirements. This requires you to grip the stick too tightly,and to do too much of the work. (Blisters occur especially fre-quently when drummers reverse their sticks, holding the very thinneck of the stick in order to hit with the heavier butt end.) Con-sider stepping up to a stick with a bigger bead and a larger overalldiameter, and use it tip-forward. If you are concerned with theadditional weight (which you may or may not want to help thevolume situation), you might want to try a maple drumstick in-stead of hickory. Many rock drummers prefer maple, because it isa lighter wood, enabling them to use a much larger stick withoutits being much heavier. Be prepared to break quite a few sticks,however, because maple is not as durable as hickory.

You mention that you've tried athletic tape. You might want toexperiment with different wrapping products designed specificallyfor drumsticks. Pro-Mark's Stick-Rapp is smooth and cushiony;

Photo by Stephen Morales

by Teri Saccone

that behind everyguitar great, there

is an equally greatdrummer. One drum-mer substantiatingthat theory is JonathanMover. Mover has,thus far, built a careerbacking some seriousrock guitar heavy-weights: Steve Hack-ett and Steve Howewhile with GTR, and,more recently, Joe Sa-triani. Thankfully, Jon-athan plays anythingbut a subordinate rolein the projects that hehas been involvedwith. Whether he'splaying fusion, metal,or progressive rock,Mover typif ies astrong physical andsonic presence. De-scribing himself as a "linear, often polyrhythmic, and always emo-tional" player, Mover, as anyone who has seen him live can attest,pushes drumming to a more focal point in whatever setting he's in.

With only three recorded projects to his credit, some mightconclude that Jonathan has led a charmed professional life. Hisname has become a buzz in the industry. He's parlayed his abili-ties into gigs with international exposure: Marillion, GTR, MikeOldfield, Satriani. He's backed up Steve Vai and Mick Jagger. Notbad for a guy still in his 20's.

Over a cup of tea in his Manhattan digs (he's a recent New Yorktransplant), Jonathan is asked how important drumming is to hislife. He responds with childlike wonderment when he says rever-ently, "There's just something about them. I just saw a film that Ican best equate my feelings for drumming with, Field Of Dreams.Do you remember the part where Shoeless Joe Jackson said that heloves the smell of the grass, the smell of the glove, everythingabout the sport of baseball? I feel the same about drums as thatcharacter does about baseball. I love the feel of sticks in my hands,the feeling of hitting the drums and creating the sounds andtextures. I could never do anything else."

Jonathan gives credit to an animated film and '60s acid-rockband Iron Butterfly for turning him on to music and drumming in abig way. "I first got into music when I was a kid through a cartooncalled The Point by Harry Nilsson," he says. "I went wild when Isaw it; it had great music and a great story. My parents got me therecord—it was either Jim Gordon or Jim Keltner on drums, and thewhole gang of musicians associated with them. That was the thingthat really got me into music, and from time to time I still actuallylisten to it.

"As far as Iron Butterfly is concerned," he continues, "my olderbrother had the In-A-Cadda-da-Vida record, and once I heard thedrum solo on that, it completely hooked me."

Mover credits the whole English art/progressive rock movementas having the most galvinizing musical influence on him. "I wasabout seven when I first heard my older sister's ELP albums—shewas an absolute ELP freak—and that got me started onto the wholeEnglish rock scene. With the exception of Zappa, Utopia, theTubes, and jazz, there weren't any American bands that I was into.Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, U.K., Roxy Music, and GentleGiant were the bands that got me going, and in fact, that musicwas what primarily led me to move to England when I was 19."

From the minute he took up drumming at 13, Jonathan prac-ticed with a vengeance. He studied with a local teacher, learning

the basics: beats,reading, applicationof the drumkit. Afterclass, he'd headhome and play forhours every day. "Myparents had abso-lutely no trouble get-ting me to practice,"he recalls. "In fact,they had to drag meaway from my drumsto eat dinner."

Jonathan was en-couraged by his firstteacher to move onwhen he felt he hadtaught him all that hecould. After those ini-tial lessons, much ofwhat he learned wasthrough music he en-joyed listening to."Zappa, Tull, theTubes, Jeff Beck,Stanley Clarke, Roxy

Music—I was really into those heavy players," he comments, "andthe drummers who played that music: Steve Smith, Andy New-mark, Barriemore Barlow, Prairie Prince, and most especially TerryBozzio, Simon Phillips, and Vinnie Colaiuta. Those last three arelike the gods of Mt. Olympus to me." Jonathan also cites non-drummers like David Gilmour and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd,Jaco Pastorius, and Stravinsky as having an influence.

"Next, I studied classical percussion, which was great because itgave me a better understanding of the melodic side of music," heexplains. "I had the rhythmic understanding down, but that openedup a whole new area for me."

Jonathan enrolled at the Berklee School of Music after graduat-ing from high school, a topic that induces a laugh. "Yeah, Berklee,"he says with a bemused grin. "That turned out to be a series of badincidents. I went there specifically to study with Gary Chaffee;Vinnie Colaiuta, who is a big hero of mine, had studied with him. Ialso figured that there would be a lot of great players there for meto hook up with. But I found out that Gary was no longer teachingthere, although he was teaching privately; so I did hook up withhim not too long after that. Strike two came when, in my drumsetclass, there were five students besides me—and four of those fivewere beginners who were just learning 8th notes! I felt so heldback in that situation.

"The real breaking point," he continues, "was when, on the firstday of a class, one of my teachers asked me what shoe size I had. Ifigured, 'Wow! This class must involve some serious pedal tech-nique.' As it turned out, the teacher was selling used clothing onthe side, and he wanted to know if I was interested in buyinganything."

Mover soon hopped on the first bus back to his parents' home inPeabody, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. His father, once aprofessional musician himself, was empathetic to the Berklee fi-asco, and agreed to comply with Jonathan's desire to study pri-vately with Chaffee. After about six months of intensive study,Mover expressed an interest in attending PIT on the West Coast, adecision that his parents also consented to. But PIT ultimatelyproved to be another disillusionment.

"They were advertising Peter Erskine and Casey Scheuerell asbeing on staff—two more of my favorite players," he notes. "I wentout there a week before my semester began, while the otherstudents were just finishing up their term. I went into a practiceroom to do some shedding, and the next thing I knew there wereall these drummers asking me, 'Are you one of the teachers com-

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ing in for the next semester?' I was blowing out all the Chaffeechops I had just learned—all the stickings and polyrhythms. Thoseguys hadn't seen any of that during the whole year they werethere."

Upon learning that Erskine wasn't actually teaching there andthat Scheuerell was visiting faculty, Mover opted to go back homeonce again and continue his studies with Chaffee. "I called myfolks when I decided to go back," he laughs, "and said, 'Dad,you're not gonna believe this...'. But he was great about it; bothmy parents have always been supportive."

Mover never took the cover-band route, preferring to practiceon his own, sometimes as much as ten hours a day to compensatefor what he perceived as lost time. "Most of the great drummersI've always looked up to started playing when they were three orfour. I started in my thirteenth year, so I took the attitude that, 'If Iwork twice as hard and practice all day long, I'll have a betteradvantage.' When it came to gigging, I definitely was not intomaking the local band scene just to get exposure. When I wasyounger, I was totally into playing in my basement, studying theChaffee lessons, and accumulating as much knowledge as I could.When I knew that I was ready to go out and play, I split forLondon."

Besides the long-standing passion for British progressive bands,Mover adds that Simon Phillips also prompted his eventual U.K.migration. "After speaking with Simon, who I met at a clinic andwas fortunate enough to spend several hours with, I got a reallygood vibe for London. A few small gigs led from one thing toanother, and I started to establish contacts."

One of those contacts resulted in an audition for Marillion."When I came back to the States after my visa ran out, I got thecall for that audition. I went back to England, got the gig, and did ashort stint with the band."

Marillion was Jonathan's first foray into the all-too-precariousworld of the music industry. He explains: "The day after theaudition, I flew to Germany with them to do a live recording—Ididn't know any of the material, I just went for it—and flew backto England, then on to Wales, where we started writing and re-

cording the next album, Fugazy. I'm not on the record because Iwas in the band for the writing and pre-recording stages only.Anyway, we were writing the material together, but there was aserious personality clash between the lead singer and myself. Thatwas my first eye-opening experience in dealing with a fragile ego.At the time, I didn't know how to handle it, and I was saying,'What's the deal? How come you're acting like a baby?' I knowbetter now how to deal with that, and it was a very good learningexperience for me. At the time, I was this hard-headed wise guywho was cool about everything except working with immaturepeople who have fragile egos. We eventually all decided that itwas better if we didn't work together, so I went back to the States."

Unfortunately, the break was not a clean one, due to royalties."I co-wrote their first Top-20 single, 'Punch And Judy,' as well asanother single of theirs," he says. "I was completely green when itcame to publishing rights and royalties. I had written the songswith them, went back home expecting them to be honest, and thenext thing I knew, they had a hit single and I had an empty pocket.I got screwed out of a lot of money, but I suppose that everybodyhas got to go through that at one point or another. Marillion left abad taste in my mouth as far as the music business went. Oneminute I thought I had my foot in the door, and the next thing Iknew I was back in Boston wondering if I was going to have to goback to selling tuxedoes, which I had done briefly one summer.

"One of the things that got me through that period was an articlein MD on Narada Michael Walden," he adds. "I remember read-ing it over and over again during the rough times in London. Hetalked about having a big gig, losing it, having to work as abellboy in a hotel somewhere, and then getting a great gig withMcLaughlin. I could really relate to that. Another thing he talkedabout were his beliefs in karma: everything you do—good andbad—will come back to you, and that's basically where I'm com-ing from. Marillion had stiffed me, people had stolen equipmentfrom me, or hadn't paid me...but I wasn't going to let those thingschange me. I have always tried to be a really nice guy, to alwaystry to go for the things I want to go for without stepping onanybody. I've always felt that it doesn't pay to badmouth or be

Drumset: Tama Artstar.A. 5 x 14 solid maple snareB. 10 x 10 rack tomC. 11 x 12 rack tomD. 14 x 14 floor tom(mounted on stand)E. 16 x 16 floor tom(mounted on stand)F. 16 x 22 bass drum

Cymbals: Zildjian.1.12" EFX Piggyback2. 16" medium Platinum crash3. 10" A Brilliant splash4. 14" Quick Beat hi-hats5. 17" medium Platinum crash6. 8" A splash7. 20" K Custom ride8. 19" K Brilliant China9. 13" Z hi-hats10. 18" medium-thin Platinum crash

Hardware: All Tama including a 6895 model hi-hat stand, a 6730 model bass drum pedal (wood beater for live use, felt for studio),and a 6899 model floor tom stand. Other percussion items include a mounted Rhythm Tech tambourine and an LP Rock cowbell.Heads: Evans Genera or coated 1000 on snare. Evans Rock Glass on tops of toms, Resonant Glass on bottoms. Evans WOO Glasson batter side of kick, and a black Resonant on front with a 10" hole.Sticks: Zildjian 56 natural wood tip.Electronics: Roland Octapad II in conjunction with an Akai S-900 sampler.

Example 1 is from the GTR album. This is the groove I playedduring the chorus of "Jekyll & Hyde."

Example 2 is also from the GTR album, this being the groovefrom the outro of "Toe The Line." I played the ride cymbal with myleft hand, leaving my right hand free to play toms, gong bass, andcymbal crashes.

Example 3 is yet another from GTR. This example is from theverse of "Imagining," and it follows the vocal melody with a 7-4-8feel in quarter-note time. (The crash cymbal notated in the fourthmeasure is played on a splash cymbal.)

Example 4 is the linear drum break from the song "Ice 9," off ofJoe Satriani's Dreaming #11 album.

by JonathanMover

Example 5 is one of the grooves I played under Joe's guitar solofrom the song "Memories," also from Dreaming #11. It's a running16th-note pattern made up of doubles between the kick and snare.By placing two singles in there, the beat turns around, giving it a9/8-7/8 feel.

Example 6 is from the middle section of "Count Zero," fromStuart Hamm's album The Kings Of Sleep.

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spiteful to people who have hurt you because it just creates morebad feelings in the end.

"Students often ask me at clinics about how to handle it whenthose kinds of things happen," he elaborates, "and I have onepiece of advice for them. I'm not sure who said it, but somebodydid say that this business has a tendency to weed out the weak-lings. If you're not strong enough to endure the hardships, thenyou're not meant to be in it."

Upon his departure from Marillion, Mover returned to Boston,deciding, after nailing down a few more gigs in New York, that hewanted to go back to England with "more permanency in mind."Determined to make his mark abroad, he soon hooked up with ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, with the two later joining with ex-Yes guitarist Steve Howe to form GTR.

The group commenced with rehearsals in November of '84, yettheir debut release didn't surface for another year and a half due topersonal strife between Hackett and Howe. Jonathan explains thatthis experience proved to be such a dissappointment that he hasserious reservations about ever joining a band in terms of anindefinite commitment, a feeling that he still harbors to this day. "Idon't think I'll ever get into an actual band situation again," hesays somewhat remorsefully, "unless everything concerning thegroup was divided equally amongst its members. When you be-long to a group, you're working with each other all of the time, soit's like a marriage. If everyone is not getting their fair share, itmakes it real tough. GTR was especially tough for two reasons:They were so lethargic that it took long periods to get anythingdone. I was with them for a little more than two years, and in thattime we only got one album and one average-sized tour in. Mostgroups would have accomplished twice that much."

Personality conflicts once again rendered problems. "The twoSteves didn't get along, so it was like working with two children.They had different ways of working, and neither would cooperateto find a happy medium. At first I thought, 'Wow! Working withtwo legends like Howe and Hackett is serious shit!' But from dayone, they would complain about sitting next to each other on theplane, about having their own limos...ridiculous things were al-wavs a hassle, and the rest of the band always ended up in the

middle."Another thing that I prefer about not being in a band," he

continues, "is that I like to keep myself open to playing with otherpeople. While in GTR, I was under contract not to work withanybody else. There I was, finished with all my drum tracks andmy percussion overdubs within one week, while the rest of thealbum took nine months to complete. I basically had eight and ahalf months of sitting-around time."

Jonathan put that downtime to productive ends, observing therecording and production processes, which are of major interest tohim. "Production, aside from drumming and songwriting," hebegins, "is the only thing that interests me musically. I spent thoseeight months picking up as much as I could watching [producer]Geoffrey Downes do the arrangements and effects, controlling theboard, syncing things up, adding and subtracting tracks. Everytime I go into a studio, in fact, I'll check out the effects situation,the miking—all of that."

After the album release and the tour in late '86, it was apparentto everyone involved that GTR's days were numbered. "After thetour of the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Hackett and Howe werefighting like cats and dogs—the whole childish deal, the wholetime—and we found ourselves back in England planning the nextalbum amongst more conflict. I said, 'I'm just not into this.' So Iflew back here, took some time off during the Christmas holidaysto think, and as soon as I was ready to do something I hooked upwith Joe Satriani."

In between GTR and Satriani, Mover did some other gigs, in-cluding playing with Mike Oldfield for a spell. "I was fortunate togo in and replace Simon [Phillips]. I was playing lefty at the timebecause I had to sync up to the parts that Simon played on theoriginal tracks, which were ridiculous. He has hands and feetgoing every which way, and it's all flawless. It was a good workouttrying to cop what he was doing."

Jonathan initially met guitarist Satriani when their mutual equip-ment manufacturer set up a jam session. Mover soon joined thetrio as a performing member and toured in support of Not Of ThisEarth, the breakthrough Surfing With The Alien, and this year'sDreaming #11. "Joe's music covers everything," Jonathan says."Every gig we play we do thrashing punk, funk, metal, a little bit ofjazz, blues, fusion, and we even do a boogie. Plus, I get to play alot of the Chaffee chops: the linear stuff, a lot of the sticking, someof the easier polymetric figures, and a lot of four-way independ-ence, because I also play the sitar, guitar, keyboard, and percus-sion lines with the Octapad. So I've got one arm doing thoseeffects, and one arm playing the kit; it's a lot of fun. Joe originallybrought up the idea of maybe bringing in a fourth person to playthose parts, but I said 'No, I'll do it.' I think it's really neat, and itlooks real good, too. And, dare I say, people were calling us theMahavishnu of the late '80s. I can see the other two falling in thatcategory; I'm certainly no competition for Mr. Cobham. But it wasthrilling being called that, and when you have that kind of reac-tion from people, you want to maintain that level and take it evenfurther.

"On a couple of songs, Stu [Hamm, bassist] employs this two-handed tapping technique where one hand is covering the rhythmand the other is playing melody and guitar lines. He's doing twoparts, I'm doing two parts with the effects, and Joe is covering therest. It adds that much more to a live show. Bands usually go outwith tape loops, Fairlights, and extra people to cut what the threeof us do on our own."

Mover has worked in a variety of band configurations. Whenasked if he cites a distinction between, say, a conventional five-piece rock-band format and a power trio such as Satriani, heresponds that the differences are quite radical on a creative level."With GTR, I had specific parts to play," Jonathan explains. "Icould wander a little bit—I could change a few fills here andthere—but in some cases, I needed to play those parts. Whenyou've got that many people in a band with everybody doing

Example 7 is also from The Kings Of Sleep. This is the groovefrom the verse of "Call Of The Wild." The hi-hat was played withthe left hand, with the exception of the open 8th note, which wasplayed with the right.

Paul McCartney's new album, Flowers InThe Dirt, features some excellent drum-ming. You wouldn't expect anything less.The experience, resources, time, and carespent on a recording by an artist of thisstature would indicate top quality in alldepartments. However, there are alwaysthings that stand out, and for me one ofthese is the drumming on "That Day IsDone." It's a slow 1 2/8 song with a"gospelly" feel to it—not the type of trackon which you would necessarily expect tohear a drummer "struttin' his stuff." Thereagain, when a drummer is showing whathe can do, there is a danger that it can beat the expense of the song. So when youhear drumming like this, which is neverobtrusive but is still breathtaking, it is dou-bly impressive. Listen to the feel of "ThatDay Is Done," to the sound and touch ofthe backbeat, to the closed snare-drum rollsand open tom-tom rolls, to the controlledplaying of an open-sounding bass drum, tothe way the drummer introduces just theright degree of tension while still layingback, and you'll see what I mean.

The drummer in question is Chris Whit-ten, a 29-year-old Londoner who is nostranger to the world of top-class record-ing. Chris is one of a series of brilliantyoung British players who have taken the"studio route" and eventually landed jobswith major artists. His path to the McCart-ney gig took him through sessions with TheWaterboys (This Is The Sea album, with"The Whole Of The Moon"), Julian Cope(Saint Julian—"World Shut Your Mouth" and"Trampolene"), The Pretenders (two tracksfor the James Bond movie The LivingDaylights), Swing Out Sister, and manyothers. Most notably, since joining McCart-ney, Chris played on Shooting RubberbandsAt The Stars by Edie Brickell & The NewBohemians.

This interview took place in the week inwhich Flowers In The Dirt was released.Chris was busy rehearsing with Paul for theforthcoming tour. The other members ofthe band are Linda McCartney (backingvocals, keyboards, and percussion), HamishStuart (rhythm and bass guitars, and back-ing vocals), Robbie Mclntosh (lead guitarand backing vocals), and Wix on keyboards.Paul himself is playing bass, of course, and

also some guitar and piano—hence Ha-mish's doubling role.

You might imagine that a studio playerwho has seen and done a lot will be (or atleast try to appear to be) cool to the extentof being blase, regardless of how big the"name" is that he is working with. But notso Chris; he is obviously loving every min-ute. His enthusiasm transcends mere loy-alty. He is delighted with the album, over-joyed to be in the band, and he's evenecstatic about his drumkit, which is a nicechange from the "The manufacturer givesthem to me, the roadie sets them up andtunes them, and I play 'em" attitude thatyou sometimes find.

While on the subject of roadies, I mustacknowledge the help of Chris's man, AdamNightingale. Adam's enthusiasm reflectsChris's own; and beyond the normal call ofduty he did everything he could to helpwith this piece, from drawing diagrams ofthe kit to organizing a photo session.SG: An obvious question to start with: Howdid you get the gig with Paul McCartney?CW: It came about through word of mouth.I knew a record producer called SimonBoswell; Simon knew Paul's personal sec-retary at MPL, Sheila Jones. Paul had toldthe people in the office that he wanted tofind some new musicians to jam with—justfor fun—and Sheila mentioned me. So I gota call to go to a rehearsal room in SouthLondon to have a jam with Paul McCart-ney. Of course, I was tremendously ex-cited. When Paul arrived he said that hewanted to play some old rock 'n' roll stuff,and as that's not my forte, I was on theedge of my seat all the time. We played forabout four hours—things like "Lucille" and"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"—andbecause I was so keyed-up the time wentby in a flash. I thought, "I hope that's notthe last time I'll get to meet or play withhim!" There was a guitarist and keyboardplayer there—not well-known people, justnew people Paul wanted to jam with.

A couple of weeks later, I got anothercall from Paul's manager saying that Paulhad enjoyed our jam, and would I be inter-ested in doing it again? So we did it again,and then I got a further call inviting me toanother one; but this time the other peoplewere different. Paul was having these ses-

sions once or twice a week. There were avariety of people coming along, but Iseemed to be doing just about all of them.SG: Did it seem apparent by this time thathe was putting a new band together, andyou had been chosen?CW: Well, it was made apparent by thepeople around him that he wanted to puttogether a new band to do a tour. He hadtold some people that he enjoyed playingwith me, but that was all. He knew that hewas going to be doing these jams for acouple of months, so he wasn't going tomake up his mind until the end.

This was in July of '87, and I was due togo off on tour with Julian Cope in August.As nothing has been said, I told his man-ager that I had to go off for a few weeks. Iasked whether he'd like a phone numberwhere I could be contacted. He said, "Thatwon't be necessary; if we need to contactyou we can do it when you get back inSeptember." But about two weeks into thetour there were frantic phone calls to allthe hotels I was staying in saying, "CallMPL, immediately!" So at about 7:30 inthe morning in Portland, Oregon, I pickedup the phone to London and was told,"Paul really enjoyed playing with you. Willyou be able to do some more work withhim in September?" They weren't askingme to join a band, just to do some morework; but from the time I got back from theJulian Cope tour I was really part of theoutfit.

It was really just Paul and me for the firsttwo or three months; he was still tryingother people out. We got into promoting asingle, and All The Best, which was a "bestof" album; so we did some of Paul's Wingsmaterial. By that time I felt like part of apermanent lineup, but nothing was reallysaid. Really, the first few times I playedwith him I didn't want to be disappointed,so I just assumed that nothing would comeof it, and it would be a nice surprise ifanything did.

By the time we started work on the Flow-ers In The Dirt album in January '88, Ha-mish Stuart from The Average White Bandhad joined us, and for a long time there

by Simon Goodwin

Getting The Good Calls

was just the three of us. Then during themaking of the album Robbie Mclntosh, theguitarist from The Pretenders, came downto do some overdubs. We really liked himand decided we'd like him in the band.Wix, the keyboard player, didn't come onboard until we'd finished the album andstarted rehearsing for the tour. It's strangethat the drummer was the first person Paulfound.SG: It would seem logical that he puts a lotof importance in the choice of drummer.CW: Yes, I suppose so. He's a really gooddrummer himself. He's got a great feel; it'sfun to hear him play. I'm flattered to beplaying with him. It's a dream come true!SG: With that in mind, how much freedomdo you have with drum parts when you arerehearsing new material?CW: It's a 50/50 thing. Paul is the song-writer, and he's also a bass player who canplay drums. With that combination you'dexpect him to have some clear ideas aboutwhat he wants. But we work together onthings and try things out, like any otherbass-and-drums team. Paul is quite recep-tive to my ideas.SG: Was Flowers In The Dirt the first re-cording you did with Paul?CW: Actually there was something we didduring that July before I went off on theCope tour. We were doing all the old rock'n' roll stuff, and Paul and his managerdecided that it would be fun to record someof it. So I came down to Paul's studio andwe did 18 numbers in one day. It becamePaul's Russian album. It was number onein Russia, and it's been highly sought-afterbootleg elsewhere.

SG: Why wasn't it released elsewhere?CW: Paul decided that it would be a goodidea to do something specially for the Rus-sians, as they normally get everything aboutfive years after everybody else. It woulddevalue that, to put it out anywhere else—although he has put some of the tracks as"B" sides. There are a couple of the trackson the 12" single of "My Brave Face." Theoriginal idea was to do the album for fun,to see if we could do an album in a day,like the Beatles used to do. After that, Paulsaid, "Why don't we send it to Russia?" Sothat's what we did!

That was the first time I was in the studiowith him, but it was a pretty peculiar expe-rience. There was no getting a drum soundor anything like that. I just set the drums upand did 18 tracks straight off! When westarted working on Flowers in The Dirt inJanuary '88 it was a different ballgame al-together. We took about a year over it,although we weren't in the studio all thetime. We had time off, and Paul has otherprojects to work on as well. He's workingon a film soundtrack, and some classicalmusic with Carl Davis.SG: Paul McCartney produces Rupert Bearcartoon films as well.CW: Yes. The first Rupert cartoon was justa "short," but it was phenomenally suc-cessful as a children's video. It was thebest-selling video ever, before the "Thriller"video came along and knocked it off thenumber-one spot. He's planing to do an-other, full-length feature film of Rupert.

I recorded a track for that with him. Itwas a jazzy sort of thing with brushes anda brass section. It was funny really, be-

cause I hadn't been with Paul for very long,and there I was in the studio with all thesejazz musicians and Paul playing the piano,with George Martin arranging. It was quitea shock; but luckily by the time they'dworked out the arrangements, I'd had afew takes so that I could work out the drumpart. If they'd banged it off the first take, I'dhave been in at the deep end, but as it wasI had a chance to get it down. That was abit of an experience: being in the studiowith Paul McCartney and George Martinquite early on.SG: Flowers In The Dirt was recorded at avariety of times with a variety of people.Can you tell us something about this?CW: The first things we did were the num-bers with Elvis Costello. These had Pauland Elvis co-producing, and they wantedsomething rough and ready. There wasn'tmuch time spent on the drum sound. Wewere using old BBC microphones, and allplaying together live. At one point Elvissaid to me, "Haven't you got any othercymbals? Those sound too good." [laughs]We spent about three weeks doing that. Acouple of those tracks, "That Day Is Done"and "Don't Be Careless Love," are on thealbum. I like them a lot; there's a good feel.

The next phase was with Geoff Emerick,the engineer who used to work with theBeatles. We spent a lot of time with him inthe studio actually working songs out andarranging them, and there was the feelingof "Now we're really working on an al-bum." Then toward the end an Americanproducer, Mitchell Froom, who had workedwith Crowded House and also Elvis Cos-tello, came over to do some work on the

Drumset: Noble & Cooley in black finish.5 x 14 snare3 1/2 x 14 piccolo (Pearl)6 x 12 rack tom7 x 14 rack tom8 x 16 rack tom16 x 22 bass drum

Cymbals: Zildjian13" K hi-hats16" K Brilliant dark crash12" splash17" K Brilliant dark crash18" K Brilliant heavy ride with rivets20" K Custom ride18" K Brilliant dark crash

Hardware: Pearl stands including a hi-hat standand a customized rack system. Drum Workshopdouble pedal.Heads: Evans Uno 58 1000 with coated surfaceon snare. Evans Uno 58 1000 Class on tops andbottoms of toms, as well as on the bass drum.Sticks: Regal 7B (wood tip).Electronics: Roland Pad 80 Octapad inconjunction with an Akai S1000 sampler.

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Elvis Costello co-writes: "YouWant Her Too" and "My BraveFace," as well as tidying up"Don't Be Careless Love." Wealso had Neil Dorfsman whoengineered the last Dire Straitsalbum as well as Sting's album.He is quite a heavyweight.Working with him, I got the bestdrum sound I'd ever had. Hehas his own miking system: Hemikes the toms top and bottom,and he uses a contact mic'through a gate on the snaredrum. He has a Calrec sound-field stereo microphone to pickup the whole kit as well. Thatwas meticulous, and it was alldone digitally, the completeantithesis of the way we'dstarted the album.SG: There's a variety of drumsounds on the album. Was thisall done with acoustic drumsand mic's, or did you use someelectronic additives?CW: No, it's all acoustic drums.Most of the album was mixedby Neil Dorfsman. He variedthe sounds by putting themthrough some different EQ units.We had ambience tracks on themasters, and by using various elements ofthat he could change things. But becausethe album was recorded using differentlineups and different producers, we gotquite a variety of sounds generally; it wasn'tjust the drums.

On Paul's encouragement we tried somefairly wacky things like putting tea towelsover the drums to get that '60s sound. Also,I like to vary things, like using a ringy snaredrum sound on aggressively rocky tracks,and changing my cymbal setup for differ-ent numbers. On "Distractions" Paul wassinging and I was playing simultaneously.He asked me to play as quietly as possible.I had bongos set up on the left-hand side ofthe kit, and instead of playing the backbeaton the snare drum, I was playing the bon-gos with my left stick, so I'd have bassdrum, hi-hat, and bongos; then in the cho-ruses I'd switch over to the snare drum. Iwas playing it as quietly as I could; theyhad the gain turned up on the desk, andyou get a lot of "air" around the drums. It'sa totally different atmosphere. A lot of theseideas come from Paul; he's been recordingfor so many years and he's done more orless everything there is to do.SG: Dave Mattacks plays drums on one ofthe tracks.CW: Yeah, on "We Got Married." Paul ac-tually recorded that with Dave about fouryears ago, and it has been "in the can" eversince. The 12 numbers that found their way

onto the album were selected from about30 possibles, and "We Got Married" wasconsidered worthy of inclusion. But theydid a bit of tinkering with it to bring thesound a bit more up to the minute.SG: Something that I found rather disap-pointing is the use of drum machines onthe three numbers with an ethnic feel:"Rough Ride," "Ou Est Le Soliel," and "HowMany People." Wouldn't these have beenfun to play?CW: Yes. I was disappointed about that aswell. Actually "Ou Est Le Soliel" came outof a complete computer program, and"Rough Ride" was done just before I hookedup with Paul, so I don't mind so muchabout them. These things were done by theproduction team of Trevor Horn and SteveLipson. They've got a thing about drum-mers; they feel a lot more comfortable withdrum machines, because they can changethings at any given moment, even just be-fore they mix it, they can change all thedrum patterns; whereas if they've got a realdrum track they're stuck with it.

They were coming down to do "FigureOf Eight" and they were saying, "Okay,

we'll bring all our computers anddrum machines." Paul said, "No,look...I've found this really gooddrummer and I want to use him,"and they were going, "Hmmmm.Well...."SG: You are playing drums on"Figure Of Eight," but it looks asif you only did overdubs on"How Many People."CW: That's Trevor and Steveagain, wanting to do it their way.But when it came to mixing it,Paul wanted Neil Dorfsman todo it, and he reckoned it neededa more human feel. That's why Iended up doing the cymbals andsynth drums on it—to give it abit more spice.SG: Are you playing the drummachine parts of the kit for thetour?CW: Yes. "Rough Ride" is rea-sonably easy, but on "How ManyPeople" they've got two drummachine programs going. That'sdrumkit and percussion, so it'squite tough to play. Paul didmention early on in the rehears-als that maybe we should do anumber with a drum machineon stage, just for a change. I

wouldn't mind doing that; it would giveme a rest and give a different sound. Butwe haven't done that yet, and I don't knowwhether we will, because Paul seems quitepleased with the way the drum machineparts have made the transition to beingplayed live.SG: There isn't a percussionist in the lineup?CW: Not specifically. Linda will be playingshaker or tambourine parts when a veryfull percussion sound is needed. But forthings like cowbell parts, I'm covering thoseon the Octapad. The sounds are on anAkai S1000 sampler—sampled off the rec-ord whenever possible. We've gone to theextent of getting some of the Wings master-tapes and getting the original sounds fromthose—for keyboards as well as for percus-sion. I'm trying to work it in by playing itwith one hand, while keeping the drumkitpart going with the other hand.SG: I notice that you sing a few tracks onFlowers In The Dirt. Will you be doing thaton the tour?CW: No, not as things stand. When wewere doing the album it was just Paul,Hamish, and myself a lot of the time, and

Try to get the song right as early as youcan so that you can capture the live feel."

byRobynFlans

Photosby

RickMalkin

Utter chaos greeted me at the Henry J.Kaiser arena in Oakland, where I was totalk with the two Doobie Brother drum-mers, John Hartman and Michael Hossack,and percussionist Bobby LaKind. Alreadythe band's first single, "The Doctor," wasclimbing the charts, and their album hadskyrocketed to number 26 in its secondweek. I couldn't get three Doobies to sitstill for an hour. This photo had to be taken,and that photo, as well as another inter-view—or two—and when they weren'tcaught in the rapidly moving publicitywheel, they were supposed to be rehears-ing.

This Doobie Brothers band is pretty muchthe one that had such hits as "Listen To TheMusic," "Jesus Is Just Alright," "ChinaGrove," "Black Water," and "Another Park,Another Sunday." After Michael Hossackdeparted in 1974, the band continued tohave such hits as "Take Me In Your Arms(Rock Me)," "Wheels Of Fortune," "Takin'It To The Streets," "It Keeps You Runnin',""Echoes Of Love," and "You Belong To Me."(While Keith Knudsen is listed as a band-member on What Were Once Vices AreNow Habits, his first recording effort withthe band was not until 1975's Stampede.)John Hartman left after Minute By Minute,which included the title track, "Here ToLove You," "What A Fool Believes," and"Dependin' On You." Chet McCrackenjoined Knudsen until the Doobies' 1982Farewell Tour. By then the band's rock roots,apparent in songs like "China Grove" andinfluenced by Tom Johnston and Pat Sim-mons, were slightly watered down by themore R&B tone of Michael McDonald-in-fluenced tracks like "What A Fool Believes"and "Minute By Minute." It was a musicalmarriage that ultimately worked, but at theend it was fairly obvious that the originalDoobies were nowhere to be found.

In 1987, Keith Knudsen put together ashort Doobie Brothers reunion tour to bene-fit the Vietnam vets. All four Doobies drum-mers, plus LaKind, who began recordingwith the band on Takin' It To The Streets,were set up on a 40-foot long drum risercomplete with four drumkits. They basi-cally stuck to the dual drummer arrange-ment, with Hartman and Hossack playingon some tunes together, Hartman andKnudsen doubling up, and Knudsen andMcCracken playing at various times, withall four drummers joining in for "Listen ToThe Music."

That event planted the seeds for whatwas to come. Roberta Peterson and herbrother Ted Templeman, producer of allDoobies records up to that point, were inthe audience, and they encouraged the ideaof the original band getting back together.When push came to shove, however, theband was slightly insulted when WarnerBros., the original label for whom they hadsold millions of records, wanted to hear ademo of new material before re-signingthem. Capitol didn't care, though, seem-ingly more behind the band, so they settledthere.

Naturally, Templeman, now Senior VicePresident/Director A&R at Warner Bros.,was not able to produce the Doobies' newrecords, Cycles, a somewhat sore point withLaKind, who says, "I wanted him to do it. Imade a lot of records with Teddy over theyears, and he's brilliant as far as I'm con-cerned. The cat knows how to make rec-ords. He wasa percussionist,basically, a realgood drummer,so consequentlythere was al-ways a lot ofcare taken withthe drums andpercussion. Heloved using con-gas on basictracks, whereasa lot of peoplewould just putthem on later. Iloved playinglive because Ifelt really part ofit. That's whyI resisted themethod this time. I wasn'tgoing to get to play onthe basic tracks, so I wasafraid we wouldn't get thatfeel, but I was wrong. I hada good time doing that, too."

I was still trying to play"Match the Doobie" with theold record jackets I had withme when they began to file infor our interview. The only prob-lem was that Toulouse Street is17 years old, and I flunked thegame miserably. Hartman,, wholooks like an overweight biker onthe cover of that record, now sportsshort hair and a leather jacket thatmakes him look well-groomed andactually in much better shape than 17years ago. Recognizing Hossack waseven tougher, though. While he wasskinny with long, past-the-shoulder blondehair on the album cover, he has filled outnicely with considerably less hair thesedays.

Cycles, an obviously good name for analbum that has returned a group to its ori-gin, shows signs of the passage of time. AsLaKind mentioned, the recording procedurethis time out reflects today's technology,but not so much as to make it uncomfort-able for a group that once was the epitomeof a Hell's Angels biker band. In fact, it hasbeen intimated that the initial producers ofthe project, Charlie Midnight and EddieSchwartz, were so caught up in technologythat the band ultimately had to get RodneyMills to complete the venture.

Still, Hossack managed to convince ev-eryone to record with the Simmons SDX."It has the nine zone-sensitive pads," ex-plains Hossack. "We had Don Frank runthe system for us. He gave us our kits the

way we like to hear our drums, right thereon pads, and it was just like playing aregular kit. With that kind of system, everynuance, every grace note, everything youplay comes through—just like playing on aregular kit. That's a part of the new tech-nology that I love. In the old days, thedrummer brought in his kit, they fired up

the old tape ma-chine, he put that part

down, and that was that. Hehad to live with it. These days

you can play your part and put it on adisk; it doesn't have to go to tape rightaway. As the song changes, you can alteryour part to fit."

"We agonized over this," LaKind admits."I can recall two three-hour phone conver-sations with Michael, arguing about it. Ithought we should use it, but not as much.But finally he said, 'How many sessionshave you done? A hundred?' 'Yeah.' 'Youlike what you played?' 'Yeah.' 'Would youlike to change some of it if you had theopportunity?' 'Yeah, there are a couple ofthings.' And he said, 'Why can't I have thatfreedom?' And that was it," Bobby says,adding that he also used an Alesis machinefor a clave, a cabasa, and a handclap on acouple of things.

"I was another faction against it," Hart-man chimes in. "We had a single drumset

set up in pad form with live cymbals, and Ican't stand pads. It was Michael's idea, butI went with it because I knew the editingwas going to be a certain way. He hadbeen playing pads, so he had the edge. It'stotally different from playing acousticdrums, so I was at a disadvantage, but Isqueaked through it and it worked out

did before," LaKind continues. "I used theshekere a lot on this record, for example.

When I was playing in a band calledthe Bonedaddies in L.A., I

started playing shekere alot. On 'Take Me To

The Highway,' itreally creates

a mood."

fine. We actually had to do quadruple theamount of work to get the drums human-sounding. I must say I think there are sometracks we should have done acoustically,simply because the song warranted it, like'One Chain,' because it's a Motown songand needs a nasty kind of sound. But be-cause of time limitations, we couldn't do it.There's something to be said about acous-tic drums, though. Like acoustic guitar,there's a feeling, a warmth that electronicscan't duplicate. I'm kind of a purist in thatway, but it turned out okay."

Hartman played "One Chain" and didsome cymbal work with Hossack on theother songs. "We conferred on a couple ofdrum parts, like on 'The Doctor,' where wetalked about the part and then I went inand played it," Michael explains. "Therewere maybe two others where we did thatkind of thing, and the rest I played."

Hossack says he particularly likes "I CanRead Your Mind" because of the percus-sion break in the middle, about which La-Kind says, "For a long time, Patrick had apercussion concept for 'I Can Read YourMind.' Originally he wanted a whole sec-tion to do it. As it turned out, I ended updoing it and Patrick basically produced it. Imight have played certain things differently,but Patrick said, 'I want this to go here andthis to go there.' Still, the band has thefreedom to give input.

"On the record, there are two conga parts.There's one that's like a samba and onethat's like a marcha, and there are tim-bales, shekere, and tambourine over that,so there's no way I alone can create thatlive. Having three people, I can play thebasic rhythm and John can enhance it withcowbell and timbales, and then it soundslike the record.

"We did stuff on this record that we never

carry that idea to this and try to keep reallygood time. With us, somebody'll start some-thing, and boom, it'll just lock. There aredrum fills or little drum sections or signa-ture licks that we'll work out. Other thanthat, we'll try to listen to each other andcomplement each other and try to get asclose to the same beat as we can."

"It worked out with Michael from dayone," Hartman recalls. "He was a differentstyle than I was. He was more strict in hisplaying performance and I was looser; he'dplay square and I'd play oblong. His play-ing was more jazz and my playing wasmore rock. It's not good or bad, just differ-ent. He came from a parade, marching bandbackground and plays the set like a jazzplayer. You can really tell us apart, butwhen we play together it's a neat comple-ment."

Who better to talk about the early daysof the Doobie Brothers with than foundingmember John Hartman? It was LawrenceWelk and American Bandstand that firstinterested the nine-year-old Hartman in thedrums. John took his first lessons from amilitary jazz drummer named Lou Stovallwhile on the island of Guam, where hisfather was stationed. (Aside from a briefperiod of time when teacher Mike Baltertoured with the Doobies in the mid-'70s,these were his only formal lessons.) Johnloved the island and played drums to theshort-wave radio so he could keep up withthe world's music, but when his parentsordered him a Premier set for Christmas, ittook six months to arrive.

When the family moved to Maryland,John continued to play to the radio andwas in high school band and orchestrawhen he wasn't out playing football. "Prettysoon I realized I wasn't going to go any-where," John recalls. "When Moby Crapecame through Washington D.C., I had achance to talk to Skip Spence. When I fi-nally realized I had to get out of there,career-wise, I worked in a real job thatpaid enough money to get an airplane ticketto San Francisco. I got cases for my drums,packed up, and said, 'See ya, folks.'"

Once in the Bay area, the 18-year-oldHartman. and his bass player pal GregMurphy auditioned with Peter Lewis ofMoby Grape, got nowhere, and went toSpence, who suggested they contact a gui-tar player down the street.

"So I went down the street and talked toTom [Johnston], and we played in the liv-ing room one day," John recalls. "It wasGreg on bass, Tom, and me, and we justjammed. That's when the band started. Tomwas in college and had no concept, but Isaid, 'Look, there's something about thiswhole thing that could really go some-where. It's a lot of fun, there's a lot ofenergy, and something is happening here.Let's go with it.'"

The trio called themselves Pud (laterbringing in three horn players) and playedevery pizza joint and parking lot known to

Bobby saysthat in this con-figuration he is freer to be more creativeand describes his role these days as that ofcoloring more than anything else. "When Ifirst started playing on Doobie Brothersrecords, Teddy Templeman loved my play-ing, almost to being a detriment," Bobbylaughs. "There was a Rolling Stone reviewwhere they said, 'Although Bobby LaKindis an excellent percussionist,' which wasgreat to see in print, 'Templeman, enoughis enough. You'd use him on Tchaikovsky.Can't you make a record without this guy?'But Teddy felt I had a street feel and that Iwas kind of the glue. When Michael Hos-sack was playing drums, a percussionistwould have been wonderful, but not a ne-cessity. After Michael left the band, I thinkTeddy felt that they needed me to kind ofround it out, to glue it in. So I saw my roleas a team player, locking it down.

"I'm freer now to do more things. Whenyou have a really solid drummer, you'remore comfortable to take some chances. IfI want to play a crazy kind of fill, I don'thave any qualms about doing it, whereasbefore, I had to really lock it all down andallow the drummers to use that as a fabricto play on. You can hear on the new recordthat I took some chances."

Hossack says that he and Hartman havealways naturally alternated roles. "It justdepends on the song," he says. "A lot of itgoes without saying. I have this built-inmetronome, which I guess goes back to thedrum & bugle corps. When you march,everything has to be to a certain meter. I

Doobieslive at

StarwoodAmphi-

theatre,Nashville

What is PureCussion? If you've been readingModern Drummer over the past few yearsyou've undoubtedly seen their products—not only in advertisements, but more thanlikely being used by many of today's topdrummers. In answer to the question, Pure-Cussion is a company that (primarily) manu-factures two of the most innovative anduseful drumming-related products intro-duced in several years: the RIMS mountingsystem, and their own PureCussion Drums.

PureCussion's headquarters are locatedin Minneapolis, Minnesota. All business ac-tivities, sales, product assembly, and re-search and development take place at thislocation. PureCussion is nestled within theindustrial complex of its parent company,Quadion Corporation. According to Pure-Cussion's president, Bruce A. Carlson,Quadion was directly responsible in thecreation of PureCussion. "Quadion Corpo-ration is a third-generation, privately-heldmanufacturing company that got its startright after World War II in close-tolerance,precision-molded rubber components. Itsmain company at the time was MinnesotaRubber Company, and so, as companiesoften do, they diversified. They also have atool and die-casting company. The ownerand CEO is Robert W. Carlson, Jr., who, bythe way, is no relation to me. He's a young,entrepreneurial type of guy who looks forother business opportunities from time totime. Back in 1984, he was approached toenter into an exclusive licensing patenttrademark agreement relating to RIMSdrum-mount technology from the inventor,Gary Cauger. Carlson realized that some ofhis own companies could provide many ofthe parts used in the construction of RIMS,and that appealed to him. So they startedPureCussion in December of 1984."

Since taking on that position, Bruce'sresponsibilities have been varied. "Well,"he says, "it's changed a little bit from dayone. We have a company motto where wetell our people that you have to work hard,keep a sense of humor, and be dedicatedto change—and we've gone through a lotof change since October of '87. At thattime I was basically responsible for reor-ganizing the company. We had five em-ployees, and since have added six more,plus Gary Gauger.

"That total reorganization happened overthe space of approximately eight months.At that time we made a significant move bygoing after and hiring Walt Johnston, whohas added the credibility to PureCussionthat it lacked for many years. With Walt,

we have gotten closer to the heartbeat ofdrummers and the drumming industry. Heis a very well-respected, old-line musicianand business person who has been in themusic industry a long time. So with Walt asthe Vice President of Sales and Operations,it allows me to stay away from the day-to-day type of things, and allows him to bringhis operating expertise into the company.He basically helps in every facet of theoperation. His responsibilities includedomestic sales and distribution policies,developing the sales program, expandingour product base, acquiring new lines,courtesy and discount programs, and artistrelations. Walt also coordinates productdevelopment with Gary Gauger, and healso has input into marketing and advertis-ing. So he's an integral part of PureCussionnow."

Many of MD's readers will be familiarwith Walt Johnston through his long tenureas President of the Pearl Drum Company.Walt came to PureCussion in June of 1988,and his expertise in the drum industry hasgiven PureCussion an added boost and hashelped focus the direction of the company.The first area Walt concentrated on whenhe came to PureCussion was the company'smethod of distribution. "That was a seriousproblem," he recalls. "We had a major dis-tributor, but since they were so big, wewere very small to them. Therefore, Ithought our best efforts would be in directsales. And it's proven true; our sales aredoing very well.

"A big change that is happening—andsomething I thought should have happenedtwo years ago—is the creation of our newdrumset, the NE series. This new series willallow any drumhead to be used on thePureCussion drumkit. Up to this point wecould only use PTS heads, which have built-in limitations. It was all able to happenbefore I arrived, but no one was pushingit."

Another area that the V.P. is involvedwith is new product designs. However, Waltis quick to credit the people he works with."The engineers with Minnesota Rubber dothe drawings. We've got a guy who designssomething for one of the space shuttlesdoing our artistic drawings, the prints, andstuff like that. I just point out the needs,marketing-wise: 'Here's what the consumerneeds, and how can you get it?' GaryGauger is the one who does the testing onthe products to make sure they're right.

"I'm involved with a little research anddevelopment, and I've been focusing lately

on the marching area. Our drum is so light-weight that, to me, it seems that a march-ing drummer could carry a lot more of ourdrums than other brands, and it's provingtrue. This whole area is new to us, but Ifeel that it's an area that we should be in,because our product works in that situ-ation. I'm going to be pushing very heavilyon this."

Obviously PureCussion is a growingcompany that has gone through an exten-sive restructuring over the last few years. Indiscussing the growth of the company,Bruce Carlson states, "We didn't hire allthe people at once, granted. But, quitefrankly, we needed to make the investmentin people to service the market in a profes-sional and efficient way. So it began togrow within itself: We got the warehouseorganized and the purchasing systemsdown. That helped the morale of the salespeople. They were getting more excited,and so we brought in another sales person.We began opening it up very aggressivelyto foreign markets, and that has increased.Then we found that we needed anotherassembler to keep the warehouse organ-ized, on time, and neat.

"We went on to change the look andimage of the product and of the company.We started an ad campaign, which we wentto New York in spring of '88 to come upwith, and that came out in magazines infall of '88. So then we had to expand oursales, and in order to do that, we broughtin Walt Johnston. Then our manual officesystems needed to be reorganized. We gotcomputers and entirely new accountingsoftware. So we had to get a bookkeeper, asecretary, and a receptionist. We had onlyone person doing everything before. So itkind of grew by itself."

The people in charge at PureCussion musthave believed strongly in the products ofthe company to invest the time, money,and other resources to stick with it throughthis transition period, and Bruce admits,"We had tremendous belief. Our productsare very exclusive, unique, and they work.The very first RIMS that Gary Gauger madeavailable for sale is still being used. Theintegrity of the product and of Gary Gauger,the practicality of the product, and the factthat it has worldwide patent protection,made us realize that we had to continue."

The entire history of PureCussion is di-rectly connected to one man—drummerand inventor Gary Gauger. It was from hisfirst company, Gauger Percussion, and hisfirst commercially successful product, the

RIMS mounting system, that PureCussionwas created. The story of RIMS goes backseveral years. "Gary Gauger actually madehis first attempt at drum suspension back in1972," says Walt Johnston. "The first de-sign didn't work. But this was his first at-tempt to isolate resonance. The conceptwas, how do you hold the drum withoutimpeding it from vibrating? Gary made sev-eral attempts to find the best way to sus-pend the drum until he came up with thefinal version, the one we produce today."

Gauger began making working modelsin his garage, and interested RUSS Kunkelin one. "I guess RUSS was his first endorserwho really gave it a test, and he wasthrilled," Johnston says. "From that point,and while still working in his garage, Gary

made RIMS mounts for other people. It gotto the point where too many people wantedRIMS, and he had to get an SBA loan. Withthat he started Gauger Percussion. The busi-ness became bigger and bigger, but he gotto the point where he couldn't get anymore money.

"A promoter Gary knew named KeithChristiansen introduced Gary to BobCarlson, and that's how PureCussion wasstarted. The initial idea behind PureCus-sion Drums was to combine a RIMS mountwith the newly created PTS drumheads fromRemo."

Since RIMS are at the foundation of Pure-Cussion's success, Walt was happy to dis-cuss how they work. "RIMS allow the drumto vibrate much more freely than conven-

tional hardware. Most drummers have ex-perienced the difference in sound betweena tom-tom when it's played while beingheld by the rim with your fingers and whenit's mounted on the stand or bass drum inthe usual manner. The drum rings a lotmore when held with the fingers.

"I was a fan of RIMS for a number ofyears before I started here, but when I wasat Pearl they would not use them. The Japa-nese philosophy on that is rather pointed:'If we offer RIMS with our product, we'retelling people that our product doesn'tsound good without RIMS.' I wanted totake RIMS on as an OEM [original equip-ment manufacture, which means they areavailable through the drum manufactureras an option] product for Pearl. Many of

President Bruce A. Carlson with Vice-president Walt Johnston inPureCussion's large stockroom.

Cary Cauger, inventor of both RIMS and PureCussion Drums

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the Pearl artists that I would senddrums to would say, 'Please don'tput brackets on, I'm using RIMS.'

"With RIMS, you get more lows,you eliminate some unwanted ring,and there's a truer fundamental tone,"Walt continues. "We had some testsdone using an oscilloscope that provethe benefits of RIMS. The amplitudeat the moment of impact is greater,the duration of the tone is greater,and the tone is more complex. Sothe sound lasts longer and there's more toit."

There are several drum companies thatbelieve in the benefits that RIMS give totheir drums. "Remo is going very heavywith RIMS," Walt mentions. "Two of theirseries are offered with RIMS as an option.They will even manufacture the drum nowwithout the bracket. Ray Ayotte, who makesdrums in Canada, likes the RIMS, but notjust because of the sound. He says, 'I likethe RIMS on because they look good, and Idon't have to drill a hole in the shell, andtherefore my finish is beautiful.' I said, 'Butdon't you think it affects the sound?' andhe said, 'I'm concerned about the looks.'So he has beautiful-sounding and good-looking drums. That's just his point of viewon the RIMS.

"The Fred Gretsch Company is offeringRIMS. And a number of smaller companiesare, like Tempus drums. We are also foundon most drums offered by Drum Workshopand Noble & Cooley. So some very high-quality drum manufacturers believe in theproduct."

When asked how he goes about con-

vincing drum companies to offer RIMS withtheir drums, Walt admits, "Well, I haven'tbeen successful in talking anyone into us-ing the products yet. To me, to be OEM-heavy would be to get Pearl, Tama, Yamaha,or Ludwig—one of the main companies.We don't have any of the larger companiesusing it. As I mentioned before, the Japa-nese companies think that by using RIMSon their drums they are saying that theirdrums don't sound good, and that's not thecase. RIMS enhance the sound of theirdrums. We never say that RIMS make adrum sound better. Sound is subjective, butthere is a difference when the drum is sus-pended.

"When I was at Pearl, the late Al Duffythought he had a way to go sideways onthe shell, by hooking a mount to the topand bottom of the counterhoop. We proba-bly would have gone through the samefailures that Gary Gauger went through.But we were trying, and I suppose othercompanies are trying as well.

"We have been in discussion with Ludwigabout using RIMS," Walt continues, "andthey were interested. We got to the point

where they were

trying to come up with a program to get itunder way. Unfortunately, Ludwig is in astate of flux at the moment, so it's beendelayed. But that might be the first majorOEM that happens, once that dust settles.And a major Japanese company has beentalking with us. They want to do it right,though, and not just throw a few RIMS on abunch of drums."

Discussing how RIMS affect the sound ofdrums, Walt points out, "We found that athicker-shell drum does not react as freelyto the RIMS as the thinner-shell drum. Thetype of material the shell is made out ofdoesn't seem to affect it too much, it's justa matter of how much material is there.I've got a small fiberglass Pearl tom that Ithought was one of the biggest-soundingdrums around. We put some RIMS on itand use it for demonstration now becausethe RIMS opened it way up! I don't know ifcertain woods are more affected than oth-ers; the thickness seems to have more ef-fect than the type. I can't say a maple shellsounds better than a birch, for example.

"Some drumheads have a slightly greatereffect than others. If the head is too mutedor muffled down, the RIMS is not going to

help much. Putting a RIMS on a drum iskind of like having a car capable of doing180 mph, but with a 55 mph limit. So ifyou get too much resonance a drummer isgoing to tape it back anyway. All we aredoing is opening up all the resonance pos-sible that we can by suspending the drum.Drummers are going to use the types ofheads and muffling they like, but with RIMSthey have a much wider range of sound attheir disposal."

Drummers who are unfamiliar with RIMSmight be concerned with how they affectthe stability of the drum. To this questionWalt says honestly, "They wiggle some-times. There are some very heavy hitterswho refuse to use RIMS because the drumsare not locked into a particular place. Andsome of those heavy hitters don't reallyneed the resonance, because their drumsare amplified. Or, all they need is a triggerreally; that's what they are looking at. Weare able to eliminate the wiggle with surgi-cal tubing on the tension rods to take upsome slack on drums with long tensionrods, but only a few players found this tobe necessary."

When asked why more drummers aren't

using RIMS, Waltaddresses the issuethis way: "I think ourbiggest problem isthat the generaldrumming popula-tion is not aware ofRIMS, or what RIMScan do for their drums. I'm totally flabber-gasted by some drummers who have beenaround a long time and don't know whatRIMS are; it totally shocks me. The drum-mer with a major touring group, who playsin L.A. and travels all over the place, didn'tknow about RIMS. I told him I was withRIMS, and he said, 'What are they?' To me,that's astounding.

"Yesterday, Kevin, one of our salesmen,came in to me and said, 'I just spoke with adealer who up to now had no idea whatRIMS were.' I don't understand those thingsmyself. The awareness is what we need. Atthis point we're trying to figure out justhow we should let drummers know aboutthis product. The list of drummers who useRIMS is a Who's Who of all the top drum-mers playing today, and they are associ-ated with just about every drum company.

PureCussion employee using state-of-the-art computer technology to reproducethree-dimensional drawings of RIMS components.

When I came here, it was so nice because Icould work with drummers who didn't justplay Pearl drums. I'm very happy to beassociated with a product that reaches ev-eryone. RIMS can help most any drummerwith his or her sound, and we just want toget that message out."

Up until now the RIMS system has beenstrictly for rack toms and floor toms. How-ever, PureCussion has been experimenting."We have been using RIMS setups for snaredrums," says Walt. "In fact, the Solid snaredrum company and Joe Montineri snaredrums have been displaying their drums atrecent NAMM shows using RIMS. Solid hadsomething like six or eight snare drumsmounted on RIMS in conjunction with aPearl rack at the last show. It's a nice wayto display them, and it does sound good.

"Cary Gauger is currently working onhis second, or maybe even third attempt tosuspend a bass drum," Walt continues. "Inthe prototypes he's made so far, the soundof the drums has been remarkable. A drum-mer in New York asked him to make onerecently for his Noble & Cooley bass drum,but that was just for him. It's not a productwe are offering for sale yet, but maybedown the road a bit. It's a very expensiveproposition, because it takes a lot of metalto completely suspend the bass drum. It issomething that has two large bands thatcircle part of the drum, and all of the mountsare attached to the legs of the bands, andthen there's a connecting plate. Gary's onlyused it on an 18" bass drum, but the drumsounded like a 24" drum with this device."

Discussing the finishes available on RIMS,Walt says, "These days drummers are veryconcerned with the looks of their drums,and the RIMS mounts do look good. RIMSare available in both chrome and blackfinishes. However, chrome is still far morepopular, about ten to one almost. But I'm

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SabianJack DeJohnette

Signature Cymbals

For a couple of years we had beenhearing rumors that Jack DeJohnettewas working with Sabian to develop

a new line of cymbals. Neither Jack noranyone at Sabian would confirm any de-tails, but then on various recordingsDeJohnette appeared on in the past fewmonths, this really distinctive ride cymbalstarted turning up. It had a dryness anddefinition that was similar to ride cymbalsthat had been taped up, and yet it didn'thave that muffled quality that tape tends tocause. It had more overtones than the thick,heavy cymbals that a lot of drummers usein order to get definition, and yet the over-tones never built up and obliterated thestick attack the way they do on thinner,lighter cymbals. Was this, in fact, the resultof the rumored collaboration between Jackand Sabian?

It was indeed, but it was only the begin-ning. At the summer NAMM show, Sabianintroduced an entire line of Jack DeJohnetteSignature cymbals: rides, crashes, hi-hats,and a China cymbal. These are neither HHor AA models; they have a sound—as wellas a look—all their own. The cymbals are

unlathed and unhammered; this is prettymuch what they look like when they comeout of the oven. (A secretary at MD, afterseeing a group of Dejohnettes set up inour testing room, asked me if they hadbeen in a fire. Well, yeah, sort of.) Jack'ssignature and the Sabian logo are white,which provides a strong contrast againstthe unfinished metal. We almost expectedthe cymbals to feel gritty, but a Sabianspokesman explained that a coating isapplied to the cymbal to prevent that.

Starting with the ride cymbals, they areavailable in 20" and 22" models. They canbest be described as having a very drysound, yet they don't have that anvil-likeclang that is often labeled "dry." Instead,you get a little more of a "click" soundfrom the stick, and there are just enoughovertones to give it body. I preferred the20" model in most situations, finding the22" a bit gongy at times. (Although, whenI played a set of these cymbals at theNAMM show at Chicago's McCormickPlace, the 22" sounded better to me. So letthe cymbal fit the room.)

I found the rides to be especially well-

suited to faster tempos, as they allowedtotal clarity and definition. (Think aboutthe way DeJohnette plays a ride cymbaland you'll get the idea.) The other excep-tional feature of these cymbals is their bellsound, which is extremely clear and cut-ting. Rock drummers who do a lot of theirplaying on the bell would do well to checkthese out. The 20" lists at $229; the 22" is$270. These, like the other DeJohnetteSignature models, are priced slightly aboveSabian AA's, but lower than HH models.

Next are the 16" and 18" crashes. Es-sentially, these are almost all attack withfew overtones and little sustain. Predicta-bly, the smaller cymbal speaks a little faster,but both cymbals have a very fast decay,almost sounding choked at times. They al-most remind me of splash cymbals, but ofcourse they have more body. Addition-ally, I found that the 18" made a nice,high-pitched ride cymbal. In fact, I mightactually like it more as a ride than as acrash. The 16" lists at $169, and the 18" at$199.

The 14" hi-hats had more overtones and"swish" to them than I was expecting,based on their weight. The "chick" soundis somewhat lower pitched than whatmight be considered average, but it was awarm sound with pretty good cuttingpower. When closed and played withsticks, the hi-hats were very crisp and pre-cise. When opened slightly and struck fora "bark," they were especially funky. Acouple of the MD editors thought the hi-hats were the best of the bunch. (I'd pickthe 20" ride, myself, but the hats wouldcome in second.) The hi-hats list at $279a pair.

Finally, there is a 20" China cymbal.Again, it is very dry. If you like to ride on aChina cymbal, this might be for you. It'sfairly flat for a China, in that the edge isnot turned up quite as much as usual. Soif you tilt it just a little, you can easily rideon the top without accidentally hitting yourstick on the upturned edge. Personally, Ipreferred mounting it upside down andriding on the bottom, as there were a fewmore "trashy" overtones when played thatway. Riding on the top produced a slightly

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pingier sound. It wasn't a huge difference,but just enough that it's almost like havingtwo different cymbals to choose from.When crashed, it tended to be very lowand gongy, so if you like to use a Chinacymbal for explosive crashes, you mightprefer something else. List price is $229.

When DeJohnette was first showing methese cymbals, he referred to them as "user-friendly," because the drummer has a lotof control over them. He then demon-strated how he could really lay into themwithout the overtones building up into awash. At the time, though, I couldn't helpthinking that the other side of the coinmust be that the cymbals weren't veryresponsive, and that you would have toplay them with a certain aggressiveness tomake them speak at all.

Now, having played these cymbals fora couple of weeks, I find that my originalassumption was not quite accurate. Thecrash cymbals do require a pretty solidstrike, but the ride cymbals sound surpris-ingly good when played delicately withlightweight sticks. They might not be myride cymbals of choice if I were workingin a totally low-volume situation, but inany setting that requires a range of dy-namics, they would work as well duringthe softer sections of music as they wouldduring the louder passages.

While all of the cymbals in the linewere designed to work together, I think itwould be quite possible to mix these withother types of cymbals. Personally, while Ilove the 20" ride for fast rhythms, I wouldwant another ride cymbal in my setupthat had a lot of overtones (or maybe evenrivets) for the slower tunes where I wanteda lot of sustain for each note. I wouldprobably want a more traditional crash inmy setup for the same reason. But that'sjust based on my taste and the kind of gigsI play. Someone else might be quite happyto use nothing but a set of DeJohnettecymbals (as Jack is). And I suspect we'lleventually see every combination, fromonly one DeJohnette model in a setup, toonly one other cymbal in an otherwiseall-DeJohnette setup. But that's the fun ofhaving so many different cymbals avail-able, and drummers have truly never hadas many options as they have today.

Overall, I would recommend these cym-bals to drummers who are interested invery rhythmic playing. They are not forpeople who like their ride cymbal to pro-vide a wash, or who like long, shimmer-ing crashes. But if you want extreme clar-ity in your ride cymbal rhythms, and pre-fer to use crashes for short rhythmic punc-tuations, these could be what you've al-ways dreamed of. Jack DeJohnette andSabian are to be congratulated for makinga truly original contribution to the rangeof cymbals that drummers have to choosefrom.

Rick Mattingly

Sabian CarmineAppice SignatureChina CymbalT

here are oc-casions inmanufactur-

ing when elementsor qualities thatwould be undesir-able in one prod-uct make anotherproduct that muchbetter. Such is thecase with Sabian'snew CarmineAppice SignatureChina cymbal.

As the name in-dicates, the cymbalwas developed for,and in associationwith, Carmine Ap-pice, who had avery specific ideaof what he wanted. The goal was a Chinacymbal that could provide the volume andprojection that Carmine required, take theabuse that powerful hard rock drummingdelivered, and yet produce the spreading,"trashy" sound that characterized the bestauthentic Chinese-made China cymbals.

Working together with Carmine, Sabian'sNort Hargrove theorized that perhaps thenormal Sabian cymbal alloy was a bit toogood—too musical—to produce the trashysound being sought. So he experimentedwith different alloys, finally settling on onecalled nickel-silver, which is often used tomake budget-level cymbals.

If you've ever really walloped a nickel-silver crash cymbal, you'll find that itdoesn't have the body, character, or sustainof a cymbal made of bronze. But that verytendency to "break up" lends itself exactlyto what is best about Chinese cymbals. Asany metallurgist will tell you, the alloysused in authentic Chinese-made cymbalsare generally pretty crude and impure. Us-ing nickel-silver for a China cymbal, andcombining that with high-quality craftsman-ship and machining, seemed to Nort to bea logical way to approach Carmine's goal.From there, Nort tried different shapes, dif-ferent hammering methods, and different

lathings, until he ultimately got the cymbalthat Carmine was looking for.

So what was that ultimate outcome? Anoutstanding China cymbal, with qualitiesthat read like a description of a bad littleboy: loud, brash (approaching obnoxious),disturbing, and unavoidable. Some Chinas"crash" when struck; this cymbal explodes.It's available only in an 18" size, and wouldseem to be designed as a crash/punctua-tion cymbal, rather than as a China you'dwant to ride on. (I certainly can't imagineriding on it; it would be like trying to laydown steady time with a box of hand gre-nades!) I tried the cymbal in situationswhere my band was really smoking, andthere was just no denying it; its soundblasted through above all else. My ten-dency was to use the cymbal sparingly, sothat its impact was all the more dramaticwhen I did use it. (I also wanted to keepwhat's left of my hearing.)

There is absolutely nothing "pretty" aboutthe sound of the Carmine Appice SignatureChina cymbal. But it is totally effective atwhat it is designed to do. If you want acymbal that will make its presence felt nomatter what is going on around it, this isthe one to use. The suggested list price is

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Rick Van Horn$199.00.

Yamaha RemoteWire Hi-Hat

Yamaha recently intro-duced its' Remote WireHi-Hat in two versions:

the WHS-850 (with six feet ofcable) and the WHS-850S(with three feet of cable).Aside from the cable length,the units are identical. The hi-hat section features a newlydesigned drop-lock clutch andan oversized dial to adjust thespring tension. There is also aretaining wing nut to hold thebottom cymbal in place whenthe hi-hat is mounted in anangled position. The pedalsection uses a standard two-piece Yamaha footboard withits heelplate bolted to a largesteel baseplate fitted with non-skid rub-ber on its bottom. Two sprung spurs canbe screwed down through the baseplatefor additional skid prevention.

The WHS-850 works very smoothly andquietly, and feels pretty much like a nor-mal hi-hat. The spring tension felt a bitstiff, even at its lowest setting; when Iused a lightweight top hi-hat cymbal, thepedal didn't "float" quite as much as Iprefer. Using a medium- to heavy-weighttop cymbal seemed to balance the springtension, resulting in a very fluid action.Although the potential range for spring-tension adjustment is quitelarge, I'd think a drummerwould have to be using a veryheavy top cymbal to warrantincreasing the tension verymuch from its lowest setting.The casing housing the ten-sion adjustment is prettybulky, and appears as a some-what incongruous bulge inthe middle of the otherwisesleek-looking hi-hat section.(Overall, the hi-hat section ofthe WHS-850 is somewhatlonger than those of otherbrands we've tried. This mightmake it a bit more difficult toposition in tight places.)

The drop-lock clutch fea-tures a little trip-rod thatcomes off almost parallel tothe floor. It's covered with arubber sleeve, which is a nicetouch, since the sleeve qui-ets the sound of a stick hit-

ting the rod to release the top cymbal.The trip-rods of other drop-lock clutchesI've seen have been a good deal morevertical—parallel to the hi-hat pull rod—and I can't help but feel that this horizon-tal version has the potential of getting bentor snagged among the legs and pipes ofother stands in a crowded trap case. Ofcourse, totally removing it from the hi-hatfor transport would solve that problem,but I'm always reluctant to separate partsof a stand for fear of losing something.(And since a drop-lock clutch is a two-piece affair anyway, the potential for loss

is doubled.) I'd prefer to seethe same little rubber-cov-ered rod come out a bit fromthe clutch and then take a90-degree bend upwards,making it conform more tothe overall design of the hi-hat section and thus saferwhen left in place.

My only criticism of thepedal section is with themechanism that locks thepedal and the baseplate to-gether. I had a heck of a timewhen I first assembled theunit, and it wasn't much eas-ier fitting these parts togetherafter I disassembled it againfor "pack-up." However, Ichecked this out withYamaha, and was told thatthe tightness of this lockingmechanism was intentional.The company's feeling is thatif you start out with a snug

fitting, the unit will retain itsstrength and stability longer.Naturally, over a period oftime, wear and tear will resultin a certain loosening of thefit, so why start with a loosefit to begin with? I suppose thatmakes sense, but I don't likethe idea of having to fightsomething every time I wantto break it down or set it upagain. Perhaps a compromisewould be beneficial.

Speaking of breakdown, itis in this area that I have mygreatest problem with theWHS-850. The cable does notdisconnect from either sectionof the unit. In order to pack it

up, you unlock the pedal from the base-plate (allowing that section to fold flat),then coil up the cable and fit it, alongwith the pedal and hi-hat sections, intoyour trap case as best you can. Mind you,neither section is particularly large, and Ihad no trouble finding room for either ofthem in a standard trap case. But whenyou try to handle two pieces of hardwareconnected by three to six feet of strongsteel aircraft cable wound into a tight coil,you find that you have something with alife of its own on your hands. Yamaha'sposition on this issue is two-fold: On onehand, they feel that most drummers they'vetalked to don't like to deal with disman-tling tiny connections, and would simplyprefer to pack up the unit in its entirety asbest they can. (Perhaps many of thosedrummers have roadies!) On the otherhand, they recognize that trying to fit thisspring-loaded beast into a trap case mightbe a little tricky, so they are planning tointroduce a hard case specifically for theWHS-850 soon. Personally, I'd prefer tobreak the thing down into more easilypackable—and controllable—sections,and not have to spend additional moneyfor a case. But it's nice to know thatYamaha will at least be giving drummersan option.

Mounting a remote hi-hat requires somedevice to attach it to another stand, orperhaps to a drum rack. With our testunits, Yamaha provided a nifty device theycall the AC-910 Arm Clamp. It's a sizeableextension arm, with swivel clamps at bothends, allowing you to position it in a widevariety of ways, and to achieve almost

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any height or angle on the hi-hat unit. Itlists for $55.00. In our photo, you'll alsonotice a gadget that really helps stabilizethe remote pedal (which uses no Velcroor other method to help anchor it on thefloor, in lieu of a tripod). It's called anHSAT-920, and it is simply two drumkey-operated clamps connected by a steel rod.The HSAT-920 clamps to both the primaryand secondary hi-hat pedals at the baseof their shafts, thus locking them into onestable unit. Most drummers would hookthe standless WHS-850 to the stand oftheir traditional hi-hat; for our purposeswe simply connected both WHS-850 units

together. As a matter of fact, Yamaha sug-gests that drummers might want to con-sider such a setup, using the WHS-850Sas a primary pedal to their left—mountedon a cymbal stand or drum rack—and thelonger-cable WHS-850 as a remote unitto their right, to obtain maximum place-ment versatility for both their hi-hats. Wecertainly found no lack of pedal stabilitywhen we employed the HSAT-920, so sucha system is definitely a practical possibil-ity. The little connector unit sells for$48.00.

Ah, but how much for the WHS-850 it-self, you ask. Well, the long-cable version

lists for $305.00, while its shorter brotheris priced at $295.00. This puts it right inthe same price ballpark with all the othercable remote hi-hats currently on the mar-ket, so for once economics need not be amajor element in the decision-makingprocess. I can't honestly say that Yamaha'sRemote Wire Hi-Hat is significantly betterthan those of other brands I've tried, butit certainly is as good as any. If you'repartial to Yamaha hardware, you'll proba-bly love it. If you don't have a particularbrand preference and you're in the mar-ket for a remote hi-hat, by all means in-clude this one in your shopping.

—Rick Van Horn

Yamaha SuperRack System

Yamaha has a history of wait-ing until most of the "bugs"are worked out of a prod-

uct's design by competing manu-facturers, and then introducingtheir own model without thosebugs—and with a few improve-ments of their own. While youmay or may not consider this as"innovation" (more like "variationson a theme"), you certainly can'tfault the result: a product that isalready "time-tested" at the mo-ment it hits the market. Such isthe case with Yamaha's new SuperRack System.

In a way, Yamaha did break with its owntradition when it introduced this new sys-tem in early 1989. It had already intro-duced a rack system early in 1988, looselybased on the Ultimate Support System andTama designs. In response to complaintsfrom consumers and Yamaha's endorsingartists, the entire design was scrapped infavor of one closer in concept to the Col-larlock Bar System. However, in keepingwith Yamaha's way of doing things, manydetails have been modified and improved.The Super Rack System may not be entirely"new," but neither is it a direct copy ofanything else. What it is is a tremendouslyversatile, efficient, and well-appointed drumrack.

What we tested were two basic horizon-tal rack pipes with their accompanyingclamps. The RS115-4 is 4' long, with twoOC-910-U Universal Open Clamps, twoOC-920-R Right-Angle Clamps, and fourMC-318 Memory Clamps. The RS130-5 is5' long, and comes with one additionalOC-920-R and one additional MC-318. The

pipes are chrome steel, 1 1/4" in diameter.Each pipe was attached to cymbal standsfor support during our tests; Yamaha alsooffers a leg unit with which to create a free-standing, self-supporting rack.

By now, drum racks are nothing new, soI don't feel that I need to describe the func-tion of each component of Yamaha's sys-tem. But I do want to mention several de-tails that are dramatic improvements overwhat has been seen on previous racks.

First and foremost is something that seemssimple, but has been a source of majorirritation for rack users in the past: thememory clamps. While the mountingclamps of all other manufacturers of tubu-lar racks are hinged, none of their memoryclamps are, meaning that if you want tosecure a newly installed mounting clampwith a memory clamp, that memory clamphas to be slipped over the end of the pipeand slid into position. This often meansthat other clamps must be removed, forc-ing you to recreate much of your rack setupfrom scratch. Yamaha's memory clamps are

hinged, so that they open up andcan be installed at any point onthe bar. This is the single featureof the Yamaha system that mostsets it apart from other racks, al-though I'm sure it will soon beincorporated into the designs ofother brands. It's just too obviousan improvement to be ignored.

Another handy feature of theSuper Rack System is the fact thattwo clamps can do everythingnecessary: connect pipes, createlegs, mount drum, cymbal, andmic' hardware, etc. The OC-920-R Right Angle Clamp is the fun-

damental block-style clamp that mounts toeither a vertical or horizontal pipe, andwill accommodate another pipe in a per-pendicular position. The larger OC-910-UUniversal Open Clamp incorporates aratchet between the two pipe-mountinghalves, allowing it to be rotated a full 360degrees. This allows it to connect rack pipes(including legs) at odd angles, or to holddrum, cymbal, or mic' stands at angles thatare other than perpendicular to the rackpipe. This can aid in achieving that "per-fect placement" of equipment.

Either clamp can be used for the con-nection of rack segments, depending onwhat final rack shape you ultimately need,and either can be used to mount things onthe rack. Because the clamps are completelyadjustable in a wide range, they will ac-commodate pipes of 1 1/4" (or even slightlylarger) down to about 3/8", which shouldaccount for just about anything you mightwant to mount on your rack. All the boltson the clamps are spring-loaded, helping

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The Wheel

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This past summer I recorded the basic tracks forthe new Jefferson Airplane album. I played acous-tic drums on all of the tracks except for one ofPaul Kantner's songs, "The Wheel," where I inte-grated electronic drum and percussion soundswith my acoustic drums. This article is about theparts I came up with for the song and the processI went through rehearsing and recording these

parts.When Paul first played me the song, we both thought that lots of

percussion instruments along with the drums would sound great.We also thought that the electronic percussion and electronicdrum sounds would sound great combined with acoustic drumsand percussion instruments. After learning the song, I started ex-perimenting with different sounds and rhythm patterns. I wrotesome basic ideas down on paper and then programmed theseideas into a Macintosh SF computer. I used a computer because itmade it possible for me to hear all of my ideas immediately, and ithelped me determine whether or not these ideas would worktogether in the song.

I used the Roland D-110 module as my sound source and theKawai K-1 keyboard as my controller, or playing source. In otherwords, I played the K-1, but got the sounds from the D-110 byMIDI-ing the K-1 and the D-770 together. This setup made itpossible for me to hear all of the possible sounds the D-770 had tooffer very quickly by playing the K-1. Pick the sound, play the part,and program it into the computer—bingo!

At this first stage of programming, I recorded into the computer11 parts on 11 separate tracks. I programmed each part on aseparate track in order to make it possible to edit the parts later. Byprogramming all of the parts into a computer, along with havingthe capabilities of MIDI, I was able to change or replace any of theprogrammed sounds later as needed. Once you have the MIDIinformation in the computer, you can send that information to anysound source you want and hear that sound, as long as that soundsource is set up to receive the MIDI information that the computeris sending out. Computers don't actually record sounds as record-ing tape does, but rather they record MIDI information, which canthen be sent to any instrument able to receive it.

Here are the first 11 tracks that I programmed into a computerfor "The Wheel." All sounds on these 11 tracks came from the D-770 module. I first recorded a click track on track #1 using quarternotes. I used a cross-stick sound for the click track.

On track #2 I recorded a maraca and shaker part. (The maracapart is written on the third space and the shaker is written on thelowest space.)

Then, on track #3 I recorded a bass drum part.

On track #4 I used three tom-toms.

On track #5 I recorded a low floor tom part.

On track #6 I recorded brush stroke and China cymbal parts.(The brush strokes are written in the third measure, and the Chinacymbal is in the fourth measure.)

On track #7 I put down two types of hi-hats, open and closed.(The indicated closed hi-hat part is actually a half-opened hi-hatsound.)

On track #8 I recorded a timbale part, which consisted ofrandom 16th notes.

On track #9 I had bongos and another low tom-tom playingrandom 16th notes.

On track #10 I recorded a shaker (written on the top line) and abell sound (written on the third line) that also sounds like a shaker.

I took all of these parts and created a four-measure phrase thatrepeated over and over again like a loop. I then mapped out theform and length of the song and built the foundation of the songwith this four-measure groove. At times I had to "cut and paste"parts of the four-measure groove to make it fit into the form of themusic. For example, sometimes I had to create a two- or three-measure phrase. In other places I had to create a measure in 2/4 orin 3/4 instead of using the regular 4/4 beat of the song. I playedPaul Kantner the 11 tracks that I had programmed, and he liked it,but he wanted more parts to complement his vocals and createmore dynamics throughout the song.

Paul and I started rehearsing the song while I came up withadditional parts. First I played the pads on my Alesis HR-16 drummachine, which triggered sounds from my D-110. The sounds Iused were two low toms tuned differently and a bass drum. As werehearsed the verses together, Paul constantly gave me suggestionsabout what words or phrases he wanted accentuated or playedloud or soft. For each verse I played differently, always designingmy parts to complement Paul's vocal line and dynamics. Theseparts were programmed on track #12.

I should mention that after programming each of these parts Iwould quantize them to make sure they were perfectly placed onthe correct beat. Sometimes I don't quantize my parts because Iwant a more human-like feel, but in this case I wanted perfectplacement of all rhythms.

Paul and I listened again to what we had, and he decided thathe wanted a few more parts added to create more dynamics and tocomplement his vocals. This time I played pads into my ddrum 2brain, using effects toms and ethnic drum sounds. These partswere programmed on track #13. Once again the parts I came upwith were designed around the vocal line. This track containedrandom fills scattered throughout the verses. On track #14 I alsoplayed fills on pads, triggering more tom sounds from my ddrum 2brain.

Finally, Paul decided he liked what we had for the moment, sothe band started rehearsing with these 14 tracks, while I playedcongas and bongos on the verses and my drumkit on the choruses.We rehearsed like this, making occasional changes or edits, untilwe got into the studio.

When we recorded this song in the studio, I overdubbed myacoustic drums on the choruses. I played a march-like beat on mysnare and played fours with my kick drum and hi-hat. Later, morepercussion parts were added to "The Wheel," after vocals and allother overdubs had been recorded.

"The Wheel" is an example of how I can combine electronicsounds (drums and percussion) with my acoustic instruments. Theelectronic equipment I use has given me more variables or soundsto choose from when I make records or perform live, and when Iwrite music. I try to be open-minded and let the song I'm playingor writing dictate to me what approach is best for that particularsong.

Finally, on track #11 I recorded handclaps.

by Kenny Aronoff

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Think about this: Where do you go forinspiration when it's time for you to makemusic? If you're like most of us, you proba-bly listen to recordings of your favoritedrummers, go to live performances, watchinstructional videos, take lessons, readdrumming books and MD, go to the occa-sional drumming clinic.... Whatever theactivity, it's got to at least have somethingto do with drums. Only makes sense, right?

Well, it's true that most drum teacherswould agree that the previous examplesare all excellent ways to learn more aboutdrumming and to improve your playing.Despite the occasional pseudo-avant garde"musician" who claims that the pursuit oftechnical prowess is the wrong path to take,being able to play different styles and withtechnical grace really will allow you torealize the ideas in your head more fully.

On the other hand, though, there's stillthat nagging old adage about not beingable to see the forest for the trees. If all weever look at is what goes on directly infront of our eyes—on our drumset—wecould be missing some of the things in ourenvironment that could have a profoundeffect on what we ultimately play. At therisk of sounding too New Age, everythingin our environment really is connected insome (if minimal) way. Drumming, like anyother form of music-making, doesn't hap-pen in a vacuum; it reflects, relates to, andaffects other things—emotion, intelligence,nature, spirituality, the parts other instru-ments play.... Why don't we reverse thesituation and see how these various inspi-rations can also affect what we do on thedrums?

Let's start off by looking at the Pink Floydsong "Money." The song opens up with thesound of a cash register in action. Ratherthan merely the random sounds of the reg-ister clinking away, though, the register'ssounds have been "arranged" into a 7/8rhythm that, along with a bass guitar linethat mimics the mechanical "accents,"become the song's groove. This rhythm, anexcellent example of an odd time thatdoesn't sound odd, was inspired by—or atleast realized via—an innocent, non-musi-cal device, something not normally turnedto to create or inspire music-making. Nobooks on technique, no transcribing TonyWilliams cuts, no practice pad. Why don'twe see what else is out there?

Our world is filled with sound. Just walkdown a busy city street, night or day, andlisten. Percussionist David Van Tieghem'svideo "Ear To The Ground" is a great ex-ample of the street actually being turnedinto an instrument. To Van Tieghem, "aringing ashtray is just as valid as a violin,"

and his playful video shows that signposts,metal grates, and concrete sidewalks alsofit the bill. What Van Tieghem's perform-ance hints at is that, if we open our ears, werealize that sound and rhythm can comefrom just about anywhere.

David Van Tieghem literally "played" thestreet. But inspiration can be drawn fromthe street using just our ears. The surgingstream of traffic, water dripping from a drainpipe, even an overheard conversation be-tween two passersby can evoke certainrhythms. And how about that racket com-ing from behind those ply-wood boardssurrounding that construction site? Several"bands," notably Berliners EinsturzendeNeubauten (translated, "Collapsing NewBuildings"), built their sounds around "in-dustrial noise," practically creating a validschool of music based on just these kinds ofsounds.

Bill Bruford touched on similar ideas inhis February '89 MD interview, when hedescribed how one might go about creatinga song like King Crimson's "Industry," fromthe album Three Of A Perfect Pair: "Youplay a horrendous racket on a metallic-sounding drumset, and someone comes inand says, 'That sounds like the death of theindustrial revolution,' so you all decide tobuild up a composition around thosesounds." A similar idea is explored on thePink Floyd (them again) song "Welcome ToThe Machine," from the Wish You WereHere album, which is built around a throb-bing beat that evokes the sounds of an as-sembly line, creating a sonic parallel to thesong's lyrical theme. In the first case, theactual sounds that King Crimson were mak-ing inspired them to develop their musicaltheme. In the second case, the lyrical sym-bolism of "Welcome To The Machine" in-spired the machine-like rhythms.

Other drummers who have mentionedthe inspirational sounds of machines andengines are Airto and Dennis Chambers. Inhis September '88 MD interview, Airto de-scribed the sounds he used to hear on thestreet as a kid: "To me, sound was alwaysmusic. When I was a kid in Brazil, I lovedto hear the sound of a car changing gears. Igot to where I could tell you if it was aChevrolet or a Ford or a Volkswagen." Inhis May '89 MD interview, Dennis Cham-bers said that, as a young drummer, hewould try to emulate the rhythms of a mo-torcycle on his drumset. To take it a stepfurther, you might really get some interest-ing things going if you started adjusting thetiming of a car engine, or maybe took aspark plug out. (I wouldn't recommendmessing with dad's new Cadillac for thisexperiment. Stick with your '78 Pinto.)

If you live far away from the noise thatman makes in the city, you will find thatnature provides an endless variety of soundsand rhythms. Think back to biology classat school for a minute. Remember how wewere taught that symmetry, balance, andrepetition are prevalent throughout nature,from the orbits of the planets, to the theoryof natural selection, to the leaves on trees?We've all heard the rhythms of ocean tides.Bobby Previte has mentioned the sound ofNiagara Falls, where he grew up, as beinga possible source of inspiration. And riversand streams, bird songs, and the croakingsof frogs and crickets all are potential sourcesof rhythm. We can even find rhythm withinour own bodies. Perhaps the ultimate at-tempt at trying to come up with a "natural"rhythm was when Pete Townshend of theWho experimented with the natural rhythmsand pulses of the human body, and usedthem as the basis for the beats to some ofthe songs from Who's Next.

Besides his interest in auto transmissions,Airto also talked about his respect for thesounds of nature in his interview. "We havethese big wind storms in California. Wehave these big eucalyptus trees in our back-yard, and we live on these cliffs right bythe ocean. So Mike Shapiro and I went outand recorded those sounds. The wind wasblowing so hard we could hardly stand up,but the sounds were incredible. Whatpower! The wind and the trees and theocean together—it was like God talking."Airto later described how the sounds ofwind and the ocean are always different,leading interviewer Rick Mattingly to sug-gest how that could almost be a descrip-tion of the way Airto plays, how he is notafraid not to play, to leave space in themusic.

Okay, so much for nature and the envi-ronment. Let's come back to man-mademusic for a minute—but not necessarilyback to the drums. One of the interestingthings about music is that, though the writ-ten notation for different instruments canvary in form, it's not as if we're talkingabout different musical languages; it's morelike different dialects of the same language.So even though a drummer who can readdrum music might not necessarily be ableto sit down at a piano and perfectly playpiano literature, upon listening to the mu-sic, he will probably be able to at leastunderstand some of what is going on—why certain musical decisions are made.Good music relies on the communicationbetween the musicians, and communica-tion relies on understanding what othersare trying to say.

Though the drums aren't really consid-

Finding Inspiration

Away From The Setby Adam Budofsky

ered a melodic instrument, they don't havea monopoly on rhythm, either. Just likeBillie Holiday emulated the phrasing andtone of Louis Armstrong's trumpet playingwith her voice, drummers have been knownto translate the rhythms, licks, and phras-ings of other great instrumentalists into theirdrumming. When asked about some of hisearly influences, Al Foster, in his January'89 MD interview, said, "When I was about13, I had gotten into Max Roach, and hadbought one of his albums that Sonny Rollinswas on. It helped me to hear melody andchanges. Before, I was just playing—bang-ing on the drums. He played so melodi-cally and rhythmically. It really opened meup. As I got older I tried to play some ofSonny's and Joe Henderson's rhythmic pat-terns on drums."

Even though the acoustic drumset mightnot be considered a "melodic" instrument,the advent of electronics may have changedthat notion forever. Bill Bruford, in his useof the Simmons SDX, has shown how thelines between the rhythmic drummer andthe melodic keyboardist have been blurred;the communication gap has becomesmaller. Now drummers have much morecontrol over the sounds they make, there-fore their influences can be that much morevaried. Besides the fact that sampling hasallowed us to more or less duplicate anysound from the drumset, we can also ar-range these sounds into melodies withinscales previously reserved for other instru-ments. Virtually any musician can now bean inspiration to those who consider them-selves drummers on today's musical scene.

How about less concrete sources of in-spiration? Music, and especially percussion,has always been an important aspect ofmost religions. It has been used to summonthe gods, to accompany ceremonial rites,to give a form to prayer. But not only hasmusic been a tool for religious experiences;religion can sometimes be a tool to createmusic. The list of contemporary musicianswho have found inspiration from their mys-tical beliefs is long and varied, from OmarHakim to Bob Dylan to U2 to Narada Mi-chael Walden. In his June, '83 MD inter-view, Mike Clark discussed how his intro-duction to Nichiren Shoshu True Buddhismwas the most important aspect of his stintwith Herbie Hancock: "The basic principleis that man and all phenomena in the uni-verse are one, and by invoking the highestlaw—Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, whichroughly translates to 'Devotion to the Mys-tic Law of Cause and Effect through SoundVibration'—you affect fundamental changein the depths of your life. It enables you toelevate the entire condition of your life.

The most important validation of the teach-ing is the actual proof, and I've gottenimmeasurable actual proof every day sinceI started." Though it would be simple-minded to claim that a little sketchy re-search into a religion of choice would di-rectly improve one's playing, it would seemthat those who have delved more deeplyinto the mystic—for whatever reasons—have found ways to apply the principlesthey have been taught to their musical con-cepts.

Closely tied to religion is philosophy.Since one of philosophy's concerns is thesearch for logic in this seemingly illogicaluniverse of ours, and since music—espe-cially jazz music—often seems to havesimilar goals, the study of different philoso-phies might be the "logical" place to lookfor some inspiration. Ever searching for newways to create and discuss music, PeterErskine, in his June '89 Jazz Drummers'Workshop column, "Thoughts On PlayingFree: Part 1," used the Chinese dualisticyin-yang symbol to symbolize the balancethat a free jazz player tries to tread. Later inthe article, Peter talks a little about the newscience of chaos, which reveals patternsmathematical in origin (certainly a drum-mer's concern), but manifested in everydaylife. And so we see that science can beanother place to look for that which willmake our music more interesting.

But music is far from just being a sci-ence. Art might be considered the moralopposite of science, and there's plenty ofplaces in the art world we can turn to forsome new musical ideas, too. Max Roachis often referred to as "The Painter," and forgood reason. As Bill Berg touched on in hisMay '89 MD interview, all the differentschools of art—music, painting, sculpture,film, dance, theater—are concerned withsimilar concepts. Balance, contrast, weight,shape, line, texture, color—these ideas arepresent in one form or another in all arts,and the best artists are the ones who con-trol these concepts most eloquently. MaxRoach, more than most, understands this,and in his solos uses these concepts to"paint" aural pictures. Max does more thansimply play the drums, just as Picasso didmore than just "draw a picture": He cre-ates art.

The lesson to be learned from Max's play-ing is to look at the other forms of art. Walkthrough a museum and really look at thepaintings. Try not to be subjective at first,and just try to describe to yourself or to afriend what you see. Remember that theartist has a reason for every element of thatpainting being where and how it is. Afteryou've finished looking at the various works

of art, go to the museum store and pick upa few post card reproductions of the paint-ings you particularly liked. When you gethome, tape the post cards to your cymbalstands, and try to convert what you see inthe paintings to music. Don't be discour-aged if what you play doesn't sound like"music" to you at first. Being uninhibited isthe key idea here; any idea that is differentis also bound to sound a little weird at first.The point is to free up your mind and lookat things in a new, fresh manner.

It's no secret, nor is it a terribly novelidea, that artists often derive inspiration fromthe most obscure places. Abstract Expres-sionist artists tried to visually express loftyphilosophical ideas, Surrealists studieddreams, and poets go on and on about theMeaning of Life. But things don't have tobe so complicated; "high art" isn't neces-sarily what we're after here. It's simply this:There's nothing wrong with learning howto do the things that others have done onthe drumset—or on any other instrumentor canvas for that matter. Practicing rudi-ments and emulating heros all have theirplaces in learning. But drumming is a smallpart of music, and music is a small part ofthe world. There's a whole lot more outthere to explore. Why limit ourselves?

Do you ever sit at your drums raring to go for it,and yet somehow you can't seem to get thingshappening? Do you ever feel a lack of coordina-tion, no connection between your hands andfeet, stiff as a board, or totally lax in swiftly goingfrom drum to drum? To combat these kinds ofproblems, I came up with some exercises thathelp me "hone in" on these trouble areas. The

exercises that follow are all based on popular hand/foot combina-tions and are written for a drumset with three toms. If you usemore or fewer than three toms, simply alter the exercises to ac-commodate your setup.

Examples 1 through 6 should be practiced with both the rightand left hands. Play each one several times before switchinghands.

Drumset Warm-ups(For Those Days When It Just Ain't Happening)

Examples 7 and 8 have the hands alternating right to left.

Examples 9, 10, and 11 give the highly neglected hi-hat foot aworkout so that it can become a more integral part of your play-ing.

by Rod Morgenstein

Examples 12 and 13 have the hi-hat and bass drum alternatingback and forth. These may sound and feel a bit awkward at first.

Examples 14 through 17 help in getting the hands moving fromdrum to drum, and should facilitate those "blistering" fills aroundthe set.

These exercises grew out of a need to deal with certain aspectsof the drumset that sometimes trouble me. Whenever you haveproblems such as the ones I've mentioned in this article, perhapsthe thing to do is try to create your own exercises to meet theseproblems head on.

Artists AndEndorsements

by Roy Burns

Ron Spagnardi's recent editorial on endorse-ments generated a lot of interest, with drum-mers writing letters to air their views on thesubject. Their attitudes varied from "Iwouldn't buy anything unless a companyhas endorsers I admire" to "I do not con-sider endorsers at all, only the quality ofthe company's products." Some lettersvoiced a disappointment with artists whohave changed companies from time to time.

I can remember my first endorsement asa full-time professional, some years ago. Iremember the thrill of seeing my picture inan ad for the first time. Years later, I workedfor Rogers Drums and I got another view ofthe endorsers. Now I have my own com-pany, Aquarian Accessories, and yet againI see the picture differently.

To those drummers who do not have thegood fortune to be endorsed by a com-pany, be aware that much goes on behindthe scenes that you, the public, never see.For example, some companies wine anddine a particular artist, saying things like,"We want you to feel as if you are part ofour company. We want you to be one ofthe family. We want your feedback andyour input on everything we do, from adsto product improvements."

To a young artist—who may or may nothave a manager—this really sounds good.It means the chance to have some reallygood equipment free or at special prices,and it means being involved with somereally great people who "care" about musi-cians and music. It also means free public-ity, which could greatly help a burgeoningcareer.

In some cases, however, once the artisthas signed on the dotted line, it seems asthough the company has forgotten theirpromises. Not only does the company not

want to hear the artist's ideas, it sometimesbecomes difficult to get a return phone call."Mr. so-and-so is in a meeting. Is thereanything I could help you with?" is a com-mon response.

The artist, in this case, feels that he orshe is being used, and that the companythat once asked for input does not want tolisten. As the situation deteriorates, the art-ist becomes more and more disenchanted.Finally, he or she decides to change com-panies. The drumming public reads onlythat so-and-so has changed companies. Theartist looks like the villain because the pub-lic cannot see what goes on behind thescenes. They only see that the artist hasswitched. The common presumption is thatit was all for money, when often it was formore respect.

In many cases, artists change companiesbecause the company does not live up toits promises. For example, the companyhires a new artist relations person who tellsthe artist something like, "We've had to re-evaluate our artist program. We'll be intouch." Promised clinics, ads, equipment,or whatever are put on hold, and the artistbegins to feel "frozen out."

However, as a manufacturer, I want tobe fair and present the 6ther side of thecoin. I had the unpleasant experience, afew years ago, of opening an issue of MDand seeing one of my endorsers in an adfor a rival company. I was shocked, to saythe least. I had not known that this individ-ual was unhappy. At the very least, theartist should have written me a letter stat-ing that a change was to be made. I wouldhave understood that; I had changed com-panies myself at one time. But commoncourtesy requires that you notify the com-pany if you intend to leave.

Some years ago an artist was in ads fortwo different drum companies in the sameissue of a well-known magazine. (As amatter of fact, this has happened more thanonce.) This makes everyone involved lookbad: the drummer, the drum companies,and the whole industry.

In order to maintain a good artist en-dorser program, companies should notpromise more than they can deliver just tosign an artist. They should be honest aboutwhat they can and cannot do. This avoidsmany problems down the road. Compa-nies should also respect artists and theirideas. I know that we at Aquarian havereceived some great ideas from our artists.Some have resulted in improved products.

On the other hand, if you are a drummerseeking an endorsement deal, realize thatno company can make you a star. You haveto do that on your own. Also, realize thatcompanies, especially today, just do nothave unlimited funds. The music businessis more competitive than ever, with moremanufacturers trying to get a share of themarket. Try to be reasonable in your re-quests and expectations.

If possible, talk to the company person-ally, rather than through other parties suchas your drum tech or group manager. As amanufacturer, I always want to meet andtalk with the drummer myself. I feel thatwe can have a happier and longer relation-ship if we can get to know each other.

Endorse only those products that you arereally happy with. No matter how good thedeal is, if deep down you don't care for theproduct you will eventually become un-happy and leave. And this may have nega-tive repercussions on your career, since youare the one in the public eye. Manufactur-ers and artists must try to work together ina way that is good for the artist, the com-pany, and drumming in general.

One area where companies could bemore responsible is clinics. It is not enoughto send out an artist just because he or sheis popular. A clinician should be able tocommunicate and have a commitment toeducation. On the other hand, some artistsask for clinic fees that in many instancesare unreasonable and excessive. Being rea-sonable is the key for both sides.

I know of one music dealer who con-tracted two drummers for a huge drum-into celebrate the grand opening of his newstore. Part of his commitment was to paythe hotel bill for the artists, while the manu-facturer covered transportation and the art-ist fees. These two characters charged liter-ally hundreds of dollars in long distancephone calls to their hotel room. The com-pany in question had to come up with moremoney to compensate the music dealer forexpenses that were simply not his respon-sibility—and should not have been thecompany's, either. Situations like this arevery disappointing to manufacturers.

There are two sides to every story. Un-fortunately, both sides are not always heard,and both sides may not always be fair.However, with hard work and some old-fashioned honesty, companies and artistscan work together in a way that benefits alldrummers.

Beaver Harrisby Ed Hazell

Like the title of one of his albums says, themany sides of Beaver Harris are A WellKept Secret. While not engaged with hisown band, the 360 Degree Music Experi-ence, or with avant-gardists like ArchieShepp or Cecil Taylor, he has pursued his"hidden" career with the likes of SonnyRollins, Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, andLee Konitz.

Surprisingly, Harris came to music at therelatively late age of 20, after setting asidea successful baseball career in the BlackLeagues. Yet through his musical quick-ness, his warm, virile tone, and his dili-gence in learning the fundamentals of hisinstrument, he was working with SonnyRollins within four years.

Arriving in New York in 1962, Beaverfirst gained widespread recognition as theexplosive propeller of Archie Shepp's ram-paging bands of the late 1960s and early1970s. Harris also sat in the drummer'schair for other avant-gardists, such as Al-bert Ayler, Gato Barbieri, Marion Brown,Roswell Rudd, and Steve Lacy.

Since 1966 Beaver has co-led the 360Degree Music Experience, whose revolv-ing personnel has included sitarists as wellas saxophonists. This group explores thewhole spectrum of music, From Ragtime toNo Time, as another album title put it. Hiswillingness to share the responsibilities ofleadership and an instinct for what soundsright make him a natural leader.

Musical ability is only part of the storywith Beaver Harris. Self-awareness andsocial and political awareness also contrib-ute to his artistry. While this is evident insome of his more politically oriented songsof the early 1970s, his understanding ofissues and ideas beyond music is best con-veyed in conversation. William Godvin"Beaver" Harris has a 360 Degree Aware-ness of Life.EH: You formed the 360 Degree MusicExperience in 1966. Has the concept al-ways remained the same?BH: It's evolved through different forms. Inthe '60s, we were into the avant-garde.And then we also did the From Ragtime toNo Time concept. It was a matter of gettingthe best musicians together—guys whocould really stretch the music we played asfar as it could go. Since the beginning ofthe band, I've changed the lineup manytimes. But I can always call on the originalplayers to come again. That's good to know,because we have a lot of fun working to-gether.'Dave Burrell, Roland Alexander, RonCarter, Grachan Moncur III, and myself werethe original band. And then I would usedifferent people including Cecil McBee,Jimmy Garrison, Stanley Cowell, Don Pul-

len, and Buster Williams. I had an Africanrhythm section from Brazaville. We've usedTitos Sampos. We've had Francis Haynes,the steel drummer from Trinidad, and Leo-poldo Fleming on percussion, as well asBaba Fumi. And I shouldn't forget saxo-phone players like Hamiet Bluiett and RickyFord.EH: Why did you use such a wide spec-trum of musicians?BH: We wanted to get a band that couldplay any type of jazz or improvisationalmusic, and I decided to try different typesof instrumentation. The purpose was to getas much out of the music as we could withthe different combinations. We wanted toplay everything from Scott Joplin to theavant-garde. And we continue to do that.EH: Why do you think it is important foryou to lead and organize your own group?BH: Well, I've always tried to have a co-leader. I've never wanted to be a leader,because I've always felt I was a leader anddidn't have to prove it. So I never thoughtof it as "leading." I thought of it as gettingthings together, trying different combina-tions of people, being the catalyst. I organ-ized a lot of things for Archie Shepp's band.The album Attica Blues was my idea. Italked to Archie about doing that, and I gotWilliam Kunstler to recite the poetry. Like Isaid, I'm good at organizing things andplaying with people. In all the groups I'veworked with, I've always tried to help asmuch as possible. This made it easy towork in the avant-garde: just sharing intothe music, rather than dominating it. Also,knowing the individual self helped in theso-called bebop playing. Bebop is a verypersonal kind of music. Avant-garde wasmore or less a unit-type music. That's whyit was generally created spontaneously onthe stand, rather than being completelywritten out. But it did take a knowledge ofthe history of the music before to make ithappen. So you had to study. The guyswho hadn't studied and didn't have theright qualifications didn't last.EH: What qualified you so that you couldlast?BH: Well, again, I'm lucky and gifted. Ihave a very good organizational mind. AndI know what each instrument should do.I'm not as much of a writer as I am anorganizer. I can take a piece of music andmake it happen by having people do whatI would present to them, rather than towrite it down. I feel confident because ofmy training and the things that I've done,and that comes out in the way I play. Thatis probably what is meant by being a "natu-ral." So in that sense I am a natural musi-cian, although I have studied. I didn't haveto study arranging to know arranging.

It comes from growing up, too. You studyharmony in music, but it is a part of yournatural life. And I've always done things inthat way. That's why I've always had co-leaders. There are certain things you mustfeel about yourself so that you can acceptbeing a part of something. I've always beenable to do that. And then, I can also handleleadership because I will probe to find outif what I am doing is right. That's what aleader is, I think.EH: The instrumentation you employ isalways very personal, and seems pointedtoward a particular sound.BH: In my early upbringing, I had a chanceto hear many instruments. My aunt used tosing English carols at a Methodist church.My mother was a Baptist. My grandmotherwas a sanctified church leader. Church-going wasn't a must; I did it because Ienjoyed listening to the music. After a while,you begin to utilize what you've heard.You try to find instruments to interpret thesounds that you've heard. My mother's fromNassau, and steel drums are an integralpart of the music from there. So it's naturalI should use them in my music. I was bornin America, where I had a chance to heardifferent instruments, like oboes and saxo-phones. You draw from your environment.EH: What are the links between the differ-ent kinds of music you play?BH: I draw from all kinds of music—evenclassical—because I love it all. But I playthe kind of music that I can play.

I never knew, as I grew up wanting toplay music, that I would be a jazz player. Iknew that there were certain things that Iwanted to do. I wanted to develop apolyrhythmic thing—not even knowing atthe time what a polyrhythm was. I justwanted to combine all these rhythms, andit ended up that jazz was where this couldbe done, spontaneously. I started listeningand putting things together and ended upwith a jazz way of playing. Jazz gave memore room in which to create than anyother music.

I don't give as much of my time to com-posing as I would like to. I have a synthe-sizer at home, and I'm really into music,but I just cannot find the time to get intothat side of it, because I'm so much intothe drums.EH: When you do compose, does therhythm come first?BH: The polyrhythmical way that I play isfirst in my composing. Then, from havinggood relative pitch or perfect pitch, I canhear something in my head, sing it, andhear the intervals. I can hear the root soundand develop the chord.EH: You are also working with sound.BH: Well, that's it, too. Degrees of sound,

playing different drums—that covers manycenturies of music. Before there werewords, there was rhythm: The sound wasthe melody. I think of the drum as beingthat way. I can hear a lot of music beforeeven writing the notes.EH: You've written some songs, like "At-tica Blues," with a powerful political andsocial content. Is there a social/politicalcomponent to the music you play?BH: Yes. I was born in 1936, and grew upin an experimental village called WarrenCourt—one of the original "projects" inPittsburgh. It was also completely inte-grated, so it was a very different environ-ment from most of America. As a youngperson, I never witnessed discriminationand things like that. But my grandmotherwas a Marcus Garvey follower, so I'm fullyaware of black contributions and of who Iam. I make sure I represent how I reallyam in my music, therefore it's more or lesspolitical at times. I've seen my music in-volve all types of people from all walks oflife, and that is advanced in my politics.My music has already done that; one dayin the future it will be beneficial when

other things can catch up with it.EH: Outside your own bands, you've playedwith a truly amazing range of musicians.You played with Cecil Taylor, didn't you?BH: I worked with Cecil in the '70s forthree years, on and off—right after AndrewCyrille left. We stayed on the road a lot:out to California, to Milwaukee, Chicago,Philadelphia. We went to Europe three orfour times. We also played at the VillageGate. We recorded one thing with AlvinAiley's dance troupe in New York, but itnever came out. I remember playing withall mallets in Cecil's band. I started outplaying with sticks and then decided thatCecil's music needed more of a malletsound. I think it was a beneficial experi-ence for me.EH: Many people say that, figurativelyspeaking, Cecil is the drummer in his bands.How did you relate to him as a drummer?BH: Well, he is a percussive pianist and acontinuous-type player, instead of just aspot player or soloist. In the past, that wasthe way I thought of developing the drums.And it has opened up many different ave-nues for me. l've been able to play in all

the different forms of music -- including tra-ditional ways — because of the freedom Igot from the avant-garde. l worked withAlbert Ayler, as well as Cecil, but I alsoworked with Sonny Rollins and TheloniousMonk.EH: When did you work with Monk?BH: Right after I worked with Archie.EH: You came to Albert Ayler at an interest-ing time in his career.BH: Albert and I were in the Army togetherfrom 1957 to '59. We used to hang out andplay together. He was more or less a honky-tonk player. He always had super chops.He was in the Army band, along withStanley Turrentine and Spanky DeBrest. Iwasn't in the band. He had that big soundeven then. I could always hear Albert's saxo-phone marching around the post. We'd playat the NCO club now and then. Then hereached a point where he was shipped outto Europe, and that was it. He changed hismusic and everything.EH: Did he talk about the changes hewanted to make before he left?BH: Well, at the time, he said there wassomething missing in music, and he wanted

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to find whatever that was. I'm sure it wasthe spiritual thing he was talking aboutbecause he was a honky-tonk player. Whenhe came back to New York, I saw himagain and we started working. Nobody re-ally knows Albert Ayler. He was known asa really avant-garde player, but he was alsoa good blues player, and I think he wastrying to get back to that part of himself inhis music when he died.EH: You've been working with Larry Co-ryell lately. How did that come about?BH: It's funny. Larry worked with me firstfive or six years ago in Czechoslovakia at afestival. I played with my band, includingAndrew White, the late Francis Haynes,Juni Booth, and Larry, and we just tore theplace up. So I heard Larry and he heardme, and we dug each other. Later I did abenefit at Columbia University for WKCRand I used Larry again. Larry's band is oneof the best around, with Buster Williams,Stanley Cowell, and myself. It was justanother natural event. Noone had plannedthat.

It's the same with Archie. When I hearthere's a gig with Archie, I can't wait to gettogether again, because we've done somany great things together. I'm sure thathis other bands have not been as great ashis bands in the '60s with Grachan, Roswell,and myself, with Charles Haden, JimmyGarrison, or Lewis Worrell. I know I canmake Archie do things that no other drum-

mer can make him do. So I like to workwith these guys every now and then.EH: Why do you think you were able towork with all these musically very differentpeople?BH: Wellfipy free playing had definite fun-damental arum techniques in it. In otherwords, I was not just a free player whoplayed without having full control over whatI wanted to do. I developed my technique,and I would always think very musically.What I'm really doing is taking the funda-mental way of playing and expanding onthat and playing continuously. I am alsocontinuously singing melodies and counter-melodies, which is allowed by free play-ing. I had definite foundations for my freeplaying. That's the reason I can play withalmost any type of band.

My mother was a dancer, and in myhome, growing up, we always had a pianoaround. So I could always relate dancingto music. I watched the way my motherwould dance and I used my hands the wayshe used her feet. So from dancing, I couldrelate drumming to music. My father andmy grandmother would sing around thehouse, and I sang in the choir. So I camefrom a musical family.

I knew early on that you had to have afundamental knowledge of music. That'snot to say you have to have a college de-gree, but you have to have a fundamentalawareness of music and of what you would

like to do with it, in order to play free. Yourdynamics and your own musical "air" willenable you to know how to control yourrhythms.

But then to go back and play in a so-called bebop or ragtime or swing style wasa challenge. You have to adjust instantly tothe way drummers played in those differ-ent periods. Which means I had to listen toand study all these different techniques,and I feel good about that.

I've studied drums for close to 25 years.A lot of people are unaware of avant-gardepeople studying just basic drumming. But Iknow all of the rudiments fluently, includ-ing the Swiss rudiments. I studied withStanley Leonard, a percussionist with thePittsburgh Symphony. Then I studied witha swing drum teacher in Pittsburgh namedBabe Fabrezzi, and I studied rudimentaldrumming at a place called Art's DrumShop.EH: Do you still practice?BH: Oh, I practice all the time. I've devel-oped my own technique in drumming. Mostdrummers play with their right hand grippedover the stick like they're going to cast afishing reel, and holding the left stick witha cupped hand, from the side. I use thelittle finger. I get complete independencebecause the little finger controls the wrist.Now I can use my whole hand. For the lastten years I've done this. It's really interest-ing, the number of things you can learnwhen you study. I had to learn the basicway to play before I found this. I couldn'tdo everything I wanted to do by playinglike that. So I said, "Hold it, there's some-thing else," and I developed that little fin-ger. You see, using the little finger, you cango on forever; you can channel your en-ergy. You can instantly do things. I've stud-ied the rudiments so much that I can callon anything at any time and get it. And Ipracticed to be able to do that.EH: Do you have a routine?BH: Yes. Every day I get up and practicemy long double-stroke and single-strokerolls. Then I'll go through my flams, para-diddles, flam taps, etc. Not to say I wakeup and go "mommadaddy, mommadaddy."I just sit down and before you know it, I'minto the rudiments.EH: Do you discover new things when youpractice?BH: Every day! And that's what I'm tryingto tell the young drummers. You must breakthrough by learning the fundamentals first,and then looking for something beyondthem. I found my own technique by firstholding the stick the "right" way. I stillhave fast feet, and fast hands, and I'm re-ally proud of that.EH: I'm curious about your baseball careerand if you think it helped your musicalability.BH: I was a baseball player just about frombirth, and it was totally helpful! I camefrom a very athletic family. My uncle wasthe manager of the Homestead Greys andmy father played for the PittsburghCrawfords. They were great black teams

and possibly the greatest baseball teamsever. At the time, black players couldn'tplay in the National or American Leagues.Black players were developed to the maxi-mum and I think they were more outstand-ing then they are now. I haven't seen any-thing like them in my life since. I can hon-estly say they were the greatest baseballplayers I have ever seen, and I've had achance to see DiMaggio, Stan Musial, andall of them.

My father used to carry me to the ball-park. I could see grace and perfection like Inever dreamed of. And it stuck with me. Ata very young age I was able to do things atan exceptional level. I played with the NewYork Black Yankees, the IndianapolisBrowns, and the Kansas City Monarchs. Icaught, pitched, and played the outfield.

My cousin was a drummer. I used towatch him work out on his practice pad.He was a good mental drummer, and hehad the jazz concept together. When hewas killed in Korea, I could feel a transitiontaking place. I lost interest in baseball, interms of playing it. I wanted to give myaunt some kind of satisfaction, so I acted asher son, by going into music.

The transition from baseball to music waseasy because I had coordination and inde-pendence, and I could think—I could an-ticipate plays. The secret to anything ex-ceptional is to anticipate where it is going.My anticipation and quickness enabled meto out-think and out-maneuver the biggermen when I played ball.EH: Why did you choose drums?BH: I thought about what I could do andwhich instrument would be easiest for meas a fast, well-coordinated person. Drumswere the answer. That's when I started study-ing.EH: I think you have one of the greatestcymbal sounds around.BH: Hank Mobley told me that 20 yearsago, and it didn't register at the time. Hesaid, "Gee, your cymbal beat!" I wasn'tinto comparing my cymbal beat to others,so it didn't register. Kenny Dorham told methe same thing, and I think Sonny Rollinshired me because of it. I use a gong cymbaland it has a splash sound.

You have to be very careful selectingcymbals. You can't just pick a high pitch;you need a semi-low pitch with a goodring. Depending on your touch, you canonly become so soft, so light, because ifyou hit it too light, you will not be heard.Too hard, and you'll have too many over-tones. So you have to really get into thecymbal and get the right touch. When I getinto a cymbal, I really sing. I can curl mysound on the cymbal, and it comes out aneven sound. Like a hum.EH: Do you feed certain instrumentalists acertain sound?BH: Yes, I think of each player—not eachinstrument—as a personal sound. I changeup for each individual. If I'm playing withArchie Shepp, I think of a heavier soundand a leading tone. I almost lead him intothings. If I play with Sonny Rollins, I try for

a more musical sound on the cymbal, moreor less dancing into his music. You've gotto know how each person sounds and feelsto you, and that's what you give to themusic. You give it that feeling you receive.EH: Do you feel that you've been unfairlylabeled or categorized?BH: When I'm called to do some music, Ido what the music calls for. So it's notreally breaking away from a label. It's rarefor a jazz musician to do that. Usually, ajazz musician sounds the way he's beingbilled to sound. But musicians understand.Actually, when I was supposed to recordwith Sonny Rollins, I was touring in Europewith Archie. And once when Max had the

band with James Spaulding, Freddie Hub-bard, and Jymie Merrit, he called me to fillin, but I was recording the Mama Too Tightalbum with Archie. So there are a lot ofthings that happened. I have no regrets; Ithink it's a plus that I did the things I'vedone. I haven't made money the way Ishould have, probably. But that will changewhen I get into a position where morepeople can hear me in the right circum-stances. Because I can really play music. Imay be getting older now, but I have manymore years to do this. Today, some of themore avant-garde players are trying to playdifferently, but I don't have to try, because Ialready can play differently.

something at a specific time, you have tokeep it direct to keep it tight in a perform-ance. In a trio like this, not only do youhave to but you also want to fill up a lotmore space. This is the first gig where I'vegotten into the open hi-hat type of playing,a la Alex Van Halen. You need that type ofapproach because of needing to fill space.

"I only feel as good as the people I'mplaying with," Jonathan says. "And withJoe and Stu, I feel really good about myplaying. I'm not where I ultimately want tobe, but I do feel really comfortable so thatif I want to base my fill on quintuplets orplay seven over three, I can do it, becausewhen I come down on 1, they'll be there.A lot of the things I did on the GTR albumwere edited and erased because theywanted to make a pop album. It was veryhard to swallow because it was my first bigrecording experience. I had put in somespecial touches that fit well and allowedme to take risks. Unfortunately, when thealbum came out nine months later it turnedout to be a pop record—totally differentfrom the way that it was recorded.

"During the first few days of the GTRtour," he continues, "I played a lot of whatwas initially on that record, and there wereexpressions of horror on the faces of Howeand Hackett. I was told, 'We can't followthat, no way. We've gotta hear the four; putyour hi-hat through everything and don'tgo too far out.' I had to say to myself,'Okay. Being a professional, I have to ac-cept this and make it sound the best for theband, not just for me.' So I did cut loose alittle bit, but anybody who saw us duringthe first week of dates saw that I was reallygoing for it. Since I wasn't able to take asolo—it was a guitar band—I did learn howto sneak in things here and there."

Jonathan points out that one of the manyroles a drummer has to master in a rock-band format with several members is thatof diplomatic negotiator—sometimes outof basic necessity. "I find that with a lot ofpeople I've worked with, you're gettingurged to speed up or slow down by differ-ent people. With Marillion, the lead singerwanted to sometimes hear the time speededup while the guitarist would want to stay

back on the beat,and the keyboardistwas always rightwith me. So I'd beon stage, playingthe tune at thespeed it was in-tended for, and I'mgetting these looksto either slowdown or speed up,and I don't want todo that for anybodybecause it makesme look bad. Ididn't study tenyears with a met-ronome to let thetime wander. Sowhen that happens,

you've got to convince all of them, usingfacial expressions, that you're doing whatthey want you to do. Facially and physi-cally, I'd look as though I was respondingto whoever was looking at me. Sometimesthat's the way you have to work in order torelate to the whole band.

"With Joe, I find myself listening to hisplaying instead, because he really speakswith his guitar. I don't think it has thatmuch to do with playing in a trio versus afive-piece. It has more to do with the songsthat Joe writes—not the typical verse-cho-rus-verse, because it's an instrumentalgroup—and the way he plays."

With Satriani, Jonathan is able to pull

out all the stops in a highly discursive drumsolo. What's his basic line of thinking here?"There are three things I go for in a solothat must work off each other: I want toplease the audience, I want to please my-self, and I want to use that spot as a cata-lyst for getting across a lot of what I'm notable to do with the group I'm playing in.The ideal gig for a Chaffee-type polyrhyth-mic student would be with Zappa or [Al-lan] Holdsworth, where you're playing allthese incredible rhythmic groove parts. Oneof the situations where I did get to utilizethe Chaffee polyrhythms was in a drumduet that Gary wrote for Steve Smith andVinnie Colaiuta to record. It's on par withZappa's The Black Page.' I worked on itwith Gary; Vinnie and Steve are going toeventually record it. It's definitely a mile-stone because it's very complex, totally outthere.

"Getting back to the solo," he continues,"I'll do some things that will please me,some of the faster cliched things that areaudience pleasers, and I'll also throw insome things from my linear, polymetricbackground in a way that won't bore thenon-drumming audience. If you just play apolyrhythmic solo with nothing underneathit, there's really no interest for the audi-ence. I like to base a lot of my polyrhythmsover four against an open/closed hi-hat withmy left foot. It's the kick heel-toe techniquethat Vinnie, Gadd, and Weckl, among otherguys, use. So you get an open/close hi-haton 2 and 4, then you can play the

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polyrhythms over that. Then I'll go into asamba type of groove, playing differentstructured polyrhythms in either three, four,or five over that. To round out the solo—the next song we do, which is 'Lords OfKarma,' starts out with the sitar on the Oc-tapad—I'll go into a 3/4 samba with a 4/4straight rock beat over that, accenting ev-ery seventh note. That's the cue for Joe andStu to come in. It's a well-constructed solo,but I don't do the same things night afternight either; there are different polyrhythms,different linear grooves. If I were playingwith Elton John or Madonna, I'd be doingthe kind of grooving that keeps the wholeband together. With Joe, everything is hotand wild to begin with, so in my solo, I cantake off. I can go to '11'."

A song like "Satch Boogie" (from SurfingWith The Alien) is very freewheeling andopen-ended. "I have the basic song struc-ture," he remarks. "But as far as fills,grooves, or turning the beat around at thebar line, those things just happen at themoment. I listen back to the tapes quiteoften, and sometimes I'll hear things that Idid that sound great. Other times I'll hearthings that just don't work. In fact, I thinkit's important to listen to other drummersas well as your own tapes—not so much tohear great licks to cop, but to hear somebad stuff as well. I'm not saying that youshould listen to bad players, just listen tomistakes and bad habits that you shouldn'tcop and try to learn from them."

Jonathan likes to vary his setups andswitches between right-and left-handedplaying depending on the gig he's involvedwith and its inherent demands. "It lends afresh approach to each gig," Jonathan says,"and it helps to keep my playing challeng-ing. With Marillion, I was playing a singlekick with a few racks and a floor tom,drumming right-handed. With GTR, I wentto a double-kick setup with more rack toms.I started playing right-handed when wewere still doing progressive rock. But asthe songs became more simplified, Iswitched to lefty to keep my interest. I low-ered the hi-hats down to the level of mysnare, put the ride on the left-hand side—like Simon Phillips was doing at the time—and played the record that way. It kind ofput me on the spot because I had to learn it

in a week, rather than giving myself a yearto get used to it.

"When I got the gig with Satriani, I tooka new approach again, going back to asingle kick, very few toms, and right-handedplaying, and dividing my grip betweenmatched and traditional."

In situations where Mover plays singlebass drum, he is often accused of playing adouble pedal (no doubt in part due to hisamazingly frenetic foot technique). Sorry,folks, but if you see a single bass drum,then he's using a single pedal. "There aresome really nice things you can do with adouble pedal, especially if you like the smallsize bass drum setup. Chad Wackerman,for example, is one of the best double pedalplayers I've ever heard. For my tastes,though, if I'm going to play double bass, Iwant two bass drums there. To me, it feelsmuch better than playing two beaters onone head. I also like the look of the singlepedal, and I like the way it feels. I use theTama nylon strap. It's a real inexpensive,simple pedal, but it just seems to work thebest."

And what about learning to play thosefluid double and triple bass drum strokes?"That comes about by skipping the ball ofmy foot across the foot plate. So, depend-ing on how many beats I want to comeout—two, three, four—will be how far backI'll move my foot and how many times I'llskip forward to get that many beats. I taughtthis to myself because it was the only way Icould actually get four notes or a tripletwith one foot. I know that Weckl and Gadduse that heel-toe technique on the bassdrum, but my foot is too big to do that. Myheel is off of the plate, and I play heel upall the time, so I really couldn't utilize that.And if I want to get a straight 16th-notepattern like a double bass drum, then I'lljust find a comfortable position on the platewhere there's the right amount of springtension and velocity for kicking and goinginto the head. I just flutter my ankle to getthe 16th notes that come out. That's whyeverybody thinks I'm using a double pedal,although you don't need one to do it. Ob-viously there are things that you can dowith two pedals that you can't do withone. But there are a lot more things thatyou can do with one than most people

think."Due to his previously mentioned ambi-

dexterity, Jonathan doesn't hit his crashcymbals as a right-hand dominated playerwould. In fact, his propensity for switchingthings around has opened up his playingconsiderably. "That was the result of theinfluence of those drummers I mentioned,like Phillips and Cobham. When I decidedto change, I worked out a lot of things I didas a right-handed player, but leading withmy left hand. That leaves me open to do alot more with my left. Whereas most drum-mers are going to come up with their righthand to crash, I'm going to use my lefthand. That leaves me room to expand alot. Ninety-nine percent of all drummersgo left to right in their fills, from high tomto low tom. With left-hand lead, you cango right to left up the toms, and it won'tscrew up your stickings. You can also movearound the kit in different directions. Thefirst incorrect thing that most drum teach-ers tend to teach is to always use right-hand lead: You start your rolls, para-diddles—everything—with your right hand.But in reality, your left is just as importantas your right."

Being ambidextrous also helps Jonathan'shi-hat work. "For example," he says, "A lotof people who play the 6/8 shuffle willlead with their right hand while crossingunderneath with the left. I don't have to dothat. I'll lead with my left, and that leavesmy right hand free to go around the kit. Sodepending on what the groove is, I'll leadwith my right or left hand on the hi-hat. Italso has a lot to do with the Dennis Cham-bers type of 'double two-handed riding,'when he puts one hand on the ride andone hand on the hi-hat. I can do the samething: I can start a lot of my figures on thehi-hat instead of on the ride, using the ridefor the fill-in notes. Most of the time, drum-mers play a groove, and while the ride lineis going along with the tune, everythingelse is holding it down and filling it in. I'mdoing the same thing, but with differentvoices. There are so many different voicesthat people never explore. Manu Katcheuses different textures of his drumkit andsplash cymbals to play off of. And if youpick up a Zappa record you'll hear Vinniehitting rims and using a cowbell and thehi-hat at the same time. That's something Igot from Chaffee: using all the textures andvoices dynamically from every availablepart of the drumkit. Many people in rockbypass that approach. A guy like AndyNewmark gets more out of a four-piece kitthan some of these guys who are playingfour bass drums."

Gary Chaffee was also an influence onJonathan's style of hitting, which is verymuch of a snapping motion. "That goesback to Gary's down/up technique," Jon-athan explains. "It is actually a snapping ofthe drumstick. Most drummers start withthe stick down on the drum, then they lift itup and then down to strike it. Gary startsyou off in the air so that it's half the energyand effort, and half the time to strike if. I

use that technique on the cymbals and thedrums."

Besides the previously mentioned areaof ambidexterity, another area Jonathan feelsdrum teachers unnecessarily shy away fromis odd times. "Teachers only tend to showstudents all the even counted beats: 2/4,3/4, 4/4, and 6/8. They stay away fromfive, seven, nine, eleven—all the stuff thathas a tendency to scare students. They thinkthe odd times are weird or taboo becausethey're not even. Of course, that's not true.I tell students that those time signaturesshould not be considered as odd. Take ameasure: what you have is point A to pointB in which to do a certain number of notesin a certain amount of time. Say it's sevennotes: It's still seven notes played evenly,even though you're playing in seven time.Same thing as when you play in 15/16 or19/16. Instead of having four quarter notes,you have 19 16th notes that still have to beplayed correctly and be evenly spaced.Students seem to understand that and theway it's subdivided, which takes away a lotof the strain and misconceptions about howdifficult it is to play odd time. Once theyhave that figured out, then polyrhythms aremuch easier because you're basing one rateof time in a rhythmic grooving against an-other.

"I think I had a head start because I grewup listening to the music I did—progres-sive, odd-time, 'out there' music. So I didn'tdistinguish between odd and even time.When I first started playing by ear I justplayed everything. If it was in 11 it didn'tmatter to me. When I learned what every-thing was, it was that much easier for me tobe comfortable in playing the straight stuffas well. If you start out in 4/4 and thensomeone says, 'Tackle this tune in nine,'you might be daunted. It's much easier totake two steps further and then have totake two steps back."

Mover has been primarily playing instru-mental fusion music lately. In addition tohis work with Satriani, he recently appearedon bass player Stu Hamm's solo effort, KingsOf Sleep. Does he have to creatively psychhimself up for these similarly formattedprojects? "Well, it's more of the mentalitywhere you have to look at every gig you doin terms of professionally pleasing the per-son you are working for," he comments."I'd like to always please myself as well,but that's not the main objective. Workingwith Joe and Stu on their projects, a lot ofdirection comes from them, so you have towork around it to get your little bits andpieces in where you can. Sometimes theydon't like something I'll do because theywrote it with something else in mind. Some-times they don't notice, and sometimes theydo like what's thrown in. It's a give andtake, feedback type of thing. But with in-strumental music it's really easy to get lostin what's going on, because a lot of timesit's pretty much the same beats, and you'renot following a vocal line or lead trackbecause you're just recording your rhythm

track. So it's up to you to keep it fromgetting dull, even if it means just adding orsubtracting a bass drum, or breaking fromthe hi-hat to the ride, or maybe using analternate accent on your snare drum just toenhance it a bit.

Mover is also making inroads with pro-duction work, having produced a host ofBoston-based bands in the past few years."I do most of my production work in Bos-ton. I've done about a dozen projects, ev-erything from acoustic rock to pop/funksessions to heavy metal things. I want to beable to get my hands on everything, and Iusually play on most of the stuff I produce.One of the things I like about producing isthat you're helping someone to create anend result, which is radically different thangoing into a session just for three minutes,then leaving it to somebody else to take itforward. This way, I get to work with vocalharmonies, melodies, arrangements—all ofwhich is so satisfying to me. It's anotherway for me to express myself. I don't thinkthat I'm ready to tackle a Top-40 project atthe Power Station—which is the level I'mhoping to get to someday—but the feed-back on the things I've done in the Bostonarea has been overwhelming and very en-couraging. I'm grateful that I seem to havean ear for producing."

One project Jonathan worked on wasthe theme song for the Special Olympics."I have been working with a guitarist namedPaul Julian on and off for the past fewyears. I produced and arranged 'SpecialPeople' for him, which was the 1988 andpossibly will be the '89 theme song for theSpecial Olympics. The results from thatwere so positive that it led us to work to-gether on another theme song for a charitycalled 'Heaven's Children.'"

Another composition that Jonathan wrote,produced, and performed on premiered inMD in the form of a flexi-disc. Entitled "PutUp Or Shut Up," it was also received posi-tively. Has he considered working on asolo album? "The reason I did that in thefirst place," he answers, "is because sev-eral record companies who saw Joe Satri-ani out on the road last year approachedme and said, 'The other two guys in thisgroup have solo albums out. Why don'tyou do the same?' So after hearing thatseveral times, I decided to put some livestuff down on tape to see what I could dowith it." He plans to continue working onhis own material whenever time allows.

In addition to his own projects and back-ing up more progressive artists like Satri-ani, Jonathan has also worked on somemore straight-ahead gigs. Last year, hegigged with blues singer/harmonica playerJames Montgomery. "It was great," Jonathanenthuses, "It was just for a couple of gigsthat I did after I came back from Paris withSatriani. We did all the traditional bluesand R&B standards, some Blues Brotherstunes, and some of his originals. Montgom-ery's been around for ages; he's legendary.It was a completely different type of expe-

rience for me, and it was really fun to do.Hopefully, if I have the time, I'll do morethings with him here and there."

Jonathan has also been playing New Yorkclubs with a band aptly called the BlueSuits (who, with the exception of Mover,give new meaning to the phrase "corporaterock," since the band is comprised of busi-ness executives). "It's a lot of soul stuff aswell," he offers, "so I've been listening tosome old Bernard Purdie stuff and the songsthat Steve Jordan did with the Blues Broth-ers. It's really a blast. I play a four-piece kit,and I don't take a solo; it's just grooveplaying all night." Jonathan also recentlydid a seven-week tour of Russia with agroup called Skollie, subbing for the group'sregular drummer, Anton Fig.

With Jonathan getting the chance to becreative in so many areas at a relativelyyoung age, which way does he wish tonavigate his career? "There are three ave-nues that I want to take," he begins. "Oneis playing with people in the music indus-try who I respect, whose music I enjoy, andwho I want to work with, like Frank Zappa,Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, or Carly Si-mon. There are lots of people in that cate-gory. On the other hand, I also want topursue my own writing and playing side aswell, and get involved in a band project ifthe right elements are there. Finally, aswe've discussed, the producing side ofmusic is definitely a goal in a long-termsense. That's the third side that you'll seecoming from me, but you will see all three,I'll guarantee that."

Does Mover see himself taking the stu-dio route, or is he inclined to continuetouring and recording? "There's still a partof me that loves and needs to tour. So,eventually, I think getting to the point whereI'm recording maybe a dozen albums ayear with different artists and still doingthree to six months of touring would keepme balanced. It fluctuates, too, because ifyou're on the right tour, you may want tohang out longer. Then again, if you're re-ally doing some great studio projects youmight only want to go out with somebodyfor a two-month tour. To have the choiceas to where I want to balance recordingand touring—as well as producing—is thepoint at which I'll be most comfortable andhappy. It might take me a little time to getto that spot, but that's okay—no complaints.I'm only at the beginning of my career. Ihaven't played with that many people,because I've always been thought of as aband player, which is one of the myths thatI'm trying to break right now.

"You come off the road with someonelike Satriani after four months, and peoplethink, 'He must be taking a break,' or 'Hemust be busy recording the new album.'That's not true. I want people to know thatwhen I'm off the road, I want to work withother artists. That's one of the main reasonsI moved to New York—to be in the middleof what's going on. It seems to be going inthat direction."

by Joe MorelloTranscribed by Keith Necessary

The Drori Exercise

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with 2 and 4 on the hi-hat.

This is an exercise I gave to a student of minenamed Drori Mondlak. He came up with an inter-esting variation, so I named it the Drori Exercise.This exercise is also based on pages 5, 6, and 7 ofGeorge Lawrence Stone's Stick Control. It shouldbe practiced at the drumset.

In the original version of the exercise, your righthand plays the jazz-time beat on the ride cymbal,

Now read through the Stone exercises, playing all the rightswith your right foot on the bass drum, and all the lefts with yourleft hand on the snare drum, while still playing the jazz-time beat.Here are a few examples.

Play the exercises as written for three or four bars, and then stepthe notation up to 8th-note triplets, while retaining the samestickings.

Drori played the exercise adding quarter-note triplets, before the8th notes, using the same sticking patterns.

Start at about quarter note = 60. Play two to four bars of eachexercise of Stick Control (pages 5, 6, and 7), going from quarter-note triplets, to 8th notes, to 8th-note triplets as described above.The exercises get more difficult as you proceed down the page.You may want to take two or three at a time at different temposuntil you can play all 72. If you're still having problems, writethem out so you can see them.

Drummers like Roy Haynes, Jim Chapin, and Max Roach havemastered this technique. Be patient. Some of these exercises canbe very difficult. But with practice, they'll really improve yourindependence.

Here are two more variations on this exercise:1. Play the jazz-time beat with your right hand on the ride

cymbal, and your right foot on the bass drum lightly on 1,2, 3,and 4. Then play all the rights with your left foot on the hi-hat, andall the lefts with your left hand on the snare drum.

2. Play the jazz-time beat with your right hand on the ridecymbal, and a cross stick on 2 and 4 with your left hand on thesnare drum. Then play all rights with your right foot on the bassdrum, and all lefts with your left foot on the hi-hat.Any questions on this series of articles may be directed to JoeMorello c/o Modern Drummer Magazine.

by John Clarke

Simple Remedies ForTired Drums

Even though you've cleaned them regu-larly, and looked after them in a mannerany instrument deserves, have you everconsidered that your drums may be suffer-ing from gig lag? This condition can befound in any drum, irrespective of the logoit wears, or any claims of longevity by themanufacturer.

For our purposes, the drums in questionshould be structurally sound and not inneed of work to restore the bearing edges.If this isn't the case, I strongly recommendyou get hold of the October '80, Decem-ber '80, and February '81 issues of ModernDrummer, where author Frank Kofsky cov-ers more major drum repairs in great detailin a three-part series entitled, "The CareAnd Feeding Of Drums." What we'll bedealing with here are wood drums that havesuffered the expected ravages of time andother influences that can adversely affecttheir performance, but that require mini-mum skills and materials to fix.

Tension Bolts

The first thing to do is remove all tensionbolts. Using a flat surface (glass is ideal),roll each bolt and look for any that are bentor in any way damaged. It's essential thatyou replace any that look doubtful, both inthe interests of accurate tuning and the pre-vention of damage to lug inserts. At thesame time, you may be surprised at theamount of dirt and grime you'll find in thethreads. Soapy water and a small brushwill make cleaning easy, but don't forget todry them and apply lubrication.

Counterhoops

Next in line for attention are the counter-hoops. First, clean away the dirt that getstrapped between the hoop and the drum-head. Then, using that piece of glass again,place the hoop on it in the same manner asyou would a drum. If it doesn't lay flat andit rocks back and forth, this is another itemyou'll need to replace if you want to get adecent tuning. Trying to straighten out sucha distortion is really a waste of time, sincethe metal will be suffering from fatigue. Itwill only give out again under tension.Naturally, this condition is rather uncom-mon on die-cast hoops, but it's somethingto definitely look for on cheaper or olderpressed steel types. On to trial number two.

Place both the head and the counter-hoop in position on the drum, minus thetension bolts. Then look down onto thedrumhead and check to see that thecounterhoop is in round. There should bean equal distance between it and the shellall the way around. If the head hoop ap-pears too much from under the counter-hoop in one or more places, this is anindication of trouble. Mark any such spotson the counterhoop where you see toomuch head hoop. Move the counterhoopand head around the drum independently,and be sure that it occurs at these samepoints on the counterhoop every time. Keepin mind that there is no guarantee that thehead hoop (or the drumshell, for that mat-ter) is 100% true, so take care on this one.

The Internal Shell

Once your tension bolts and hoops arein good condition, it's time to look at theheart of the instrument—those wood pliesthat respond and resonate to the creativepounding from above. What effect havetemperature changes, humidity, and thatmuffling material (in the case of bass drums)had on the shell? Perhaps not a lot visually,but after a number of years, the shell seal-ing material could well have deteriorated.

Should there be any surface damage tothe internal plies, you'll need to work withvarious grades of sandpaper to prepare thesurface. I have yet to find a better way ofrefinishing the inside of a drum than amethod passed on to me by Rex Webb,formerly of Premier Drums. Rex has donequite a bit of research on the subject, andclear boat lacquer is the item Rex swearsby. It's impervious to moisture, tempera-ture, and vibration, and clearly meets thedemands of a drum in terms of durability.The resonating properties are not impaired,and some drummers claim that the soundquality is definitely improved by its appli-cation. My only comment, after treating anold set with boat lacquer, is that it soundedlivelier and fuller, with a noticeable in-crease in volume.

Remove all hardware from the drum, andplug all holes with a suitable material toprevent lacquer from getting onto the ex-ternal finish. Two or three thin coats shouldbe sufficient to achieve optimum results.Leave 24 hours between each coat for

proper drying. If time is your enemy, do iton a "one drum at a time" basis. I've knownless industrious individuals to undertake thiswork with hardware still in place, goingright over nuts and bolts as well as the shellwith lacquer. This is certainly not the bestmethod, but even this is preferable to leav-ing the wood unprotected.

Bass Drum Hoops

Bass drum hoops tend to collect theirfair share of battle scars, usually as theresult of guitarists convinced that they weredesigned as foot rests! But there are also afew foot pedals around fitted with rathervicious clamps, which can really chew intoa hoop. A good way to repair this is to pro-gressively fill the hole with layers of resinglue until it's level with the surface. Fol-lowing this, it's a good idea to cover andprotect the repair with a thin but hard rub-ber strip placed over the clamp area. Thiswill also assist the pedal clamp to grip thehoop without damaging it. Most wood fill-ers are not designed for such work. They'llusually crumble out once clamp pressureis applied.

When refinishing the hoops, you firstneed to consider the color inlay that maybe inset. When it's only glued or stapledlightly in place, this inlay can easily beremoved and replaced. On the other hand,if it looks to be fixed pretty solid, and thefinish of your set is no longer available, itwould be safer to mask the material withauto tape. This allows you to paint or lac-quer the hoops without risking irreversibledamage to the color insert.

Metal bass drum hoops can often pres-ent a problem. As the saying goes, "Whenchrome is gone, rust will surely follow." Inthe event the chrome is in poor condition,one option is to remove the remainder, tak-ing care not to injure your fingers. Betteryet, have it done by a shop. It would thenbe possible to prime the surfaces and paintthe hoops to either match or contrast withyour outfit. Or simply replace them withwood hoops, as most people prefer to do.

If you have an older but good quality set,or an individual drum that's getting a littletired, these suggestions will help to pre-serve the instrument, put some life backinto the sound, and improve its appear-ance in the process.

AlternativePractice Ideas

by Tom Brodbeck

While keyboard, bass, and guitar playerscan pack their instruments and take themvirtually anywhere to practice, drummersoften find themselves in a much more com-promising situation. We have the uniqueproblem of playing an instrument that nei-ther lends itself to portability nor to space-consciousness, and that also promotes itsfair share of annoyance among familymembers and neighbors. Let's face it, ourinstrument is just too loud for the averageperson to endure for any length of time.

If you live in a house, you might belucky enough to practice in the basementwhen nobody's at home. If you live in anapartment, well, don't even tell your land-lord you're a drummer! If you're constantlyon the road, and your kit is always set upin clubs, you know the problem here, too.Barring some sort of ideal situation, you'reinevitably faced with the problem of hav-ing nowhere to practice, an obstacle drum-mers must learn to overcome.

Obviously, the most effective means ofpracticing is working out right on your kit.But what you don't want to do is let thelack of accessibility to your kit govern yourpractice time. There are many things youcan do every day to enhance your drum-ming skills. There are exercises you cando while sitting in front of the TV, ridingthe bus, or even while walking down thestreet.

If you don't own a practice pad, per-haps it's high time you got one. A practicepad is an invaluable asset you can bringanywhere, and most importantly, it's rela-tively quiet. I prefer the tunable modelswith real heads. Though the gum rubbermodels are definitely quieter and less ex-pensive, their feel and response is far less

true to that of a real drum. Try out differentmodels and find out what you're most com-fortable with.

Perhaps you've never considered a prac-tice pad because of their less-than-attrac-tive sound or feel. Or maybe you've neverthought that working out on a pad is worththe time. It's easy to feel that if you can'twork out on your kit, you're not going towork out at all. However, you'll be pleas-antly surprised at what 60 minutes a dayon the pad can do for your drumming. Sodust off those old books, get to work onsome fundamentals again, and start to gen-erate some new and fresh ideas. Use theopportunity to work out those old stickingpatterns you've been having trouble with,or the new ones you'd like to master.

There's plenty you can accomplish with-out having to be on your kit—if you useyour imagination. A makeshift setup of anyor all components of your kit can alwaysbe assembled. For example, try placingyour pad on a chair with a back. Use thepad as your snare drum, the back of thechair as a ride cymbal, and tap the floorwith your feet. If you need to work outpatterns that involve tom-toms, spread outsome books or binders on a bed or couchand use them as toms. Pillows also workwell, with the additional benefit of whatpracticing on such soft, non-responsive sur-faces will do for your technique. The im-portant thing is that you're working onsomething that you would otherwise beneglecting. Come up with some of yourown ideas to accomodate your situation,and don't be afraid if it looks silly. If it's anearnest attempt to improve your drummingskills, it's never silly!

One of the most common complaintsamong drummers who don't have ampleaccess to their kits for practice is the ina-bility to work on foot development. Again,you don't necessarily have to be on yourkit to work on foot technique. Find some-thing to sit on that's basically the sameheight as your drum throne. Sit down, placeyour feet on the floor, and execute the ex-ercises you need to work on. You'll bevery pleased with the results you canachieve in this manner.

Of course, some drummers will alwayscomplain that it doesn't feel anything likea real bass drum, particularly if they're"heel-up" players. The point is, even ifyou are a heel-up player, the muscles being

utilized with this method of practice arestill very much a part of the muscle func-tion used in heel-up playing. Of course itwon't feel like the real thing; nobody eversaid it would! But the overall strength ofyour drumming is determined by yourweakest limb, and that just might be oneof your feet. The best part is that you canwork on your feet just about any place atany time.

Keeping in good physical shape is alsovery important. Don't expect your body tosuddenly react perfectly when you play ifyou don't get some kind of physical exer-cise in between. Your body is a physicalinstrument that requires some degree ofphysical conditioning. If you really don'tlike to engage in one of the more formaltypes of exercise, at least try to walk asmuch as possible, or try some safe calis-thenics.

Another valuable alternative method ispracticing mentally, without any physicalmotion at all. Every physical move youmake on your drums originates in yourbrain. You can't expect all the muscles ofthe hands, wrists, arms, ankles, calves, andthighs to react in the appropriate mannerif you don't fully understand how they'resupposed to move. Patterns and fills mustbe crystal clear in your mind before theycan be executed correctly. Try goingthrough a beat or a fill in your mind with-out moving your hands or feet. Close youreyes and imagine yourself on the kit exe-cuting the desired pattern. Obviously youcan do this type of thing anywhere—andyou'll never get evicted for it! This is aprocedure many top athletes follow. Gym-nasts repeatedly go through their routinesmentally, making them progressivelyclearer in their minds, thereby enablingtheir bodies to more accurately executethe routines. It's really not all that differentfrom what we need to do.

By no means am I suggesting that anyof these ideas be used to replace the timeyou spend practicing on your kit. Theseare nothing more than alternatives. If youquestion the validity of practicing in thismanner, weigh it against your other alter-native—doing nothing at all. Use yourimagination, experiment, and most of all,have fun with whatever alternative prac-tice methods you come up with.

Transcribed by James Morton

Bun E. Carlos:"Don't Be Cruel"

This month's Rock Charts features "Don't Be Cruel," from Cheap Trick's highly successful Lap Of Luxury release (Epic40922). Bun E. Carlos gives a faithful rendition of '50s-style drumming, and what at first glance seems to be a bare-bones style actually provides the listener with something rarely heard today: dynamic contrast. To get a fix on the feeland sticking of the verse pattern (which appears at letters A, C, D, and G), play the accented backbeats loudly with onehand. Observe that the 8th-note notation is to be interpreted swing style, with an underlying triplet pulsation. Also notethat during letter A, Bun E. applies a two-beat feel (see the bass drum), whereas afterwards, it's in four (quarter notes onthe bass drum).

Linda would join us when there was anysinging to be done. Sometimes they neededan extra voice. But the other musicians inthe band have been chosen for their sing-ing as well as their playing ability, so I'mbacking off in the singing department. Ithink I've got enough to do. If it gets closerto the tour and we find we need an extravoice for certain things, I might do it, but

I'd rather not. I used to sing when I waswith Julian Cope, but a lot of the drum-ming was much more simple.

The first item on your resume is TheNational Youth Orchestra of Wales. So youhad a classical training?CW: That's right. I started having percus-sion lessons—mainly snare drum—when Iwas 11 years old. By the time I was 14 Iwas reasonably good. We were living inWales at the time, and the chance to audi-tion for the orchestra came up. I went alongnot expecting to be accepted, but I was.You get to play with some extremely goodpeople. They often have professional solo-ists, and the conductor when I did it wasArthur Davison, who was world-famous.Most of all it gives you the taste of a profes-sional life. They come down on you like aton of bricks if you miss your entrance.People were often reduced to tears. It wasgood fun. I never was a virtuoso classicalpercussionist. I couldn't handle the tunedpercussion; I used to do the snare drumand tambourine, and occasionally I'd havea go at the tempani.

16 I had to make a decision: Was I going tobecome a classical percussionist or was Igoing to play pop music? And I decided,probably to my parents' dismay, that I wasgoing to concentrate on pop music. Ithought that I had more ability on a drumkitthan I did in the percussion section of asymphony orchestra. I wasn't sure how far

I was going to be able to take it, but I waspretty certain I wouldn't get to the top as aclassical player. Within a couple of years Iwas sure that I'd made the right decision. Ienjoyed playing drumkit; I enjoyed playingin bands. After that I didn't give it anotherthought.SG: You mentioned earlier that you werepretty nervous when you did the "Rupert"session with George Martin and his arrange-ments. Presumably, with this classical back-ground, your reading must have been verygood at one time.CW: Yes, it was pretty good. After doing allthat classical stuff, I went to Leeds Collegeof Music for four years, and I had to do alot of reading there. But then I turned pro-fessional in 1980 and did nothing but popsessions for about seven years, and I neverread a note in all those years. By the time Igot to work with Paul I was quite rusty. Iknow that I should have kept at it andpracticed, but.... I use music quite a lotmyself to jot down rough parts when I'mdoing a session, so that I can get a numberright on the first or second take, but I do itin my own shorthand. I don't write outdrum fills and things, but when you're work-ing with someone like George Martin, hewill. He'll give you everything: tom fillswith each individual drum marked—the lot.Although I could look at it first time andsee what it was going to be, to actuallyplay and read it first time it didn't gel. Ittook me a couple of goes so that I knew

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I really enjoyed it, but when I was about

what he wanted, before I could take mymind off the part and concentrate on play-ing the drums. A lot of the American drum-mers are very good at doing that; they'llread a part for the first time and play it sothat it sounds perfectly natural, but I'm toorusty to do that at the moment.SC: It's odd, because about 20 years agothis used to be the prime requirement for asession drummer. You had to be able toread the proverbial "flyshit." Why do youthink this has changed?CW: It's because of the producers and ar-rangers who are around now. They've beenpop musicians themselves. They haven'tcome out of music schools. In earlier dec-ades, people like George Martin were allclassically trained and they'd write every-thing out. Now it's all done by ear or donewith machines. A lot of the things I do, Ifind they've already got a guide track on adrum machine, and I replace it and addsomething of my own to it. I don't do jinglesor movie soundtracks. For this you do haveto read. I could get back to that standard ifI wanted to, but I prefer doing people'salbums. I think I get hired because peoplewant me to put some input into the music,rather than read what's been written.SC: In 1979 you spent a year in New York.What were you doing?CW: It was just after leaving college. Atthat stage in our lives all our heroes wereAmericans, especially New York sessionmusicians. I thought it would be a good

idea to go over there and see what washappening, but it was much more difficultthan I expected. I never went expecting toget work as a professional drummer, but Ithought I'd be able to survive and soak upsome experience. I didn't have a work per-mit, and I didn't want to break the law, butin the end I met up with a guitarist and abass player. We wrote our own materialand did some gigs just for the fun of it. Weplayed some of the old punk clubs likeCBGB's and Max's Kansas City. In 79 itwas only a couple of years after people likeBlondie, the Police, and Talking Heads hadbeen playing in these places, so there wasa great atmosphere. We didn't make anymoney though. Surviving was a problem. I

was working in a restaurant making sand-wiches.

I managed to see some good musicianslike David Sanborn, and the 24th StreetBand with Will Lee and Steve Jordan. Iwanted to meet some of the amazing drum-mers over there, but I never got to do that.It's probably because I wasn't pushyenough; I just couldn't see myself going upto Steve Jordan and saying, "Hi, I'm a drum-mer, can you tell me...." But it was goodexperience. I know my way around NewYork, and I don't look at it through rose-colored glasses, which I think a lot of peopleover here do.SG: Who have been, and perhaps still are,your biggest heroes and influences?

CW: Andy Newmark, particularly recently.When the Avalon album by Roxy Musiccame out, I thought that it was absolutelyconsummate session drumming: It was verytasteful with a great sound and a great feelas well. After hearing that I rediscoveredAndy Newmark's playing with Sly & TheFamily Stone, which was a lot more loose.

I did a couple of Italian albums withJerry Marotta, and that was a great experi-ence. That really taught me how to play inthe studio. I didn't have much of a conceptof studio drumming until I worked withhim. There's a certain know-how: playsimple, get the sound right, try to get thesound right as early as you can so that youcan capture the live feel. He was a biginfluence on my career.

Earlier on I was into Billy Cobham andhis playing with the Mahavishnu Orches-tra. Then I got into rock drummers. I thoughtthat Prairie Prince, the guy with the Tubes,was the greatest rock drummer around atthe time. I got into Steve Gadd for a while.I always thought he was an incredible drum-mer, but it isn't really my taste. I'm moreinto the basic "wood chopping" approach.Steve Jordan is a favorite, but I find that alot of the great drummers around at themoment like Dave Weckl and Vinnie Co-laiuta are known for their technical ability.That puts me off a bit because I don't par-ticularly like listening to complicated drum-ming. I admire their ability to do it, but Iprefer something simple and straightfor-

ward.Since working with Paul, I had to look to

somebody for the old rock 'n' roll style. SoI listened to Ry Cooder and people like thatand got into Jim Keltner's playing. He's gota great feel; he's been quite an innovator.He plays a lot of simple patterns.SG: You said that you did some work withJerry Marotta in Italy. Was this two-drum-mer stuff?CW: No, not playing simultaneously. Whenthey do pop albums in Italy they often liketo get someone famous in as a "guest"musician. This could mean that I would dofive tracks on an album and then they'd getsomeone like Jerry in to do the other five.On other occasions I would do all the drum-ming, and then they'd get a famous saxo-phone or keyboard player in. When it wasa famous drummer, I could just sit therewith my mouth open and take it all in.[laughs]SG: You had obviously broken into the ses-sion field by this time. What do you thinkwere your shortcomings, before you wereable to observe Jerry Marotta?CW: I knew what I had to do, but I didn'tknow how to achieve it. The main thingthat I learned from him is the importanceof your sound in the studio. Getting theright sound is a two-fold thing: You've gotto get the right drums with the right headsand have them tuned properly; then you'vegot to play it properly. It's like the guitarist:It's all in his fingers. Jerry really hits hard,

and all his snare drum work is rimshots. I'dbeen playing the snare in the middle of thehead all the time, and it wasn't the sound Iwas after. There are plenty of drummerswho do it that way and it sounds fine, but itwasn't my sound. As soon as I heard him, Isaid, "That's the sound I've been lookingfor all the time!" and I adopted that sound.It took a few months to get it right, and Ihad to start retuning the snare drum to getit right using that style. It was probablyabout a year later that I started being par-ticularly pleased with the sounds I was get-ting in the studio.

In Italy it isn't such a high-pressure sceneas it is in London or New York, so you'vegot a bit of leeway to make mistakes. I didmake a few albums and the drum soundwas okay, but it wasn't nearly as good asI'm getting these days. The recording I wasdoing in London at the time was demosand people's first singles, nothing for any-body famous. Fortunately I was able to workwith Jerry fairly early on, so by the time Icame to work for some of the top produc-ers I'd got my act together.

There are a lot of very good drummerswho don't get on in the studio becausethey fail to think beyond the drums. All theartists want is a drum part that is going tosuit their songs and turn them into greatrecords. That's what a lot of the Americansare so good at: They play exactly what theartist wants and make it sound like a greatdrummer playing from the heart. That's what

I try to do. I don't think, "Can I put thisclever fill in here?" or "Can I use five tomson this track?" I won't use any toms at all ifthe engineer wants to get a clean snare andbass drum sound without any ring. Quiteoften I've had to do the snare and bassdrum on their own, and then overdub thehi-hat. You've then got to make it sound asif you're playing the whole thing at once,with a natural feel. That takes a bit of get-ting used to.SG: This business of getting your act to-gether enabled you to land some sessionswith name acts.CW: I found myself in the pleasant positionof being one of the rock drummers in Lon-don to make an album with. After doing analbum, I'd often be invited to tour with theact. That's how it happened with The Wa-terboys and with Julian Cope. I'd alwaysbeen into black American funk, and here Iwas playing all this white English pop. Itwasn't really my "cup of tea," but I sup-pose it is now. That's what I'm known for.They call it "Post New Wave" in America. Ididn't know that much about it when Istarted, so I had to do a bit of research. Ispent three or four years playing that typeof music; but after the Julian Cope tour itwas definitely time to move on. That wasanother reason why I was so pleased toplay with Paul McCartney: It allowed meto keep developing.SG: Can we talk about the album you didwith Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians:Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars? Firstof all, how did an English drummer get onan album with a band from Dallas, Texas?CW: They hooked up with a British pro-ducer called Pat Moran, and he got themover to record the album in Rockfield Stu-dios in Wales, which is one of his favoritestudios. They came over as a band, butwithout a keyboard player. First Pat got anEnglish keyboard player, Wix—who coin-cidentally has joined Paul McCartney'sband for the tour—to come in and playwith them. Then Pat decided that theirdrummer wouldn't be able to do justice tothe material in the studio, and persuadedthe rest of the band to replace him for thealbum. Pat phoned me up; I'd never workedwith him before and I was really busy atthe time. It was fairly early on with Paul,and we were doing the promotion for theAll The Best album. First of all I told Patthat I wouldn't be able to do it, but he sentme the demos anyway. It was the first timethat I'd put on a band's demo tape andbeen really taken with it immediately. Idefinitely liked the material, so I got sometime off from Paul and called Pat to saythat I'd do it.

I didn't have long, so we just banged offthe tracks as quickly as we could. I en-joyed it, and I was very pleased with whatI'd done. The drummer in the band hadbeen blown out of the recording, so hewasn't too happy. There was a slightly pe-culiar atmosphere, but I got on well withthe band, and they were pleased with theresults. I suppose the producer has been

justified now, because the album sold twomillion copies.SG: To me, some of the songs on the albumare lacking in substance, but they all cometogether with imaginative arrangements andsome very nice drum parts. Did you thinkthese up, or were they presented to you?CW: It was on the demos. They are a veryinventive band, and they'd come up withsome very good drum parts. I don't knowwhether this was the drummer or some-body else working with him. They weregood parts, but a bit unworkable in places.They could be a bit too complicated, andtherefore messy. I think that my input to thealbum was to simplify the parts a bit, andmake them work in a pop context. I think

that the other drummer had come up withsome great drum parts, but he didn't havethe experience to make them work in thestudio. They've got another drummer now,and I reckon that when they do their nextalbum, they'll be working with him.SG: Complete change of subject now: Youmust be the only drummer at the momentoutside America with a full Noble & Cooleykit.CW: Yes, I think I probably am. Around thetime I first started working with Paul, I wasin something of a quandary about drums. Iwanted to use the RIMS system, but Icouldn't get anywhere with the regular drummanufacturers when it came to asking themto supply drums without the mounting fit-

tings. Then I saw an article in ModernDrummer about Denny Carmassi fromHeart, and he had a Noble & Cooley kit.I'd already had a lot of success with the 5"snare drum. I'd had it for a couple of years.It was my favorite drum, and whenever Iput it up engineers would be freaking outabout what a great sound it had. I realizedthat the problem was solved. In the sameissue of Modern Drummer there was anadvertisement for Noble & Cooley, so Ipicked up the phone and called them thenand there.

I said, "Look, I've just got to get hold ofone of your kits," and they gave me a num-ber to call. It turned out to be a shop calledCreative Music, which is run by BobGatzen, who also designs the Noble &Cooley kits. We arranged that I would buya kit through him. But I had to wait for overa year, and when the kit came it was indribs and drabs. There was a bass drumand a couple of toms first, then a couplemore toms. I didn't get the full kit untilFebruary '89, so for most of the recordingof Flowers In The Dirt I used a mixture ofYamaha and Pearl drums with the RIMSsystem on them, and the tom mountsstripped off, which was a pity; but I usedthe Noble & Cooley snare drum.

In August of '88 I was in America, and Iwent to see Bob Gatzen in his shop. Heshowed me one of the new Star Series snaredrums, which he designed to be slightlyout of tune with itself, so you get a "ringy"rock sound from it. That was impressive

and it was a step forward in snare drumdesign, which is always interesting. It's goodto have new breakthroughs. I bought oneof those, and then I tried out a Noble &Cooley kit that he had in a soundproofroom in the back of the shop. Bob wastrying out the new Evans heads at the time,so he had a different gauge head on everydrum. I played the kit and thought, "Ohno, have I made a mistake?" I wasn't sure ifI liked the sound at all! All the toms wereshallow; the deepest one was only 8" deep.As a rock drummer, I didn't know whetherI'd have the right sound for my style. Ididn't say anything to Bob, though, and hesuggested that I visit the factory—which Idid.

It's an incredible place. It's in the middleof nowhere in Massachusetts. There's a duckpond in front of the factory, which is in a19th-century wooden building. I met Jon-athan Jones, who owns the company, andhe took me around. It was very interestingto see the people building the drums withtheir bare hands, rather than on a produc-tion line. It made me appreciate the snaredrum I already had even more, after I'dseen the love that goes into making them.They said, "We've nearly finished your kit;you should have it in a couple of months,"but as it turned out it was nearer six.SG: Did the doubts you'd had in the shopdisappear as soon as you were able to setup and tune your own kit?CW: It's such a different thing to a normaldrumkit. You have to be very careful withthe tuning, because it's such a live kit. Ifyou have anything slightly out, it showsup. It's difficult to tune at first; but likeanything, it's okay once you get used to it.It's a different prospect to one of those Japa-nese kits.

Recently we've been doing a TV film forthe BBC, and we recorded the band play-ing in rehearsal. It's all in one room, so thedrums are spilling into the vocal mic's andthe guitars are all over the drum mic's; butthe kit sounds great, the quality and depthis incredible. Even Paul said how great hethought it sounded, and he has seen and

heard a lot. Noble & Cooley has given mea sound that nobody else has got at themoment. The open sound suits my style.They are loud, but they sound like high-quality instruments as well. It's almost as ifthey've been through a studio desk already,they've got such a clean, rich sound.

Adam and I put a lot of thought into thesetup; we put a lot of effort into getting itright. We now believe we've got the best ofeverything: We've got a Pearl rack, whichhas been customized by Adam so that themic's plug into sockets that are built intothe rack. All the drum mic' cables comeout of the rack by means of a couple ofmulticore cables. We've got Noble &Cooley drums with RIMS and Evans heads,Pearl hardware with a DW double bassdrum pedal, and Zildjian cymbals. Wehaven't gone for endorsements; we've cho-sen exactly what we want. I decided thatas I'm getting paid a reasonable amount, Imight as well buy the things that I know Ilike, rather than being sponsored by a par-ticular company and having to use all theirequipment to the exclusion of everythingelse.SG: You've got an endorsement withZildjian, haven't you? They did a special"Ringo ride" cymbal for you.CW: Yes, that's true; I've been with Zildjianfor some time. That "Ringo ride" is an 18"K Heavy Ride with rivets, so that I can getthe same sort of sound that Ringo got whenwe do Beatles songs.SG: That wasn't a rivet cymbal that he used,though.CW: No, it wasn't actually; but what youneed for that is a splashy sort of ride sound.The rivets help to get that. Another point isthat Paul has got an Avedis ride cymbalwith rivets that he uses, and a sizzle soundgoes well with his music.SG: You favor K's all around, which isslightly unusual for a rock player.CW: I've always liked the K rides. I startedusing the crashes after I found that the Ave-dis ones were slightly loud for some of thestudio work I was doing. The people atZildjian recommended K's because they aremellower.SG: Have you ever been heavily involvedwith electronics? It must have been at itsheight at the time you started working instudios.CW: That's right, but I've never been par-ticularly involved with programming ma-chines. I had a cursory knowledge ofLinnDrums. I tried to get involved withSimmons kits, but I never really got on withthem. I don't think they suited my style ofplaying. I think a lot of them are very good:I've played the new ddrum kit, and that'sincredible. But I prefer acoustic drums.When I was touring with Julian Cope, Iused to trigger sounds off all the drumsthrough an Akai sampler, which is some-thing lots of drummers do; but I've decidednot to do that on this tour. I really want thepure sound of the drums to come through.I've gone to all this trouble to get thosedrums, and I don't see the point of having a

load of samples blaring out of the PA!I think that if a producer wants elec-

tronic drum sounds, he'll get a drummerwho specializes in electronics; if he wantsreal drumming, he'll get someone like me.But along those lines, one of my specialtieshas been to play with drum machines. That'seither blending real drums with drum ma-chine parts that they want to use on therecord, or actually replacing a drum ma-chine part with real drums. I enjoy that; Ioften find it easier than playing on my own,or with a band. My formative years werespent with a pair of headphones, playingalong to other drummers on albums. I thinkthat gave me an aptitude for playing alongwith pre-recorded drums or drum machines.I think that drummers who've always prac-ticed in a room on their own, and thengone out and played with a live band, arenot always so capable of playing with ma-chines.SG: What about the future for you?CW: The immediate future is the tour withPaul. At the moment we don't know howlong it will go on for, but I'm hoping it willgo on as long as possible. The first night ofthe tour—walking out on stage with PaulMcCartney—I can't imagine what it'll feellike. The audience reaction is likely to beincredible. We've done some TV showswith small audiences, and they've goneabsolutely bananas, so I don't know whatit'll be like with ten thousand!

Paul is really into having a band, and helikes playing with us as a band. I think hewould like to record another album withus straight after the tour—work on the ma-terial while we are on the road, and comein and do an album fairly quickly.

I don't see myself working with Paul un-til the day I retire. It's a great honor to workwith him, but things don't happen like that.So I reckon the next career move will be togo back into the studio scene. I do enjoyworking with different people; it keeps youon your toes. It introduces you to otherstyles and gives you challenges. Workingwith one band all the time can become toocozy: You get to know what they like andjust stick to that.

I suppose that if I have an ambition itwould be to work in the studios in Amer-ica. I realize that there are a lot of greatdrummers over there already, but I'd like tohave a crack at that. People keep trying topersuade me to become a producer, theysay that it is the obvious career move forme, but I really enjoy playing drums. It'sbeen a great honor to be able to play drumsfor people like Paul, The New Bohemians,and Swing Out Sister. There are a lot ofother artists out there that I'd like to playfor. If I could be successful writing songs orproducing records, I'd probably make moremoney; but I think I'm better as a drummer.I want to be known for doing somethingthat I'm good at; so I'm quite happy to beplaying drums.

Observations

1. The tempo marking is listed as 72 to the dotted quarter note. Although metronome markings do not always coincide with phrasegroups, in this case, the dotted quarter-note pulse should also become the phrase emphasis. In order to properly phrase the music, placea slight accent on the beginning of each group of notes.

2. Remember, in the second line, the tempo stays the same—only the note values change.3. A series of grace notes (flams, drags, four-stroke ruffs, five- and seven-stroke rolls) begins at the end of the third line. I suggest ending

all figures with the strong hand, keeping the sound consistent.4. Be careful of the 16th-note value at the end of the ninth and tenth lines. There is a metric modulation between these lines, and the

16th values are different.

Interpretations

1. Treat both crescendo markings in the third line the same. Start the third line at a piano marking to coincide with the secondmeasure.

2. I encourage creative liberties when performing solo literature. Look at the end of line four; place a short comma or pausa after theseven-stroke roll. This momentarily holds the tension from the fortissimo ruffs and sets the following piano section apart.

3. Phrase each group of three beats with a slight natural accent throughout the entire fifth, sixth, and seventh lines. This will changethe emphasis, especially in the sixth and seventh lines. In the sixth line, the emphasis will shift from the beginning of a group of notes tothe middle and end, as follows:

by Anthony J. Cirone

Portraits In Rhythm: Etude #20Etude #20 provides an opportunity to discuss the subject of metricmodulation. Modulations are used when making a transition fromone key (or mode) to another. In percussion music, metric modula-tions are used to describe passages from one tempo to another.

In this example, the composer allows the previous half-notevalue to equal the following quarter-note value.

tempo is slightly increased.

Instead of changing tempo by increasing or decreasing the speedof the notes, it is adjusted by allowing one note value to becomethe value of another. In this example, the value of the half note in4/4 time becomes the value of the quarter note in 3/4 time, whichcauses the tempo to become half as fast; cue notes between themeasures indicate this change. In the preceding example, the halfnote is listed first, then the quarter note. The following example isalso common; the quarter-note value can be listed first:

Another, more involved example shows the value of the triplet8th note in 2/4 time becoming the value of the quarter note in 4/4time, which causes a three-fold increase in tempo.

The use of superimposed rhythms (those rhythms that do notdivide equally over a beat) provides an even more complicatedexample. The value of the 8th note in the quintuplet rhythm in 4/4time becomes the value of the triplet 8th note in 2/4 time. The

A method of changing tempo (or pulse) by adjusting the speed(or time value) of a given note has just been discussed. The speedof notes can also be adjusted without changing tempo (or pulse)by allowing the tempo of one time signature to become the tempoof another time signature. The following example is taken fromline three of Etude #20.

The cue notes tell us that the value (or tempo) of the quarter notebecomes a dotted quarter note. This places six 16th notes withinthe space of four 16th notes. The speed of the 16th notes is,therefore, increased. The tempo (or pulse) remains the same.

Instead of a metric change, triplets can be used to increase notespeed (in this example). Both methods accomplish the same goal:They increase the number of notes per beat.

Although the speed of the notes is increased by the same ratio, achange in phrasing occurs when using triplets. Play the first ex-ample of line three as originally written; then play the aboveexample. Can you feel the different phrasing? It is important forcomposers to take this into consideration when using these tech-

The seventh line also has changing emphasis as the rhythms shift around the beats.

4. Right-handed players should use the following sticking for the last line so the final note of all patterns ends with the strong hand(reverse for left-handed players).

Edited by Josie Cirone.

the area, doing some originals and rear-rangements of covers like "I'm A Man."Greg Murphy had left, and Dave Shogrenwas on bass when they played a concert inCampbell, California, where the guitarplayer in the opening folk duet was PatSimmons. "He fingerpicked, played fluteand banjo, and sang," John recalls. "Ithought, 'We have a power trio. If we add alittle bit of class to it, it could be interest-ing.' To make a long story short, we finallytalked Pat into it. About the same time,Skip had found this production place inSan Mateo and called us up. We audi-tioned, they said okay, and we signed acontract with Captain America Productions.They went to Warner Bros, with some ofthe original stuff on demos that we haddone with them. Warners came up four orfive times to evaluate us, and we ended updoing our first album.

"The first album was a joke," he says oftheir self-titled effort. "One reason wasbecause, no offense, but Lenny Waronker,who was a staff producer at Warners, andTeddy Templeman, who was just comingon as staff producer, produced the albumtogether. We were real raw and real loud,and Lenny likes a quiet, mellow kind ofCarly Simon sound. So we were trying tomellow it out with more acoustic guitars,Ted was saying, 'Let's throw a little of thisin,' and Lenny was saying 'No.' It was backand forth. They wanted to do a RandyNewman song, 'Beehive State,' and weabsolutely massacred it. Some of the stuffcame through, Iike the harmonica, but whenthe album came out it kind of fizzled."

One of John's favorite recorded songs,"Slippery St. Paul," is on that album, how-ever. "'Slippery St. Paul' is kind of neatbecause there's a bass drum pattern in therethat two producers couldn't figure out howto get the right sound and impact on. I tookthe beater off of my pedal and wrapped itin tape on the shaft side, and I played the

bass drum pattern with my hand. If youlisten carefully to that song, you'll hear aneffect in there that sounds like a bottle,which is me hitting a bottle with a drum-stick.

"I love the first album because I remem-ber the craziness of the production, SkipSpence running around going, 'You guysare incredible,' and just the experience ofyouth and finally realizing, 'My God, we'redoing an album!' We actually heard itplayed on the radio a couple of times andwe went crazy."

By album number two, Toulouse Street,they had asked Michael Hossack to join asa second drummer. The idea, according toHartman, was to create an incredible wallof sound. Ted Templeman took over theentire production and the band's moremellow aspect disappeared. "We put anedge to it and got the guitar sounding bigand razor sharp and incorporated Pat inthere more," says Hartman. "We institutedthe percussion, which added a lot, and putdrums and percussion together, and evendual drums from time to time.

"The trick with double drums is, becauserecording is such a clarity of audio, thebest thing to do is take a single drumsetand segment the second drumset to it, andthen augment with percussion. Until about'74, we were doing duals. One of us wouldplay the set, and there were a lot of placeswith double hi-hat, double snare hits,double bass drum hits, together and synco-pated, and there were several completelydual drum tracks. 'Road Angel' and 'With-out You' are a couple. 'Wheels Of Fortune'[from Takin', It To The Streets] was me andRichie Hayward at a session where Keith[Knudsen] didn't show up. Richie happenedto be there and it was a gas. The part wassyncopated, and we just sat down and Isaid, 'I want to do this,' and Richie said, 'Iwant to do this.' We just played it, andabout the third take, we had it."

The second album spawned two hitsingles, "Listen To The Music" and "Jesus IsJust Alright." In a past interview, Pat Sim-mons said that it was time to devise somenew ideas to make the music more excit-ing, citing running John's drums throughan ARP Synthesizer as one such technique.

"We were one of several bands to startusing synthesizers," John explains, "and wewere running some of the drums throughthem as a background effect to augmentthe primary acoustic sound. We were phas-ing things. In 'Jesus Is Just Alright/ at theend you'll hear phasing. Phasing has kindof gone by the wayside, but it's a uniquething if you're working with stereo head-phones."

Another of Hartman's favorite recordingsis "Daughters Of The Sea" from the WhatWere Once Vices Are Now Habits album,because of t'he extensive percussion on thetrack. "I was using timpani and several typesof Indian, Chinese, and Buddhist bells andtriangles. We did a lot of intricate percus-sion on some of Pat's tunes. My favoritesongs are the ones with a lot of percussionon them. To me, they evoke a lot of emo-tion."

John Hartman's name is on the Livin'OnThe Fault Line album, but by then, his heartjust wasn't in the band anymore. It makeshim angry, though, that for the past tenyears journalists have been asking himabout an erroneous report in People maga-zine stating that he left the band to becomea veterinarian.

"After I left, Tom Johnston and I weregoing to jam with Tiran's [Porter] band inSanta Cruz in 1986, and on the way downthere, we talked about the old days.Johnston turned to me and said, 'You know,I had to get out. I got lost. I didn't knowwho I was, I didn't know where I was, Ididn't know why I was,' and I said, That'sexactly where I was at.'"

During the time away, Hartman worked

Pho

to b

y R

ick

Mal

kin

with other musicians as a studio drum ad-visor or live with Johnston, where he alter-nated playing drums and percussion withJim Edison in a single-drum situation. Healso went back to college to take somegeneral education, pre-nursing, and lawenforcement courses, becoming an emer-gency medical technician as well as a full-fledged firefighter, which he did on and offfor six years. He learned a lot.

"As you mature in life, there are certainthings that you need, like being able todrive a car and knowing where you live.When those things got lost, I re-evaluated.I also worked with different producers anddifferent styles and ways of approachingthings, and I got to see how different peoplethink. I also went to a lot of concerts. Whenyou're stuck in a band, you only go to oneconcert, and that's yours. I got an overviewthat I had never had before. This time, Ihave control over my equipment, I knowwhat's going to happen and what shouldhappen, and I'm into publicity because Iknow the value of that. I have good controlover my situation, which I never had be-fore."

Michael Hossack is also happy to beback in the Doobie Brothers. "After you layoff a situation like this for a while, and afteryou've had a chance to mature a little, yourealize what a great opportunity somethinglike this is. You get to play music, you getto go into the studio and record, and youget to play in front of people and have

them feed you full of all this positive en-ergy, and on top of it all, you get paid. It'sthe greatest job."

And it was what Michael wanted to dofrom age 12, when he joined the Boy Scoutdrum & bugle corps. "They gave me a pairof cymbals, and I went home with them.My mother flipped out and said, 'You can'thave those in this house. Get somethingmore musical.' So I went back and theygave me a horn. I brought the bugle homeand started blowing that. Of course, shewent nuts again and said, 'Can't you getsomething more quiet than that?' So I saidI'd try, and I went back to the drum sec-tion. At that time, one of the guys in thecorps had a dad who had a metal shop,and he had made up drum pads for every-

body to play—half-inch steel with quarter-inch rubber on both sides. So I saw thatand asked if I could try it out, and the druminstructor said, 'You're a natural, kid; here'sa pair of sticks, take a pad, and go homeand practice.' He showed me some single-stroke rolls and double-stroke rolls to prac-tice, and that was it."

Michael says Passaic Valley Regional andVocational High School in New Jersey wasa great place to be in the marching bandand orchestra. "Our department allowedus to check out instruments, and every per-cussionist had to take one other melodicpercussion instrument to remain in theband, so we had to take vibes, xylophone,or piano. We also had to have theory andeverything, so it was pretty intense for a

high school."After high school Michael worked for

E.F. Hutton, and it drove him so crazy thathe "couldn't think of anything better thanto join the Navy." For the two years he wasin the service, he continued to play, al-though he wasn't a Navy musician, andwhen he returned to New Jersey, he joineda group called Morning Rain. The bandchanged its name to Roadhouse, and in1969, when they moved back to San Jose(where they were originally from), Hossackwent with them. It was then that the bandsigned with Captain America Productions,"which had another band signed. They hada really funny name," Michael pauses. "TheDoobie Brothers. When my band broke

up, the Doobies, who had heard me playin the studio, asked me to join the band.They gave me an address, and it was anightclub. They were setting up when Ishowed up, and it turned out to actually bea gig. It was a live radio broadcast, too,with the Jefferson Airplane and Santana.They said, 'Ah, don't worry, it's just rock 'n'roll.' I guess it sounded good, because theykept me."

It seems that Hossack's favorite place tobe is in the studio, where he says in theearly days there would usually be one songper album that was actually recorded withdouble drums, John would do a couple oftracks by himself, and Michael would dothe rest. Michael cites "Without You" from

The Captain And Me as one of his favoritedouble-drum songs.

"I like the real high-energy stuff," Mi-chael says. "I enjoy 'China Grove' and thatstuff too, but one of my favorite songs thatTommy did was 'Another Park, AnotherSunday' [from Vices], which didn't get a lotof play, but I thought it was a great song. Ilove Pat's 'South City Midnight Lady' [fromThe Captain And Me] and 'Black Water'[from Vices]. 'Black Water

7

was a real bear.Because of the way the schedule was inthose days, not everyone was at the studioat the same time. That was one of the firsttracks they tried to record to a click. Theythought they would be real slick using theclick track, and all I would have to dowould be come in and lay the drums ontop. Well, unfortunately, the click trackdidn't really matter that much to their time,so they played whatever they felt, and Iwas left with this track that had a straightclick all the way through and a music trackthat went on a rollercoaster ride. Theyhanded that over to me and said, 'Hereyou go pal, put some drums on that andlet's see what you're really made of.'"

The rather off-the-wall intro to "Down InThe Track," from the same album, had aninteresting genesis as well. "I use this warm-up pattern where my hands keep going in astraight right-left 8th-note pattern, and I justswitch my foot around to different patternsthat go on the beat and then off the beat,"Hossack explains. "It's just a pattern forindependence. There's one section thatsounds like a 6/8 part, and Teddy heard mepracticing one day and said, 'Hey, thatwould be cool to put on the front of thissong we're doing called 'Down In TheTrack.' So he came up with a really bizarrealtered version of this practice pattern thatI was doing in 6/8, and if you listen to thatsong, it's this strange thing that sounds likethere's no time there at all, but the wholething is based off a 6/8 pattern. For yearspeople said, 'What the hell was that?' LatelyI've been changing it to a much simpler,more understandable pattern because

people would look at me like I was crazy,and a lot of times I'd lose the band."

just to clear up confusion, that is Hos-sack on the Vices album, even though he'slisted under "special thanks" and did de-part immediately following the recordingof the album due to a hectic touring sched-ule. "Keith's picture is on the record," Mi-chael says, "but I did the drum work. That'salways been a misconception that peoplehave."

Post-Doobies, Hossack had a band calledBonaroo (that Bobby LaKind was also in),which lasted one record and a tour. Thenhe headed Chateau Recorders in L.A.,which primarily catered to a jazz clientelesuch as George Benson, Chick Corea, andStanley Clarke. He joined a group calledDFK—Les Dudek, Mike Finnegan, and JimKreiger—which sounded better on paperthan in actuality, and did some productionwork in Dallas and Pittsburgh until 1986,when he moved back to California andwas contacted to do the reunion tour.

For Bobby LaKind, the Doobies reunionwas a lifesaver. He was at his lowest whenthe call came through from Knudsen. "Therewere some pretty lean times after the bandbroke up," LaKind admits. "The moneylasted from '83 to '85, and I was alwaysthinking, 'It can't stay like this.' Not onlydid it stay like that, it got worse. It reallybottomed out in about '86. I lost every-thing. I worked in a grocery warehouse inVan Nuys, and it was unbelievable. I'd bein the refrigerator where they keep the milk,freezing my ass off, and I'd hear 'MinuteBy Minute' on the Muzak. It was near sui-cide. I eventually got fired because I wasn'tany good at it." But with Bobby, it seems asif the rewards have always risen fromashes....

After sending his mother in New Jerseyhis diploma from law school at the Univer-sity of Maryland, LaKind settled in Boulder,Colorado, having decided he had more ofan affinity with percussion than with law.In 1974, he met Marty Wolf, a lighting

designer for the Doobie Brothers."I was not making a hell of a lot of money

at the time, and my wife was sewing tents,"Bobby recalls. "Marty said to me, 'Howwould you like to go on the road as aroadie? You will have the worst job, coilingthe cables and having to climb up on thescaffolding,' but I said I didn't care, it wouldbe fun to go on the road. I remember load-ing a truck and driving a rental Ryder toDetroit. We had been driving all night, andI remember walking backstage and seeingTommy, Patrick, and Keith walking to thedressing room after soundcheck, and theylooked great. These guys looked like rockstars, and they looked like they were hav-ing a good time. I said to myself, 'This is it!'

"Two days later, we were in Chicago andI was up on a scaffolding. At the end of'China Grove,' they'd have these flash potsexplode right in time with the music. Well,two of them didn't go off during the song.The show was ending, and there were still15,000 people in the place. I climbed upto where the pots were, and the last thing Iremember was seeing a spark. I don't knowhow, but this thing went off in my face. Itwas my third day on the road, I was 30 feetin the air, and I was holding onto this thing,thinking, 'I'm blind. Don't fall off.' The thingthat scared me the most was I couldn't see.I could hear people in the audience going,'Oh my God,' so I was thinking that maybeit blew my face off.

"They brought me down, the ambulancecame, and my sight started coming back.They wrapped me like a mummy, and theywanted to send me home. I wouldn't gohome, and the next day I worked, wrappedlike a mummy. John Hartman said, 'Weshould give medals for above and beyond.'So I went from being a nobody—no oneknew who I was—to three days later every-one knowing who I was, and it solidified acertain thing. The fact that I stayed to workamazed everyone. I remember Patrick Sim-mons saying to me, 'You'll always have ajob here, forever.' Then they fired a stagemanager and asked me to stage managethe band.

"At about that point, Patrick heard meplay and suggested I play a couple of songson the next album. So I played on Takin' ItTo The Streets, and during the live shows, Iwould play that song and a couple of otherthings while I stage managed. I finally saidto the manager that I couldn't do both, so Ibecame a Sideman, moved to L.A., andfinally became a member of the band."

As a Sideman, Bobby played on Doobiesrecords from Takin' It To The Streets throughMinute By Minute, only becoming a mem-ber in 1980. "During Minute By Minute wewere doing a tour in Japan, and the recordwas doing real well, so I thought, 'Geez, Iplayed on all these basic tracks all theseyears,' so I asked them for a bonus of aquarter of a point. It was not voted for, so Iquit. I had some good friends in the bandbut there were a couple of guys who...wellI'm not going to name names. So I left. Inretrospect, it was a dumb move. You don'tleave a band that big, whether you're aSideman or not; I could have sufferedthrough it, but I was hurt and it seemed likethe right thing to do at the time. I realizenow that it resulted in poverty. The ses-sions kind of trailed off because the synthe-sizer thing started coming on strong. Congaplayers and percussionists were the first togo. With the Linn machine it was, 'Whoneeds these guys?'"

Up until that bleak period, Bobby hadalso done session work outside the Doobies,

including sessions for Chris Hillman, LittleFeat's Hoy Hoy, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's"American Dream," and an album with RickNelson produced by Al Kooper that re-mains unreleased. He also producedYazawa with Paul Barrere (of Little Feat)and did live work, including a month withNicolette Larson and a two-week tour withRandy Newman.

Living On The Fault Line is amongBobby's favorite recorded work. "I thinkwe broke a little ground on that record," hesays. "The music was a little more thanthoughtful on that record. I always had agood time playing on Doobies records,though. They were always real rhythmicand always lent themselves to percussion."

Minute By Minute, although hugely suc-cessful, was the most "un-fun" recordingtime, according to LaKind. "I guess thehandwriting was on the wall. People werestarting to get unhappy with it, which wasjust a shame. Keith and I felt like therewasn't anything we could do to pleaseMichael [McDonald] as far as the drumtracks were concerned," says LaKind, whosubsequently worked on McDonald's firstsolo album. "I don't know if it was accu-rate or not, but we definitely felt what wefelt. It was a great record, but not a funperiod in the band's existence. I think partof the reason was that it seemed like peoplewere in it, at this point, to further theircareers, rather than the Doobie Brothersbeing the number-one reason they werearound. That's not fair to say 'everybody,'but Michael and Pat had solo deals at thetime and it felt like, 'You're going to do asolo record? Well then I'm going to doone!' I tried to get a deal myself. I putmillions of demos out and never got thedeal." Bobby says that getting people tobelieve a conga player can be a songwriter

is difficult. While he has three composi-tions on the current album, in the earlydays there were so many writers that it washard to score a cut. He did, however, co-pen "One By One" on One Step Closer,the last studio album before the reorgani-zation.

"Minute By Minute was so successfulthat we thought, 'Boy, this next one is re-ally going to go into the stratosphere.' Andit didn't. It was a good record, though.There wasn't a record that this band madethat didn't have good songs. Everybody inthis band has always given it their all," infact, so much so that LaKind, even as lateas this year, has been sporadically studyingalong the way. While he took earlier les-

sons from Jerry Steinholtz, Bobby recentlystudied with Luis Conte, who helped refinehis knowledge and worked with him onthe shekere, which he used quite a bit onCycles.

With the quest for knowledge comes anew perspective towards the future and arenewed commitment to the band. Likewhen he refused to be sent home with hisbandaged head, again Bobby took a standwhen he was offered an audition for a roleon Cheers. Acting had been a pursuit dur-ing the hard times and could have finallypaid off, but he was working on Cycleswhen the call to audition came through.

"Some of the guys in the band thought Iwas nuts to turn it down," Bobby says.

"Hossack said, Take a day off and read forthe part.' And I said, 'Suppose I get it? Thendo you care if I take a couple of weeks off?'The guys in the band would have ultimatelywondered, 'What does he really want todo here? Is he into the Doobies or is it justa thing from the past?' I had to make astatement to the band and felt real goodabout sticking to that commitment. I havethis thing now, and it means a lot to me."

The stage is overrun with Doobie Broth-ers striking a committed pose. The frontline consists of Patrick Simmons and TomJohnston on guitars and alternate lead vo-cals, with bassist Tiran Porter in the middle.Behind them to the left is Cornelius Bum-pus on keyboard and sax, and an auxiliarykeyboardist, Dale Ockerman. In the far backis the drum riser with two sets and thepercussion in the middle. As they go into"Echoes Of Love," it is apparent that thedynamics I just witnessed of the percussivethreesome sitting around the table are akinto those on stage. Bobby LaKind is eager toadd whatever he can to the conversation,Michael Hossack seems a tad reticent, al-beit straight-ahead and direct, and JohnHartman takes control on stage much thesame way he did in the interview.

Facing the stage, Hossack, on the left,

has a compact white Pearl kit on which helays it down. In the middle are LaKind'scongas and percussion, and he's playingand singing his heart out (a double duty hesays has always come easy), and to theright is Hartman flailing away on his morespread out black Sonor kit. Thus far, thereare no electronics live, although Hossackis considering adding some for special ef-fects.

"Playing a live performance is a gratify-ing thing in itself," Hartman had told meearlier, "but you have to deal with themonster, which is all these things that sur-round you, like the lights, the PA, the sizeof the hall, the distance of the slapbacks,the breaking of equipment, the reverbera-tion on stage, which is why we wear head-sets. Even though we're close, with thesound level on stage, and because the soundgoes every which way and we're behindthe amplifier line, we can't hear the preci-sion that we have to have to play dualdrums. In certain halls, there's so muchambient noise coming back at us that wejust can't tell where the beat is. We can'ttell if the reverberation slapback is the realone, or the one before or after it. That'swhen the headphones come into play. Inhalls where the acoustics are good on stage,I just use a monitor because the feeling is

better. Once you put a headset on, youhear every off beat. If I play a fill, I'm goingto come back a little ahead or a little be-hind the beat, which is natural, and usuallythe second beat into it, you pick it up. It'sexactly the same thing with Michael, so

and he does a fill, he's behind the beat orhe's ahead of the beat, and I hear that inthe 'phones, which can drive you crazy.But in the audience you don't hear thatbecause the monitor is so awesome thatwe blend it." Sometimes John and Michaelplay together, and sometimes they playcounterparts, like on Cycles' "One Chain."Then on "Take Me To The Highway," Hart-man relinquishes the drums to Hossack andplays the percussion setup to his right.

Watching these guys and hearing thefamiliar gems like "Black Water," "Jesus IsJust Alright," "Dependin' On You," and"One Step Closer," you know that LaKindis right when he says this band is a wholegreater than the sum of its parts. No one'ssolo project has done as well as a Doobiesjoint effort, and you know, even with allthe difficulties one must experience livingwith the same people for so many years,there is a musical chemistry that createsmagic.

I'm playing straight, right on the money,

not sure if drummers are aware that theyare available in black. The black is verystriking, and we are going to be using it onour new NE series of drums."

At the beginning of this article it wasmentioned that PureCussion has two mainproducts. The first is RIMS; the second istheir own line of drums. These remarkable-looking drums have been around for a fewyears now, but not until recently have theybecome a truly reliable instrument. Johnstondiscusses their evolution: "When they werefirst introduced, they were called the Head-set, which was, in a way, a decent namebecause it was a drumset made of heads.However, I think it got confused with head-phones, and in fact that's what I thought itwas before I started here. They're calledPureCussion Drums now, and they justhappen to be single-headed, shell-lessdrums. Our shell is very shallow; it's only alittle tuning ring," Walt laughs. "It acts asboth the bearing edge and the shell.

"The idea for the drumset came aboutafter Remo's PTS heads were introduced,"Walt continues. "The idea was basically totake one of these heads, which did notneed anything to tension it against to get asound, and attach it to a product we al-ready made—a RIMS mount. The ideaworked, and that's basically how the Head-set was born. But the biggest problem wefound with the first version of the Headsetwas the instability of the drumhead mate-rial. That's what was responsible for the

Headset's demise. There were times whenthe 12" tom sounded lower in pitch thanthe 16", and it could happen overnight.Gary Gauger immediately determined thatthe drums had to be able to be tuned. Butthe PTS concept was very interesting, andthat's where the whole thing started.

"Gary Gauger and an engineer herenamed Arne Rian came up with the designof the first tuneable set, and Gary made thefirst crude prototypes still utilizing the PTShead. A lot of the parts became die-castbecause of a connection with Tool Prod-ucts and Minnesota Rubber, companies weare associated with through Quadion. Min-nesota Rubber made the little clamps thatheld the PTS head onto the RIMS."

When asked why all of the drums andsome of the cymbal stands are mounted offone frame, Johnston replies, "The conceptwas to make a portable jobbing set, jazzset, or practice set. The more you couldfold the drumset up and put it in one littlebox, the more it would meet a demand thatdrummers had for something that they couldmove around easily. We feel that our drumsare much more than that now, as far aswhat the drumset can do. But, it was de-signed to be picked up and walked awaywith. That's why everything was mountedtogether. A drummer can go to a gig withtwo cases; one for the drums, and the otherfor the snare drum, cymbals, and other gear.

PureCussion's new drumset, the NE se-ries, has many improvements over its prede-

cessors. According to Walt, "First of all,any drumhead can be used on the drums.And getting that to work was an engineer-ing marvel, because of the way the leverslift up the tuning ring into the head, usingthe new die-cast counterhoop as the an-chor. As most drummers know, all headsare not the same. Allowing our drums to beable to accommodate the two major brandsof drumheads, Evans and Remo, took a lotof doing. The Remo head has a differentkind of collar than the Evans, and the fleshhoops are different. Because of these differ-ences we had to come up with a designthat would work for both, and now wehave it.

"The ability to use different heads nowgives our drums a significant improvementin sound over the previous sets we pro-duced. The sounds that you can get noware much more varied, making the drumssound much better for whatever particularmusical setting a drummer finds himself in.And the bass drum, which was always atrouble spot for us in the past, all of asudden has life to it. And now we have anew feature for the bass drum that helpsthe sound even more. We now have theoption of placing a second bass drum headin front of the batter head, which gives offa much fuller sound with even more bot-tom. Now it's a very acceptable bass drumsound. And miking it is unreal; you juststick a mic' in between the two heads andyou have isolation."

When asked why PureCussion drums areonly available in one bass drum size, a20", and four different tom sizes, 10", 12",14", and 16", Walt puts it this way, "Keepin mind that the designer of the set, CaryCauger, was a jazz drummer. He liked an18" bass drum. I'm just glad he went to a20". The four toms were basically all thatwas needed for what he likes to use. Theset was designed for his personal prefer-ences.

"There's really no reason to go to a largersize bass drum, because now that we haveour own triggers available, they would takecare of any size drum you want. By makingthe bass drum larger, we would be defeat-ing the whole idea of portability. The moremass we put into it, the less portable it is.We want to stay portable, but we wantanyone to be able to use it. I don't reallysee a 24" or even a 22" size coming. Thecost is unreal in making the molds and thecounterhoops that we would need now toproduce the tuning ring and all of the othercomponents.

"I just went to a little society band affairheld in a large ballroom, and the drummerhad our regular tunable set there, not ournew NE series, and it carried all the waythrough. He wasn't miked or anything, andit was a 13-piece society band gig. He's onthe road with that set. It might not be rightfor heavy metal without miking or trigger-ing, but it can cover a lot of areas."

One of the most difficult jobs ahead forPureCussion is introducing their new drumsto the marketplace. To that point Johnstonremarks, "Well, it's an awareness factor. I'llgo right back to that. Until we get morepeople using it—which is very difficultbecause some of the younger players areonly impressed by what they see on stage—people won't be sure about these drums. Itmight take something like an ad of a fa-mous drummer who appeals to youngerdrummers saying, 'I'm using it, and I'musing it in this situation.' Actually, RikkiRockett, Tico Torres, Fred Coury, DennisChambers, and a number of heavy-nameplayers have purchased and are using oursets. And while the set has yet to be seenon their stages, it is being used in specificsituations.

"I don't see it as a first set for everyone.But, many drummers now have more thanone set, and this would be the set that theycan take around. To try to get it around tomore people is just going to take morediligence on our part through our adver-tisements—getting some spokespeople outthere to use it more.

"At this point in time our drums can beused by anyone. I was afraid to say thatbefore because it had such a small marketniche. It used to be only the around-towndrumset. 'Don't take it on the road, be-cause you can't get a PTS head for it.' Italso didn't quite have the sound. Now it'sgot a great sound, and we should reallybegin to see a lot of drummers interested inour drums."

Another exciting development for Pure-

Cussion is its new trigger, which works inconjunction with their new drums. Theycall it a Trigger Set. "When I first came toPureCussion, we were talking about trig-gering," says Walt. "I said, 'Let's try to burya trigger or pickup inside the rubber mount.'By doing that I reasoned that we wouldhave something that was uniquely ours,and then we would have a trigger set. Butthe trigger didn't work inside the rubbermount. Shows what I know about triggers!

"So next, John Haga, our other salesper-son and a drummer himself, and Tom Wil-liams, tried hooking a trigger onto the tun-ing ring. That allowed the trigger to havethat full contact with the head. A triggerthat you paste onto a head is kind of a drag

and sometimes gets in the way. Our triggeris underneath the drum and not touchingthe head at all, but touching the ring thatcontacts all around the head. Because ofthis it's very sensitive, yet it doesn't doubletrigger.

"It seems many drummers are interestedin triggering. Our distributor in Germanywas saying, 'You've got to be able to trig-ger.' And I guess drummers are doing iteven more in Europe than they are here. Tobe able to play on a head that has the feelof a drum and be able to trigger is anexcellent idea. It's quite a bit above whatwe've had in the past with rubber pads andthings like that. So we're giving the personthe best of all worlds—an acoustic drum

and an acoustic drum sound, and 'triggera-bility.'"

Was Walt a bit worried about enteringinto the electronics field? "I was concerned.I turn off the electricity when I change alightbulb," he laughs. "As far as gettinginto electronics, no, we weren't worried.We had the people from ddrum excitedabout our being able to trigger their prod-uct. Barcus-Berry designed the trigger forus. I'm not worried about it other than thatwe don't want to sell brains, other than asan accessory item. We're not trying to cre-ate one ourselves. We are not going tomake our own pickups and things like that.But I think music and drumming is goingthat way, and we have to be able to furnishwhat drummers want."

Along with their Trigger Set, PureCus-sion has been experimenting with otherproduct ideas. "We are working on a snaredrum," Walt admits. "It works just like atom-tom with snares on it, with no shell.It's quite amazing. Gary Gauger had al-ready put together two different snaredrums. One was a single-headed drum thatwas very thin, but it never went any fur-ther. Then he put a double-headed onetogether with snares, with a very compli-cated little mechanism on the bottom head.Dennis Chambers came through town re-cently for some drum clinics, we got himin our shop, and Gary brought in this newsnare drum. Dennis flipped over it. It's gota different sound.

"You've seen the Evans ad, the 'Year OfThe Snare.' It seems everyone is making asnare drum now, and they're all $1,100 ormore, and they are all with some differentgimmick on the snare. Ours is definitely adifferent-sounding snare. We're just tryingto see if we can come out with a viableproduct that is a different sound, that peoplemight want in their collection of snaredrums."

With all of the improvements and futuredevelopments that PureCussion is involvedin, it would seem that they are now in aposition to move ahead by leaps andbounds. According to Bruce Carlson, "Weare working on new advertisements for thefuture, and we're going to be more asser-tive on this next ad campaign. I think withRIMS we are going to be more aggressivein terms of trying to get people's attentionas to how they can affect their drumset. It'sa product we feel all drummers shouldknow about. As for our drumset, we feelwe have to show its versatility, and find themany situations that it can now be used in.So we feel we have a lot to say."

Porcaro and Anton Fig). He also did rec-ords for Johnny Taylor and Bobby BlueBland in addition to co-producing a recordfor Connie Francis.

Peter Michael touring with Stevie Nicks.Norm Roper out with the Monkees, shar-

ing drum duties with original drummerMickey Dolenz.

Thommy Price on Michael Monroe's newMercury/PolyGram record.

John Mahon is the new drummer withWindows.

Tris Imboden on Peter Canada's new re-lease.

Danny Gayol now touring with theBoDeans.

Ian Wallace just completed an albumwith England's The Quireboys and is cur-rently on tour with Don Henley.

Michael Cartellone is the drummer forTommy Shaw's new band.

Look for Sly Dunbar and RobbieShakespeare's new album, Silent Assassin.

Chuck Tilley on drums and percussionon Lee Greenwood's If Only For One Night.He is currently on tour with Greenwoodthrough the end of the year.

Drummer Eddie Tuduri is in charge ofMusicians for UNICEF, and Joe Porcaro,Emil Richards, Ralph Humphrey, VinnieColaiuta, and David Garibaldi were in-volved with a recent benefit by the jazz

chapter. Tuduri is currently on the roadwith Dwight Yoakum.

Stan Lynch on tour with Tom Petty & theHeartbreakers. Lynch also contributed as asongwriter and drummer on Don Henley'srecent release.

Frank Colon has been playing percus-sion with Flora Purim & Airto while Airtoplays set. He has been touring with theManhattan Transfer. Colon also recentlyrecorded Michael Petrucciani's new BlueNote release, with Lenny White and VictorJones on drums on the date as well. He isabout to start a project with Wayne Shorter.

And speaking of Airto, he has been work-ing on his first solo album in years forVirgin Records.

Moe Potts recently subbed for TomCompton on Johnny Winter's tour whileTom and his wife were expecting a baby.

Gary Knudtson has just won the BestJazz Drummer in Minnesota award for thethird year in a row. He recently recordedan album with jazz keyboardist Ben Sidranas well as touring with the Steve MillerBand. Knudtson is featured on Miller's lat-est album Born 2 Be Blue.

Phil Rowland on an album by a newband called Mastedon.

Danny Frankel has been playing with BoDiddley, and sidelined in the Disney movieBlaze in addition to playing on the sound-track.

James Campbell, Associate Professor ofMusic at the University of Kentucky, re-cently returned from a three-week clinictour of the Orient.

John Xepoleas has just completed analbum with Keith Gale. He also recentlyprogrammed Todd Curry's debut record. Heis also working with guitarist Paul Pappasfor an upcoming LP as well as doing livedates with The Fundamentals. Also, con-gratulations to John and his wife Becky onthe birth of their son Nicholas James.

Pablo Batista has recently been alternat-ing touring with Jeffrey Osborne, GeorgeHoward, and Diane Reeves.

Chet McCracken has been doing dateswith Kim Carnes as well as with his ownjazz band.

Our condolences to the family of DaveColeman, who died in Seattle of cancer atthe age of 65. He was a former member ofthe Harry James Band, also having workedwith Freddie Slack and Barney Bigard. Hewas the drummer on the 1946 album jazzat the Philharmonic featuring Billie Holi-day.

Congratulations to Cindy and MichaelShrieve on the birth of their son, SamuelMichael.

Robyn Flans

FINGER FITNESSby Gregory G. and Lorraine C. IrwinPublisher: Banner PressP.O. Box 13359Hamilton OH 45013Price: $12.95As the introduction to Finger Fitnessstates, it would seem that exercisingthe hand muscles has been a ne-glected area. Musicians and otherpeople whose hands are of utmostimportance have never been given astep-by-step exercise method before.The back cover of the book lists sev-eral dozen occupations that wouldbenefit from a program like the one the book outlines. Though Ican't vouch for majorettes or hair stylists, the exercises that theauthors have come up with certainly would help musicians, in-cluding drummers.

While going through the program, the first thing one notices isthat certain fingers have specific weaknesses: They don't moveinto the positions quite as easily as it looks in the pictures. Andthat's precisely the point of Finger Fitness. The exercises make ussee weaknesses we might not have known we had. Almost everycombination of "bends," "folds," "splits," and "taps" (as the au-thors refer to the basic movements) imaginable is discussed, al-lowing one to limber up, coordinate, and strengthen the fingers injust about any conceivable way.

Finger Fitness is easy to follow, comes on good-quality paper,and contains photos of each exercise. The exercises can be doneanytime, anywhere, since all you need is your hands. An accom-panying film can be obtained by writing to the authors.

—Adam Budofsky

BILLY HARTJAZZ DRUMMINGPublisher:Advance MusicDistributed by:Jamey AebersoldP.O. Box 1244New Albany IN 47150Price: $16.90 (book and cassette)Combining a drum instruction bookwith a cassette does a lot to over-come the limitations of each of thoseindividual formats. A book can onlygo so far in terms of telling you howthe music should sound; the musicon the cassette can't tell you what you are hearing or suggest whatyou should be listening for. But together, a book and cassette cangive you a lot of guidance towards mastering a particular style ofplaying.

That is the case with this package. The cassette is divided intotwo parts: Side one features Billy Hart (accompanied by JohnAbercrombie, David Liebman, Rufus Reid, and others) performingsix jazz compositions of various styles and tempos. Side two fea-tures the same thing except without Hart, enabling one to playalong with an excellent group of jazz musicians. The book rein-forces this by giving you a written summary of each tune, includ-ing a basic roadmap showing the tune's structure, as well astranscriptions of what Billy played on side one of the tape.

Side one of the cassette makes for nice listening on its own. Addthe educational value of side two and the book, and you have avery nice package that is both instructive and inspiring. There's alot to learn from Hart's approach to these tunes, but you arecertainly not locked in to duplicating his licks. Use them as youwill, but throw in your own ideas as well. I wouldn't recommendthis for an absolute beginner, as some of the tempos are fairlyquick, and some of the rhythms that the rest of the band areplaying require that the drummer have a solid concept of wherethe time is. But for those who want to start moving away frombooks and towards playing with other musicians, this makes a

BASS DRUM CONTROLby Colin BaileyPublisher: D. C. Publications2489 Charles CourtNorth BellmoreNY11710Distributed by: Hal LeonardPublishing7777 West Bluemound RoadMilwaukee WI 53213Price: $7.95Colin Bailey's Bass Drum Control isnot a new book; this newly releasedversion represents its tenth printing.It is, however, probably the best littlebook on the subject ever written.Purely and simply, it is an exercise book. (The amount of actualtext required to explain Bailey's philosophy and technique onlyrequires one page.) But then, Stone's Stick Control is only anexercise book, too.

The exercises Bailey offers are designed to increase a drum-mer's control, endurance, and speed. The book is written so as tocombine bass drum and sticking patterns in a way that will morefully integrate the bass drum into a drummer's playing musically,while developing purely technical facility at the same time. (Not abad deal!) And since the hand/foot exercises are all written on atwo-line format, it's a simple matter to substitute your left foot forthe hand line in order to create challenging double-bass drumexercises. (It's simple to read them, not necessarily simple to playthem.) And if you really want a physical and mental challenge, tryplaying the designated bass drum part with your left foot, and thedesignated hand part with your right!

From a purely graphic standpoint, the book is large, with easy-to-read pages of music. The exercises flow logically, and are cate-gorized as to what each one is designed to improve. The realbeauty of Bass Drum Control is that a beginner can use it as well

Rick Mattinglygreat transition point.

THE BILLBOARD BOOKOF RHYTHM:The Complete Guide To PopRhythm, Percussion, And The NewGeneration Of Electronic Drumsby Steve SavagePublisher:Billboard Books1515 BroadwayNew York NY 10036Price: $16.95Although the rather lengthy and en-gaging subtitle of this slim volumeappears, at first glance, a bit of theold show business razzmatazz andhyperbole, The Billboard Book Of Rhythm does indeed live up toits title's promise, providing a detailed analysis of rhythm fromfour distinct perspectives: Rhythm Basics, The Roots of ModernRhythm, Drum Beats in Popular Music, and Drum Machines andthe New Technology. As an added bonus, unlike a textbook, it isalso a surprisingly enjoyable read, as accessible to non-players as

as a more advanced player. It's just a matter of how far and howfast you go. But be prepared: The book does get into some prettydaunting stuff towards the end. If you can master this one, you'reready to go on to tap dancing.

—Rick Van Horn

it is to musicians—without losing its focus. And unlike other booksin the field, you don't feel like you have to read through a wholelot of what you already know before getting to the goodies.

The book moves as smoothly as a tablespoon through cream,from the primitive hand percussion technique of "Hambone," onthrough to projections about the future of MIDI, drum machines,and sequencers. Savage (an independent producer/engineer whohas several drum instruction books to his credit) keeps the dis-course lively by peppering it with numerous examples of percus-sion's changing role in the evolution of popular music. Examplesthat he cites of this evolution include the timpani pressed intoservice by the Beatles in the chorus of "Every Little Thing" and theRolling Stones' use of vibraphone on "Under My Thumb," as wellas references to everything from the jazz stylings of Milt Jackson to"The Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy" from Tchaikovsky's Nut-cracker Suite.

Particularly noteworthy is the way section two, on the history ofpercussion, works in concert with section three, which offers awide variety of rhythms written out in thoroughly explained nota-tion. In section two, the author traces the very distinct lines ofdevelopment of the "Western" (or European) school of percussionand its more pronounced African cousin; by placing the sticks inyour hand in the very next section, Savage actually allows you tofeel where those lines converge.

The section on drum machines and new technology is essentialreading for anyone considering making the leap—before they in-vest in costly equipment and frustrate themselves trying to learnhow to use it.

What's most heartening about The Billboard Book Of Rhythm isthat it doesn't leave you careening towards the 21st century. In-stead, it re-emphasizes the fact that in an increasingly computer-based world of music, the most important role will always be theone played by the musician.

—Danny McCue

DRUMSET FUNDAMENTALSby Dave ManciniPublisher:D.M. PublishingDistributed by:William Allen Music, Inc.P.O. Box 790Newington VA 22122Price: $15.95 (book and cassette)Here's an excellent beginner-to-inter-mediate level book by drummer DaveMancini. You might be familiar withDave's playing through his work withMaynard Ferguson and ChuckMangione a few years ago. In theintroduction of Drumset Fundamentals, Dave states, "My purposein writing this book is to introduce the drumset student to threebasic styles of music—swing, rock and funk, and Latin—and helpthe student to develop the necessary coordination on the drumsetto play these styles in a variety of musical situations." Dave doesthis, and a bit more.

In the first three chapters of the book, Dave discusses drumtuning, selecting cymbals, proper drum positioning, and place-ment of the set within the rhythm section and jazz ensemble, aswell as techniques for playing bass drum and hi-hat. He coversthese topics thoroughly, with a lot of good, general drumset infor-mation included. The points brought up in these sections woulddefinitely get the beginning drummer off to a good start.

The next three chapters cover swing, rock and funk, and basicLatin rhythms. Dave begins each topic with clearly-written exer-cises that ease the student into more challenging material. Davecovers the basic time patterns in each style, as well as independ-ence exercises and drum fills. One of the best aspects to DrumsetFundamentals is an accompanying cassette, which features Dave

playing almost all of the musical examples notated in the book. Ina book like this a cassette makes all the difference in getting thepoint across to students.

The final chapter covers reading and interpreting charts, andthis is another high point for the book. Dave includes four chartsin this section, covering the basic styles discussed earlier. Beforeeach chart are more examples to prepare the student for playingthe chart. The cassette includes a full band performing the charts,allowing the student to hear Dave's interpretation, as well as toplay along. Overall, this is a fine work that I highly recommend.

—William F. Miller

A RHYTHMIC APPROACH TOSTICKINGTHRU SYSTEM 21by Jim GreenPublisher:J.G. Drum Studio5510Brandt Pk.Huber Heights OH 45424Price: $7.95This 42-page book is based on theauthor's "system" of 21 basicrhythms, which he presents at thebeginning of the book. The exercisesin this book are based on these 21rhythms, and can be played rudi-mentally (with both sticks on thesnare), as well as applied to the drumset by playing on a cymbalwith one hand and on the snare drum with the other. As for thelook of the book, the music notation is very clearly typeset, mak-ing it easy to read and understand.

The book is divided into three main sections. Section I has twocolumns of exercises written per page, and each column is twomeasures in length. Each page of exercises refers to one of the 21basic rhythms. The first measure has notes written with stems up(on the third space of the staff) designated for the right hand, andnotes with stems down (notated on the first space of the staff)designated for the left hand. The visual separation of the firstmeasure is followed by another measure that contains the samerhythm as the first. However, this measure is written in the normalfashion, with all of the notes on one space with the note stems inthe same direction. When the stickings in the first measure arewritten to be played together, they are notated as flams in thesecond measure. By being able to see what the hands are doingindividually, it's much easier to understand and play more com-plex rhythms.

In section II, which has the same basic setup as section I, the 21rhythms are presented in half-measure segments. The rhythms inthe first half of the measure are reversed in the second half of themeasure. The book uses 2/4 time throughout, with the exceptionof four pages of 6/8 time at the end of sections I and II.

Section III, which is two pages long, serves as example pagesfor developing three-way coordination. Green's instructions forthis section read, "Using the combined measures in section I orthe breakdown measures in section II, play the top line on thesnare and the bottom line on the bass. Pencil in the desired patternabove the snare line and play with the right hand on the cymbal."To develop four-way coordination, the same procedure is usedwith the addition of the left foot playing on the hi-hat or left bassdrum.

This book provides a good, basic approach to linear playing, aswell as an effective way for drummers to understand more com-plex rhythms. The abundance of material contained in this bookshould provide the student with new insight into sticking, alongwith improving coordination and technique.

—Glenn Weber

PRODUCT CLOSE-UP continued from page 41

them to maintain even tension and makingsetups easy. Another nice touch on theclamps is the use of a plastic bushing wherethe threads of the bolts pass through thecasting. This prevents stripping or wearingdown the threads over a long period ofuse.

A nice cosmetic touch included byYamaha is a plastic clip-on logo plate. Ifyou prefer not to have a logo showing onyour rack, you simply don't put it on. If youwant to display your rack's brand name,you have the option to clip it on whereverit will fit and be in view. There is no decalor other form of permanent logo to wearoff or be obscured by what you mount onthe rack.

One other element of the Yamaha rackthat sets it apart from any other is the fact

that the pipes are all stuffed with a paddingmaterial to prevent them from transmittingany sound or vibrations from the drumsand cymbals mounted on them into mic's.I questioned Yamaha's Steve Ettleson aboutthe necessity for this, and whether it mightbe a little too much sophistication. Hepointed out that while many players usinga rack in a loud, live situation might neverhave any problems of this nature, Yamahaartists who had used the previous USS-style rack had complained about vibrationsbeing picked up in studio sessions, andeven on stage (with sensitive, high-qualitysound systems and engineers who knewtheir business). As a result, Yamaha figuredit would be better to eliminate the possibil-ity of the problem occurring at all. I willsay that their method seems to work; tap-ping on one of the pipes results in just adull whack, rather than the familiar metal-lic ring of other pipe systems, and you canfeel little or no vibration a few inches awayfrom where you hit the pipe.

On what might be called the "negative"side, I do have reservations about the fairlysmall diameter of the rack pipes themselves.The smaller the pipe, the less grip surfacearea there is between it and the clamp—and the greater the possibility of slipping.We tested the rack by mounting a 10x12rack tom in a variety of ways, from veryclose to the pipe to well out on the end of amounting arm (thus increasing the leveragestrain placed on the clamp). We discov-ered that mounting clamps alone would

slip on the pipe under hard playing, andthat the entire pipe would turn in the clampsmounting it to the supporting cymbal standsif we added enough additional items.However, to be fair, we experienced nosuch slippage when appropriate memoryclamps were added to each mountingclamp. We didn't have a really oversizedrack tom or suspended floor tom to try, butwhen we asked Steve Ettleson about thepossibility of slipping by these larger units,he informed us that when he sets the racksup at trade shows, he simply adds a secondmemory clamp on the other side of themounting clamp holding the larger drums.He has experienced no problems whatso-ever when using this method. He alsoagreed that using the rack without the ap-propriate memory clamps will very likelyresult in problems. So if you were planningto expand your setup with new items heldby new clamps, you'd certainly want toinclude one or more memory clamps witheach new item. And if you are using eventhe basic rack with very large drums, youmight want to pick up a couple of extramemory clamps as additional reinforce-ment.

The mounting clamps themselves arefairly large and industrial-looking, whichmay or may not be objectionable from anaesthetic sense, depending on your per-sonal preference. They are highly polished,so they fit well with the chrome finish ofthe pipe, but you certainly couldn't saythat the rack components are inconspicu-ous. But, if you're going to use a rack in thefirst place, you have to accept that it's goingto look like a rack. (You do have the optionof setting up in such a way that the drumsare on the outside of the rack, partly ob-scuring it. The fairly small diameter of theYamaha pipes would work to your advan-tage in this situation.)

Yamaha's Super Rack System is just that:a system, made up of components. Ourtwo pipes and their clamps represent basiccomponents in the system. The RS115-4lists for $220.00; the RS130-5 is priced at$265.00. If and when you want to add newitems to your rack, OC-910-U UniversalOpen Clamps are available at $45.00 each,OC-920-R Right Angle Clamps go for$35.00, and MC-318 Memory Clamps cost$10.00. If you want a self-supporting rack,a leg kit (including a vertical pipe, appro-priate clamps, and feet) called the RS-60-F3 is available for $105.00. (Keep in mindyou'd need at least two of them.)

As more and more drummers turn todrum racks to mount their ever-more-so-phisticated arrays of equipment, drum racksthemselves will need to become equallysophisticated. The Yamaha Super Rack Sys-tem is not cheap, but it certainly does offerfeatures heretofore unseen on any otherracks, making it an important new entryinto this highly competitive area.

—Rick Van Horn

IT'S QUESTIONABLE continued from page 16

Mechanical Music's Stick Handler isrougher and perhaps a bit easier to gripwith sweaty hands. Your object with eitherproduct would be to build up the diameterof the grip area, and give your hands a"buffer" between your skin and the sur-face of the stick.

Q. I have been playing drums for a whilenow, and I play an electronic kit. I noticethat a lot of the drummers I envy play withthe heel-up method on their bass drums,maintaining that it gives them more force.But they play acoustic kits. It doesn't takeas much force to trigger an electronic bassdrum. I feel that the heel-down methodgives more control—which is good froman electronic-setup standpoint. But can Ihope to get those fast double-bass rhythmswith this method? And if I move to acous-tic drums in the future, am I going to haveto adjust my bass drum playing to the heels-up method?

C.B.Wichita KS

A. As you have already discerned, bassdrum technique depends greatly on whatis required to do the job. Drummers whorequire force, power, and most of all, vol-ume, from their bass drums generally douse a heels-up technique. Those samedrummers, when discussing electronicdrums, generally say that they don't likeplaying electronic bass drums becausethere is no rebound (upon which the heels-up method depends) and that sometimesthey hurt their feet and ankles playing sohard against the unyielding surfaces of kickdrum pads. The heels-up method can alsoallow a slight multiple-bouncing effect fromthe beater against the head, which is gen-erally unnoticeable in loud playing situ-ations with acoustic drums, but often re-sults in double-triggering with electronicdrums.

It seems perfectly logical to continue us-ing the heel-down method when playingelectronic drums, if that works well foryou from a musical standpoint. The possi-bility does exist that you may need toswitch to—or at least incorporate—a heels-up technique in your playing if you moveto acoustic drums, but you should find thisan evolutionary process that will developfairly naturally as your volume require-ments dictate. Most drummers who useboth techniques have stated that it's easierto go from heels-down to heels-up thanthe other way around.

READERS' PLATFORM continued from page 6

tra." I would like to correct this statement. Iworked as house drummer at King's Castleand Harrah's at Lake Tahoe, and at theAlladin and Flamingo hotels in Las Vegas,but never at Caesar's Palace. I haven't talkedwith Roy about my Nevada showband ex-perience in many years, and it was an easymistake for him to make—particularly sinceall those hotel/casino names sound alike.

Roy was a wonderful teacher. Not onlydid he teach me how to play the instru-ment, but he was very generous with histime. He listened to albums with me, intro-ducing me to the subtleties of drummerslike Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Connie Kay,jo Jones, Buddy Rich, and Philly Joe Jones.In addition, he talked a lot about the phi-losophy of playing drums, and in someways that may have been the most helpfulbecause it gave me a conceptual platformupon which to build. A conclusion I wouldlike to make from my experience with Royis that one should choose a drum teacherfor his or her literacy as well as the abilityto play. When Roy went on the road, Istudied with Sonny Igoe, and he had thatsame wonderful combination of intellectand emotional commitment so necessaryin a good teacher—as well as in a goodplayer.

I stopped playing professionally in 1979,but the skills necessary for being a profes-sional musician—i.e., the discipline, themusical interaction, the listening ability—have helped me immeasurably as a psy-chologist in private practice.

Dr. Ron CarducciEnglewood CO

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORTThis is a letter straight from the heart, to letpeople who are avid readers and collectorsof MD (as I am) know that the staff at MDare incredibly righteous people. I'm a heavymetal drummer from L.A. who has beenpart of the recording and touring scene inthe past. At the moment, however, I am afrustrated, incarcerated drummer whoturned to MD as a way to keep up on thecurrents of drums and drumming. Beingincarcerated at a facility with no programfor musicians and with little or no access todrums, MD is my only way to do this.

One day, I decided to write to Rick Mat-tingly at MD's offices, asking for support inthe way of specific issues to read. Not onlydid he send me the issues, but he also tookthe time to write to me, inspiring me not togive up (as I was ready to do) and to "keepmy eyes on the music" because it wouldall be behind me soon. This brought tearsto my eyes. I really thought such supportwas impossible, due to my being incarcer-ated. So I wanted to write this letter to letall MD readers know that Rick and thoselike him at MD are the beautiful peoplethey are.

Terry "Tornado" BernardoLos Angeles CA

DDRUM TUBE

Ddrum recently introduced the Tube, a9 1/2-inch red metal tube with a diameterof 1 1/2 inches, built especially for playingmetallic sounds. According to the manu-facturer, the Tube gives a percussionist ordrummer the right feeling when playingsuch sounds as cowbells, agogo bells, bellchimes, and concert bells, and providesthe same wide dynamic range as all theddrum pads. Due to its small size, it canbe placed in the most playable and easy-to-reach areas on the drumkit. For furtherinformation, contact Chris Ryan at ddrum,25 Lindeman Drive, Trumbul, CT 06611,(203) 374-0020.

Tama's new Stilt(straight combinedwith tilt) drumhardware offersdrummers theoption of theirtraditionally verticalcymbal stand alsobeing tiltable.Available alongwith the Tama TitanStilt straight stand isa complete Stilthardware lineincluding a weight-less boom, a boom

with weight, a telescoping boom withweight, a double tom stand, and atelescoping double tom stand with weight.Tama Drums, 1726 Winchester Road,Bensalem, PA 19020.

HAL BLAINELEG WALLETStudio drumming legend Hal Blaine is of-fering a wallet for performing musicians.

Designed to be worn around the ankleand concealed by the wearer's pants leg,the wallet offers comfort and security atthe same time. According to Hal, "Afterfive minutes of wearing the wallet, you'llforget that you have it on. It's great forstage situations when you're wearingcostumes with no pockets. I've also foundit handy for tucking in the pants cuff of my

bass drumfoot." Thewallet ishand-madeand avail-able inleather orcanvas. HalBlaine, P.O.Box 4957,PalmSprings, CA92263-4957.

TAMA STILTHARDWARE

DW/BOZZIODRUMPAD

LUDWIG DELUXEFINISH ES ANDLONG LONG LUGS

Ludwig Industries has announced the ad-dition of five new drum finishes availableexclusively on top-of-the-line Classic andSuper Classic outfits. The new Shadow fin-ishes consist of a clear high-gloss polyure-thane coating over hard maple thoroughlyimpregnated with colored dye. Buffed to amirror finish and hard-baked, the outerpolyurethane coating is extremelydurable. The unique impregnating processadds color to the drum while maintainingthe presence of the shell's natural maplegrain. Finishes available are CharcoalShadow and Flame Shadow.

Ludwig also offers an all-new Classic-Coat "paint" finish. A hard, baked-onpolyurethane formula, specially devel-

oped by Ludwig, covers the shell in a rich,uniform, and solid color. Shell interiorsare sealed with clear, high-gloss lacquer.Classic-Coat is offered in Sable (black),Crimson (red), and Arctic (white), andfeatures matching bass drum counterhoops.

Also new from Ludwig are optional longlugs. These lugs are designed to tackle thehigh-tension demands of the professionaldrummer, as well as offering the preciseadjustments necessary for complete tuningand reliability. The full-length design ofthe lug is a zinc die-cast that is polished,buffed, and hard-chrome plated. The newoptional long lugs are available on anyLudwig Classic or Super Classic outfit oroutfit drum in power or conventionalsizes. Ludwig Industries, Inc., P.O. Box310, Elkhart, IN 46515-0310.

SCORPION SYBILSOFTWAREScorpion Systems Group has introducedsYbil, a new music application for real-time performance. sYbil offers real-timeMIDI events processor capabilities thatallow a guitarist or drummer to assignmultiple notes and events with independ-ent volumes and gate times on multipleMIDI channels to a single guitar fret or

drumpad. sYbil also enables a drummerwith a simple MIDI pad controller and asound module to sound like a duo, trio, orquartet. With sYbil, a single musician canimprovise multiple parts simultaneously.In addition, real-time transpositioncapabilities allow a drummer to translatehis or her ideas into tonal music with apalette that in many ways exceeds that ofa keyboard-based musician.

sYbil can also transform a simple MIDIdrum machine or hardware sequencerinto an extended composition workstationwith unique real-time interactivecapabilities. sYbil lets you assign a varietyof events to each button; multi-channelchords, real-time program changes, real-time transposition, and variable sustainlevels can all be assigned to and sent fromthe drum machine triggers. ScorpionSystems Group, 888 Union St., Ste 3D,Brooklyn, NY 11215, (718) 789-0380.

Drum Workshop and drumming superstarTerry Bozzio have joined forces todevelop a new electronic drumpad calledthe TBX-3. Based on the pads that Bozziodesigned and used during his work withMissing Persons, the TBX-3 is a compact

(8" x 5" x 3") electronic triggering devicethat features three separate trigger areasthat are isolated from each other by apatented method that eliminates cross-triggering. The output of the TBX-3's threedynamically sensitive sensors willaccurately trigger non-MIDI electronicdrum controllers, drum machines, anddrum-to-MIDI converters. In addition, thepad is designed with a central playingsurface and two outer trigger areas that areslightly raised to facilitate faster and easierstick access under performance condi-tions.

The TBX-3 is made of high-strengthaluminum and high-quality electroniccomponents with a natural gum-rubberplaying surface, three 1/4" output jacks,and a modular 6-pin output jack. Forflexibility in a variety of drumset positionsthe pad also includes a universal adapterplate that accepts any standard drum-mounting bracket or multi-clamp. DrumWorkshop, 2697 Lavery CT., Unit 16,Newbury Park, CA 91320, (805) 499-6863.

EVANS GENERADRUMHEADS

Evans Products,Inc. has recentlyintroduced theall-new Generaseries CAD /CAM drum-heads. Inaddition toEvans' patentedCAD/CAM

aluminum-alloy hoop, Genera headsfeature a specially developed, general-purpose, single-ply drumhead film with athin, built-in tone control ring that—unlikeother currently available types of drum-heads—is not laminated to the playingsurface of the head. This "floating"internal muffling ring subtly dampens adrum's undesirable high overtones toprovide a crisper, more natural drumsound with improved tone, duration,clarity, projection, and stick response.

Initially developed for use as originalequipment on Noble & Cooley snaredrums, Evans' Genera heads weredesigned in conjunction with Bob Gatzen,Noble & Cooley product specialist andowner of Creative Music in Wethersfield,

Connecticut. "Instead of just trying todevelop another special-purpose head, webegan this project with the goal ofdeveloping a new general-purposedrumhead that could be used straight outof the box in a variety of contemporaryplaying situations," says Gatzen. "Follow-ing an extensive search, we were able tofind a film that had good musical qualitiesin terms of tone and feel and that comple-mented a drum's natural sound."

The Genera series is currently availablein snare drum batter sizes as well as newlydeveloped 200- and 300- gauge translu-cent snare-side heads. Evans Products,Inc., P.O. Box 58, Dodge City, KS 67801,Phone (316) 225-1308, FAX (316) 227-2314.

IMPERIALDOT HEADSAquarian's new Imperial Dot drumheadsfeature the company's patented PowerDot, plus Aquarian's high-tech texturecoating (over the dot). The result, accord-ing to the company, is a very durable one-ply head that sounds as full as a two-plyhead, with no loss in volume or projec-

AQUARIAN

tion. However, the Imperial Dot headtunes quickly and easily. The heads arepriced the same as Aquarian's ClassicClear With Power Dot drumheads and areavailable in the same sizes. AquarianAccessories Corp., 1140 North JustinAve., Anaheim, CA 92807.

DRUMKAT 2.0SOFTWAREKAT recently announced its first majorsoftware update for the drumKAT MIDIcontroller. Software version 2.0 greatlyexpands the power of drumKAT, and isoffered free to all drumKAT owners (plusnominal shipping and handling charge).Now each of drumKATs "kits" can beassigned a user-definable, 12-character"kitname." The drumKAT also now has asequencer designed specifically fordrummers called a "Motif Generator." TheMotif Generator may be used not only asa sequencer to play against, but also asmultiple patterns that are independentlyunder your control. As many as 19 Motifsmay be active simultaneously.

Other new features include an ex-panded Tap Tempo function, which nowallows you to dictate the tempo with 8thnotes, 8th-note triplets, 16th notes, and

quarter notes. The selected Tap Tempopad can now be assigned a sound as wellso that changing your tempo can easily fitinto your music. In addition, the drumKATnow makes it easy to properly assign MIDInotes for whichever drum machine youhave.

Trigger Interaction Suppression has alsobeen implemented. Three suppression val-ues are selectable that allow you to pre-vent external pads on the same stand fromcross-triggering each other. KAT is also nowoffering a normally open, momentaryfootswitch, which lists for $19.95. KAT Inc.,300 Burnett Road, Chicopee, MA 01020,Phone (413) 594-7466, FAX (413) 592-7987.

LP SPIKE ANDSUPER GUIROLP has introduced Spike, the company'sfirst product geared to the electronicneeds of percussionists. Spike is auniquely shaped drum trigger designed tosolve many of the problems associatedwith traditional flat pad-type triggers.Spike's tubular shape allows drummers tomount it in useful places without compro-mising the positioning of their otherinstruments. Its novel shape makes it easy

to hit from any angle with any part of thedrumstick. Spike is easily mounted off oftom arms or cymbal stands using anyavailable clamp. A user can mount up tofour Spikes, on one stand using theoptional T-bar. Players using drum racksystems can mount Spike using anyavailable drum rack clamp. Percussionistscan mount up to four Spikes off of atimbale or bongo stand using the T-bar ormulti-clamps.

The rubber-coated polycarbonatesurface provides a comfortable feel forplaying anything from a delicate hi-hatpattern to explosive tom fills. Spikeutilizes piezo technology to provide aclean, powerful signal that will respond toa wide range of dynamics and interfacecorrectly with any drum brain or trigger-to-MIDI interface. LP designed a vibrationisolation system for Spike that minimizesfalse triggering.

In reaction to recent droughts inMexico, which have severely depleted thegourd crop, making traditional guirosvirtually impossible to find, LP hasintroduced its new, synthetic Super Guiro.Super Guiro provides the authentic soundand sonic range of the organic guiro, butwith added punch. Precision-molded, theSuper Guiro retains the shape and feel ofthe natural gourd. Its color is uniform, it

will never fade orchip, and it can becrammed into acrowded percus-sion case withoutfear of cracking.Latin Percussion,Inc., 160 BelmontAve., Garfield, NJ07026.

XL MARCHINGSNARE CARRIER

XL SpecialtyPercussion, Inc.,manufacturers ofXL Lite MarchingCarriers, is nowpresenting thenewest in theirproduct line, theXL-LF-SC LiftFront SnareCarrier. The newcarrier features aswivel attachmentthat allows an"up" position,placing anattached snare

drum perpendicular to its normal march-ing position. This "up" position allowseasy tuning of the bottom head from thefront of the carrier without the necessity ofremoving the drum. It also distributesdrum weight for less stress on the lowerback and easier mobility. Like all XLCarriers, construction is a high-strength,lightweight, aluminum/steel combinationwith a consistent, durable powder-coated

finish. XL Specialty Percussion, Inc., 3050E. State Blvd., Fort Wayne, IN 46805,(219)482-7000.

FISHMANACOUSTIC DRUMTRIGGER

The new Fishman model ADT-100-Sacoustic drum trigger delivers consistent,accurate, and exceptionally powerfultriggering when mounted on drumshells aswell as on the head of acoustic drums,according to the manufacturer. Thetrigger's sensor housing is made fromlightweight aircraft-grade aluminum alloyof exceptional strength, while the cablewas chosen for its high degree of flexibil-ity and durability—qualities that enhancethe ability of the trigger to deliver interfer-ence-free performance. A third keycomponent is the high-density, closed-cell, neoprene square that serves as amounting base for the sensor. Three such1" squares—each impregnated with a

high-tech butyl rubber adhesive—areincluded in the ADT-100-S package.Fishman Transducers, Inc., 5 Green St.,Woburn, MA 01801, Phone (617) 938-8850, FAX (617) 932-6633.

KORGS3 RHYTHMWORKSTATION

Korg's new S3 was designed to be acomplete rhythm workstation that not onlyplays rhythms with the perfect technicalprecision in demand today, but alsohumanizes the process.

Korg's Sonic Integrity (SI) systemprovides a 16-bit PCM sound source thatallows the same type of editing that isfound on a synthesizer. Attack sounds andsustained tones, for example, have beenmemorized as separate waveform data.This means that attack and sustain fromdifferent instruments can be grafted ontoeach other for the creation of entirelydifferent sounds.

The sequencer song section of the S3features four pattern tracks and two real-time tracks. The pattern tracks areassembled the same way as traditionalrhythm machines, while the real-timetracks are recorded the same as MIDIsequencers. This allows the S3 to overdubparts to the pattern tracks in song mode.

The S3 is also equipped with SMPTEfunctions, making an additional synchro-nizer unnecessary when syncing to timecodes used in multitrack tape recordingand video. Korg U.S.A., 89 Frost St.,Westbury, NY 11590, (516) 333-9100.

Modern Drum-mer Publica-tions, Inc., pub-lishers ofModern Drum-mer magazine,is proud to an-nounce the ap-pointment ofRobert Berensonto the positionof NationalAdvertising

Director. Bob will be in charge of alladvertising sales for the entire MD opera-tion.

Bob comes to Modern Drummer withover eight years of diversified sales back-ground with several successful nationalfirms. He is a graduate of Bowling GreenState University in Ohio, where he earneda bachelor of science degree in businessadministration, with specialization inmarketing and sales management.

"We're very proud to have Bob Beren-son on the MD team," said Ron Spag-nardi, president of Modern Drummer

Publications. "His intensive sales andmarketing background, combined with hisconcern for the promotional needs ofthose in the drum and percussion field,will certainly be a real asset to ourcompany, and to the overall industry aswell."

On June 1, 1989, Korg U.S.A. Inc. becamethe new distributor of Sonor drums. Thenew association was announced jointly byHorst Link, president of Johs. Link KG, andDon England, president of Korg U.S.A."Sonor is a very prestigious product linethat fits into our current product mix withKorg and Marshall products. I believe withour current sales, marketing, and financialprograms, Korg U.S.A. can help Sonorachieve the increased market share posi-tion it deserves," commented England.

Said Horst Link, "Sonor has been manu-facturing drums for over 100 years, andthe blending of tradition and progress isthe cornerstone of the Sonor trademark.We believe this new relationship with

Korg U.S.A. will help push Sonor success-fully into the future."

Korg U.S.A. will provide Sonor productswith increased support through new mar-keting, artist, and educational programs."We will definitely increase Sonor's visi-bility by working closely with artists andincorporating Sonor drums into our cur-rent educational programs," remarkedSenior Vice President Michael Kovins."We have many Sonor drummers who arealready Korg artists—such as Steve Smith,Jack DeJohnette, and Chester Thompson—which will increase Sonor's visibility andmarket penetration. Korg U.S.A. alreadyattends and performs at many music edu-cator conventions and clinics that Sonorcan be easily incorporated into."

Korg will also support Sonor's efforts innew product development. Marketing andproduct research necessary to broadenSonor's product mix will be provided tomeet the needs of musicians in the future.Since Sonor manufactures all of its prod-ucts in its own factory, Korg U.S.A. will beable to tap those resources for expertise toproduce many new products. For more in-formation concerning Sonor products,contact Korg U.S.A., 89 Frost St., West-bury, New York 11 590, (516) 333-9100.

MD APPOINTSNEW ADVERTISINGDIRECTOR

KORG USA.ACQUIRES SONORDRUMDISTRIBUTION

HSS Inc. of Ashland, Virginia has an-nounced an agreement with RimshotAmerica of Van Nuys, California for theexclusive U.S. distribution of its premiumhickory drumstick line, Rimshot drum-sticks. This joint announcement was madeby Rimshot's Tim Smith and Eddie Tuduri,and HSS Product Manager Jeff Neuhauser.

"We're very excited about carrying thisnew high-quality drumstick line with analready-established identity in the Ameri-can market," said Neuhauser. "In just afew short months, Rimshot has attractedmany customers as well as an impressiveroster of 'name' drummers and endorsers."

According to Neuhauser, HSS consid-ered many drumstick lines, but was mostimpressed with Rimshot. "There weremany things about Rimshot that sold us,particularly their lineup of 18 popularnylon- and wood-tip models, their timbalesticks that have been specially designed tomeet the demanding needs of today'smulti-style percussionist, and Rimshot's

Banana Replacement Policy, where thecompany will replace any badly warpedsticks (or 'bananas')."

Rimshot drumsticks are available forimmediate shipment and can be orderedthrough HSS or any HSS sales representa-tive. For more information, call HSS Inc.at (804) 798-4500.

YAMAHA PERCUS-SION CAMPSFrom mid-June through late August, some4,000 students participated in 26 March-ing Percussion Camps sponsored nation-wide by Yamaha Corporation of America(Band & Orchestral Division) and Yamahadealers. Lasting from two to five dayseach, the camps gave students anopportunity for intensive instruction andpractice with Yamaha clinicians, includinglay Bocock, Jim Campbell, Phil Fiani, TomFloat, Fred Sanford, Dave Satterfield, ChrisThompson, Jay Wanamaker, and BillWoods.

In addition, performances by topYamaha drum corps were part of selectedcamps. The corps included the DCI WorldChampion Madison Scouts, the ConcordBlue Devils, and the Rosemont Cavaliers.

Jazz drummer Carl Allen recently joinedLudwig Industries as an endorser and cli-nician, according to Ludwig MarketingManager Jim Catalano.

As a Ludwig clinician, Allen blends theelements of jazz, Latin, and rock stylesinto an impressive display of musician-ship. He has recorded and performed withjazz artists such as Freddie Hubbard,Woody Shaw, Lena Home, DonaldHarrison, and Terrance Blanchard.

At present, Carl is working with theJackie McLean quintet and pursuing hisown album, which is scheduled forrelease shortly. He is also on the forefrontof young jazz artists involved in theprogram "Jazz Against Drugs." Mr. Allen isavailable as a Ludwig clinician throughoutthe country. For more information aboutthe Ludwig educational clinic program,write Ludwig Industries, Inc., P.O. Box310, Elkhart, IN 4651 5-0310.

HSS TODISTRIBUTE RIM-SHOT DRUMSTICKS

CARL ALLENJOINS LUDWIGCLINICIAN STAFF

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next month in DECEMBER'S

MODERN DRUMMER...ABK Rocks .............................................................54Action/Reaction .................................................... 113Atlanta Pro Percussion ............................................46Aquarian Accessories ........................................... 102Aphex Systems. .................................................... 107Mike Balter Mallets............................................... 110Sam Barnard ......................................................... 116Beato Musical Products..........................................43Berklee College of Music ........................................ 75Beyer Dynamics. ....................................................76Calato/Regal Tip ...................................................100Corder Drum Company ..........................................92Cuban Style Congas ...............................................74DCI Music Video .......................................... 71,82,99DC 1000 ................................................................86ddrum. ...................................................................77Drummers Collective .............................................84Drums on Sale........................................................84Drumstix ................................................................ 72Drum Workshop .............................................. 76,109Duratech Music Products .......................................36Dynacord ........................................................95,108Evans Products ..................................................92,98Explorers Percussion ..... ......................................... 72GC Music ...............................................................47Geoff Farr Signature Series .....................................87Chas. E. Foote, Ltd................................................. 47Great American Drumstick Co................................45Gretsch .......................................... Inside Back CoverHal Leonard Publishing .......................................... 70

|emm Co ................................................................43Kaman Music Distributors .......................................9KAT, Inc..................................................................55Latin Percussion .....................................................53Long Island Drum Center .......................................62Ludwig Industries .................... 117,Inside Front CoverManny's Music Store .............................................. 81Mapex Percussion .................................................. 49

Musician's Institute .................................................85Noble & Cooley ................................................... 104Paiste ................................................................36/37Pearl International .................................14/15,57,106Percussive Arts Society .......................................... 111Percussion Paradise ................................................85Precision Drum Co ...............................................100Premier Percussion USA ...........................................5Pro Mark ..................................................................1PureCussion ...................................................... 17,93Ramsa/Panasonic ...................................................90Remo ...........................................................73,83,91Resurrection Drums................................................ 52Reunion Blues ......................................................104Rimshot America ....................................................74Sabian ................................................................InsertSam Ash Music Stores............................................. 82Solid Percussion, Inc. .............................................72Sonor Percussion ....................................................61Tropical Produtions ................................................58Tama .........................................................7,56,58/59Thoroughbred Music ..............................................60Vater Percussion ................................................ 74,84Vic Firth, Inc. ........................................................ 11 5Vintage Drum Shop ................................................85Waddell's Cymbal Warehouse ................................ 84Glenn Weber Drum Studio .....................................66Steve Weiss Music ..................................................82The Woodwind & The Brasswind ........................... 83Yamaha ..........................................................6,11,13Zildjian ...................63,65,67,86,Outside Back Cover

Modern Drum Shop.............................................. 116