October 1981 - Modern Drummer Magazine

Cover Photo by Veryl Oakland

CONTENTSSHELLY MANNE

After making a name for himself in the Stan Kenton band,Shelly Manne went on to become a major figure in the WestCoast Style of jazz. As a studio player he is known for hisability to play a wide variety of styles. In this exclusive MDinterview, Shelly discusses his background, his varied experi-ences, and his melodic approach to playing drums. 10

TOMMY ALDRIDGEAs a result of being forced to stay in a band that he did not

want to play with, Tommy Aldridge has learned the importanceof dealing with the legal aspects of music as well as the creativeaspects. He shares this knowledge with MD readers whilediscussing everything from his first drums to his current activi-ties. 14

JIM CHAPINAlthough best known for his book, Advanced Techniques for

the Modern Drummer, Jim Chapin has actually spent most ofhis time as a performer, rather than as a teacher. During his longcareer he has been involved with many different areas of music.He speaks of his experiences, and how he came to write what isoften referred to as THE jazz drum book. 25

INSIDE: MILESTONE PERCUSSIONA TRIBUTE TO BILLY GLADSTONENAZARETH'S DARRELL SWEET 28

2018 SHOP HOPPIN': CHARLEY DONNELLY'S

DRUM CENTRE 32

COLUMNS:EDITOR'S OVERVIEW

ASK A PRO

READER'S PLATFORM

IT'S QUESTIONABLEby Cheech Iero

TEACHER'S FORUMJoel Rothman in Londonby Bill Moody

ROCK PERSPECTIVES"Playing Rock Music Is Not Dumb"by David Garibaldi

CLUB SCENEMiking Your Drums—Some Pros and Consby Rick Van Horn

ON TRACK

DRUM MARKET

MALLETSMusical Developmentby David Samuels 58

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2 PORTRAITSReggie Smithby Dave Levine

ROCK 'N' JAZZ CLINICAmbidexterity—Part 1by Roberto Petaccia

PRINTED PAGE

SHOP TALKSoundproofing the Practice Roomby Steven J. Lake

ELECTRONIC INSIGHTSHeavily Wired—Part IIby Vince Gutman

DRUM SOLOISTJo Jones—Adlibby Richard Egart

PRODUCT CLOSE-UPGretsch Nighthawk II Plusby Bob Saydlowski, Jr.

JUST DRUMS'81 NAMM Show Reportby Clint Dodd 96

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FEATURES:

VOL. 5 NO. 7

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October's MD is off to a rousing start with jazz master ShellyManne. Widely acclaimed for his role in the development of fifties,west coast "cool jazz," Shelly ranks high on the list of the most artis-tic and inf luent ia l drummers of all t ime.

And Tommy Aldridge, formerly of Black Oak Arkansas, gives someunique ideas on drumming, and also touches on the business of musicand the importance of legal advice for those caught up in the glitterand glamour of this big-money industry.

MD's Rick Mattingly brings two rather diverse interviews to thismonth's issue: Darrell Sweet, the articulate Scotsman of Nazarethfame, and author/teacher Jim Chapin, known the world over for hisbook, Advanced Techniques For The Modern Drummer. Published in1948, the Chapin book is now considered a drum classic and is amongone of the most important texts in contemporary drumming li terature.

1981 marks the 20th anniversary of the death of drummer B i l l y Glad-stone. In tribute. MD asked Billy's dear friend Ted Reed to pen thestory of this drummer extraordinaire who gave so much to the drumworld.

We've also visited Canada for a glance at Milestone Percussion, andNewington, Connecticut for a Shop Hoppin' tour of Charlie Donnel-ly's, a busy, drum-collector's paradise.

October rounds out with Roberto Petaccia on ambidexterity, RickVan Horn on the do's and don'ts of clubdate miking, a look at theGretsch Nighthawk II Plus, a visit with Joel Rothman in London, andSteven Lake's ideas on soundproofing a drum studio.

Good reading, all in all.

STAFF:EDITOR-IN-CHIEFRonald Spagnardi

FEATURES EDITORRick Mattingly

MANAGING EDITORScott K. Fish

ASSOCIATE EDITORSMark HurleyPaul Uldrich

ART DIRECTORTom Mandrake

ADVERTISING DIRECTORJean Mazza

ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGERCharlene David

ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTORIsabel Lori

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGERAnn Lambariello

DEALER SERVICE MANAGERCarol Morales

CIRCULATIONLeo L. Spagnardi

Ellen UrrySALES PROMOTION MANAGER

Evelyn Urry

MD ADVISORY BOARDHenry Adler, Carmine Appice, Horacee Ar-nold. Louie Bellson, Bil l Bruford, Roy Burns,Jim Chapin, Billy Cobham, Les DeMerle. LenDiMuzio, Charlie Donnelly, Saul Goodman.Sonny Igoe, Jaimo Johnson, Don Lamond.Mel Lewis, Peter Magadini, Butch Miles. JoeMorello, Neil Peart, Charlie Perry, CharliPersip, Joe Pollard. Arthur Press, Paul Price.Paul Real, Paul T. Riddle, Ed Shaughnessy,Lenny White.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSSusan Alexander, Rich Baccaro. Robert Carr,Jim Dearing. Clint Dodd. Robyn Flans. Stan-ley Hall. Harold Howland, Cheech Iero, DaveLevine. Bruce Nixon, Michael Rozek, Mi-chael Shore, Robin Tolleson, T. Bruce Wittel .

MODERN DRUMMER Magazine ASSN 0194-4533) is published 9 limes yearly, February,April, May, June, July, August, October,November and December by Modern Drum-mer Publications, Inc., 1000 Clifton Avenue,Clifton, N.J. 07013. Second Class Postagepaid at Clifton, N.J. 07015 and at Richmond,Virginia 23219. Copyrighted 1981 by ModernDrummer Publications, Inc. All rights re-served. Reproduction without the permissionof the publisher is prohibited. SUBSCRIP-TIONS: $15.95 per year, $28.95. two years.Single copies $2.00. MANUSCRIPTS: Mod-ern Drummer welcomes manuscripts, howev-er, cannot assume responsibility for them.Manuscripts must be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. CHANGE OFADDRESS: Allow at least six weeks for achange. Please provide both old and newaddress. MUSIC DEALERS: Modern Drum-mer is available for resale at bulk rates.Direct correspondence to Modern DrummerPublications, Inc., 1000 Clifton Avenue, Clif-ton. N.J. 07013. (201} 778-1700. POSTMAS-TER: Send form 3579 to Modern Drummer,1000 Clifton Avenue, Clifton. N.J. 07013.

PETER CRISS

Q. On your Out of Control album itsounded like you used Deadringers onmost of your songs, but not on all ofthem. Why?

Doug FullerJoplin, MO

A. I didn't actually use Deadringers. Theway I muffled my drums was by taking alot of tissue paper, folding it into asquare, and taping it to whatever sectionof my drum that seemed to ring a lot. I puta couple of blankets in my bass drum forthe good "thump" sound. On some of thetunes we wanted to get a "live" sound, soI took the mufflers off and made sureeach head was tuned perfectly by check-ing the pitch at each lug. Plus, I had thedrums on a wooden floor instead of oncarpeting.

A. By the time the Pat Metheny Groupgets to the studio, we've already playedthe music, usually for six months to oneyear. We rarely use charts at all. Whenwe first rehearse a tune, everybody getsthe same part. There's no drum musicper se, usually just the melody andchords. It most likely doesn't even re-semble anything that was written on thepage by the time we get it done.

DANNY GOTTLIEB

Q. Do you use charts in the studio withthe Pat Metheny Group? If so, who writesthem?

Richard SantorsolaTotowa, New Jersey

PAUL T. RIDDLE

Q. What kind of drums and cymbals doyou play and what are the sizes?

Gary IsolaSandusky, Ohio

A. I endorse Pearl drums. I use a 22"bass drum, 8" and 10" concert toms, 12"and 13" shell-mounted toms, 14" and 16"floor toms, and a 14 x 6 snare drum. Allmy cymbals are Zildjian: two 18" medi-um-thin crashes, a 22" medium ride, a22" swish, and 15" Quick-Beat hi-hats.

FREDDIE WAITS

Q. What kind of snare drum do you use?Dale HampdenVan Nuys, Ca.

A. I've been alternating between twosnare drums. My favorite is an old LeedyBroadway which was given to me byBobby Thomas from the show ChorusLine. Actually, he gave me the shell andthe rims and told me to go home andmount it. It's 5 1/2" deep and made ofbrass, which makes it a very "live"sounding drum. I especially like this drumbecause it speaks well at various vol-umes. I also use a 6" rosewood snarewhich was customized by Tom Bayerformerly of Professional Percussion inNew York City. This drum also comes offvery well in various situations.

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I thought The World's Greatest Drum-mer—and Other Hang-Ups by RoyBurns in the June '81 MD was tremen-dous. I hope that MD readers, especiallythe young ones, took the time to studyand learn from it. As a young teacher, Ifeel it's vital for a young, aggressivedrummer who is on the verge of becom-

ing "unteachable" to have access to apublication like MD. I am often con-fronted with a student's cynical attitude.Until Roy Burns' article, I had only mypersonal experience to back up my opin-ions. I want to thank Roy for helping me,and for addressing problems concerningattitudes and goals, which so many

drummers need to discuss and over-come.

JIMMY KOBERQUEENS, N.Y.

I am finally getting around to tellingyou how very fine I th ink MD is. It hassome great information for young drum-mers and is useful for us more experi-enced drummers! The series of articleson the history and evolution of jazzdrumming was very well done. The arti-cles by Roy Burns, Ed Soph, and DaveGaribaldi are informative. All in all,things are growing with MD and I hope itcontinues. I would l ike to read aboutsome of the lesser-known, but legendarydrummers like Ike Day, Kaiser Marshall,and Walter Johnson.

SHERMAN FERGUSONSANTA ANA, CA

I want to thank you very much for thearticle about a successful, talented per-cussionist, Susan Evans. I am a youngpercussionist with aspirations of one daymaking the big time. I felt so inspiredwhen I finished reading about Susan.Whenever I get a l i t t le down I ' l l just referback to this article and say to myself"Hey, I can do it too!"

MARCIA E. GALLASN. MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA

I feel I must comment on AlanGratzer's remark "It's real easy whenyou have a rack of tom-toms and just doa roll all the way around. It's a l i t t l e tooeasy and obvious to me." If he meansthat drummers who play smaller sets aremore creative than those with larger kits,I disagree. Is Billy Cobham less creativethan Butch Miles because of his set? IsCarl Palmer less creative than BuddyRich? Ed Shaughnessy less than MaxRoach? The deciding factor is what theydo—not what they have.

JAMES WALKERGRANBY, CONNECTICUT

Bravo to Scott K. Fish for Bassists:On Drummers (MD July '81). I wish tocommend Mr. Fish on an extremely wellwritten and thorough article on the con-ceptual ideas of the rhythm sectionthrough the eyes and ears of bassists.

MICHAEL FINLEYPHOENIX, ARIZONA

continued on page 8

The interview with vibraphone artistDave Samuels is one of my favoritearticles. I would like to see more inter-views of mallet/percussionists in futureissues of MD. I would also suggest youexplore the many different mallet instru-ments of the world such as the Gamalonfrom Indonesia, the Balafon from Africa,and the Steel Drums from Trinidad.

DEAN SAMUELSBROOKLYN,NEW YORK

Reader's Platform continued from page 6

I am a bass player and bought the Mayissue because of the Paul English inter-view. It was great. Your article on Drink-ing and Drumming was excellent. All inall, I feel that MD really gave me mymoney's worth. It is terrific. I'm going torecommend MD to other bass players. Itdefinitely helped me communicate withmy band's drummer and that's good forour music.

JIM WASHABAUGHCOLUMBIA, MO

I loved your Country/Rock issue andapplaude your look into this creativefield of drumming. I thoroughly enjoyedthe articles on Jaimo Johnson and ButchTrucks, Paul Riddle, Paul English, RogerHawkins and Buddy Harman. However,there are a few studio drummers inNashville not mentioned. Kenny Ma-lone, Jerry Carrigan, and Larry Londin.I look forward to whatever you print aslong as you keep the same standardsyou've obviously already set.

BILLY WESTNASHVILLE, TN

Thank you for your article on REO'sAlan Gratzer. Seeing Alan play in Chica-go in 1978 and 1981, I was very muchimpressed with his drumming. REOkeeps improving and Alan is no excep-tion. Not only is he a dynamite drum-mer, but also adds in backing vocals.Keep rocking REO and congratulationsto Susan Alexander for a fine article.

MARK MACIKGARY, INDIANA

You all in Clifton should be veryproud. MD is one of the most profession-al magazines of any type on the markettoday. Much applause to Karen Lar-combe! Her Drummers Collective andGetting Your Product on the Marketarticles were very informative, and TheBroadway Drummers was a masterpiece.

GEOFF CUNNINGHAMPOTSDAM, NY

With regards to your article, Drinkingand Drumming by Jim Dearing (MD May'81), please be advised that as a full-timeprofessional musician and teacher, I per-sonally found the article in poor taste. Iam more than a li t t le surprised that thearticle appeared in a publication gearedto aspiring young musicians.

I have impressed upon all my studentsthat the avoidance of alcohol while per-forming is imperative. I feel your articleis detrimental to what I have been advo-cating in my teaching methods. My stu-dents are not spending hours of diligentpractice time to become drunks. Theyare working hard at becoming fine musi-cians through careful study and deter-mined discipline.

I realize that Mr. Dearing is not advo-cating the use of alcohol to combat de-pression or anxiety, but after years ofdrilling my students to rely on their ownability, I find the debate of "how much istoo much," an irrelevant discussion. Mystudents are at an impressionable ageand are apt to make an anti-hero of the"drunken drummer" as he appears inyour article. I talk to my students "oneon one" concerning the bad effects ofalcohol. Today's instructor must notonly teach the art of percussion, but alsohow to cope with life within the musiccommunity itself. We frequently rely onpublications such as yours for help.

Most likely the editors of ModernDrummer, and Mr. Dearing, thought thatthis article needed to be printed. Howev-er, bear in mind that your publicationreaches a number of young players. Myown young students read it and regard itas their magazine. I ask you to relegatethis type of article to an AA publication,and continue to print your normally ex-cellent articles that provide insight intothe music field for the enjoyment andeducation of your young reading public.

JUSTIN JAY BRUNOPHILADELPHIA, PA

As drummers, I think all of us shouldbe aware of the potential dangers whichhaunt our profession. Alcohol consump-tion is the most prevalent drug problemamong young and old. To excuse drum-mers from this dilemma is deceitful. I ampleased that you inform your students ofalcohol's depressing influence. You de-serve much credit. Five years ago, Iwondered how well I played when Idrank. This vague perception is what somany musicians express concern over. Ifyou don't fully understand the effects ofdrinking, then sipping a beer on stagebecomes justifiable just through simpleignorance. That's why I wrote the arti-cle, and why MD published it. I think itprovides solid, truthful answers to ques-tions which many drummers ask them-selves.—Jim Dearing.

ShellyManne

by Dave Levinephotos by Tom Copi

Many of the things that drummers take forgranted today would never have come about ifsomeone hadn't dared to try it first; if somepioneer hadn't crossed over into unexploredterritory; if some drummer hadn't found a newway of propelling a band. Often the names ofthese players are obscure. In at least one case,however, the name of a drummer can he directlylinked to a substantial contribution to the art ofdrumming.

Shelly Manne was one of the first drummersto realize the full potential of the drums asinstruments capable of making a complete musi-cal, not merely rhythmic, contribution to agroup. Through experimentation and his diverseinfluences, he developed a more relaxed, thoughstill intense, style of drumming. He consciouslyturned away from a technical approach, relyinginstead on the physical control of the instrumentonly as a means of expressing the emotions ofmusic.

His unique philosophy can best be stated inhis paraphrase of something he once heardviolinist Isaac Stern say. "There are many goodplayers, hut some use music to show off theirinstrument and others use their instrument tomake music. Those are the players that I careabout."

Shelly Manne was born in New York City in1920. His father was a professional drummer.Though Shelly wanted to follow in his father'sfootsteps, father, knowing best, selected thesaxophone as his son's musical instrument. For-tunately, the story doesn't end there.DL: How did you get involved in jazz and thedrums?SM: When I was 17, two friends took me to hearRoy Eldridge's band in Harlem, at the Golden-gate Ballroom. After hearing them I decided thatnot only was I going to be a drummer, but I wasgoing to be a jazz drummer.

In addition to being an excellent tympanist,my father was also the contractor of a largeorchestra at Radio City Music Hall. I wasaround musicians all the time. One of thesemusicians was the great percussionist BillyGladstone. Billy could see that I was moreinterested in the drums than the saxophone. Oneday, when I was about 18, Bil ly and I secretlytook my saxophone to Manny's where we tradedit in for a set of drums. Billy became my firstdrum teacher.

The first lesson I ever had was in the percus-sion room, downstairs, at Radio City MusicHall. Billy showed me how to set up the drumsand how to hold the sticks. He put Count Basie's"Topsie" (with Jo Jones on drums) on thephonograph, told me to play, and then walkedout of the room. That was my first experience inplaying the drums.DL: You started kind of late. How long did ittake before you were working?SM: I had only been playing for three monthswhen I got my first job on a transatlantic oceanliner. It didn't last long because I already hadopinions about the way music should be. I gotoff the boats and spent my time in New York atthe clubs.

The scene in New York was fantastic! A once-in-a-lifetime thing; a once-in-a-forever thing. If

you wanted to see any musician you would justcome down to 52nd street. They were there,either working or just hanging out. It will neverhappen quite that way again.

I was so young that I had to sit in the back ofthe clubs with my Coca-Cola. One day, ArthurHerbert came up to me and asked me why I wasalways there. I told him I wanted to play thedrums. He let me sit in and eventually I wassitting in all the time. I became familiar with theguys.DL: Who were some of the big-bands youplayed with early in your career?SM: My first big-band experience was whenRay McKinley recommended me for the BobbyByrne band. I was fired after 8 months becauseBobby wanted a Gene Krupa-type drummerwho could play extended drum solos.

My next job was with the Benny Goodmanband as a sub for Dave Tough. Benny knew thatDavey was sick, so he called me up and said,"Hey kid, I'm going to the President's balltomorrow. The train leaves at one o'clock; justbring your cymbals, I've got the drums." I said,"Yes sir!"

I showed up at Grand Central Station at 8 inthe morning, waiting, and here came all thosegreat musicians; Cootie Williams, Charlie Chris-tian, Georgie Auld, and the rest of the band. Iwas shell-shocked. But that experience fur-thered my belief that this was what I wanted todo for the rest of my life.

When Davey was well enough to join theGoodman band, I took Davey's place with JoeMarsala. Following that I worked with BobAstor, Will Bradley (where I took Ray McKin-ley's chair when Ray left to form his own band),Raymond Scott and Les Brown.DL: How did you meet Stan Kenton?SM: After the war I returned to 52nd street. Ikept busy playing in the many small bands thatflourished there. In 1946 some musician friendsof mine brought Stan to the 3 Dueces, where Iwas working. Stan heard me play and asked meto join the band.

This was a big decision for Flip [Shelly's wife]and me. She was a Rockette, and I was doingwell in New York radio and club work. Togetherwe decided it would be a good move so wepacked our bags and went on the road.DL: While you were on the band, the "KentonDrum Sound" was established. How much didhe guide you in defining that sound?SM: Stan was a powerful man and he wanted apowerful sound. He wanted the band to move bysound rather than just by time. And it did.

Stan never told me what to do, how to tune,what cymbals to use, or any of the stuff. Any-thing that happened was through my own inspi-ration. Of course, if you got into a particulararea where Stan didn't l ike what was happeninghe would tell you and then you'd just findanother direction. Stan gave us complete free-dom. Whatever came out of it was my sound,and it became the band's sound. Just like whenKai Winding created the "Kenton" trombonesound.

The Kenton band of that era was probably themost famous, most popular band he ever had.

With Shelly in the driver's seat the "KentonSound" solidified. Shelly started making a na-tional name for himself; he even had his own fanclub. From 1947 until as late as 1962 Shelly wasthe top drummer in one major jazz poll afteranother. His work with the Kenton band wasinterrupted twice: first to work with CharlieVentura, Bill Harris, and Jazz at the Philhar-monic. Later he spent a year with the WoodyHerman band.DL: When did you settle in Los Angeles andwhat kind of work did you do?SM: In 1952 Flip and I got off the road andsettled in LA. I worked regularly at the Light-house but I didn't do too much studio work.Most studios had staff orchestras and even whenthey needed extra players they weren't inclinedto call jazz musicians.

My first studio call was on a Hitchcock moviecalled Rear Window, with Jimmy Stewart. Partof the music was Leonard Bernstein's jazz-style"Fancy Free." I was called because of myreputation as a jazz drummer. I did so well thatthe contractor and I were both heroes. Theyrealized that jazz players could play other musicthan just "spang-a-lang." If you have ears andabsorb music you can translate that into yourplaying. This opened doors not only for me butfor other jazz musicians, as well.DL: During the '50s you were very involved inthe development of the "West Coast" style ofjazz. What was "West Coast" jazz?SM: The people who were writing about musicsaid, "These guys don't play like they do in NewYork." But all of us were from New York. If wehad stayed there we might still have done thesame thing. They seemed to put up a wallbetween the east and west coasts. But music isnot a competition, it's not the Olympics. It'ssupposed to be an art.

You can't compare any artist to another artist.It's not right. You can't go into a museum andsay, "This guy was greater than that guy."That's only an opinion. They're all in the muse-

"THE MAINTHING A DRUM-MER STILL NEEDSTO DO IS PLAYTIME THATSWINGS. SPANG-SPLANG-A-LANGIS THE HARDESTTHING IN THEWORLD TO DO.THE TIME HAS TOLIVE, NOT BEJUST GOOD TIME.A METRONOMEHAS GOODTIME."

um because they all had something to contrib-ute, and they all influenced one another. It's thesame with music.

There were so many musicians in New Yorkand there was a great interchange of ideas. Thesame thing happened in LA but it was among asmaller group. You know, you don't have tofreeze to be creative.

Miles Davis' The Birth of the Cool was thebeginning of the West Coast Sound. That recordwas recorded (in New York) in 1949. It featuredMiles with a nine-piece group that includedGerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, and Max Roach,among others. That album had a great effect on alot of musicians. We (in LA) felt that was thedirection we wanted to go.

The West Coast Style was characterized bycool, more subdued playing, with a relaxedswing feel. This style also drew on more tradi-tional, classical concepts of harmony, counter-point and form, combined with the improvisa-tional influences of be-bop. Shorty Rogers andJimmy Guiffre, along with myself, were theleading West Coast proponents. I was the maindrummer for those records and that concept.

DL: How did you apply your concept of drum-ming to this new style?SM: Through search and experimentation Itried always to maintain a fresh approach to myplaying. I was successful in evolving a moreflexible, more imaginative, more musical func-tioning of the drummer. (I had always beenconcerned more with the feeling that musiccreated than with the way that feeling wasp r o du c e d .

I realized that drums could be used as amelodic instrument and still maintain their placein the rhythm section. Instead of letting therhythm imply its own melody, my concept is toplay melodically and allow the melody to createrhythm. My ideas are linearly conceived andexecuted, often in opposition to the structure ofthe bar lines. Improvisation is the result ofmelodic, not rhythmic, thinking.

Following the birth and maturation of the WestCoast sound, Shelly continued to be a force onthe LA jazz scene. In I960 he opened his ownjazz club, Shelly's Manne-Hole, in Hollywood.Many major bands and combos performed thereas did Shelly's own groups when his schedulepermitted.

Because of problems with noise leaking into arecording studio adjacent to the Manne-Hole,the club closed in 1973. Since that time Shellyhas kept busy playing and recording with groupsthat ranged from straight ahead he-hop to jazz-rock fusion. He is presently working with aquartet that consists of drums, bass, and twopianos.DL: What kind of drums are you using?SM: Sonor drums. All wood. I care about thewood, not the thickness. I'd rather not have too-thick shells for the reason that schlepping themaround takes muscle. I'm only concerned thatthe wood must be good.

I use a 4-piece set for live jazz playing. 5 x 1 4snare, 12" and 14" toms, and a 20" bass. My jazzset has Remo Fiberskyn 2's on it. In the studio Iuse coated Diplomats. My studio set has moretom-toms; 8", 10". 12", 13", 16" and a 22" bass.DL: What's your cymbal setup?SM: 14" hi-hats. I'm using a 19" K. Zildjian onmy left. On the right I've got a freaky cymbalthat I use only with a trio or quartet. It's acymbal I found in Paris. I don't know what kindof metal is in it . It's flat and speaks verydefinitely. I'm using an old Zildjian 20" swishwith sizzles in it.

When I'm not using that flat cymbal I have a20" A. Zildjian and I also have a 20" Paiste. Instudio work I have an 18" crash on my left andanother 20" crash on my right.DL: How do you pick your hi-hat cymbals?SM: Medium to medium heavy on the bottom,medium to medium-thin on top. I keep thinkingof Papa Jo Jones when I buy hi-hats. I try to findcymbals so that if the hi-hat is left open a crack Iget an even sound. Naturally, I want a good"chick" when I play them with my foot but Idon't want that to out-balance the rest of mycymbals. I don't want it to be the dominantthing.

In rock drumming it's different. You look for acertain "chick" by playing (sticks) on the closed

hi-hats and a big explosion when you open them.With rides and crashes, first I ' l l go through a

whole flock of cymbals just to find a sound Ilike. It could be bright or dark, a musical sound.Not too metallic. A pure sound, not a pure pitch.

I try to get a cymbal that doesn't set up adefinite pitch. I try to get an even-soundingcymbal that doesn't spread too much. I don'twant a cymbal that builds up if I'm not puttingmore energy into it.

Sometimes I pick cymbals for recording dif-ferently, with a specific sound in mind. General-ly, though, I like to stay with the same cymbalsthat I use when I'm playing live. I figure if theysound good to me then it's the engineer's prob-lem.DL: Do you look for a name on a cymbal?SM: No. If I play a cymbal and I like it, then I ' l llook and see what it is.DL: How often do you replace your cymbals'?SM: Hopefully, never.DL: To hear a great brush player is inspiring.The sounds they can get are amazing. Why don'tmore players play brushes well?SM: It's a matter of having to do it. It's some-thing you do by playing; by using them all thetime. In most bands, nowadays, not a lot ofbrush playing is necessary.

You have to approach brushes differently thansticks. Brushes are constructed so that there's asweep involved. That's why they're brushes. Alot of guys play brushes like they play sticks.They use the same kind of technique and thesame kind of stroking. If you're just going to hitthem you can use a stick. But if you use thebrushes correctly you should make use of thespread of the brushes and the sweeping feeling.

That's the way I approach brushes. To get asweeping feeling is the most important thing.Once a rhythmical sweep is gotten then theaccents can be added on top of i t .

Brush technique is finding the stroke the wayyou want to perform it and then smoothing it,making it like silk. It is a different feel, it 'salmost a different body motion. It's a softeningof your hands and your wrists to create theillusion of silk. It's difficult to explain but I knowit is totally different than playing sticks.

There's a good brush book out. Philly Joe'sbrush book (Brush Artistry, by Philly Joe Jones,published by Premier Drum Co.). It's prettyclose to the same technique that I use.DL: Does tuning the drums mean the same thingtoday as it did when you were learning to play?SM: The traditional concept of tuning is gone.It's tuning but in a different way; it's deadening.How to deaden your drums correctly more thanhow to tune them correctly. With calf headsplayers were (necessarily) more involved in tun-ing. I'd stop the whole Kenton band at CarnegieHall to tune my drums. Once I spent a whole daywith Jim Chapin trying to tune a snare drum toget the sound that Jo Jones got on a rim shot.Even with plastic heads you can still tune thedrums to get a good, musical sound.

Players aren't completely to blame, though. Idetest contemporary tuning but my studio set isthe same way. It's largely been caused by re-cording techniques and engineers with 16 and 32channels who were getting leakage. So they put

a mic up inside the drum, tape the heads, andthrow a pillow in the bass drum. Maybe if wewere still recording monorally, or with 2 tracks,we'd still be using open drums like I s t i l l do onall my jazz jobs and recording sessions.

In the new concept of drumming that hasgrown out of these advances, a lot of individual-ity has been lost. It's been narrowed down totrying to make everybody sound the same,which to me, is a big drag. I used to be able totell who the drummer was from one cymbalcrash or one rim shot. Now 20 drummers playingin fusion bands all sound the same.

"INSTEAD OF LETTING THE RHYTHM IMPLY ITS OWNMELODY, MY CONCEPT IS TO PLAY MELODICALLYAND ALLOW THE MELODY TO CREATE RHYTHM. MYIDEAS ARE LINEARLY CONCEIVED AND EXECUTED,OFTEN IN OPPOSITION TO THE STRUCTURE OF THEBAR LINES. IMPROVISATION IS THE RESULT OF ME-LODIC, NOT RHYTHMIC THINKING."

I ' l l never learn to play drums that way. DaveyTough taught me that there's a difference be-tween playing loud and getting a full sound. Still,there are some great drummers today: ElvinJones, Tony Williams, Peter Erskine, and SteveGadd, all of whom, coincidentally, have strongjazz backgrounds.DL: You have been outspoken about the rolethat technique should play in a musician's devel-opment. Can you restate some of those views?SM: Technique is only a means to get there.Technique is important but it's a means to anend, not the end itself. It's like eating with aknife and fork. How you do it is not the mostimportant thing. After awhile you learn to usethe tools and you forget about them. Distinctiveplaying is a learned musical attitude more than alearned technique.

The most important things musicians, espe-cially drummers, have are their ears. If theyopen their ears and listen they can learn. If theyhave control of their hands they can transferwhat they've learned into the concept thatthey're playing. You don't play a snare drumpart in a 60-piece orchestra like you're playingwith Count Basie.

The main thing a drummer still needs to do isplay time that swings. Spang-splang-a-lang is thehardest thing in the world to do. The time has tolive, not be just good time. A metronome hasgood time.

8th notes and 16th notes (in rock) create lessspace to worry about. But there's beauty inspace. Most guys I hear try to fill up every inch.On a slow tempo, like Count Basie's "Lil'Darlin'," there's so much space that you have tohave some time going within yourself to create aswinging feeling.DL: So, the swinging time has to be there first?SM: You can take all the technique, and thesolos, and the speed, and all of that stuff andthrow it out the window if the other thingdoesn't exist. Because the other thing is whatcounts. The other thing is what makes it possible

continued on page 62

Tommy Aldridge:

Business Wiseby Scott K. Fish

photos courtesy of Bill Cramp

Not a week would go by without lettersasking, "When are you guys going tointerview Tommy Aldridge?" I trackedTommy down at his home in Texas andhe was extremely open and honest. Thisinterview was completed shortly beforeTommy joined Ozzie Osbourne for the"Blizzard of Ozz." tour.TA: I started playing drums about a yearbefore the Beatles came out. I don'treally know how I got interested. I got alittle hobby set of Ludwig drums; a l i t t le18" bass drum and a student snare drum.They were Navy blue with a silver stripearound them. I had them for a fewmonths and then I decided I wanted tolearn to play guitar. So, I hacked aroundon guitar for a few months and then Iwent back to drums. The first thing I wasstudying was jazz, l ike Dave Brubeck,for instance. That was too difficult forme at the age of thirteen. The Beatlescame out and they got all the hoopla bybeing straightforward. I figured if I couldget more attention with less graft then Ishould do that. That's when I got inter-ested in contemporary rock music.SF: Do you come from a musical family?TA: No. I'm from Tennessee originally. Imoved around quite a bit when I wasgrowing up. I was raised in Florida. Igrew up down there and I didn't startplaying unt i l my folks moved to Jackson,Mississippi. I first started playing clubsaround Jackson, doing college and fra-ternity gigs and all that crap, just aroundGeorgia and Louisiana. I went to collegefor a year or so and I left college when Iwas 18 or 19 and went down to NewOrleans. That's when I got out on myown and started supporting myself. Asemblance of supporting myself anyway!It was nice down in New Orleans. TheAllman Brothers were playing out atAlbin Park on the weekends. StephenStills was down there. Dr. John wasthere. I played at a club called TheWarehouse. That was one of the first biggigs I played. We played, Poco played,and The Young Rascals played.SF: Who was "we?"TA: It was just a l i t t le three-piece bandthat no one ever heard of. Keyboard,guitar and drums. I did that for awhileand then I lived on a ranch in Fredricks-burg, Texas. I was putting a band togeth-er that Jose Feliciano was financing, butit fell apart after about 7 months. Then Igot drafted. I went into the Army for 7weeks and 2 days. I didn't have time forthat, boy! I had to go through all kinds ofchanges to get out, trying to convince theArmy that I had no business being there.I finally did. Then I went back to Missis-sippi and played around with localbands. Black Oak Arkansas had justsigned a record deal, and my friend DaveSmith was doing the sound for the i r firsttour. They wanted another drummer andhe gave them my name and they called

me up. I went up to Memphis and got thegig. A week later I went out to LosAngeles and literally signed my lifeaway. I got out of it but it was a realtrauma for me after about five and a halfyears with that band. See, in i t ia l ly therewas supposed to be a one year trialperiod where if I was unhappy or theywere unhappy I could leave. But itwasn't that way. I went to the managerand told him that I wasn't happy. Iwanted out. He said "No way." I wasreal miserable through that whole thing.SF: So you were with Black Oak for five-and-a-half years when you wanted outafter the first year?TA: Yeah.SF: That must have been like the Armyall over again.TA: That's exactly what it was like.Except I could get out of the Army in 7weeks and 2 days and it took me a long

WHEN I WAS COMINGUP, I'D HAVE A BUNCH OFDRUMS AND ALWAYS PAYRETAIL FOR THEM . . .WHEN YOU CAN'T AFFORDTHEM, YOU HAVE TO PAYRETAIL. WHEN YOU MAKESOME MONEY AND YOUCAN BUY ANYTHING YOUWANT, THEN THE DRUMCOMPANIES START GIVINGTHEM TO YOU! I GUESSTHERE'S SOME LOGIC INTHERE SOMEWHERE."time to get out of Black Oak. Once Ifinally physically left Arkansas at theend of '76 or '77, I ended up getting alltied up through 1977 with a bunch oflawsuits. One in California and one inArkansas. It took me a year to get out ofthat. About the same time that was final-ized in December of '77, I started withPat Travers. I'd been with Travers mostof the time since the end of '77 unt i l theend of 1980.SF: Let me backtrack just a bit. Howlong were you living in New Orleans?TA: Off and on for a year.SF: Were you involved in any kind offormal study during that period?TA: No. I never had any formal study.SF: Were there any specific drummers atthat time that really turned you on?TA: Carmine Appice, of course. He waspretty fancy back then. He's mellowed alot since. Clive Bunker with Jethro Tull.King Crimson's drummer Mike Giles. Ilistened to Mike a lot. Bonham influ-enced me a lot on that first Led Zeppelinalbum, because he was doing stuff I'dnever heard before. Of course, MitchMitchell and all the hellraisers of thattime.

SF: Did you get away from listening tojazz?TA: Oh yeah. Definitely. I stopped lis-tening entirely.SF: When you were with Black Oak, doyou feel that experience helped yourdrumming? Did you grow from that situ-ation?TA: Well, I think it stifled me more thananything, really. Because I wasn't happymusically, personally, or any kind ofway. I just wanted to be somewhere else,you know. And I was being restrained. Ithelped me in my career, obviously. Itwas a pretty successful band and I got totravel a lot. But, more importantly andhelpfully, I got to play a lot. All I wantedto do was just play! I got to do plenty ofthat with that band. We never did any-thing musically with Black Oak that I'mcomfortable hearing today. But, I guessit was good for my career. The managerseemed to think that he was solely re-sponsible for my career. One of thethings in the lawsuits said that the man-agers had contributed greatly to my ca-reer and deserved an ongoing percentagethereof! The band did help my career,but I would like to th ink that I was goingto do it anyway.SF: From the time you were a l i t t le kid,were drums always the thing you wantedto do with your life?TA: After I sold my guitar to buy anotherdrum kit , I was pretty much set in want-ing to see it through. I didn't have a cluewhat it entailed.SF: You pretty much set a goal that youwere going to shoot for the top?TA: Yeah. Or just try to support myself.SF: Would you have any advice for read-ers that might be in a position of gettinginvolved with contractual agreements?TA: Establish a relationship with an at-torney before you're confronted with alegal decision, or a contractual fee.That's the mistake I made. To me. legaladvisement seems more important thaneven the record relationship, or a manag-er or an agent relationship. Establish thatrelationship with a lawyer who's yourfriend, or who has a personal interest inyou and in what you're doing.SF: In other words, each individualshould have a personal lawyer instead ofone lawyer representing the entire band?TA: Exactly.SF: So the lawsuits stopped you fromplaying for a long time?TA: Well, I was able to play, but at thesame time I didn't want to put some bandtogether because of all the litigation st i l lpending. I had gotten involved with aband called Thumbs. I was real happywith that. But anytime we'd get in asituation where we had record labelsinterested, they just wouldn't committhemselves because of the l i t igat ionpending against me. I could have gone onand signed a recording deal with a band,

but I didn't want to be in a positionwhere in two or three months down theroad, the manager that I was trying to getaway from would end up having a hunkof that. Finance my own demise, so tospeak. This was in '77. I'm still having todeal with that to this day!SF: I hear more and more from aspiringdrummers who've never been involvedwith the music business this fantasy thatall you have to think about is playingdrums and not have to be concerned withmoney matters.

TA: It gets less and less music and moreand more business every year.SF: Is there any way around that or isthat the name of the game?TA: Well, there are exceptions to therule, but they are exceptions.SF: So, as a musician you've got towatch out for yourself.TA: Definitely.SF: Okay. So how did you get hooked upwith Pat Travers?TA: His manager, David Hemmings, wasin San Francisco the same time I was

with Thumbs. He had called me before inregard to Pat Travers, who I had neverheard of at that time. We were doingsome recording with Thumbs out thereon the West Coast and I was trying to seethat through. That's where the main law-suit was going on. So I was trying to getthat out of the way and get that recordingwith Thumbs out of the way at the sametime. I kind of put David off. I didn'trealize that I knew him from past BlackOak tours. He had been tour managerwith Black Sabbath and that's where Imet him. He kept calling and finally Isaid, "Okay" and went out to NewYork. I was supposed to go to Englandbut I didn't have my passport together.Pat Travers and the bass player came toNew York and we jammed. I took thegig, and I was with Pat for close to threeyears, from 1978 until the end of 1980.We recorded Crash and Burn aboutthree months after that. Pat Thrall cameinto the band just before we went intothe studios to record that album. I thinkthat was in 1979. Heat In The Street wasthe first album I played on with Travers.That was 1978. Then the live album andthen Crash and Burn.SF: How much time was there fromwhen you first joined Travers to the timeyou recorded and went on the road?TA: We had about a week and a half ofrehearsals before we went out on theroad. That's it. The first gig was an FMsimulcast out at My Father's Place inRoslyn, New York. That was the yearthey had that bad snow storm. I wasstuck in New York. The next concert wedid started a big concert tour with Rush.I got snowed in and got to that first bigconcert gig with Rush about ten minutesbefore we went on! We did that as athree-piece. I guess we were out aboutthree months and then Pat Thrall joinedthe band.SF: Who decided what songs you weregoing to play?TA: We'd do it together. As far as whatwent on the albums, it was always Pat'schoice.SF: Were any of the song arrangementsgroup decisions?TA: Most of it, yeah. Everybody wouldhave different ideas or suggestions andthey were usually taken apart.SF: Did you leave room for spontaneity?TA: Oh definitely. We'd record live usu-ally, and then occasionally Travers orThrall would overdub solos. But most ofit was a spontaneous thing.SF: Since you recorded Little Walter'stune, "Boom, Boom. Out Go TheLights" I wondered if you were familiarwith much blues music.TA: No. I went to a party here in Dallaswhere a blues band was playing. I got upand jammed with them and they played"Boom Boom" the original way. I didn'teven know it! Pat Travers did that song

on his first album and again on the livealbum. It took off real well.SF: Are you still endorsing Sonordrums?TA: Yes. I'm real happy with Sonordrums. They don't give a whole lot ofstuff away! I've been using them for anumber of years now. That was the firstendorsement I had. Then Evans heads,and Zildjian cymbals. The first real feel-ing of accomplishment or satisfactionwas when a drum company or a cymbalcompany ever approached me to do anendorsement. That's the first time I felt,"Man, I really am getting somewhere."When I was coming up I'd have a bunchof drums and always pay retail for them.I always put back every penny I madeinto the instrument. When you can'tafford them, you have to pay retail.When you make some money and youcan buy anything you want, then thedrum companies start giving them toyou! I guess there's some logic in theresomewhere. But I 'm real happy withSonor drums. I still have the first twobass drum pedals that I ever got fromSonor.SF: What's your current set-up?TA: Well, I have a new set here at homethat I will use in the studio. I haven't hada chance to yet, but that's what I gotthem for. Two 20" bass drums and allsmall tom-toms. 6", 8", 10", 12", and a 16"floor tom, an 18" floor tom, and a 6 1/2"snare. Practically the same set-up I uselive, just smaller dimensions. I've foundthat smaller drums give a much fattersound in the studio.SF: Why is that?TA: I don't know. When I was comingup I played Rogers drum kits. I alwayshad 20" bass drums. A 22" bass drum wasconsidered really, really big. Not untilAppice, Bonham and people like thatcame out with the big 26" bass drums didthe fad go the other way. I've alwaysused big bass drums live, 24" Sonors andthey sound pretty good. But in the studiothe 20" just sounds fatter and deeper forsome reason. The last recording I'vedone was in England with Gary Moore. Iused my standard Sonor road kit thatthey provide me with over there. It's thesame kit I use here, with all Evans headsand set up like I'm playing live. Nothingmuffled. We recorded in this big roomwith mic's way up on the ceiling. I gotthe best drum sound I've ever gotten.That's one of the reasons I took on theGary Moore project. I've always wantedto record in a British studio becausesome of my favorite sounds have comefrom British-made albums. So I finallygot to do that. They definitely have adifferent approach. They don't want tohinder you by taping something on thesnare drum, or wanting you to alwaysloosen your snare drum skin to make itfat sounding. That changes the whole

feel and response of the drum whichsometimes encumbers me in the studio.They even set the drums up off the floor,just like a stage set-up on a riser. Themic's are away from the drum ratherthan right down near the hoop of thedrum. A drum sound matures as it trav-els through the air. A person listening,even the guy playing, doesn't have hisear next to the snare drum, or on thehoop of the drum! The drum develops itscharacter after it travels through a busyatmosphere. I've always thought that,but all the producers I've worked withinsisted on putting mic's right next to theheads. You have to do that in concert tocompensate for isolation and leakage.But in the studio where the drums arepretty isolated anyway, I finally got achance to record with the mic's awayfrom the drums and with very few mic's.Two overheads, one mic for the twomounted toms, one mic for the two floortoms, and a snare mic. The overheadswere positioned high up in a cathedral-like ceiling. So the cymbals were goinginto the overhead mic's.SF: Are you isolated from the othermusicians in that situation?TA: Only with baffles. With GaryMoore, he and the bass player and Iwould record the tracks together live.Then Gary would overdub his guitarsolos. That's how we did it and I wasreally, really surprised with the sound. Iwas scared it wasn't going to sound goodbecause I didn't have to go through allthis rigamaroll and perseverance. But itwas really inspiring.SF: Jack Clement, an engineer in Nash-ville who recorded many of the early Sunrock records, told me that recording stu-dios are the worst place to make records,because they sound so different from anyother place where music is made.TA: Right. I remember the first big ses-sion I did. Tom Dowd was producing it.He had mic's everywhere! He had two orthree mic's on the snare drum, a mic onthe top and bottom of each tom-tom, andtwo or three mic's in the bass drum. Itwas completely ridiculous. This was thefirst album I did with Black Oak. I hadlearned about the smaller bass drums, soI rented two small bass drums for thatsession. Tom Dowd wouldn't let me usethem. He wanted me to use the big 26"drums. He went against everything that Ithought an up-market, big-time producerwas going to do. That's not to slag-offTom Dowd. He makes a lot more moneythan I do!SF: What size drumset do you use on-stage?TA: 24" bass drums, 13" and 14" mountedtoms, and 16" and 18" floor toms.SF: How about your cymbal set-up?TA: All of them are pretty heavy cym-bals. On the left up high I have an 18",then a 22", a 20" right over my hi-hat, and

an 18" on the left bass drum.SF: All crash cymbals?TA: Well, "heavy." Some of them areride cymbals. But just real, real heavy.An 18" on the right bass drum. A 24"heavy ride. And then another 18". Then a22" and a 20". All A. Zildjians. I use thoseQuik-beat hi-hats, the ones with the flatcymbal on the bottom. They have holesdrilled in the bottom. They're real, realthick and heavy. A long time ago I'd drillholes in the bottom of some of my hi-hatcymbals to let the air out. Zildjian starteddoing that in the last few years. So Imissed that opportunity didn't I? Zildjianis an endorsement I'm really proud of.Those people are so nice. I mean, theonly true endorsement I have is withthose guys.SF: Do you enjoy going on the road?TA: Yeah, I do. I love playing. I didn'tplay as much as I'd like to with Travers.We'd go out and tour between four andsix months solid and we'd get a lot oftouring done. I'd be exhausted when Icame in, but I sometimes have more timeoff than I like to have.SF: Could you freelance on projects be-tween tours?TA: No. It was just enough time to getfrustrated and not enough time to dosomething else. It became bad news forme to stay with Pat any longer. I wasmaking more money as time went by, butthe percentage of what I could potential-ly earn wouldn't change any. Once Icame to that conclusion I put in my


Inside: Milestoneby Craig Ferrel

The name Milestone comes up frequently in discussionsabout drum manufacturers, yet no one seems to know muchabout them. To learn more. I travelled to Vancouver, Canada,and was soon standing in front of a building which had a Remodrum head over the door with "Milestone" imprinted on thefront.

Once inside, I knew there was something different aboutMilestone Percussion. It is small in comparison to other manu-facturers and the difference is reflected by the owner, MichaelClapham, an energetic man with an indescribable self-assuranceconcerning his product. Milestone is unique and he knows it.

The seed that eventually grew to be Milestone was planted atMichael's first recording studio engagement. He heard himselfthrough the headphones in the studio and couldn't believe it. "Icould hear and feel. The physical thing was just fantastic. Ithought it would be marvellous to have a drum set. live, thatwould make me feel as good as I felt then. I don't know if that's100% possible, but our drums are the closest I've heard thusfar."

Through his ten years of running Drum Village, a pro-shop inVancouver, Clapham had plenty of opportunities to test hisideas and obtain opinions from professional players. It was herethat he teamed up with John Soprovich, a chemical engineer.John had experience in the area of strengths and stresses, andhe was intrigued by Michael's idea. John concerned himselfwith the technical/mechanical aspects; Michael with the musi-cal results.

Their ideas really began to flow after they examined fiber-glass drums. Michael thought the materials were viable, butJohn felt that the shells had not been taken far enough. Claphamexplained: "We wanted to determine the effect of a single-wallshell, all of the same material. I mean they don't make marimbabars out of laminated 6-ply do they?" They also wanted to builda drum that looked good on the outside without having somesort of external covering. The answer was to build from theoutside in. "We start with the finish," Michael continued, "andproceed inward. We wanted that single-wall shell—no seams,no butts, no laminations, no glue, no air bubbles, no nothing!Thus there is no infringement on the resonance factor at all."

The first step is applying the color to the master cylinder. Atthis point there is no shell. During the next steps the color andshell actually become one, through a process involving chemi-cal treatment and matings of silicone fibers and resins. "Theactual mechanics of creating the shell is no big thing, but whatwe actually do, and the formula, is the result of our lime andinvestment. It is the same sort of unknown as the Zildj ianprocess or the Coca-Cola recipe." Understandably, I did notquestion him further about the exact process.

Each shell is allowed to cure naturally. After two days, theshells are hard as rock, yet the hardening process continues.Michael states, "After two months the molecular structure isconstant and won't change. I don't care if you're playing in theSahara or the Arctic Circle—the drums will outlast you."

Milestone takes great care in giving the shells a properbearing edge to allow maximum head freedom and vibration. Iwatched Michael, by hand, use several grits of abrasive paperto assure this. When I asked him about i t , he said, "Thesmoother it is, the more the head will float, thus we keep thebearing edge as narrow as possible. We round the top (not bevelit) to meet the inner head curvature. This is also why ourinstruments respond so readily to all textures of playing."

Just a few of the 580 different snare drums available fromMilestone.

It is then that the shells will be drilled, buffed, and fitted withhardware. All the fittings are die-cast zinc and Michael 's owndesign. The lugs are packed with rubber to avoid using annoy-ing interior springs. Machined brass swivel nuts are used foradded strength. The fittings are pre-threaded, not self-tapping,to avoid later fatigue and loosening of the part. As Michael putit, everything is designed for carefree maintenance. After thedie-cast hoops and Remo heads are installed, Brazilian Carnau-ba wax is applied throughout the instrument.

Another thing that sets these shells apart is the fact thatMilestone doesn't ask one shell to do the work of the wholeensemble. "When we started experimenting, the drum had tofeel excellent. The thing I couldn't understand was why thesame shell was used for different drums." Michael's philosophyis that the snare, toms, and bass drum each have their owndistinctive sound qualities. What Milestone did was to integratethe tonal warmth they wanted with the individual drum qualit iesthey were looking for. "Snare drums have snares—tom-tomsdon't. Bass drums are struck with a beater ball—the others withsticks, brushes, and mallets."

Michael and John first experimented with the snare drum."We made each prototype a different color and tested each withthe help of other player's opinions until we found the formulawe use today.

"Ninety-five percent of your sound is the shell. Keep itsimple and trouble free. If a drum is going to be a musicalinstrument, rather than just something to be beaten, everythingis right there," he said, pointing to the shell. "Drumheads willonly amend sound. You can change texture and response withdifferent heads, sticks, playing style, how you physically play,and different snares, but it still comes down to the shell."

Milestone offers 80 different colors, and since the company'sinception, 64 of these colors have been requested. Milestonehas no inventory—all instruments are built to order.

There are seven sizes of snare drums available. "That's 560snare drum offerings," Michael said chuckling, "if you considerour 80 colors." The snare drums consist of Therrabond Formu-la VI, and each has ten lugs. The most popular is their Model700, which is 7 x 14. Milestone snare drums are all 14" in

The all-important bearing edge being sandal by hand.

diameter, and range from 5" to 8" in depth.Deep-shell bass drums are Milestone's standard sizes. The 15

x 18, 16 x 18, 16 x 20, and 18 x 20 have 16 tension lugs and useFormula II . Michael, still a fan of Tony Will iams in his MilesDavis days, uses a 16 x 18. "The popularity of our l i t t l e bassdrums is particularly pleasing to me. Their power amazeseveryone." The larger sizes, 16 x 22, 18 x 22, 16 x 24, and 18x 24, use Therrabond Formula I and have 20 lugs.

The bass drum hoops are made in similar fashion to the shellcylinders, with emphasis on the strength factor for "inroundprecision and strength." The exterior edge is shaped to conformto the counter hoop of the bass drum head. The batter hoop is awide 1 7/8" to accommodate any bass drum pedal. The front hoopis l 1/4" to assist resonance. Milestone does not use T-handlesbut regular drum fitting rods. Other drum companies haverecently started using this idea.

The rack toms and floor toms are Formula V11I and are alldouble headed. "Why have the best resonating shell on themarket and then have all that sound go down and hi t the floor?"The rack toms start with an 8" diameter. "One of the reasons fornot building a 6" is that Lutz Sill (the shell boss) can't get hisbloody hand in the master cylinder. Seriously," Michael contin-ues, "it is not a practical size to offer the player consideringcosts." Drummers will order two 8" toms of different depthsinstead. The rack toms go up to size 1 4 x 1 6 with other sizes toonumerous to mention in between. They come with a more thanadequate number of tension lugs for even and accurate tuning.For example, the 10" tom has 12 lugs. The floor toms range from14 x 14 to 18 x 18.

Milestone feels they have nothing outstanding to offer theaccessories market at this time and see duplication as pointless.They do have a new tom holder in the works though, as well asa new snare drum (Magnum V), which is currently being fieldtested, and a new drum corps tom trio.

Most drum companies have well-known artists endorsingtheir products. When I asked Michael about this, he recalled anincident a few years back. "We built a kit for a very well-knowndrummer to take on the road. He was very happy with ourdrums, so his manager came to us wanting a lot of money forsigning him up. We didn't have that kind of money, but wereally knew then that we had a viable product."

Many professionals have since purchased Milestone ki ts ,including Terry Clarke, Bob Moses, Vito Petza, and JerryMercer. Producer Bob Ezrin recently ordered a ki t to be rushedto Ace Frehley's studio.

Milestone has received a great deal of support from drum-mers, most naturally in Canada. "Considering our size, we get atremendous amount of mail from satisfied customers and drum-

A shell being drawn from the mastercylinder.

A shell being buffed before assembly and waxing.

mers interested in our drums. The problem with being small is,we don't have people transversing the continent and going intodrum shops saying, 'Look at our drums.' " In addition, somedrummers have complained that drum shops will not let anyoneplay on the sets they have in stock—even if the drummer isseriously considering a purchase. Michael feels that if morepeople were given the chance to play Milestone drums, morepeople would want them. "If we are as good as I th ink we are,and our product is as good as we think it is, the rest wi l l takecare of itself.

"In the not too distant past, some players would changedrums every two years. My feelings are that today, with theeconomy the way it is, I imagine most drummers just can'tafford to keep changing like that. Therefore, I think this hashelped us to survive and grow. The drummer is looking for atop-notch instrument and he is much more concerned withsound, materials, workmanship and everything else. He'sforced to, because that investment is way higher now than it'sever been. He's got to be looking for the best return he can getbecause that kit has got to last him."

How would increased growth affect Milestone and its prod-uct, I wondered. "We would like to be large enough to the pointwhere our quality will not go down. I don't know where thatpoint is. but I ' l l sure as heck know when we get there."

The name might not have been Milestone if John Soprovichhad not been into numerology. "Landmark" was the first namethought of after their new product was developed, but it didn'tseem to be right with John. The name Milestone was men-tioned, about which John got back to Michael by phone."Milestone—that's it!"

A Tribute toBilly Gladstone

BILLY GLADSTONE: 1892-1961

Author Ted Reed (left) and Billy Gladstone at Ted's studio inNew York trying out birdseye maple snare drum made for Tedin 1954.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the death of BillyGladstone. To those unfamiliar with the name, suffice it to saythat Billy Gladstone was one of the percussion world's mostlegendary figures; a masterful snare drum virtuoso, teacher,inventor and drumming theoretician.

When we first planned this tribute, many months ago, wewere quickly made aware of the fact that little had ever beendocumented on this rather remarkable gentleman. But it wasn'tlong before our early research led us directly to drummer/author Ted Reed, well known for his widely accepted Progres-sive Steps to Syncopation. Now living in Florida, Ted Reed wasone of Billy's closest friends and colleagues from the early '40sup to the time of Billy's death in 1961. There could be no betterway to honor Billy Gladstone than through the words of one ofhis dearest admirers. And Ted was more than happy to assist.

Here then are Ted Reed's reminiscences of the life andlegend of Billy Gladstone in MD's tribute to an artist who madelasting contributions to the art of drumming, and who will longbe remembered.

by Ted ReedI arrived in New York City in the summer of 1940 with hopes

of making my mark on the music business. I had heard manythings about Billy Gladstone back in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylva-nia, so I made a point of catching each new show at Radio CityMusic Hall where he was performing. I wanted to hear the greatMusic Hall orchestra but was especially interested in hearingBilly Gladstone play. The man was a great musician and anabsolute perfectionist. I would arrive at the start of each stageshow and sit on the right side near the percussion section. Thepit would come up and the orchestra would play the overture.The orchestra was then lowered a few feet and the stage showwould begin. Billy was great at catching the tricks and cues forall the acts. Often, he'd perform a particular trick which I liked

and I'd go back to catch the act a second time and he'd playsomething different—and better! He never stopped trying toimprove.

My sister Geraldine joined the Music Hall Rockettes duringthe summer of 1942. When I told her how much I admired Billy,she informed me that both Billy and his wife Dorothy were twoof her best friends. She soon arranged for me to meet themboth. Billy and I hit it off from the beginning. I studied with himuntil I went into the Army in October of '43. We resumed ourfriendship when I came back in 1945, a friendship which wouldlast until his death in 1961.

William David Goldstein was born in Rumania on December15, 1892. His father, an Englishman, was supervisor of theRumanian government orchestra. By seven, Billy began learn-ing the baritone horn, but soon became interested in seriouslystudying percussion. He made his first pair of drumsticks at agenine.

Billy came to the United States with an aunt when he waseleven years old. On his arrival at Ellis Island, an officermistakenly referred to him as David Gladstone. He decidedfrom that point on to take the name William David Gladstone.

In 1924 Billy's second career as an inventor was about tobegin. On September 16th he and an associate named Emil Kunapplied to the U.S. Government Patent Office with a five pagedescription of a double action bass drum pedal, operable byheel or toe and complete with sketches and drawings. Though

(left) Billy Gladstone in the orchestra pit of My Fair Lady atthe Schubert Theatre in Chicago during the late '50s.

(above) The view from Billy's chair.

the patent was approved, the pedal was never manufactured.Billy played for Major Edward Bowes during the late '20s and

early '30s, and with conductor Erno Rapee at the CapitolTheatre on Broadway and the Roxy on 7th Avenue. In 1932 heopened with Rapee at New York's famed Radio City MusicHall. It was the beginning of an association that would last untilMr. Rapee's death in 1945.

During his stay at the Music Hall, Billy became very well-known in drumming circles. He often memorized the shows hehad played so many times and at first, musicians who came tosee him believed he couldn't read music. Of course, this wasuntrue. Billy was an excellent reader who was not only profi-cient on snare drum, but on all the percussion instruments aswell. He could make a set of drums sound more musical thananyone I'd ever heard. He was a perfectionist in everything hedid and conductor Erno Rapee would have no one but Billy.Drummers came from around the world to see and hear BillyGladstone perform at Radio City Music Hall.

When Erno Rapee died in 1945, Raymond Paige became theconductor. Billy was told he'd be kept on, but it proved to beuntrue. It was not too long before Paige let all of the excellentorchestra players go, replacing them with younger musicians.The quality was gone. The orchestra was never the same.

I opened my drum studio on 47th Street in February of 1954and Billy was a frequent visitor. I can clearly remember howBilly went to pieces when Dorothy passed away in Septemberof that year. He wouldn't eat and he wouldn't play. I finally gothim to do both after a great deal of persuasion. Shortly afterDorothy's death, Billy sold his home and moved into a oneroom apartment on West 48th; an apartment he never let me seealways claiming, "It's too messed up."

During the mid-fifties Billy kept busy playing Broadway'sPlain and Fancy, and making his now famous snare drums, vibeand xylophone mallets and practice pads. He later told me thathe'd made fifty custom-made snare drums, six of them withcomplete drum sets.

In 1954 I talked him into making me a snare drum. The pricewas $250 and I asked him to cover it with white pearl but heflatly refused claiming, "they put pearl on toilet seats." Idecided on birdseye maple and Billy delivered the drum atChristmastime of '54. Several weeks later he gave me the goldsnare drum stand he had used for so many years at the MusicHall. The drum and stand are both pictured on the cover of my

1) The original Billy Gladstone vacuum cavity practice pad.

2) Billy Gladstone custom-made snare drums from the TedReed collection. Left (top to bottom} 6 x 14 birdseye maplemade for Viola Smith in 1950; 6 x 14 black duco made for HalWasson in 1953; 6 x 14 birdseye maple made for Ted Reed in1954; 7 x 14 gold GretschlGladstone used by Billy at Radio CityMusic Hall during the '30s and '40s. (Center) 7 x 14 gold snaredrum and stand. Right (top to bottom) 6 x 14 gold snare drummade for Charles Cordes in 1951; 7 x 14 black duco made forEd Wiebold in 1959; 6 x 14 birdseye maple made for LouieBellson in 1956; 6 x 14 white pearl GretschlGladstone made inthe '40s.

book Progressive Steps to Syncopation. It made Billy veryhappy.

In January of 1956, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra wasplaying Roseland Ballroom on Broadway and Billy and I wentup to hear the band and see our friend Louie Bellson who waswith them at the time. That night I let Louie use the drum Bil lyhad made for me. But as soon as Lou spotted Billy, he told himhe had played one of his drums at NBC. He asked Bil ly to makehim one just like mine. We delivered Louie's drum to theTerrace Room of the Hotel New Yorker in February of '56while he was st i l l with the Dorsey Brothers. After Louie hadplayed a set using the drum, Jimmy Dorsey approached us."Billy," he said, "I don't know too much about drums, but myear tells me that's a good drum."

Billy was in rehearsal for the road show of My Fair Lady inearly 1957. After the show left New York, Billy would write atleast three times a week. Later I found out that drummers in thevarious cities where the show played had gone to see the show,but couldn't take their eyes off Billy. They had to go a secondtime to see the show. Continued on Following page

All photos courtesy Ted Reed

Billy Remembered"Billy Gladstone's concept was totally legitimate. He was agreat snare drum artist. I used to listen to him at Radio City . . .I heard him play Ravel's Bolero one time and he was phenome-nal. I used to sit in the last seat in the last row of the balcony atRadio City Music Hall and listen to him articulate off the snaredrum. Every stroke was like an arrow . . . without the slightestbit of motion he could almost shatter your eardrum. He had thatkind of technique. When he played a roll, you couldn't tell if itwas a roll or if he had only one stick on the drum. It was thatpure. He had his drums very high and flat because he was ashowman, and he would raise his hands, but the actual playingwas done more from a forearm and wrist motion rather than thewhole arm . . . He built a great snare drum which I owned atone time. He presented me with one which was quite anhonor."

BUDDY RICH

"Billy's drums were the greatest drums that were ever made.Everything about his drums was perfect. They're all collector'sitems today. The man was a master craftsman. If he had everdecided to pursue drum making only, on a full-time basis, therewouldn't have been another drum company around that couldhave touched him."

CHARLIE DONNELLYCharlie Donnelly's

Drum Centre

"I first heard about Billy Gladstone while I was studying withMurray Spivack. Guys have always associated that fingertechnique with me because they've seen me do i t . But actually,I got it from Murray and Billy Gladstone, who in turn got theirconcepts of finger technique from the French and Swiss drum-mers. But Murray always used to say that Billy was the realmaster and the leading exponant of the finger system. Billy alsomade me a snare drum when I was with the Dorsey band. I wasdeeply honored to think that this master musician would make adrum especially for me. The first night I used that drum,Tommy Dorsey, and all the guys in the band turned around andsaid, 'Wow, what's that you're playing on?' The drum soundedthat good. I can recall one time going to hear Bil ly at Radio Cityand he did something I never saw a drummer do and probablywill never see again. The Rockettes were onstage, when sud-denly Billy did one of those great sforzando rolls that was somagnificient that the attention of the entire theatre audiencewas literally drawn from the stage over to Billy's corner of theorchestra pit. Something like that happens once in a hundredyears and it demonstrates the kind of drumming magic this guyhad. I was very fortunate to have known the man. He was theepitome of a snare drum player. I only wish that all the kidstoday had had a chance to hear Billy Gladstone play."

LOUIS BELLSON

3. 4.

3) 7 x 14 gold snare drum used by Billy Gladstone at Radio CityMusic Hall in New York, now part of Ted Reed's exclusivecollection.

4) Billy Gladstone vibe mallets made with fiberglass handlesand wooden ends covered with a ring of various weight rubberfor hard or soft sound. They were known for their extremedurability.

"Billy was one of the most thorough and articulate rudimentaldrummers on record. He had not only speed, but grace andbalance as well. Billy's many inventions for the drummer madepossible the vital place that drums occupy today in modernmusic; inventions which broadened the scope of the truemusician. Drummers owe much to Billy Gladstone."

MAX MANNEFormer Manager

Radio City Music HallSymphony Orchestra

"Billy could play a roll that was so clean, it sounded like sandpouring out of a pitcher. You could be sitting 200 feet back atthe Music Hall and you'd hear him all over the theatre. Bil lyGladstone was one helluva drummer . . . one of the greatestdrummers that ever lived."

BARRETT DEEMS

"I was Billy's drum mechanic and I helped him with a greatmany of his drums. Billy was very fussy about everything thatwent into his drums. Everything had to be like a jewel. He'd getthe shells from Gretsch, I'd dri l l them for him, he'd get thehardware and assemble the drums right in his apartment. Billystrongly believed that a drum was a lot like a violin. So much sothat he didn't believe in putting the reinforcement in the toprim. He felt that would be comparable to the skin going over thebridge of a violin. Billy also had a fantastic finger technique. Hepioneered it, along with his concepts of how to best use thepotential of the natural rebound of the drumstick. He could getas many as four clean rebounds off of one downstroke by way ofthis incredible finger technique. It was amazing. He'd makeparadiddles sound like a closed long roll with accents in them,

Another little-known fact about Billy Gladstone was hisproductivity as an inventor. In addition to his remarkabledrums, Billy also invented the electrically lighted orchestrabaton which glowed in the dark when the theatre lights dimmed,an illuminated tongue depressor, an orange juice extractor and atrick keycase. He had roughly forty inventions to his credit. Buthis finest ideas were in the area of drums and drum equipment:A glass drum used for special lighting effects, hollow mallets forxylophone, a device for brushes which maintained the wirespan at a specific setting, and of course, the marvelous BillyGladstone handmade drums.

One of Billy's greatest ideas involved a snare drum whichcould tension both the top and bottom head from the top. Athree way key was used with one key activating the screw forthe top head and a second activating the screw for the bottom.A hexagon rod went through the lug and inserted into the screwrod for the bottom head. The threads on the top and bottomrods ran opposite to each other. Billy got the idea from theroller skate screw mechanism while playing at the Music Hall.Shortly before the pit went up, he'd reach in and tap the drum tocheck the tension. When the pit went up and 6000 people werein the theatre, the humidity would immediately affect thecalfskin heads. Bil ly would tighten the top head but didn't careto turn the drum upside-down in front of 6000 people to tightenthe bottom. The new invention solved the problem.

Billy liked wood shells and would often say, "they don't putpearl on violins do they? It would ki l l the sound." He also usedthin flesh hoops which floated and did not touch the shell. Hewas a firm believer in "the less that touched the shell, the betterthe sound would be." The insides of his drum shells werefinished just as smoothly as the outside which he felt wasextremely important in obtaining a good sound. Some of hisdrums were covered with pearl, but he'd only do it to please acustomer. He used 12-strand snares, inserting the end of thewire into pieces of gut at each end. The strainer had 12 holes


all controlled by the fingers. Billy was a great drummer—and agreat guy as well."

CHARLES CORDES

"I met Billy when he was in Boston with My Fair Lady. Hegave me a lesson on his technique. I never met anyone who'sbeen that helpful. Billy was a zen master with drumsticks. Heknew how to go with nature."

STANLEY SPECTOR

"It was my privilege to meet Billy Gladstone once. I was anavid fan of his when I was a teenager and looked forward tohearing him play at Radio City Music Hall with great enthusi-asm. His masterful, flowing playing, combined with greatshowmanship, was a treat to ear and eye. Billy was as earlyexponant of the graceful, smooth and flowing style of drummingthat I also heard and saw later in Jo Jones, Sid Catlett, BuddyRich and Dave Tough on the full drum set. He drew the soundfrom the drum and used a relaxed and open grip which resultedin the beautiful, full sound for which he was famous. Billy was aclass man with a class style who left a legacy that enriched usall."

ED SHAUGHNESSY

"I'm proud to say that I was fortunate enough to have studiedwith Billy Gladstone. He was an extremely gentle, sensitive andunassuming man. As a player, Billy was totally relaxed, almostmotionless, and just so graceful. He could do single stroke rollsat an incredible speed, and stay relaxed. Frankly, I've neverheard a snare drummer who had the control and speed that Billyhad. The man was just about the greatest snare drummer I'veever heard."

JOE MORELLO

Jim ChapinFather of

Independenceby Rick Mattingly

The Chapin Book. Sooner or later ev-ery serious drummer has to master it.Although the book was once consideredimpossible to play, it is now accepted asthe basic text for independent coordina-tion. Many books have appeared sincewhich have attemped to cover the samematerial in greater depth, but the ChapinBook remains the standard by which theothers are judged.

Not everyone can write a great drumbook. The author has to have a solidbackground in drumming. He must notonly have learned from others, but mustalso have been able to create his ownsolutions to musical problems. Antici-pating the future by observing what isbeing done and then taking those thingsa step or two further is another necessi-ty. The exercises themselves must hemusical rather than merely mechanical,Finally, the author must be able to com-mumnicate his ideas clearly and concise-ly-

Jim Chapin has more than met theabove requirements. After studying withBen Silver and Sanford Moeller, Chapinbegan writing his own exercises. He ob-served what the top drummers of the daywere doing and combined their musicalphrases with the mechanics of indepen-dence. As a player, he has worked with avariety of dance bands, jazz, musicians,and even composer Edgard Varese, whoused to bring his percussion instrumentsto Chapin's living room so they couldpractice together. Jim recently took timeto talk about his life for MD, beginningwith his background and the circum-stances that led to Advanced Tech-niques for the Modern Drummer, Vol. I.

"I was a late-comer to the drums,starting in the spring of '37, two monthsbefore I was eighteen. I really came at ithard, playing drums all day and then atnight going out to hear bands. OriginallyI practiced at home, but then my motherrented an empty apartment for me.Apartments were cheap in the fall of '37.In the summer of '38 I went away with aband. I was terrible. I had only beenplaying a l i t t le over a year.

"Billy Eckstine, Frank Ippolito, andGene Krupa had all suggested that Istudy with Moeller. I had been playing ayear and a half before I went to him.Moeller made you play things with acontinuous motion. The motion was themessage. You made the motion and thestick played it. After a while, it almostplayed itself. It was like a dance in mid-air. I also saw the way he analyzedeverything and stressed taking every-thing apart. If you played a triplet, heshowed what you did with one hand, andthen he would add the other hand. Thesame with the paradiddle; you wouldlearn what each hand did by itself. It wasvery analytical. So from the time Moellershowed me that. I was able to think interms of doing one thing with one hand,and one thing with the other. That wasthe reason I got into the things that laterdeveloped into Book I.

"What happened was, I saw that therewere certain things being done by peoplelike O'Neill Spencer, Arthur Herbertand Cozy Cole. It was a shuffle rhythmand it was an independent thing. But thatwas as far as it went. They never broke itdown from that. So I started with theshuffle rhythm. My right hand had begunto have a life of its own. From thetechniques I learned from Moeller, I wasable to play the ride cymbal pattern as acontinuous motion, so I just left it thereand concentrated on the left hand. It wasvery simple for me to get the shufflerhythm. Then I started to leave notesout. I would play left hand solos againstthe ride cymbal. When I was working atthe Hickory House with Flip Phil l ips , Igot into doing things with him where hewould play a short, rhythmic phrase, andI would play it back at him with my lefthand. I never heard anybody else do thatbefore me. People used to laugh at meand say, 'What's that?'

"Shelly Manne was around New Yorkat that time and he credits me with notonly being the academic father of inde-pendence, but also with being the play-ing father. In those early be-bop days,there was no independence. Max Roach,

Art Blakey, and Kenny Clarke alwaysplayed figures, but they couldn't do themindependently at that time. In fact, Maxtold me recently, 'You know, you kindof intimated in that book that we playedthis way. Well none of us played thisway. We didn't do any independence.All of us had to study that book and learnit.' So the only thing I invented were themechanics. The guys from the be-bopera invented the artistic part. They wereplaying the actual lines, but they weren'tplaying them independently. The onlything I did was to show them the me-chanics of maintaining the right hand. Iplayed that way, so they could hear i t .Kenny Clarke used to come in to theHickory House when he was workingacross the street.

"The book was a mechanical study Idid during the war. I was drafted at theend of '43, and got out at the end of '45. Ipracticed all those things and wrote themout. I had the book written by the sum-mer of '45. I didn't do anything with ituntil '48 when I was in Atlanta. A friendof mine named Lew Swain had someprinting equipment, and we made 50copies of it. That was the original Vol. I.It seems so simple now, but at the time itwas very strange. There weren't anybooks even vaguely like it on the market.People challenged me a lot, saying, 'No-body can play that stuff.' It is a process,that's all. You do this and then you dothat. Luckily, I did a few very goodthings in it. I wrote it as a separate lineand I also wrote it as a combined line. Ialso solved the dilema of eighth-notes injazz. If you play section 1, part B withthe suggestions in the front of the book,you will find that there are three ways toplay it, depending on the tempo. So theintroduction explains a lot to anyonewho reads it.

"I didn't th ink about having it pub-lished. I just wanted it to be out. While I

was on the road, my mother saw it. Shesent it to a music publisher who knewsomething about drums, and said, 'Whatshould I do with this? Do you think it willsell?' He told her, 'This book is sensa-tional. You ought to keep it for yourself.'Lew Swain sent the plates up to mymother, and she had about three or fourthousand copies printed. She took outadvertisements, and pretty soon it wasselling two thousand a year, eventuallygoing to ten thousand a year. It is now inthe 32nd printing. The book holds upwell because I thought about it a lot anddidn't go off half-cocked. By about '43 Ihad a lot of these things figured out, butthe book wasn't published unti l fiveyears later.

"I was brought up to be sort of analyti-cal. My father was a painter and mymother was a teacher. I was taught tolook at things analytically. I was a stu-dent of the drums, but not the kind thatplays this book, then this book, then thisbook, and gets locked into what some-body else thought. A lot of times, I madeup my own exercises. Certain people arestudents, and certain people are follow-ers. I don't want people saying, 'Wow,you sound just like Jim Chapin.' I wantstudents to use me, the way I usedMoeller. He did a lot for my hands, andmade me able to play hard and loud forlong periods of time without raising asweat. If I can help someone learn inde-pendence, fine. But I don't want himusing the things in the book when heplays a gig. The things in the book arelike finger exercises. You're not sup-posed to sound like Czerny when youplay piano."

From the very beginning, Chapin'sbook was subtitled Vol. I, and everyonelooked forward to Vol. II. It took a longtime, but the sequel finally appeared inthe early '70s. Expectations had beenhigh, but no one was really prepared forIndependence—The Open End. Thebook was truly unlike anything that hadever come before. It featured removablepages that could be superimposed overeach other, creating everything fromsimple coordination exercises to themost advanced polyrhythms. The booksold for $35 when first published. (It nowsells for $50.) But those who had used itsaid it was a bargain.

"I had Volume II in mind ever since1950. It took me 20 years to develop itand put it out. It's an interesting book,but very expensive to produce. I thoughtI was going to let it die, but I had somany back orders that I had to havemore of them printed. This is a book thatyou could take and never get bored with,if you know how to use it. For certainthings, you would never need anythingelse.

"I've got Book III going now. I don'tknow about immediate impact, but I

think it will have a long-range impact.It's not that hard to do, but I think theidea behind it is revolutionary. It tookme a long time to develop it. I'm a veryslow study, like a set of damp fireworks.My ideas do not suddenly burst on thescene, they come in l i t t le flashes."

In addition to his books, Jim has par-ticipated in the Music Minus One series.The first album, Modern Jazz Drum-ming, consisted of Jim playing Book I.This was especially helpful for those whowere not able to study the book under theguidance of a teacher. (It was also help-ful in proving that the hook could actual-ly be played.) The other albums in theseries, For Drummers Only, Wipe Out,and Sit-in, made use of a band (minus adrummer of course) playing big-bund,jazz, rock and combo arrangements. Al-

though nothing can substitute for actual-ly playing with a live band, these record-ings come very close.

Jim also has two albums out on theClassic Jazz label, which is a division ofMMO. The one entitled Skin Tight con-sists of the charts from For DrummersOnly, with Jim playing the drum partshimself. The other album, the Jim Cha-pin Sextet, features the group that Jimused on Monday nights at Birdland inthe mid-fifties.

"The Music Minus One albums arekind of interesting. For Drummers Onlywas the first of the albums to deal withbig-band fills. That's the most difficultone. I still play some of those arrange-ments with my group, the Jazz Tree. Iwrote the lines for the two blues charts,as well as for ' I ' l l Take Romance' and'The Lady is a Tramp.' I like thosealbums, although they weren't alwaysrecorded well. MMO tries to get thingsdone as quickly and cheaply as possible.For instance, I've got an album calledSkin Tight that was not even supposed tobe an album. It was just the run downs,with drums, for the For Drummers Onlyalbum. On the Wipe Out album, 'Lil'

Darlin' ' is bad; the reason being that thetrumpet player had to leave and theywent ahead and recorded it without him.But some of the other things on thatalbum are very good. 'Sing, Sing, Sing'is pretty good. It's a Bob Wilber arrange-ment. 'Cute,' 'Wipe Out,' and 'GirlWatchers' Theme' are not bad. I alsolike The Jim Chapin Sextet album. Notmuch drums, but it is good, mid-periodbe-bop."

When Jim was first learning to playdrums, he approached Gene Krupa forlessons. Krupa said that he did notteach, and suggested that Chapin studywith Stanford Moeller, who had taughtKrupa. He took the advice and althoughJim was not able to study with Krupa,the two of them became friends. Eventu-ally, it was Krupa who started askingChapin for lessons.

"Gene was the first one who had men-tioned Moeller to me, because he hadstudied with Moeller. So I saw Genethrough the years, but the first time hereally got to know what I could do was inthe summer of 1940. I was at the World'sFair playing in a band with Mike Riley.We played before Krupa's band. Mikewas a clown, and one night he looked athis watch and said, 'Krupa will be on inabout 7 minutes. Play a drum solo untilhe gets here.' It was ridiculous. Krupawas at the height of his game, and I hadonly been playing for three years. But Ihad been to Moeller by that time and myhands were very good. Gene came back-stage and looked at me and said, 'It lookslike I should have stayed with the oldman a while longer.'

"He called me up in the fall of '68 andsaid, 'Jim, I've got emphysema and I'mgoing crazy up here. Come on up andteach me. Ever since you came over andshowed Cozy and me the book in '52,and played it for us, I've wanted to studywith you. Not only independence, butI've wanted to find out how your handswork, because obviously you knowsomething that I don't know.' And Isaid, 'Well, it's just Moeller.' Gene said,'Then he knew more when he taught youthan he did when he taught me.' So allthat winter I'd go up to Yonkers everyTuesday. Then he felt better and startedto play again. He had a couple of yearswhere he was playing very well. Thenleukemia started.

"He was always a very nice man. Allthe stories about him being a big drugtaker were false. He was a delightfulman."

Chapin is primarily known as a jazzmusician but, like many jazz players, hehas often had to play non-jazz gigs inorder to make a living and provide for hisfamily. He has, however, approachedthese jobs with the same positive attitude


Nazareth'sDarrell Sweet by Rick Mattingly

photos by Geoffrey ThomasBeing a member of a group affords a

musician a certain amount of security,but it also demands a sacrifice. Thesecurity comes from the fact that theindividual does not have to face theworld alone. When times are had, themembers can support and encourageeach other, and when times are good,they can share in the success. In returnfor this security, each member has tosacrifice part of his own identity. Theindividual does not have the freedom todo whatever he wishes, hut must consid-er the common good of the group. Manypeople join groups for the security, butare unwilling to make the sacrifice andso, many groups do not last very long.

Nazareth has been together for over15 years, and the attitude of drummerDarrell Sweet is part of the reason theyhave endured. Rather than try to buildup a reputation for himself, Darrell hasconcentrated on fulfilling the percussiveneeds of Nazareth. While this may havekept him from becoming as well-knownas some of his flashier contemporaries,the fact remains that he has helped makeNazareth one of the top internationalbands for the past 10 years. He has donethis by taking care of business. His time-keeping is solid and his fills indicate thathe pays attention to the structure of thetunes. In addition to his drumming, Dar-rell does a share of the singing withNazareth and has recently become moreactive as a songwriter.

Many good rock drummers have hadexperiences with other types of music,and it is their ability to draw on theseexperiences that often enables them togive their rock drumming a fresh twist.Darrell Sweet has certainly had othermusical experiences, but it was possiblyhis first introduction to music that is themost unique:DS: Being Scottish, my first introductionwas in a marching pipe band. I startedlearning basic rudiments and patternswhen I was 7 years old. Eventually,when I was 9 or 10, I came off practicepads and was given the great honor anddistinction of trying an actual marchingdrum. At first, of course, I could onlymanage to play bits and pieces. Icouldn't march with the damn thing atthe same time because it was really awk-ward and I was a small fellow. I kept mypipe band interest for many years.

When I was 14 I first started playing inwhat you would call a group. It was sortof a skiffle group type of thing. The drumset was a snare drum and a cymbal. Thatwas it. Eventually I linked up with acouple of other groups and built my kitfrom there. I came to grips with an actualkick drum, tom-tom, and another cym-bal. It was quite a revelation for me,having all these things to hit.

From the ages of 14 to 23 I kept thepipe band thing going and played invarious groups, and that's really where itall started. I'm jumping a lot of yearsnow, but today, when I'm home andwhen it's possible, I still teach the drum-mers in a local marching band. Again,just rudimentary basics, nothing tooclever, but I get a kick out of doing that.It works out quite well.RM: I take it then that you were not self-taught. You had teachers and took les-sons.DS: Oh yeah, I did all that, and enjoyedit. Playing drums always has been a bigthing in my life. I didn't let it interferewith any academic work or anything likethat, but where some guys have sports, Iconcentrated on the drumming.RM: Were good drums available whereyou lived in Scotland?DS: Yes. Premier, of course, is the hap-pening set in England, so it wasn't somuch a case of availability as whether

you could afford them. I picked up sever-al second-hand kits before I actually gotmy first bright, brand-new red-sparkle-finish Premiers, which seemed to cost afortune at the time, but in retrospect, itprobably wasn't a lot of money. Thatwas very exciting.

We always had other drums available.Gretsch were available, but at a muchmore inflated price because of the importduty. When the Beatles took off andRingo was seen to be playing these Lud-wig things, it was like, "We've got to getthese. They must be great." So I playLudwig now. I have for several years.RM: What did you listen to as a teen?DS: A lot of things like Bo Diddley andChuck Berry. I've been involved withNazareth for 15 years, and that was themusic we were doing. For money pur-poses we had to play top-40 hits of theday, but we always interspersed thatwith Americanized type music, a thingwe've always been keen on. We playedanything of the day that was happening,from Beatles and Stones up through Zep-pelin and Purple. For about a 3-yearperiod we did practically nothing butsoul and Stax music, which was great,but I never could quite get that meatysnare drum sound playing live. Duringthe emergence of Black Sabbath ,Spooky Tooth, Jeff Beck, the Yardbirds,and people like that, we were very keen

on playing their tunes, too. That was allsort of what was happening at the time.We were the only band in Scotland actu-ally playing the American things, l ikeBig Brother and the Holding Company,Moby Grape, and all of that. There was a2-hour radio show once a week of Ameri-can music that we tuned-in to, but therewas nothing really major in Scotland thatinfluenced us. London is really whereit's at in the U.K. You have to go thereto hear it, see it, and be a part of it. Isuppose it's like someone coming fromKansas to New York or L.A.RM: I've heard that in the early days, theStones were considered a hip, Londongroup, whereas the Beatles were just alocal band from Liverpool.DS: Absolutely. It was a very local thingthat they heavily played on. They didn'tin any way disguise their Liverpudlianaccents, in fact, they went the other wayand really exaggerated them to a remark-able degree of success.RM: Were there any particular drum-mers that you listened to?DS: A few at the time were pretty good.Shortly after Jeff Beck left the Yard-birds, he had a fabulous band which wasJeff on guitar; Nicky Hopkins on piano;Ron Wood on bass (God knows why heever stopped playing bass, because he'sa hell of a bass player); Rod Stewart onvocals; and on drums, Aynsley Dunbardid some of the sessions and Tony New-man did the others. Both Dunbar andNewman were major factors in my lis-tening at the time. On the more pop sideof things, Bobby Elliott of the Hollieswas a good drummer. I really like someof the things he did.RM: I remember when Aynsley was inthe Mothers. He kicked that group like abig-band drummer.DS: Yeah, he really gets into that sort ofsituation. He has a great feel and his ownkind of technique. I've known Aynsleyfor a number of years and we still corre-spond from time to time, or bang intoeach other in some hotel. It's a nicerelationship.RM: Did you ever listen to any jazzdrummers?DS: There was a drum cl inic in Scotlandgiven by Joe Morello, which impressedme to an unbelievable degree. I wasabsolutely flabbergasted by this guy. Iwas aware of him from "Take Five" bythe Brubeck band, which I thought wasamazing. Actually seeing him doing adrum clinic on his own in a small hall wasquite something. I think even yet, for asgood as Buddy Rich is at what he does, Iprefer Morello.RM: For the most part, the drummersyou admire seem to be those who areknown for their work within groups,rather than those who have built uppersonal reputations.DS: Yes, I th ink so, probably governed

by the fact that it's not really a tremen-dously big deal for Nazareth to have arecognized sensational drummer. I've al-ways gone along the lines that I want tobe the right drummer for the band, be-cause the band is the vehicle I'm inter-ested in, more than in establishing my-self as a recognized drummer who wouldgo out on various projects and do clinicsor whatever.RM: Did you work with anyone elsebefore joining Nazareth?DS: It always has been Nazareth. It's avery tight situation. We've grown uptogether. It's one of those schoolboydreams. Two of the band members start-ed school together at 5 years of age.We've always lived very close to eachother and we s t i l l live within a four mileradius of each other.RM: I understand that the group has hadsome bad luck with managers.DS: We had two managers at first, butone was killed in a plane crash. We

continued with the other manager, butnow he is no longer with us. The man-agement company folded and a lot ofthings went wrong. Thankfully, we wereable to pull ourselves together, ridethrough the storm, and produce the FoolCircle album.RM: The group had been doing so wellfor so long, it must have been a shockwhen things started looking as thoughthey were falling apart.DS: It was a shocking experience for us:a frightening experience; an unbelievableexperience. It's a sore lesson learned,but we're out of i t . We're working, we'rehappy, the band is still tight and closetogether. Really, that is the only way tocome through that type of situation. It'sthe sort of thing you always see happen-ing in the business but th ink, "It willnever happen to us." When it does, it'sreally kind of hard. We're over it and

pushing on. It dented us, but it hasn'tdaunted us.RM: The closeness of the group musthave helped.DS: It was a lovely experience, because Ididn't believe it could become anytighter personally, but it became evidentthen that it could, and it just pulled usmore tightly together.RM: Having been on the road with Naza-reth for so many years, do you find thattoday's audiences want anything differ-ent than the audiences of 10 years ago?DS: It's a hard thing to judge that. Byvirtue of the fact that we're stil l touringand still pulling people in, I suppose wemust be doing something right. First ofall, I think you must give them what theywant to hear. You can only assume that

from the response you get on tours.We've changed our style slightly over

the last two albums, inasmuch as it's notquite so many riffs. We're becoming a lotmore melodic and more thoughtful aboutwhat we're doing. It's a hard question toanswer because we've just started onthis particular tour. We've augmentedthe band from four to six with a key-board player and another guitar player.If this works, I guess we'll know a littlemore about what they want to hear.RM: Has your audience remained thesame, or do the young gradually replacethe old?DS: I think a certain part of our audiencehas certainly grown with us, and yes,there are younger kids there too. I don'tknow if that's just our concerts or if it 's a

general thing with other bands thatyounger people are coming.RM: Nazareth tours all over the world.Do you try to hang out with drummerswherever you go?DS: If it's possible, if there's time, and ifthere's someone who wants to relate andtalk about it.RM: Do you find that drummers in dif-ferent countries have recognizable dif-ferences in style?DS: I think the differences come from thedifferences in the music more than thedifferences in the territorial places.France and Switzerland have got somevery good jazz drummers. Of course, inCentral America you've got some phe-nomenal percussion players and LatinAmerican drummers who, it seems tome, have it in their blood to feel rhythm.So, geographically, I think drummerschange with the music that is local tothem. It sounds a bit s i l ly for a Scotsmanout of a pipe band who's playing Ameri-canized rock and roll to be saying that.RM: In your own case then, how hasyour pipe band background affected yourstyle?DS: Possibly quite a lot, in the sense thatI know basic rudiments and an awful lotmore besides, through the pipe bandstuff I've done. Not all of it is utilized inNazareth, but the knowledge is there toadapt and steal from. A lot of it has hadto go out the window because of a cer-tain direct approach in the music thatwe're doing, which calls on me to be justa bit more fundamental. But it definitelyhas helped me in a way, no question.RM: It must have affected the way youuse your hands.DS: Yes, I think so. That's probably afactor that's still there.RM: Do you use traditional grip foreverything?DS: No, I don't actually. I use traditionalgrip for a few things, but when I 'm withthe band I use reversed left hand grip formost things. It's something I got intovery early when I got my first drum set.RM: Do you feel that it gives you morepower than traditional grip?DS: It certainly gives me more power. Imean, that was the whole reason fordoing it at that particular time. I reallydon't think it holds me back any, it's justa different type of application. I certainlydo have a bit more drive by doing it thatway.RM: Of all the recording you've donewith Nazareth, is there any one albumwhich you feel shows off your drummingto its best advantage?DS: I think Malice in Wonderland. I trieda few new things that seemed to work.Also, Jeff Baxter was the producer ofthat album. It was the first time that theband actually got together with him to doan album. He's a very rhythmic person


CharleyDonnelly'sDrumCentre Story & Photos

by Rich Baccaro

Newington, Connecticut is a neat, orderly, suburban commu-nity, resting relatively unnoticed just south of Hartford. Locat-ed on East Cedar Street of this average American town is aminuscule white storefront with a prominent number "7"painted on it. The sign above the door says "Charlie Donnelly'sDrum Centre." Visually, this is a store where drums are sold,but in a larger sense, it is much more.

With able assistance from his son, Chuck, the shop isoperated by MD Advisory Board member, Charlie Donnclly.This is not your average drum shop: by no means a drum"supermarket." "Charlie's" is a l i t t l e place where drummershang out. The atmosphere is conducive to friendship andpersonalized attention; things which seem to have been lost intoday's retail rat race. With a room full of drummers (thetapping alone is enough to drive you into the aluminum sidingbusiness), the topics of discussion bounce around like ping pongballs, but eventually return to everyone's favorite subject—drums.

At 67, "Father Charles" is no rookie to the drumming game,having been a busy drummer and bandleader for over 35 years.Much of his present expertise was gained through his friendshipwith the late Bill Mather, the noted drum craftsman. In the1930s, Charlie would spend much, if not all, of his spare time atMather's New York shop, learning the trade of drum repairingand customizing.

Repairing and customizing are two examples of the individ-ual, personal attention one can expect upon paying a visit toCharlie Donnelly's Drum Centre. And many drummers travelconsiderable distances to receive that type of service. "Adrummer can come in and spend all the time he wants,"explains Charlie, emphasizing that satisfying a particular desirefor sound or set-up is an essential concern and objective at hisshop. Other services include natural wood shell refinishing,drum recovering and a newly instituted drum appraisal service.

The shop is small, but sometimes big things come in rathersmall packages. New and used drums of all major brands,cymbals, hardware and a complete stock of parts make up thegreater part of the inventory.

The most memorable aspect of a visit to Charlie's shop isviewing the abundance of quality and workmanship found in hisvintage drum collection, which contains items from as far backas 1909!

Like vintage wines in their rack, drums with bygone namessuch as Radio King, Leedy, Leedy & Ludwig and Ludwig &Ludwig grace an entire wall of the shop. Along with thisawesome and beautiful selection of drums is a paradise ofvintage parts as well. If a drummer had a need for Leedy lugs(1930-60), Radio King lugs, throw-offs, tone controls, hoops orcountless other nuts and bolts items, Charlie would logically bethe man to contact. And many drummers do contact him.

Charlie Donnelly's Drum Centre. A friendly meeting placefor drummers.

Almost on a daily basis, calls and letters are received fromevery corner of the United States and Canada, inquiring aboutthe availability of hard to find items. An ever-increasing numberof young players are taking a profound interest in these olderwood drums. This comes as no surprise to Donnelly, who hasalways shied away from "trendy" drum designs. "The wood ismatured and mellowed, and for my money that's the truest,most natural sound." Many well-known players subscribe tothat philosophy, and on occasion one might encounter John"Willie" Wilcox, Ed Soph, Chet McCracken, Keith Knudsen,John Hartman or Bun E. Carlos in the shop, "spending sometime" with Charlie.

Charlie Donnelly is a very young 67; he has no intention ofcurtailing his activities. Retirement is out of the question. Thereare too many shells to be refinished and too many holders to bemounted. He is currently working on marketing a snare drum ofhis own design, which should be available in the near future.

He enjoys his work and the company of his many friends andcustomers. "Being with all those young fellas at the shop iskeeping me young." Amen, Father Charles.

If you're in the neighborhood, look for the li t t le white storewith the big "7" on the front. Stop in and spend some time; thecoffee's good. You'll probably leave knowing a bit more thanwhen you came in.

A B

(A) Two marc fine old drums in the Donnelly collection are a1951 Gretsch-Gladstone (top) and a 15" Ludwig & Ludwig.

(B) Charlie gives tender loving care to a 15" Leedy brass snaredrum in his workshop.

C D

(C) Working with wood lugs—the effects of World War II metalshortages on the drum industry.

(D) Charlie talks vintage drums with a serious collector; onlyone of many inquiries received from all parts of the U.S. andCanada each and every day.

. . . FILLING IN ON DRUMS TONIGHT . . .

Have a problem? A question? Ask MD. Address all questions to:Modern Drummer, c/o It's Questionable, 1000 Clifton Ave.,Clifton, NJ 07013. Questions cannot be answered personally.

Q. Can you give me any information on the Orange hi-hatstand?

J.A.T.Richmond, VA

A. The Orange hi-hat stand has changed names. It is beingmanufactured by the Jacques Capelle Manufacturing Co., andis distributed by Pro-Mark, 10710 Craighead Drive, Houston,Texas, 77025.

Q. How should I contact drum companies about new con-cepts in design and function of drums and drum hardware? Ihave a few inventions that I'd like to exploit .

R.B.San Francisco, CA

A. A keyperson in a major drum company suggested firstgetting good legal help before approaching any drum company.Submitting unpatented ideas is only asking for trouble. Followup your legal counseling with an inquiry us to who you shouldspecifically send your ideas to at the company. Then submityour idea. Be careful of submitting too much too soon. A briefoutline of your ideas should be sufficient to spark interest ifthere is any interest. Also, you might be interested in "How ToGet Your Product On the Market" in the June 1981 issue ofMD.

by Cheech lero

Q. I understand that Steve Gadd is using his own modelYamaha drum stick. Where can I purchase these sticks?

P.S.Muskego, WI

A. Yamaha has informed us that at the present time, theSteve Gadd model sticks are not available in the United States.

Q. Can you give me some information on drummer MauricePurtil l who was with Glenn Mil ler in the Forties? When was heborn? Is he st i l l active?

C.A.San Francisco, CA

A. Mr. Purtill was born in Huntington, N. Y. on May 4, 1916.He died some years ago.

Q. I have heard the gong referred to as an idiophone. Whatexactly does this mean?

L.J.London, England

A. Idiophones are self-vibrating instruments which are madeof naturally resonating materials such as metal, wood or glass.Being among the simplest, yet most primitive of instruments,


Joel Rothmanin London

Walk into any drum shop or musicstore in America and you're sure to findthe book racks crammed with ti t les byJoel Rothman. Since 1959, this quietunassuming teacher has combined a ca-reer of playing and teaching in the NewYork City public schools with his ownprivate practice, and in the process,managed to author an unprecedented 108method books that cover vi r tua l ly everyphase of drum instruction from technicalexercises, to phrasing solos in 7/4 time.

While Rothman the author is known tothousands of teachers and students whohave used his books, Rothman the manhas remained a background figure con-tent to let his books do his ta lking,secure in the knowledge that his role as ateacher and author has been well spent.

Although his books have always soldwell in America, the European markethas been largely untapped, a fact Roth-man characteristically decided to dosomething about himself which accountsfor his current address in the NorthLondon suburb of Hampstead. A seriesof personal and business circumstancespresented him with an opportunity tofinally do the traveling he had never hadtime for.

"My books had sold in Europe foryears but the potential was never fullyrealized. Somebody needed to comeover here, see teachers, make samplecopies available, that kind of thing. Ifigured it would make more of an impactif I came in person. I had never donemuch traveling. Between teaching fulltime in an inner-city school, a full sched-ule of private students in the afternoonsand evenings, gigging on weekends,there was l i t t le room for anything else.Besides, I was married at a very earlyage and had all those responsibilities tocontend with as well."

He otters coffee, searching through apile of manuscript paper, books anddrum sticks for a mug. A new model

practice drum set occupies one corner ofhis London studio, flanked by a pianoused to accompany his more advancedstudents. A filled diary open on a largework table indicates the volume of stu-dents he has established in London.

"Yeah, I've got a lot of students." hesmiles, adjusting the thick black-rimmedglasses that give him a decidedly aca-demic look. "I started visiting Londondrumshops when I first came over. Theyknew my name because of the books soit was quite easy to establish a privatepractice. London is one of the largestcities in the world but curiously enough,there are rela t ively few qualified teach-ers."

Even a brief conversation reveals theman behind all those books is nothingshort of a dedicated teacher. Rothmanbegan teaching privately at the age ofsixteen. Like many teachers, he foundthat except for the traditional methodbooks, there was l i t t l e material availableto reflect the changing music scene.Characteristically, he began to write hisown.

"A student would come in with aparticular problem, left hand coordina-tion, whatever. Like any teacher, I be-gan to write out specific things to workon that problem. Well, before long, I hada couple of manuscript books full ofideas and exercises so I decided to tryand publish something. There wasn'tmuch interest and I soon realized if any-thing was going to come of it, I'd have todo it myself."

At nineteen, Rothman contacted asubsidy publisher, raised $500 and print-ed 3,000 copies of Phrasing Drum Solos,a unique book at the time which dealtwith superimposing odd rhythms overthe basic four-four pulse. He contactedother teachers around the country andeventually sent out 1,700 sample copieshoping the rest would take care of them-selves.

by Bill Moody"Most teachers already have their

own material or use books they weretaught from, so the only way to makeyour books known is to get them in thehands of other teachers and hope theywill incorporate them into their ownteaching."

The system has worked well for Roth-man as hundreds of thousands of copiesof his books have been sold. His firstbook was followed by Swinging in 3/4Time and Reading Can Be Odd, bothefforts to familiarize the drummer withthe mysteries of odd time signatures."For the next ten years, I just seemed tohave many ideas that came on one afterthe other. At one time I had 129 items oncatalogue but I guess if you count theones that were eventually dropped, 108is about right. But don't forget, this wasover a twenty year period so it's reallynot as much as it seems."

The move to London took Rothmanby surprise as much as anyone. "Timingis everything you know. My fifteen yearswith the school system was up so I couldleave with my pension intact. The leaseon my apartment was coming up forrenewal, so there was really nothing tohold me in New York."

His first stop was EMI publishing inLondon. "They were already familiarwith the books and they offered to takeover the distribution for England and allof Europe immediately, leaving me witha lot of free time. I was very taken withLondon so I decided to settle down forawhile and just see how I liked it. Thatwas almost three years ago."

Never one to remain idle, Rothmanplunged into the local scene and quicklyestablished a private teaching practice.But writing so many books can workagainst you, especially if you don't havea playing reputation. Rothman is wellaware of this criticism but resigned to it.

"I understand the psychology. Peoplethink if someone is a drum book author it


Teacher's Forum continued from page 36follows that he must be a great player aswell but this doesn't necessarily follow.Writing as much material as I have hasgone against me to a certain degree,although the books represent a total sys-tem of drum instruction. The problem isnobody has really heard me play exceptthe musicians I worked with in NewYork. I 'm known only through thebooks. I suppose they would sell better ifmy name was Bil ly Cobham or BuddyRich.

"Look," he explains patiently, "Iknew early on that my thing was going tobe teaching and writing. Sure I workedaround New York, club dates, week-ends, that kind of thing. But I neverwanted to go on the road. I couldn't. Ihad too many responsibilities at home.In the summers I worked the Catskills,usually at the Concord Hotel. The pointis. having a name as a player has nobearing on the value of the books. Takesomebody like Beethoven. He was pri-marily a composer, writ ing incrediblethings. Bass lines that nobody thoughtwere possible to play. But through prac-ticing and working out the parts, thefacility was expanded and in the end,everyone was a better overall player as aresult."

With his own methods in privateteaching, Rothman has very definiteideas, based on twenty years experiencedealing with students in the publicschools and his own private practice."There's a definite art to teaching. Ihave the utmost respect for primaryteachers. That's where it's really diffi-cult. A kid comes to school and doesn'teven know how to hold a pencil, muchless write, and you have to teach himfrom the ground up. It 's the same withdrums. You have to have a step by stepdevelopmental process that covers thebasics to advanced level. I've been toseveral teachers myself who were wellknown but really had no concept of anorganized system. Without that you havenothing."

Although often approached about do-ing clinics, Rothman has so far shiedaway preferring to stick with what heknows best. "I tend to be self consciousin front of large groups and besides thereare plenty of people around who do fineclinics. Roy Burns, Louie Bellson andBilly Cobham are excellent, virtuosoplayers and that's really what peoplecome to see at clinics. I don't know that Icould do anything that would be anymore beneficial than the people alreadydoing clinics."

Rothman also believes there is far toomuch emphasis on the visual aspect ofdrumming and technique for technique'ssake. "If I were to do a clinic and wasintroduced as the guy who's written 108drums books, well, they'd expect Super-man! When I worked the Catskills, there

was a club everybody used to hang out atand play on their off night. Everyone elsewould come in to listen to the band butyou'd have a group of drummers gath-ered near the stage staring at the drum-mer. Drummers go to see other drum-mers rather than to listen to music. Isuppose it's natural though. Just the na-ture of the instrument. It doesn't developyour ear. A drummer is in i t i a l l y con-cerned with rhythm and a lot of drum-mers never get beyond that . What does asingle stroke roll have to do with mu-sic?"

To prove his point, Rothman cites oneof the best of the big-band drummers,Mel Lewis. "When you look around atthe working drummers who are not tech-nical wizards, Mel is a good example. Hehas a wonderful sound, tunes his drumsbeautifully, fits in with the band, and hasgreat, swinging time. What more couldyou want?"

The other side of the argument is thatthe more technical facility you have, themore ideas you can express. Rothmanagrees but cites complete control ofhands and feet as the key. "When you'replaying solos or fil ls , that's only aboutten per-cent of the total picture. The restof the time you play with the band whichmeans keeping time. So if you ask whatis the single most important factor for adrummer, it has to be complete indepen-dence. Even without a lot of techniqueyou can st i l l swing."

Swing. Without it the drummer is amere mechanical man. But what do youdo if you're a teacher with a student whoobviously doesn't have natural feel fortime? Can it be taught? Rothman's an-swer is emphatically, yes.

"Of course, if you grow up in anatmosphere of jazz or any music youdevelop a feel naturally. But if a studentdoesn't have it at say, 12 or 13, with afew years of concentrated listening, itcan certainly be developed. I've hadstudents where it seemed best to say,'give it up.'

"What's happened today, of course, isthat a lot of students have a teriffic feelfor rock but l i t t le for jazz. The jazzplayers, or people exposed to jazz earlyon, are luckier because it's much easierto move from jazz to rock because of theLatin influence in a lot of jazz. Thestraight eighth feel is not that foreign.But going the other way. from rock tojazz, is a problem for most kids. I alwaystell my students. There are two fields,jazz and rock. The two are so integratednow you have to be able to do both.' "

Rothman plans, for the moment, toremain in London, concentrate on teach-ing and yes, there will be more books. "Ihave a new line coming out next year.I'm enjoying it here and you just don'twalk away from something you like."

Chapin continued from page 26and high standards that he applies toanything he does. Developing this atti-tude is one of the things Jim feels strong-ly about, and this was made evident ashe discussed his career.

"A lot of my career has been verystrange because I've been away from thejazz scene a lot. I have a lot of childrenand I had to make a l iving so my familywouldn't starve. The job at the HickoryHouse with Flip was sort of a jazz job. I twas really a commercial job, but we hada couple of good jazz players. Then I wasdrafted. When I got out. I worked in theVillage, and with big-bands at Roselandand at the Arcadia ballroom. In late '46 Iwent out on the road with the Casa LomaOrchestra, which was s t i l l relativelyprestigious at the t ime. Then I came backto New York for awhile. In '48, I went toAtlanta. That was when I probably didthe best jazz playing in my life. I felt Iwas on the crest of the wave at that timebecause I could do all of these things thatnobody else could do. The rhythm sec-tion was very good. The bass player wasRed Wooten, and he was as good asanybody I've ever played with.

"I've always done a lot of dance jobs,often with fairly good players. I don'tmind playing those. If you play it well,and lay it down with a purpose, and youknow what you're doing, any kind ofmusic can come out well. If you are ajazz player, and you are playing a com-

mercial job with 'long teeth' [a sneer]don't play! Don't take a job that youdon't want to do and then look sour.Stay away from it. I found that outmyself. Around '41, I was bugged withthe rhythm section I was working with atthe time, so I was not giving it my bestshot. The leader said. 'What are youdoing, Jim?' I thought about i t . Whatwas I doing? I was playing as though Iwas disassociating myself from the band.Was I a critic up there or a participant? IfI'm a participant, then let's try to make itas good as possible. I've felt that wayever since and it 's helped me with situa-tions that I probably shouldn't have got-ten into. But I had to make money andstay in one place because of my family.I've played with some people that wereincredibly bad, just as I've played withsome that are incredibly good.

"Playing dance jobs are good in a way,it is a kind of discipline, but you can'tplay jazz unless you play jazz. Thankful-ly, I've been playing a l i t t le jazz for thelast four years, and I 'm getting a l i t t l ebetter again. Actually, my playing isbetter now than it's ever been. It's a l i t t l efreer. I organized a l i t t l e jazz band to docollege dates and things l ike that. We'recalled the Jazz Tree, and we play every-thing from New Orleans street marchesto avant-grade. We also do a lot of thingsin the schools. We'll do a 45-50 minuteshow where we explain and play varioustypes of jazz. I often use the audience as

a brass section, having them sing riffsover our rhythm section. It sounds ridic-ulous but it really works. They really getinto it. We don't play very much rockbecause you can make an easy scorewith that. 'Oh yeah, those old guys areplaying rock. Oh boy!' I te l l them, 'Youhear rock everyday. We're playingsomething you don't hear tha t much. 'I'm also involved with a big-band. A guynamed Pat DeRosa has a book for twelveor thirteen men, and on Wednesdaynights we go down to the AmericanLegion and rehearse. There are somelocal music teachers there who are verygood, and a couple of full-t ime profes-sional musicians."

Chapin spends most of his time play-ing, yet it is as a teacher, author andclinician that he ix best known. His manyyears in the business have given him theopportunity to observe and analyze thevarious styles of playing that have beenin vogue from time to time. Always astudent of drums himself. Jim has keptabreast of current trends, and is able tohelp students gain an overall view of howdrumming has developed historically. Asan example. Jim spoke about the use ofthe bass drum during the big-band era.

"In the old days, there were a lot ofdrummers who didn't have any feet.They didn't have the power or the sub-tlety to do many things that guys dotoday. In fact, Buddy and Louie were


"Playing Rock MusicIs Not Dumb"

The following material is similar to the Rock Perspectivescolumn regarding Swiss Army Triplets (July 1981). It's differentenough to present additional technical challenges. These partic-

Let's begin with a triplet figure involving the H.H..S.D. andB.D.

H.H.S.D.

B.D.

Now convert this to sixteenth notes which will produce athree-bar cycle.

by David Garibaldiular exercises can be of special benefit to the right foot (bassdrum) because of the combining of accented and unaccentednotes.

H.H.S.D.

B.D.

As you play this, count aloud: le&a, 2e&a, 3e&a, 4e&a . . .count aloud until you can comfortably "watch" the bars of 4/4go by.

The three-bar cycle can be done in the following ways. Writeout the complete three-bar cycle yourself.

1. Accent each quarter note:

2. Accent the "and" of each beat:

etc.

etc.

3. Accent the "e" of each beat:

4. Accent the "a" of each beat:

etc.

etc.

5. Accent the eighth notes of each beat:

6. Accent the "e" and the "a" of each beat:

etc.

etc.

played as accents and any sixteenth note rhythm will work.Here's what it would look like:

Now go through Louie Bellson'.s Modern Reading Text in 4/4pp. 26-46 and also Louie Bellson's Odd Time Reading Text pp.16-28 while playing this three-bar cycle. The written notes are

H.H.

S.D.B.D.

Try these two variations: First, substitute L.F./H.H. forR.F./B.D. Then R.F./B.D. plays quarter notes. Then moveR.H. to bell of cymbal. Keeping the R.H. on the H.H. isinteresting also because it gives you three distinct H.H. sounds:Secondly, substitute L.F./H.H. for R.F./B.D. on unaccentednotes only.

Helpful Hint Dept.Count aloud while playing the exercises. This will coordinate

your hands, feet and head. As the written notes go by—accentthem.

Exaggerate all accented and unaccented notes. Play accentednotes loudly. Play unaccented notes very softly. This willimprove touch and dynamic contrast within the hand/footpatterns. To do this smoothly you must relax your legs.

Begin slowly. This is a must! Once the concept is mastered,try faster tempos.

Miking YourDrums—Some Pros and Cons

by Rick Van Horn

When it comes to drum sound andprojection. I'm basically a traditionalist.Consequently, my feelings about mikingin a club situation are mixed. I don'tparticularly like miking, unless the bandis incredibly loud or the room extremelylarge. I prefer to have the drums tuned toachieve the projection necessary to carryon their own. If it takes a li t t le moreeffort on the drummer's part to "layinto" the drums, then so be it. I prefer toretain total control over my sound. Inthis way, I can tune my drums for theaudience's ears, and not for the charac-teristics of the microphones or the idio-syncracies of the sound board. I tend tothink some drummers rely on miking toovercome deficiencies in their tech-nique, such as lack of power on the bassdrum or a weak left hand. I do believemiking is valuable when the situationwarrants. For instance, if the band is soloud that you're forced to abandon alltechnique and simply assault the drumsin order to achieve adequate volumeunless you're miked, then miking is indi-cated.

Unless your band employs a truesound reinforcement system, capable ofhandling the wide frequency range of adrum set (as opposed to a P. A. designedjust for vocals), the drums are morelikely to sound tinny or distorted thanfavorably enhanced. On the other hand,if your equipment includes fairly largespeaker cabinets with good bass re-sponse, as well as mid to high-frequencyhorns for the cymbals, then your drumshave a good chance through the system.But you should be aware that mikinggives an inescapable electronic sound todrums, no matter how good the equip-ment. It's simply because speaker conesand drums are made of two differentmaterials, and an electronically inducedsound does not equate to the impact of adrumstick on a head. You sacrifice a

certain natural quality in order to gainamplification.

Another important factor is whether ornot you have a sound man to handle themix. There's just no way to get an accu-rate idea of how the drums sound outfront when you're listening from behindthe set. I don't care how good yourmonitors are, they are not identical ei-ther in projection or fidelity, to the mainsystem. That's why I question the ad-vantage of the new self-mix systemswhich supposedly give the drummer con-trol over his mix and then only use oneP.A. channel. The drummer isn't sittingin the audience, so how can he mix hissound for their ears?

In addition to the technical consider-ations, the added expense of micro-phones and mounting hardware must bea factor when contemplating miking.Quality mic's run $75.00 to $150.00 ormore. When you talk about three to fivemic's for the average set, plus cables andstands, you could be approaching theoriginal cost of your set!

Given an unquestionable need for am-plifying the drums plus a super-qualitysystem to reproduce them faithfully anda sound man with golden ears to operateit, we can now start to discuss the howsof miking the drums in a club situation.

I mic my bass drum, but not for vol-ume. My band uses rather small speakercabinets in our P.A. system, but lots ofthem. We try to cover the entire roomwith speaker placement, rather thanhave a couple of monster cabinets onstage throwing all the sound from thatpoint. We mic the bass drum very slight-ly just to make sure the fundamental beatgets to all points of the room. In this caseit's a very subliminal thing. The onlyother thing on my set that's miked is myset of wind chimes. Again, that's just forcoverage, since you can only get somuch projection out of wind chimes, no

matter how you play them.As for the rest of my set, I tune it for

maximum projection, (fairly tight topheads, with bottom heads all around forresonance). I get a lit t le help from thevocal mic's on the stands in front of me,as well as my own. This combinationserves me just fine, and believe me we'renot the softest band around. But if youdecide you need to mike your entire set,here are some suggestions:

Overhead miking is good for a generalsound, although it does tend to get morecymbals than anything else simply be-cause the cymbals are closer to themic's. Some equalization at the boardcan help to correct this. The drumsaren't individually isolated, but will gen-erally reach the mic's sufficiently, andyou get the advantage of miking the totalsound of the set automatically, withouthaving to balance a dozen individualmic's. Another advantage is that themic's are hearing the drums from thesame point you are, so you can count onthe tuning that you hear reaching theaudience faithfully. This is the best wayto mike if you have no sound man or alimited number of P.A. channels to workwith. I think it's the best system for clubwork altogether because it comes theclosest to a natural drum sound. BuddyRich uses two overheads and one bassdrum mic, and cuts through his high-energy big-band just fine.

As far as individually miking thedrums, I'd go for it only if the soundsystem had enough channels to ade-quately serve the whole set; the mic'sand speaker system had the fidelity toaccurately reproduce the sound range ofthe set; and the system was run by aqualified technician who was in a posi-tion in the room to accurately evaluateand adjust the drum mix. It's also impor-tant that the sound man and the drummerhave a good rapport and agree on what

the proper sound is composed of, takinginto account tone, projection, overallbalance of the set and balance of thedrums within the total sound of the band.

Placement of the bass drum mic iscritical. If you have it an inch or lessfrom the point of beater impact, as I'veseen some drummers do, then all you'remiking is the sound of that impact—usually a very plastic slap. Additionally,if your mic is on the pedal side of thebass drum head, you'll often pick upnoises from the bass drum pedal. If thatslap is the sound you want, then it's fine.But you don't get the advantage of thedepth and resonance afforded by thedrum shell. If you back the mic out a bit,roughly half the depth of the shell andslightly off-center in relation to the pointof beater impact, you're l ikely to get lessslap and more deep thud. Without a fronthead, or with a properly muffled two-headed drum, you shouldn't be in dangerof too much ring. You'll certainly getmore bass from your bass drum. I mikemy bass by suspending a mic upsidedown and pointed at the floor, an inch orso in front of the front head and just off-center. I muffle the drum with a small butheavy pillow, and I like the combinationof natural depth and projection alongwith the slight amplification I achievethat way.

To my mind, floor toms are the hard-est drums to mike. They approach thebass drum in depth, and are very boomy.I've never seen anyone take the bottomheads off floor toms. You can choosebetween either miking the top head,where you get more impact and lessdepth, or miking the bottom head, whereyou get no impact but lots of depth andboomy ring. Some drummers I knowhave experimented with mic's mountedinside the drums between the heads.Without someone on the sound board tojudge the tonality and resonance, I'd saythis would be more trouble than it wasworth. Personally, I just tune my floortoms very live with lots of resonance,rather than muffled or deadened. Andthen I work hard on them. It's importantto keep your sticking fairly clean andsimple on floor toms, as rolls and quicksticking patterns tend to mush togetherin the depth of the sound.

In conclusion, I would advise you toseriously consider the need first, and ifmiking is essential, then consider themethod and obtain all the technical infor-mation you possibly can. Put together asystem best suited to your economic andmusical situation, and try to use a meth-od that retains as much of the naturalquality of your drums as possible.You're a live performer, and the wholeidea is to sound live. You don't want tosound pre-recorded. Your audience canstay home and hear that sound in stereo.

Aldridge continued from page 17resignation. Everybody still thinks I'mplaying with Pat.SF: Mike Shrieve was involved with per-cussion work on some of Travers' mate-rial. Are you pretty close with Mike?TA: Yeah. Mike's a nice guy. I wasn'tthere when he recorded the percussion.Pat tried to get Mike to play drums onthe new album. Half of the tunes on thealbum are stuff that I played on when wewere doing Crush and Burn. Shrievecouldn't do it because he's involved withhis own band up there in New York.SF: It doesn't seem like there's too manymusicians who want to take the time andeffort anymore to put a band together.TA: Because it's hard and it's a longterm investment. At the same time,that's what most of the record compa-nies want these days. Not solo artists.There's a lot more longevity in a bandsituation. Looking at it from a recordcompany's point of view, if a solo artisthas problems, the band can't go on,because it 's him! If that happened withThe Doobie Brothers, if Mike McDonaldmesses up, it's still The Doobie Brothers.The band can go on. Cheap Trick lostone of the members. That was a bandthat really didn't enjoy the format ofbeing able to change personnel, becauseit was a real personality oriented band.But, a real honest-to-goodness band, likeThe Marshall Tucker Band—they lostone of their guys and they were able togo on.SF: What if it's a band where one mem-ber is primarily the songwriter?TA: That's where depending on the othermembers comes in. Sting writes most ofthe songs for The Police and he sings,but he's really dependant on StewartCopeland and Andy Summers. Thewhole is bigger than the parts. Who elsecould do what Stewart Copeland's do-ing? The same with Andy Summers.Even though he's not a real virtuoso onguitar, his character and personality areunique. How could they replace him? Iwas amazed that The Who even tried toreplace Keith Moon. I admire KennyJones' audacity. Kenny is probably abetter drummer technically than Keith.But Keith Moon was a pioneer, likeBonham was a pioneer. John Bonhamwas a technician, but that 's not why hewas so acclaimed. It was because of hisway of thinking and the parts that hecame up with. Mitch Mitchell and JohnBonham played things I had never heardbefore. You always wondered wherethey'd been, and where they'd heard thatstuff.SF: How did you develop your tech-nique?TA: Just playing. I've always played alot.SF: You never sit down and practiceanything?

TA: No. I did very l i t t le individual prac-tice because I played so much. It's easyfor me to stay in practice with myself,one foot against the other. I think themost important practice for a drummer isthe interaction with the rhythm track.It's hard to practice that on your own.SF: Do you read music?TA: No.SF: How did you get started on doublebass drums?TA: The first person I ever saw with adouble bass drum kit was a jazz big-banddrummer over in England. He was on theback of a Premier drum catalog. I used tostudy drum catalogs l ike Physics books.Just like a baseball fan who collectscatalogs and baseball hats. I was a realconnoisseur. I used to spend everythingI had on drums. Instead of having a hotrod or a motorcycle I had drums. Iborrowed a bass drum from a friend ofmine. He had two and he only used one.I borrowed the other and started messingaround. I saw Louie Bellson once on TVbut he didn't play anything. I said,"Wow, that sure looks cool. You couldprobably do some cool stuff with twobass drums." I'd just work up beats orfills that I'd done with one bass drum,and if I was sitting behind a drumset Icould show you how you could use twobass drums to play the same figure youwould play with one. But you can doubleup on it. Use them independently andthen counter them. Nobody really playstwo bass drums today, and that's what Iwanted to do. It was frustrating at firstbecause there wasn't anywhere to go forpointers. There wasn't anything to hearon a record other than solo stuff thatGinger Baker did years and years ago.But he was just doing the same thing thateverybody is today, just two hand beatsrather than getting into multiples. Sothat's what I was shooting for. I alwaysmaintain that the hardest thing for me tolearn was keeping balanced on the stool,while doing things with my hands on themounted tom-toms. You normally havethe hi-hat there to plant your foot on.That was the hardest thing for me tolearn. I get asked that question a lot. Thehardest thing for me was to retain afluidity without keeping either foot plant-ed.SF: Are you meticulous about tuningyour drums?TA: Yeah. Not so much in terms ofnotes. I like for my toms to be tuned thesame way everytime I play them for thesake of dampening mostly. I tune mydrums to a note but I'm not fanaticalabout maintaining a specific note. It cango down or up as long as all the drums doit together. I don't like to use any muf-flers on the drums. That's why I useHydraulic heads. I tune them up to thatnote and then I'll go up or down around


CLYDE LUCAS—PositiveLight. Three C's Co. C-100.Clyde Lucas: drums. JohnDaley & Lynn Milano: bass;George Grannum: piano; Jim-my Tyler: alto sax; BobLaughlin & Jon Fields: guitar.Take Five/ P. F. Shuffle/ BA-tom Boogie/ Jitterbug Waltz/Don't Stop The Carnival /Stardust/ J. R. Merger/ Road-block. Mr. Lucas, inventor ofThe Amazing BAtom, utilizesit throughout this nice mixtureof jazz and rock tunes.

GARY BURTON QUAR-TET— Easy Ax Pie. ECM I-1184. Gary Burton: vibraharp:Jim Odgren: alto sax; SteveSwallow: bass; Mike Hyman:drums. Reactionary Tango/Tweek/ Blame It On MyYouth/ Summer Band Camp/Isfahan/ Stardancer. Saxo-phone adds a nice new twist tothe Burton Quartet. Hymanprovides some tasty drum-ming.

DAVID MOSS— Terrain.Cornpride 007. David Moss:voice, drums, cymbals,gongs, triangles, bells, bicyclehorns, f lexi tones , t empleblocks, steel drums, pot cov-ers, plastic, pods, whoopers,ratchets, metal pieces, corru-gahorn, Chinese zither, ham-mer dulcimer, singing tubes,tympani, koriko, rocks, wa-ter, wood, toys, Bertoiasound sculptures. Terrain 1-7/Phrase/ Talk/ Tongue/ Niche.Explores a wide-range of per-cussive possibilities.

ANDREW CYRILLE— TheLoop. Ictus 0009. AndrewCyrille: drumset, percussion.Excerpt From Spencyrspell/5000 B.C./ Some Sun/ TheLoop/ The News/ ClassicalRetention. A solo percussiontour-de-force.

PETER MAGADINI—Poly-rhythm. Listening House Mu-sic LSR-91001. Peter Maga-dini: Leader, drums, percus-sion; George Duke: piano.Rhodes, Mini moog, ARPString Ensemble; Don Menza:tenor and soprano sax, flute,piccolo; Dave Young: bass.Doin' Time And A Half/ FiveFor Barbara/ Midnight Bole-ro/ The Modulator/ Seventy-Fourth Ave./ Samba de Rol-l i n s . Nice study in poly-rhythms by Mr. Magadini andfriends.

JOE ENGLISH—Lights Inthe World. Refuge R3746. JoeEnglish: drums and lead vo-cals; Shane Keister: Prophet5; Alan Steinberger: Micro-moog; John Rosasco: Prophet5, keyboards; Larry Paxton:bass; George Cocchini: guitar;Brent Rowan: guitar; DavePerkins: guitar; Kenny Mims:guitar; Phil McHugh: acousticguitar; Terry McMillan: per-cussion; Russell Tatt, BonnieBramlett, Donna McElroy,Vicki Hampton: backgroundvocals. To Love Is To Live/Shine On/ Dyin'/ Is There NotOne Good Man/ Midnight An-gel Choir/ Get Ready/ Is TheKing Your Friend/ The Lord

Never Leaves/ Praise Him/Keep In Touch. An all-aroundfantastic lp from Joe English,former drummer with PaulMcCartney and Sea Level.

PHIL COLLINS—FaceValue. Atlantic SD 16029. PhilCollins: Roland drum ma-chine, vocals, drums, Proph-et, Rhodes, Vocoder, percus-sion, piano, congas, claps,marimba; John Giblin: bass;Alphonso Johnson: bass;Daryl Steurmer: guitar, 12-string guitar; Eric Clapton:guitar; Shankar: violins, tam-boura, voice drums; StephenBishop: backing vocals; DonMyrick: tenor and alto sax;Louis Satterfield: trombone;Ronnie Scott: tenor sax;Rahmlee Michae l Davis:t rumpet ; Michael Harris:trumpet; Joe Partridge: slidegui tar ; Peter Robinson:Prophet; Earth, Wind andFire horn section. In The AirTonight/ This Must Be Love/Behind The Lines/ The RoofIs Leaking/ Droned/ Hand InHand/ I Missed Again/ YouKnow What I Mean/ Thunderand Lightning/ I'm Not Mov-ing/ If Leaving Me Is Easy/Tomorrow Never Knows.One of the best albums of the'80s.

IDRIS MUHAMMAD—Ka-basha. Theresa TR-110. IdrisMuhammad: d rums ; RayDrummond: bass; GeorgeColeman: tenor sax; PharaohSanders: tenor sax. GCCGBlues/ Soulful Drums/ St. M/

Kabsha/ I Want To TalkAbout You/ L i t t l e Feet.Straight-ahead swinging triosand quartets. Great!

ROGER TAYLOR—Fun InSpace. Elektra 5E-522. RogerTaylor: Instruments and vo-cals; David Richards: "Ap-prox. 50% of keyboards." NoViolins/ Laugh Or Cry/ FutureManagement/ Let's Get Cra-zy/ My Country I & II/ GoodTimes Are Now/ Magic IsLoose/ Interlude In Constanti-nople/ Airheads / Fun InSpace. First solo album byQueen's drummer.

DANNIE RICHMOND—Dannie Richmond Quintet.Gatemouth 1004. DannieRichmond: drums; Jack Wal-rath: trumpet and fluegelhorn:Bob Neloms: piano; RickyFord: tenor and soprano sax:Cameron Brown: bass. Cum-bia and Jazz Fusion/ Feel NoEvil / April Denise/ SevenWords. Brand new albumfrom one of the best jazzdrummers ever!

JACK DEJOHNETTE'SSPECIAL EDITION— TinCan Alley. ECM 1-1189. JackDeJohnette: drums, percus-sion, piano, organ; ChicoFreeman: woodwinds; JohnPurcell: flute, saxophones;Peter Warren: bass, cello. TinCan Alley/ Pastel Rhapsody/RiffRaff/ The Gri Gri Man/ Iknow. A most inventive,swinging, and far-reachinggroup of premier musicians.

Aldridge continued from page 48the note on the first drum until I finallyget the desired dampening effect. Youcan affect the resonance of the head byhow tight or how loose you have it.That's primarily what I go by. But Ialways keep the four toms in tune withone another.SF: How do you tune your bass drums?TA: I try to get them to sound alike.Otherwise you get a weird inflection. It 'slike playing a single stroke roll on twoseparate toms instead of one. It soundskind of weird. I want it to be morepresent. I really found that's importantin the studio with the bass drums. I cannever get two bass drums to sound ex-actly alike, but I like to get them as closeas possible.SF: Do you depend a lot on mic's forprojection of your drums?TA: They use mic's for the sake of theoutside P. A. As far as playing an acous-tic instrument and dealing with the soundlevel onstage, I have a monitor behind

me and I just get a lit t le bit of drums inthere. I play pretty hard and I use apretty big stick, so very seldom do I haveproblems hearing myself. Also, I ' l l sitfarther back behind the amp line thanmost guys do. That way I don't get thespill from the speakers. I can hear myselfeasier. I don't like to depend on moni-tors. You can't depend on them. Ifyou're in the middle of a tune, especiallyif you're a special guest, or the openingact—you seldom, if ever, get a soundcheck. I like to be able to depend on thetrue sound of the drum rather than de-pending on a monitor system.SF: Do you see your role changing fromband to band as far as the way you play?TA: No. I'd treat a riff with Travers thesame way I would treat a riff with GaryMoore. It's just that Gary will come upwith a different riff than Travers will . Ihaven't been asked to modify the way Iplay.SF: Do you feel that your role as adrummer is a supportive one?TA: I didn't with Travers. I mean, I wastrying to support the band. If it's a trueband, that should be everyone's goal. Ihaven't had much problem supportingmyself. In the case of Travers, our endwas for the overall good of the bandrather than for ourselves as individuals. Inever demanded that I do a drum solo.SF: You don't get bent out of shape ifyou're not given a solo during a show?TA: Oh no. Not at all. Sometimes I'vebeen asked to do them more times thanI've wanted to. I want a band format.That's what I really want. So I don'thave to deal with the word "support."But I guess support is the drummer'srole whether it be in a band format or justa hired gun format.SF: Are you aware of the song structureduring your drum solos?TA: I ' l l use a skeletal structure for thesake of timing and for the sake of thelight guy. I try to establish a basic out-line. But for each tour, whichever song Iwork a solo up for, I 'll vary it. It's neverexactly the same.SF: If, for example, you were playing a32 bar song, would you structure yoursolo to come out at the end of 32 bars?TA: No. I could but I haven't ever hadto. I'd lose count anyway! I hate to countwhen I'm playing. I'd much rather justswing my head around and show off'.Make people think I know what I'mdoing. That's where the old showman-ship stuff comes in. You can convince alot of people that you're God's gift todrumsticks if you look like you knowwhat you're doing.SF: Are you aware of showmanship on-stage?TA: I had drumsticks before I haddrums, and I could twirl them before Icould play anything with them. But Inever consciously relied on showman-


ship at all. I was accused of that in myearlier days. I quit doing it for a longtime. All my friends would say, "Hecan't play. He's just a big showoff." Butpeople enjoy showmanship and I enjoyit. Even in the studio I do it subcon-sciously because I've been doing it for solong. I think people should look likethey're trying to sound. I didn't say looklike they sound, but look l ike they'retrying to sound. Kids enjoy that. Other-wise they just stay home and listen torecords all the time. If I can play some-thing of substance and give them some-thing of substance to look at, that justmakes it that much better. And if youcan burn incense to entertain their olfac-tory nerves, then do that.SF: Which band member do you listen tothe most onstage?TA: First, the bass. With Travers, Markand I would sometimes go into the stu-dio, once we had our parts down, andrehearse our parts together. Onstage Ilisten to all the music.SF: When you're onstage do you useanything to protect your ears?TA: It's not really that loud onstage.Sometimes at soundchecks I'd measurethe decibel level and the highest level Igot on my drum riser, behind the ampline, was 91 decibels, which is not thatdamaging. Most of the time it wouldaverage high to mid 80s db level on thedrum riser. If you went right out front onthe middle of the stage in front of all the

Aldridge continued from page 53 amps it increases to 110 or 115 db. I triedear plugs once, but there was no way Icould use them.SF: How does the volume of the banddiffer from clubs to a place like MadisonSquare Garden? I see a lot of youngbands that feel they have to crank up thevolume regardless of the size of the roomthey're in.TA: I adjust my volume. But those littleplaces are harder to play becausethey've got low ceilings. Any sound thatyou make comes down and slaps theheck out of the top of your head. It'seasier for me to play larger venues. Imean, that's why it's so hard for a barband to get any kind of a record deal.Every band that plays in a bar soundslike a bar band. If you put Led Zeppelinin a bar, they're going to sound like a barband! To me, those were the hardestvenues in the world to get across in.They all sound so atrocious and every-thing is just so stark. There's not a wholelot of acoustic gratification in thoseplaces. Good acoustics, rather than thesize of the venue, determine what vol-ume level you play at. With Travers wewould always try to compensate for theacoustic characteristics of the room,rather than trying to compensate for thesize.SF: Do you get involved with clinics orteaching?TA: I was doing a few clinics with Sonor.I should be doing a lot more. I enjoy


It's Questionable continued from page 34they include sticks, clappers, castanets, cymbals, gongs, etc.Idiophones are usually played by striking together, shaking orby rubbing and scraping. A membranophone is a membrane, orskin stretched across a frame or vessel made of wood, metal, orearthenware. The term "phone" refers to the sound, and ofcourse the drum is a membranophone.

Q. I play the cymbals in my school band, and I recently hadto play a piece in 4/4 that had a whole note with a tie. Am Icorrect in assuming that the cymbal crash is sustained for fourbeats?

D.S.Lynwood, Ca.

A. A whole note with a tie indicates that the note shouldsound until it becomes inaudible. If your part contained only awhole note, you then would have been correct in assuming thecymbal crash sustains for four beats.

Q. My band is going to make a demo tape. Naturally, we areconcerned with saving money. The studio manager offered usdegaussed tape at half the price of regular tape. But I've beentold that my drums will not sound as clear. Is there a bigdifference?

J.C.Bronx, N.Y.

A. Degaussed tape is tape which has been erased. If you areserious about your demo. I would not recommend shopping fora bargain on degaussed tape. With second generation tape, yourun the risk of having old recordings bleed through on yourtracks. I would suggest the use of high quality first generationtape, and consider saving money in other areas.


Musical Developmentby David Samuels

There are a number of different ways of practicing that canhelp your playing and musical development. Sometimes we losesight of why we are practicing. We end up repeating an exerciseor phrase over and over again, until we're just going through themotions, not concentrating and not benefitting from what we'repracticing. Part of this problem is because we separate the'what' of practicing from the 'why.' What we practice is simplya process, playing scales for example. Why we are practicing isnot just to develop the abil i ty to play scales. It 's also for theability to understand and play scales in a musical way. Many ofthe books available today contain an endless number of pat-terned exercises that don't necessarily help you to expandmusically. They promote a kind of mindless repetition thatmakes application to a musical setting difficult. This kind ofpracticing separates you from the musical process. Here aresome suggestions on how to help you connect the 'what' andthe 'why' of practicing.

One valuable approach that you can start immediately isrecording at least part of each of your practice sessions. Thiswill help you start listening to what you play with a more criticalear so that you can make improvements and learn to appreciateyour strong points. Recording also adds a certain amount ofrealism to your practicing. It's more like a performance. All thepracticing in the world won't do you any good if you can'tcommunicate your ideas musically. The tape recorder is thebest means for listening to haw and what you're communicatingthrough your instrument.

Another valuable tool is to analyze what you're practicing.There is nothing more disconnected from the musical processthan playing a piece without knowing what you're playing.Memorizing a series of notes on a page and playing them ispurely a mechanical process. It doesn't allow for the fullexpression of the music. It's like being able to read a foreignlanguage without being able to understand it . A solid under-standing of triadic harmony is all that is necessary to startanalyzing some of the pieces that you play. There are theorybooks available that deal with different styles of music. Fakebooks are another good source of material where the harmonyis given along with the melody. Even though you may be onlyplaying the melody, it's important to know the harmony.Knowing the harmony is also a great aid in memorizing music.Rather than just memorizing note for note, you start seeing theharmonic direction which makes memorization more logicaland musical.

Part of being a creative player is developing the abili ty totranslate your ideas, thoughts, and feelings into music. Two

Right Hand Etudes

important ways of aiding this development are by starting towrite your own pieces and by practicing improvisation. Playingother people's music or exercises is important, but writing yourown pieces and exercises will help you develop a wholedifferent side. Writing is a way to help you start defining yourlikes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, and learning howto tap your own creative voice. You should write exercises thatdeal with a specific technical problem, and th ink of the exerciseas a whole piece or musical thought rather than just a couple ofmeasures of patterns that are repeated. Keep a notebook withall your pieces in it. You may find that you won't be able tofinish every piece in just one sit t ing. If you come up with a goodstarting phrase, but can't finish it , write it down in your bookand keep it. It may take awhile before you finish i t , but don't letthat stop you from starting something else. Writing will helpyou to better organize your thoughts and make better musicalchoices.

Improvising will also help you tap into your creative voice.There are many useful aids available to help you learn how toimprovise. One very good source is to use some of the play-along records that are available. They range from beginning toadvanced and you can easily find out which level is best foryou. These records also come with a booklet that explains someof the ways of improvising. You can also try recording theharmonic progression from one of your pieces and practiceimprovising on top of that. Another alternative is to record anostinato or vamp figure that you can practice playing over. Youcan also take a phrase or a specific interval and use that as asource for an improvisation rather than th inking about a har-monic progression.

All these ideas that I've suggested here are to help youbecome more involved in your playing by taking more responsi-bility while practicing. Remember that you are your best sourcefor learning and being creative—take advantage of it .

I've included some pieces that deal with independence ineach hand. In my article in the June issue of MD I explainedhow to hold four mallets and the stroke for each mallet. Thereare two pieces to be played with just the two mallets in the righthand and two to be played with just the left hand. The numbersabove each note refer to the choice of mallets (mallet #1 is theouter-most mallet in the right hand and mallet #4 is the outer-most mallet in the left hand). Make sure that you keep themallets at a 45° angle at all times. Large interval skips can beplayed by moving your arm laterally rather than spreading themallets. Play these pieces at varying tempos and dynamics.

1.

2.

Lett Hand Etudes1.


Mallets continued from page 59

2.

Manne continued from page 13to play with anybody at any time, in anykind of music. That's a thing inside ofyou.

Even today, after all these years,there's still only a handful of guys whoyou can point to and say, "Boy, they canreally burn, they're great." They'regreat mainly because of the time factor.

You can train yourself to be moreaware but it still won't be a naturalfeeling. The swing feeling that is generat-ed from playing good time I don't thinkyou can learn. Otherwise there'd bethousands of guys who could swing theirbuns oft".DL: The best drummers do have a goodsense of time, a unique sound, and acertain flexibil i ty. Are you saying thatthese things cannot be developed?SM: There's a thing called talent thatenters into it, and who knows what talentis? When you're talking about talentyou're talking about a very abstractthing. Either you've got it or you don't.It 's the same thing with all the instru-ments. You just can't teach that (talent).DL: Isn't there some grey area between"you've got it" or "forget it?"SM: The grey area is there. Throughteaching you can give a guy better timeby making him practice with a metro-nome and by making him more aware ofit . But there are guys who will always

play time like a metronome; who willplay good time but it won't swing. Timecan be learned, but to swing can't.That's the difference. It's that differencethat's very abstract.

For me, jazz is something that hap-pens naturally. The feeling is there. Justlike it is for symphony or rock players. Ifthat natural feeling, that conviction isn'tthere, then the magic of the-music won'tbe there. I don't feel I'm a rock drummerbecause I don't play rock with convic-tion.DL: Do you believe that talent will seekits own level?SM: In most cases I would say yes. Butthey have to devote some time to devel-oping their talent, too. Maybe you'll finda great drummer in Des Moines, Iowa,but I don't know of him yet. He's possi-bly there, I'm sure he's there. I'm surethere are guys like this all over. If theymake a move to be heard and get to beheard, and if they have that kind ofability, then they will make it.DL: So, if there are two people, onewith less talent, but he works harderthan the other one (with talent), will theother one still be the better player?SM: Yes, but there's something aboutbecoming a good craftsman, also. Theguys that have good time, but maybedon't swing; and have great chops, butmaybe no imagination; and have all the

things that go with learning how to playdrums, can become good craftsmen,maybe even great craftsmen. And theycan always find work and a way tosurvive, whether it be in a symphony, inthe studios, or in a jazz band.

Artists have to play all the time. Theyhave to be searching all the time. Theyhave to have imagination. Einstein oncesaid that imagination is more importantthan knowledge.

Haven't you noticed, that when youtalk about great drum artists you alwaysgo back to the same names? Sid Catlett,Art Blakey, Max Roach, Jo Jones, RoyHaynes, Buddy Rich. Up the line tomodern drummers like Tony Williamsand Elvin Jones. I haven't even named10 guys. What makes the difference isn'tthat one guy played faster than the other,or one didn't study longer than the other,but they have an imagination about play-ing. They have an identity to their play-ing, and they can swing their asses off.

The guy with less talent has to workharder.DL: Do you view yourself as an artist oras a craftsman?SM: As an artist who's also developed acraft because I do studio work. First andforemost I'm a jazz musician but I don'tjust go into the studio and play be-bop.DL: Who is responsible for the time in a

continued on next page

band?SM: In a jazz rhythm section the bassplayer and the drummer have to see eye-to-eye as far as the time is concerned.You must hit together and sound togeth-er. If you don't see eye-to-eye, you doyour best to give and take. The first thingyou don't do is fight him. You can't winby fighting. You discuss it with him in anice way. The drummer and the bassplayer have to be happy playing togetherfor something to happen.

If someone tells you that you rushedor dragged, don't take it as an insul t .Take it where it came from and analyzeit, and be aware of it the next time youplay that chart. Every band has conflictslike that.

A little secret that I have for timefeeling is to constantly th ink of the melo-dy of the song I'm playing. By singingthe melody you can te l l if the time isremaining stable. It's a double check foryourself.DL: What are your feelings about drumsolos'?SM: I'm no friend of long drum solos. Ithink you should approach every drumsolo the way a good improviser ap-proaches soloing; you shouldn't knowwhat you're going to do unt i l the timecomes to do it . Miles Davis said that youshould aim a l i t t le farther than you thinkyou can reach.

If you sit in your room, practicing, andcome up with a great 8-bar drum solo,

and you really get it down, and you use itevery time—regardless of what's hap-pening with the music—you're not creat-ing. Transcribed drum parts often looksimple on paper but when they are ana-lyzed in their creative musical contextthey take on increased meaning. A drumsolo taken out of context may have l i t t leor no meaning.

It bothers me that some great jazzmusicians, who created a solo that hap-pened to become popular for reasons ofgreatness, repeat themselves for the au-dience. I find that happens a lot. Theartist should never play and say, "Hey,this is going to knock them out!" Theartist should play something he reallyfeels at the moment. If it knocks every-body out, so much the better.

An artist has to be concerned with themusic and the music alone. He wants theaudience to l ike what he's doing but hecan't be concerned with what the audi-ence is thinking.DL: Can't you be inspired by the audi-ence? Suppose I were playing some-where and Elvin Jones came in?SM: Of course that would turn you on toplay better, but not just to show oft".Human nature would make you want toshow off but you should just be playingthe best you know how, with your headdown and not seeing who's in the joint.You should be so into the music thatsomeone in the audience wouldn't enterinto it. By doing that you'd probably

knock him on his butt.DL: How important is it to play, andhow important is it to practice on yourown?SM: It's more important to play. I'vealways felt that playing is the most im-portant thing. You learn something ev-ery time you play. It's the experience ofplaying that, over the years, makes you agood player. Under any conditions,whether it's Lawrence Welk, a wedding,or a bar-mitzvah, you learn somethingthat can be used someplace down theline.DL: Is it easier to get that experiencetoday?SM: 30 or 40 years ago very few drum-mers could read. Now many drummerscome out of conservatories and are com-plete musicians. They've studied theory,harmony, composition. Do you knowhow many good drummers come out ofNorth Texas State? Lots. They're learn-ing but it's not education in the tradition-al sense. They're learning because theyhave the opportunity to play all the time.The school gives them that opportunity.They're playing with a good big-band,and good lit t le bands and good, if notgreat, musicians, and they're getting thatexperience. That's what's so importantabout the school systems, and the clin-ics, and the music education systems.

We never got the opportunity to playin school. Now it's THE place where


they get to play and I think it's theplaying that makes them better musi-cians.

Now that I think about it , there aremore opportunities. Before, the only op-portunities were to get a theater job, aradio staff job, or to go on the road with aband.DL: Okay, there are more opportunitiesto get experience now, but there aremore players and more competition. Isthere also more opportunity to earn aliving in music?SM: There are more symphonies, moreschools, more teaching positions, morestudio work, and there are also moremusicians. Not just in LA, but through-out the country. I 'm not sure who'soutdistancing who.

There's always competition. You haveto have that kind of competition becauseyou grow through that. You're not justtalking about drums, you're talkingabout life. The same things apply.

It used to be the competition of justplaying against one another. It was l ike acutting session: "Let me get up on thestand; I'm gonna put this cat away!" Itwas fun and after it was over the guyswould hug each other and be happy thatthey were able to play against each oth-er. It has become more of an economiccompetition because there are moreplayers.

Every Saturday when you watch afootball game you see a 125 piece march-

Manne continued from page 63

ing band on the field. A lot of thoseplayers are studying music. A lot of themare thinking about becoming profession-al musicians. Every college has a foot-ball team and a band. You wonder wherethey're going to go.

On a recent Japanese tour Shelly foundhimself playing in two very different set-tings. One was a swing-style combowhere he was teamed with Benny Carter,Harry "Sweets" Edison, Milt Hinton,and Teddy Wilson. The other group wasa progressive jazz unit featuring DizzyGillespie, Cal Tjader, Harold Land, Ed-die "Lockjaw" Davis, Illinois Jacquet,Eddie Gomez, and Cedar Walton. Bothgroups performed on the same concertsthough they were stylistically 20 yearsapart. Because of his diverse back-ground, flexibility, and willingness,Shelly was able to adapt to both situa-tions.

DL: You've always had a reputation asan adaptable performer. How was thatdeveloped and how is it maintained?SM: Disciplining yourself to play allkinds of music, and to be aware of allkinds of music, makes you a better musi-cian. Most musicians who become fam-ous reach a pinnacle in their career andare accepted by people around the worldas the premier artist at what they do.Some of them believe that and stop de-veloping. They become a l i t t le closed tonew concepts, to new music. I've always

had a great curiosity about new music.It's nothing for a studio string player

to go from classical to rock. It's sti l l halfnotes and whole notes. In the rhythmsection, everyday you'll get a composerwho'll come in and say, "I want this tosound like. . ." and then he'll mention arecord. Now, I haven't heard that rec-ord. He happened to hear it driving towork in his Mercedes. He heard someband that took 6 months to lay down oneside; where the drummer psyched out allhe was going to do, laid down his track,and then everybody laid down tracks ontop of it. He expects to go into the studiothe next day and create that whole feel-ing, NOW.

He'll write out the beat the drummerplayed. The d rummer might havepsyched out the beat for quite awhile. Allof a sudden I look at it and it's a strangebeat. I mean he's got the bass drum veryindependent. I've got to look at it for aminute. The more I play it the morecomfortable it feels. By now I've learnedanother beat.

You have to be prepared. You have tomaintain your thing but still be aware ofwhat's happening. I would never havelearned to play rock if I was just playingjazz, not doing so much studio work.DL: Jazz used to be a clearly definedarea of music. Are the lines gettingfuzzy? With all the crossover, is catego-rizing music still valid?


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SM: Well, you can say that music ismusic, but jazz does signify somethingspecific to me. The lines are becomingfuzzy to the people that listen to musicbut I don't think they're fuzzy to realjazz players. The basic ingredients stillhold true today. The feeling of swing, theconstruction of improvised solos, goodchord changes, the empathy that hap-pens between players, and the total free-dom of playing; those elements are stillthe most important parts of jazz.

Jazz has always absorbed other kindsof music. That's good. The young kidswho come to jazz clubs now aren't justthe jazz fringe that have always beenthere, they're becoming the mainstreamof music listeners.DL: Are there any things in music thatyou would like to do that you haven'tdone?SM: No. I never liked to set goals. I justwant to keep playing and I want to keepexpanding my playing. When I go to jobsnow I still have the same feelings I hadwhen I was younger. The reasons I want-ed to play in the beginning were not somuch to make a living. I never thoughtabout making a living. I just try to pleasemyself when I play.

Reggie Smith by Dave Levine

Reggie Smith plays right field for theLA Dodgers. When he has a big hit it'susually out of the park, rather than highon the charts. Reggie also plays drums,and he is just as serious about music ashe is about baseball.

I've always been intrigued with com-parisons between sports and music.When Reggie and I sat down to talk, Iwas impressed by his candor in discuss-ing both subjects. He had me re-evaluat-ing my own ideas about music and themusic business.DL: How did you become involved insports and music?RS: Sports and music came about natu-rally. The two are inter-related. My fam-ily was always into music and sports.There were eight children and my dadwas a good baseball and football player.Even my mother played! I started outplaying cello for about 8 years. When Iwas in junior high school I had an oppor-tunity to audition for the Compton CivicSymphony. I was on my way to theaudition, and I had to decide betweenthat and a baseball game that was goingon at the same time. I really wanted toplay in the symphony, but the guys cameby and told me how important the gamewas. I wound up going to the baseballgame. Through the guidance and leader-ship of my band instructor, Jeep Smith, Istarted experimenting with other instru-ments. I could take them home over-night, and come back able to play in theorchestra and band. I really enjoyed thechallenge of it . It seemed like anything Iwent into I put myself totally into. Thenext thing I knew I was playing thedrums. This was something that I stuckwith.DL: Did you ever consider music as aprofession?RS: I never became a professional musi-cian. I don't regret any of the decisionsI've made. I always enjoyed sports. Iknew that I would be some type ofprofessional athlete. I've enjoyed a fairamount of success in baseball, and base-ball has provided me with economic mo-bility to experience all of the things thatI've wanted to do. My position in base-ball allowed me the opportunity to meetmany musicians. When I was playing inBoston I met Jake Hanna. I started see-ing quite a few of the musicians whocame through at the Berklee School ofMusic. I met Buddy Rich. After being

traded to the St. Louis Cardinals I raninto a fellow named McClinton Rayford.Through him I met Phil Hulsey, WestCoast representative of the SlingerlandDrum Company. Before Phil moved toL.A., he worked and taught at a musicstore in St. Louis. I needed a set ofdrums so McClinton arranged it throughPhil. We struck a friendship. It seemedodd to him to find a baseball player thatplayed drums. He thought it would benatural for me to appear in the Slinger-land catalog as being one of their artists.Slingerland did not approach me in anyway about selling drums.DL: What's the role of music in yourlife?RS: It's a form of relaxation. Most of theball players carry tape players and someform of music on the road. You can hearall kinds of music on the bus, the plane,in the hotel. They listen to it for enjoy-ment and relaxation. I listen to it for thesame reasons, plus I try to go inside toextract a li t t le bit of technique and howthe sounds are created. It takes me awayfrom baseball. I had to learn to leave thegame on the field and not take it homewith me. Music provided me with analternative to constantly living, eating,and breathing baseball. It's helped meimprove my skills and ability, plus it'sbroadened my overall abili ty to deal withlife in general.DL: Many musicians would say the samething about sports.RS: It's good to get away from the prob-lems that musicians have in getting jobs,salary disputes, trying to get "scale."Everyone thinks of ball players making alot of money. I had that same misconcep-tion about musicians. They really haveto work their tails off to make a decentliving, and they're gone from their fam-ilies a tremendous amount of time, tryingto make it just like we are. I have adifferent appreciation of musicians, es-pecially when they have to continuallybe creative. You look at me and say,"How can you guys get yourselves upevery night?" I say the same thing aboutmusicians. How can you continue to bethat creative every night?DL: Do you get nervous before a game?RS: There's a certain amount of anxietythat I feel. I can remember I used to getnervous on opening day. Now I handle itdifferently. I sleep. I just relax before agame. It's just another opening day.

When you're young you th ink that open-ing day is going to determine the wholeseason. Everyone likes to start off great.I found that by putting that much pres-sure on myself it took me longer to reallyget going. Instead, I just say, "Okay, it 'sanother season starting." I know that atsome point before the season is over, I'mgoing to be wi th in 10 or 20 points inbatting average, RBI's, and home runson my lifetime statistics. Based on whatthose numbers are, it's going to make fora pretty good year. My overall contribu-tion to the club is going to be enough thatI will have done my job. That's difficultfor a young ball player to see. But, it 'simportant that young players learn thatearly. One game doesn't make a wholeseason.DL: Does that apply to musicians?RS: If a musician is with a group and heknows he's going to be there for awhile,he's got to learn to do the best he can andthat's it! As long as you can look in themirror and say, "Well, I did the best Icould," you can't feel bad about it .That's the way you should approach life.If you know you're giving it the bestyou've got, it helps you to learn to relaxand play better.DL: Do drumming and baseball have anydirect application together?RS: I ' l l pick up a pair of parade sticks inthe clubhouse before a game to keep myhands strong. It's good for loosening upwrists and fingers. That's an importantpart of hitting and being able to controlthe bat. I tel l the guys, "You th ink thislooks so easy, but sit here and do this fora minute." The most that anyone whohad never played the drums could do itwas about 30 seconds.DL: Have you always been ambidexter-ous?RS: It's something that I've been able todo ever since I was a youngster. It'sdevelopment of both sides of the brain. Ido have excellent abil i ty to make adjust-ments to situations. For drummers, theonly thing I can suggest is to use oppo-site sides. Experiment. Instead of say-ing, "This is difficult for me to do,"develop a more positive mental attitude.Do li t t le things. If it's a matter of eating;instead of reaching across with yourright hand, use your left hand. It's habitsthat you fall into that you need to break.You'd be surprised how these l i t t lethings will help you gain confidence andgain the necessary strength to do thingswith the opposite side. Become conciousof it. Use it and do things with it.DL: Is playing professional sports basedon instinctive talent or can it be learned?

RS: It's instinctive because it's some-thing I've rehearsed. It's become instinc-tive. When you've done things enoughtimes you take them for granted. Youdon't think about it . For me to see Bud-dy, Louie, or Irv is amazing. I playdrums a li t t le bit and it's not that easy.But these guys have done it before andcan get the feel of the music and knowwhat direction it should be going in.DL: Is learning sports different thanlearning music?RS: Attitude, dedication, and working onspecific areas are the same. But there's atime limit on becoming a professionalbaseball player. You have to start whenyou're young. Music is different becausethere are no age limits. In sports there isa time period where you can play and bemost productive. To feel young and beyoung is always good, but it's not a pre-requisite to being a good musician. Lon-gevity is the ability to play and be cre-ative. This sounds egotistical, but evenat my age, if I wanted to become adrummer I could learn to become profi-cient enough to be a professional. Sportsis a young man's game. It's a l i t t le boy'sgame played by adults. Music can beplayed professionally forever. There isno time in your life where you have tostart now. You can start whenever youdesire and you can reach whatever levelof competence you wish. It all dependson the amount of time and dedicationyou put into it. I am somewhat biasedthat sports and athletics should be a partof the school curriculum. You just can'thave a situation where there aren't op-portunities to take out your frustrationson some athletic field, to release theexcess energies that build up in a totallyacademic situation. Sports are neededbecause a lot of lessons learned can staywith you the rest of your life, such as theability to make decisions and stand bythose decisions, togetherness, and work-ing together as a team. School is the idealplace for it.DL: How important is the manager of abaseball team and the band director? Arethe two positions comparable?RS: You could put 18 guys out there andplay a baseball game because that's whatyou did in the streets and sandlots whenyou were growing up. There was no onethere to supervise. These were justthings you did. The difference is that on apro level, strategy comes in. It's enter-tainment on such a level that skilledplayers are expected to perform certainfacets of the game. You don't have timeto be thinking. This talent is orchestratedby a manager and coaches. They make itall come together in harmony. The banddirector has all of the instruments and allof the music. These people are so intenton playing that the band leader can bringthem all together. He can even change

Smith continued on page 70

Smith continued from page 69

the music. It's very comparable. I thinkyou need someone who's hearing whatthe other people are hearing. In baseballhe's watching what everyone else iswatching. He can see a player slightlyout of position and he can move him. Hesees a broader picture. He helps to guideand change the direction of the game.You need someone to hold things togeth-er and bring things together. That's therole band leaders and managers play.DL: It's been said that you're a "com-plete player." How does that relate tothe drums?RS: I've heard drummers describe otherdrummers as, "Yeah, he plays solos, buthe can't keep the band together." Thecomparisons are the same in baseball."He can't play good defense, he can't hitthe long ball, he's not a good base run-ner." To be considered a complete ballplayer is a compliment. It means thatI've taken enough time to work on allareas and all phases of the game to be theplayer that I am.DL: What about players who are lessversatile?RS: Try to be the best at what you do. Ifthat's all you can do, be the best at that.Be the best in that field. It's a decisionthat the individual has to make. It's amatter of recognizing what your capabili-ties are, what your abilities are, and whatyour role is in what you do. I think thatapplies to a lot of things in life. Oftenthey are roles that someone else can seeyou're better suited for than yourself. Onour ball club, for instance, if you look atSteve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and RonCey you would see men, all under 5' 10".Right away you would think of speed andsingles hitters. But these guys hit the ballas far as any big man. Rather than cast-ing them into the role of singles hitters,the Dodgers allowed them to go aheadand become the power hitters that theyare. They recognized that ability inthem. None of them expected to fulfillthat role when they initially went into thegame. They had always been told thatthe l i t t le man was going to be the singlesand doubles hitter and the big guys drovethe Cadillacs because they hit homeruns.

I am comfortable with my role in thegame. I just try to be Reggie Smith. Insports you play individually/collectively.That's somewhat taken away from youin music. It's more important for thetotal sound to be right. Everyone hears abad note. In a baseball game I can makean error, but then hit a home run and theerror is forgotten. Someone playing awrong note, or playing at the wrong timetotally messes up the music. It's as sim-ple as that.DL: Can baseball and music be com-pared on a creative level?


AmbidexterityPart 1

Quite often I come across drum students who have difficultyexecuting fil ls and patterns correctly. Lack of balance is usuallythe problem. The way one sits and distributes his/her limbs inrelation to the drumset is crucial tor achieving relaxation,endurance and control of body movement. Any skil led drum-mer subconciously switches his balance every few seconds. Forexample, going from a 3-way coordination to a 4-way coordina-tion; playing f i l l s around the drums; switching from one patternto another; and applying dynamics.

It's a constant change of balance in the way we positionourselves with respect to the set. Two important factors inachieving strong balance are partial and total ambidexterity.Partial ambidexterity enables a drummer to crash and lead fil lsup or down the drums with either hand applying equal intensityand projection; total ambidexterity is the ability to ride witheither hand.

To fully understand the advantages of ambidexter i ty weshould first focus on the concept of physical and imaginarycenters in the body. Everyone has a physical center that splitsthe body into halves and its related vertical extension, theimaginary center. In order to obtain maximum balance theimaginary center should not be crossed with either hand. This isnot to imply that the conventional right hand over left handposition is wrong, but there are other ways of achieving goodtechnique, flexibil i ty, coordinated independence and balance.The same principal applies when we turn our upper body to play

The other hand plays the following rhythm on the snare, tomsand floor tom:

snare small t. floor t. med. t.

R.H.

L.H.

Playing the two patterns simultaneously using a conventionalhand position would force us to play the left part of the set withthe right hand, and the right part of the set with the left handfrom under the right wrist, creating an unusual body unbalance.

RideL.H.R.H.B.D.

The best way to execute this particular pattern would be to leadwith the left hand on the closed hi-hat or cowbell (if it ispositioned conveniently on the left side) and to play thecounter-rhythm on the snare and tom-toms with the right hand.

by Roberto Petaccia

either the extreme left or right parts of the set. The physical andimaginary centers will turn with our movements. This dividesthe number of drums and/or sound sources we can hit witheither hand.

The aim is to play the left part of the set with the left side ofthe body, and the right part of the set with the right side of thebody. Cross-sticking patterns would be the exception. In otherwords, we will be able to distribute and use all the energyneeded to perform in the most even and balanced way, acquir-ing, in the process, an originality and individual i ty in sound andstyle seldom experienced with conventional drumming. We willalso expand the number of patterns and fil ls we can use andopen up new grounds for time keeping, soloing and soundexploration.

Using Ambidexterity in the Context of Time KeepingMost drummers can comfortably play several time keeping

patterns using the conventional right hand lead. This appliesmainly to a 4-way coordination, when the ride cymbal is playedwith the right hand. The difficulty arises when playing on theclosed hi-hat is required. One good example is trying to playtwo counter-rhythms, one on the hi-hat and the other on thesnare and tom-toms.

Let's take a standard Latin pattern frequently used formambos, sambas, montunos or calypsos. The leading handplays the following 2-bar pattern on the closed hi-hat:

There are other time keeping patterns that can be executedonly by playing with the hands uncrossed. In the next example,we play constant 16th notes on the closed hi-hat with the lefthand, while accenting on the right crash cymbal and playing thesnare on 2 & 4 with the right hand.

left hand

right hand

left foot

bass drum

cowbell

cym.

snare

bass

hi-hat

If we were to lead with the right hand, we would have tobreak the continuity of the 16th notes on the closed hi-hat inorder to crash.

We can use ambidexterity to create mult iple riding patternsthat incorporate 2 or more simultaneous rhythms. The followingexample is a double-rhythm riding pattern played with 16thnotes on the closed hi-hat using the left hand. The right handplays the up-beats on the right ride cymbal and 2 & 4 on thesnare. The bass-drum is played on quarter notes for conve-nience.

The next example is a triple-rhythm riding pattern and isexecuted by playing the down-beat swishes on the hi-hat usingthe left foot only (see The Rocking Motion Technique, fart 2,July 1981), the up-beats on the right ride and 2 & 4 on the snarewith the right hand, and 16th notes on the left ride or cowbellwith the left hand. The hands can be reversed by playing the up-beats on the left ride and 2 & 4 on the snare with the left hand,and the 16th notes on the right ride or cowbell with the righthand. To play more than 2 simultaneous riding patterns, 2 ridecymbals are needed, one on each side of the set.

1st ride2nd ride

3rd ride

The next 3 examples are taken from the unique playing stylesof a few drummers who have chosen to incorporate partial ortotal ambidexterity in their playing. The following patterns canbe comfortably played only with the hands uncrossed.

Steve Gadd

The following rhythm (From Chick Corea's The Mad Hatter,"Mad Hatter Rhapsody") implies two separate riding patternsand is played with the left hand on the hi-hat. Gadd uses thetraditional grip. The right hand plays the up-beats on the bell ofthe ride cymbal and 2 & 4 on the snare.

Michael Dawe

Michael is totally ambidexterous and uses up to four ridecymbals.

Floor Tom

David Garibaldi

David's unique style has influenced every rock drummer ofthe '70s. We can regard him as an innovator in the field of funkdrumming. He is mainly right handed, but resorts at times tounique cross-sticking grooves and double-rhythm riding pat-terns:

sm. Cowbelllg. CowbellS.D.

In the next article we will look at the use of ambidexterity insoloing and sound exploration.

Continued from pg. 70

RS: The horizon looks a heck of a lotbetter for music than it does for baseball.I've heard people say, "Well, there's noplace left for music to go. It's starting tocome back to where it was before." Withthat kind of attitude there are no newhorizons. I refuse to believe that whereminds are involved in creating new mu-sic there is nothing new. Thank God forpeople like Stevie Wonder, continuallycreating and proving that there are otherareas and other directions for music togo. That's why there should be competi-tion. To force people not to rest on theirlaurels or reputations. It helps individ-uals strive not only for the betterment ofthemselves, but for the betterment ofmusic as well.

There are really no new things in base-ball because everything that is happeningnow has happened before. People havehad a chance to see it before and theyknow what to expect. The game is begin-ning to become sterile in that sense.There are no new innovations as far aswhat you can do with a baseball andwhat you can do on a field. You candress it up and make it look different butit's still the same.DL: But, there are still creative ballplayers and exciting moments in base-ball.RS: Derrell Thomas is an example ofcreative ball playing. I'm somewhat of atraditionalist, in that I believe in playingthe game straight forward, aggressive,doing your job. Derrell Thomas is ashowman who likes to show you some-thing extra; maybe make plays look alittle bit more difficult than they reallyare. Pete Rose plays the same way. He is

creative in that sense. It's an approach.An attitude. Drumming is totally cre-ative. I don't think anyone can play thesame solo. You can be taught, and youcan sit there and read it, but a matter ofaccent changes it. In baseball, a bunt is abunt; a hit and run is a hit and run; ahome run is a home run; and there'snothing new about it. The excitement ofbaseball will remain, but it's only rela-tive to time and space. Bang! It's ahomer! It's that excitement that goesalong with a home run, the ultimate inhitting a baseball. But, it's still only newas it relates to that time and place. Musicis continuously new. You can play thesame song night after night and you cando something that's different simply be-cause it is creative.

EVEN IN THE ODDSby Ralph HumphreyPubl: C. L. Barnhouse Co., Oskaloosa, Iowa 52577Price: $10.00

Occasionally, a drum book of intelligence and importance ap-pears on the scene. Ralph Humphrey's study of odd meters isintelligently written and Even in the Odds should become animportant addition to any drummer's library.

The book is done in two parts. Part I is entitled: "TimePatterns for the Drum Set," and is further divided into threesections.

Section I deals with quarter note meters in 5,7,9, 11, 12 and13. It begins with an easy 5/4 and builds from there, using wellthought-out swing and straight-eighth exercises. Commentsfrom the author appear whenever necessary in this section andthroughout the remainder of the book.

Section 2 has to do with eighth note meters in 5,7,9, 11, 12,13, 14, and 15. These meters are invariably more difficult for anaverage or above-average student. Humphrey introduces theIndian "syllable" method of counting, which enables the stu-dent to better feel the meter, instead of becoming "hung up" in"numbers." This section is challenging, but not to the point oflosing credibility or taste.

Section 3: "Extending the Rhythmic Phrase." The authorwrites: "An interesting and challenging way to lengthen therhythmic phrase is to avoid playing the bass drum on thedownbeat, which allows the phrase to continue through the barline, resolving with the next downbeat." This is very interest-ing, as anyone playing in this fashion must be listening, andwhat is more important than listening? Mr. Humphrey indeedknows what he's doing.

Part II: "Accent Patterns and Sticking Combinations." Fol-lowing the format of Part I, Section I covers quarter note me-ters, and Section 2—eighth note meters. Part II, however, ismainly concerned with syncopation, accents and various stick-ings in different meters. Although not as interesting as Part I,Part II should be viewed seriously and not overlooked.

Section 3 is called (oddly enough): "Odd Combinations in 4/4and 3/4." By taking conventional 4/4 and 3/4 exercises, andgrouping their notes (to appear and sound odd) in 2's and 3's,and strategically placing accents, Humphrey has created somerhythmically interesting and exciting examples; useful for"head" as well as "hands." This section leaves one wonderingif there is really such a thing as a time signature. One mightfurther guess that this brief section had something to do with theauthor's choice of a title.

The fourth and final section is a supplementary explanation ofthe aforementioned Indian technique, as applied to odd andpolymeters. This is a valid introduction for those who might beinterested in this technique.

Even in the Odds is professionally packaged. The notation islarge enough to read comfortably. There is no crowding of notesor short-cuts of any type. Obviously a great deal of planning,editing and hard work went into its preparation.

This book should prove to be a real winner. Though techni-cally demanding, it emphasizes musicianship throughout, andproves that music does not have to be "in four" to cook. The$10 price tag may seem a little steep, but when weighed againstinferior publications at a lower price, the choice is obvious.

Players are not always teachers; teachers are not alwayswriters. Through his efforts in this book, Ralph Humphrey hasshown that he is all three. On that basis, the book is highlyrecommended.

RB

Reviewers: (RB) Rich Baccaro(JB) Joe Buerger(RE) Richard Egart

THE LOGICAL APPROACH TO SNARE DRUM Vol. 1 & 2by Phil PerkinsPubl: Logical PublicationsBox 39234Cincinnati, Ohio 45239Price: $4.95 each

The Logical Approach to Snare Drum Vol. I , appears to bel ike many other beginner's snare drum books. The first fewpages deal with parts of the snare, tuning, and playing areas.There are photos of stick positions. Much of the similarity endshere. Phil Perkins has put together a rhythm-pattern book thathas more continuity than most. He uses "the rhy thmic alphabetsystem," i.e. an "A" above quarter notes: a "B" above twoeighth notes. This is to help the student remember the patternswhenever they appear. The learning procedure lines at thebeginning of most pages in Volumes I & 2 really impressed me.This keeps the student consistently aware of note values. I alsolike Perkin's idea of "synonym rhythms." These are usually achallenge with beginning students. "Synonym rhythms" arefigures written differently yet played the same. Throughout thebook there are good examples. Volume I covers 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4time signatures, repeat signs, ties, musical terms, dynamicmarkings, and dotted notes.

Volume 2 begins with a brief review of the first volume, thenexplains the flam, ruff, five, seven, nine, and thirteen-strokerolls. It also covers eighth, sixteenth, and quarter-note triplets.I didn't care for the combination exercises which combinedmany rhythmic patterns with different length rolls. I felt thiswas covered too early for a student at this level.

The explanation of slow and fast tempo long rolls is verygood. Most drum students have a difficult t ime deciding howfast a roll should be played. Perkins illustrates some excellentroll patterns that help clarify the situation.

Volume 2 also explains different tempos and metronomesettings, and contains exercises in 3/8, 6/8, and cut-time. If ateacher or student chooses to use The Logical Approach toSnare Drum books, I recommend Volume I followed by TheLogical Approach to Rudimental Snare Drum (to be reviewedat a later date), before going on to The Logical Approach toSnare Drum Volume 2. Drum instructors may want to use theRudimental Snare Drum book in conjunction with Snare DrumVolume 2.

JBCHARTBOOK for TODAY'S DRUMMERby Charles ScibettaPubl: Post Publishing Co., Inc.Salisbury Mills, New York 12577

A common complaint about written music is that it forces themusician to become a craftsman rather than a creator. He is notallowed to use his imagination but must, instead, devote hisenergy to the reproduction of the sounds indicated on the page.Certainly, there is an element of interpretation involved, and ittakes great sensitivity to perform a written part in such a waythat it sounds musical rather than mechanical. However, theimagination of the musician plays l i t t le or no part in therealization of a page of written music.

The same problem exists with many of the drum books on themarket. One can find books with exercises for the hands, thefeet, coordination, independence, sight reading, finger control,

stamina, chops, etc. These books serve their purpose well, butbecause they tend to contain every possible variation of a givensubject, they do not exercise something a drummer needs verymuch: his imagination.

A number of books have appeared in the last few years whichprovide drummers with a tool for their creative development.These books utilize the drum chart, the same thing a composeror arranger uses when he needs to give the drummer a "roadmap" of the piece, without dictating a part that must be playednote for note. Not only do these books force the drummer touse his imagination, but they give him a realistic picture of whata chart looks like so he will know what to expect in an actualplaying situation.

Chartbook contains 17 charts, covering twelve different areasof music, including fusion, funk, blues, disco, jazz, and country& western. Each chart provides the drummer with a frameworkbased on a particular style, and patterns are suggested whichgive the basic characteristics of that style. Plenty of open spaceis then given for the drummer to incorporate his own ideas infilling up the chart with a combination of timekeeping patternsand fills. The book will continue to be useful as long as thedrummer can continue to come up with new ideas.

The manuscript is clearly printed and the charts are arrangedso that there are no page turns. (This is perhaps the unrealisticdetail of the book. Most of the actual charts I've seen are amess.) The parts are written for a standard five-piece drum set,and the drums are indicated by using a regular five line staff.Metronome markings are also provided for each chart to givethe reader an idea of some of the tempos he will encounterprofessionally.

Scibetta's book does not contain any revolutionary ideas orthe latest "hot licks." What it does contain is a collection ofrealistically written drumcharts which will provide the drummerwith an opportunity to use the patterns and fills of his choice.Beginning students may find this book mystifying, but interme-diate and advanced players should be able to derive benefitfrom the challenge offered by Chartbook. RE

Chapin continued from page 40

two of the few who had good feet. Therewas a guy called Struttin' Sam who usedto do ridiculously fast tempos with hisfoot. Lionel always had a good footwhen he was a drummer. Jo Jones hadgreat feet, too. So there were a few.

"Generally, you weren't supposed toplay much on the bass drum, so now it'shard for most of us to get the footdeveloped. Almost all of the guys that I

know who have really fantastic feet weredancers. You can do it without dancing,but it's a help. I never did it. I knewabout it early, too, but I never did it , andI was never happy with my feet.

"Buddy always danced on the pedal.He used to drive bass players crazybecause at that time, electric bass wasn'tused much. Laying on the bass drumwould thril l Tommy Dorsey and HarryJames because brass players like to heara loud bass drum. So every drummerwho pleased Tommy or Harry had toplay heavy, like Buddy. I played withTommy Dorsey briefly. He hated me. Icouldn't play loud bass drum. I had beenconditioned to play so you could hear thebass player. I learned to play loud laterbecause the music changed and the bassplayers got louder, so it didn't bother meanymore.

"In those days, rhythm sectionsstomped more than swung. The first oneto swing was the Count Basie sectionwith Jo Jones and Walter Page, becauseJones and Page played together. It wasthe first rhy thm section with an idea. Itwasn't just drums with everybody elsetagging along. I wanted to play that way,but that wasn't compatible with a lot ofbig-bands in the '40s."

Chapin concluded our talk with somecomments about his current activities.

"I teach one day a week, that's a l l . Ihave some good students and I'm happythat I have something of value to showthem. I want to do more cl inics than I'vebeen doing. I've done a few big ones andsome seminars, and I l ike doing clinicswith a lot of people. I enjoy that. Theproblem is, I'm nut sponsored by a drumcompany at the moment.

"The reason that I haven't written alot more books is that I 'm lazy. I wastefar too much time and I can't do itanymore. For every waste of time now Ifeel guilty. Basically, I'd like to practicefour hours a day and I would like to playfour hours. I could if I had my lifescheduled correctly.

"Physically, I sometimes th ink Ihaven't lost anything at all . Now I'vefinally begun to study things I don'tknow, instead of just practicing thethings I can already do. For instance,I've got a very stiff back and it's hard forme to do things with my left foot, likedoubletime rock or a samba thing wherethe left foot is carrying i t . That was hardfor me to get. It's s t i l l difficult, but I 'mgetting better at it .

"I practice control patterns but I don'tdo enough of them. Once you under-stand drums there are so many things todo that you never, in a dozen lifetimes,get through them. The more you know,the more you want to know. It can befrustrating or rewarding, whichever wayyou want to think about it."

Soundproofing thePractice Room

Story and Photo by Steven J. Lake

One of the disadvantages of being adrummer is that sometimes the neigh-bors complain when you are trying topractice. No matter how good you are, itstill sounds like noise to some people.Here is a way to remedy that problem forabout $45 and a couple of hours of yourtime.

You can cover the walls and ceiling ofan extra bedroom with standard 3 1/2"(Owens-Corning R - l l ) building insula-tion. The important thing is to reversethe insulation so that the fiberglass isexposed, and will thereby absorb anysound. On each wall, start at a bottomcorner and drill 1/16th inch holes about 16inches apart, straight up the corner,across the ceiling, and back down theopposite corner. Next, insert a 1 1/2"screw eyelet into each hole. This entirestep takes about 60 minutes.

The next step is to measure the wallsand ceiling and cut the insulation accord-ingly. Now you will need a friend (tohelp) and a broom handle (or somethingsimilar) to help hold the insulation. Asyour friend holds the insulation againstthe wall with the broom handle (heldhorizontally), start at the bottom andweave heavy-duty string through theeyelets, back and forth across the insula-tion working towards the top and backdown again. Tie off the string in an eyeletin one of the bottom corners. Use thisprocedure for all of the walls. If you donot want your windows covered, it iseasier to go ahead and cover them firstand then cut and remove the insulationthrough the string.

To insulate the ceiling, have two peo-ple stand a few feet apart, holding theinsulation against the ceiling with twopoles. Start weaving in the middle, worktowards the wall, then back to the middleto the opposite wall, and finally back tothe middle.

For the door, have someone hold theinsulation against it while you wrapstring completely around the door. Tiethe string together on the inside at thebottom. Wrap a string at the very top ofthe door, another at the very bottom.and strings just above and below the

This photo shows the back wall of the studio. Notice the stereo speakers suspendedfrom the ceiling to the left and right of the drumset.

door knob. The other strings should bespaced about 16 inches apart. Put a pieceof tape over the string on both edges ofthe door, to keep the string from sliding.If the insulation does not fit exactly,space it evenly to cover most of thedoor. A 3 or 4 inch strip of door showingthrough will not make a lot of difference.

In a room with unfinished walls, youcan nail the insulation to the walls andceiling, rather than using string. Eitherway, once the insulation is up, it will notcome apart and fall on you. Every bit ofit will stay in place.

When doing this job, you should bewearing long pants, long-sleeved shirt,gloves, glasses or safety goggles, cap,and above all, a breathing mask. Masksare usually free for the asking when youbuy the insulation. After the insulation isup, let the fiber dust settle for 20 min-utes, then sweep the floor. It is good to

take a shower afterwards and wash thework clothes separately.

Despite these precautions, there is nohealth hazard associated with fiberglass.According to information received fromthe Environmental Health Dept. atBerkeley College, there are only twochemicals involved in making fiberglass,and they are both inert. Also, the fibersare too large to enter human or animalcells. If inhaled, the body throws it offthrough normal coughing. The only timefiberglass falls apart is when it is han-dled.

Insulation is a lot cheaper than acous-tical tile, easier to install, and absorbssound better. It also has a pleasant,uniform appearance. Virtually all of thesound is kept inside the room.

One last note: watch your local adver-tisements for sales on home insulation.

Q. Any suggestions for building a drum platform in my newstudio?

R.A.Brawley, Ca.

A. Because low-end frequencies pass through and aroundstructures, care should he taken in building the platform. I'drecommend a 6" to 8" high platform set on vinyl or rubbergasketing. Fill the inside of the frame with either sand orfiberglass to deaden the sound. Otherwise, the hollowed plat-form will act as a sounding board, and low frequencies will hevery loose sounding. The sand or fiberglass makes it solid andtight. Use 3/4" plywood on top, and caulk the edges. If the drumsound is too "live" on the bare plywood, you can carpet theplatform, which will deaden the sound. This platform willabsorb and isolate many of the low frequencies which wouldotherwise escape from the room.

Q. What company makes the discs which stop the bass drumfrom creeping?

T.G.Washington, D.C.

A. The Best Way Non-Skid system for bass drums comeswith a 6" x 12" x 1/4" pad of cellular, neo-prene sponge rubberfor placement under the bass drum foot pedal, along with tworubber holders for the spurs. The top is made of 1/4" thickMasonite Duron. The bottom is 3/8" closed cellular neo-prenesponge rubber with a 3/8" precoated, rustproof steel cup forinserting the spurs. For further information contact Best WayMusical Products, 830 Hampden Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota

It's Questionable continued from page 55

55114.

who thinks about percussion and drumsas well as the other aspects of making thealbum, and he certainly helped me with afew things that perhaps I wouldn't havethought about playing. Basically, I in-volve myself with the writing of songs,backing vocals, and stuff like that. I'malways aware of what the structure of thesong is and I play more for that than toshow off my own prowess as a drummer.It's not a thing I mind at all, it's a thing Ilike very much indeed. I like writingsongs and doing gigs and, I'll say itagain, being the right drummer for Naza-reth.RM: Do you think you might like to dostudio work at some point?DS: I think so, in the future possibly, ifthe situation arose whereby I could. Itwould be good to play with other peopledoing different things. I'd love to do that.RM: Would you be willing to do com-mercials and sound tracks?DS: It would interest me to a degree. Itwouldn't bother me if it was the corniestthing ever written, if a guy could do it

Sweet continued from page 30 well and properly. I'd like to have a go atanything like that.RM: Can you read drum music?DS: Yeah, I can do it. I did it with thepipe band. I'm probably a bit slow thesedays, but I've acquired that knowledge.RM: Your philosophy about being theright drummer for the band suggests thatyou have the right attitude for a potentialstudio musician.DS: Being the right drummer for thegroup is precisely my ideal. I think thesecret is to know when not to play. Playalong as the lyric dictates or the trackdictates. I don't like show-offs. I don'tlike guys that try to prove a point.RM: Especially when they don't havemuch of a point to prove.DS: Yeah. There's not too many who do.RM: What other percussion instrumentsdo you play?DS: I fool around with congas, timbales,tambourines, maracas, and the smallstuff.RM: Have you ever seriously studiedcongas?DS: No, but I certainly want to do thatbecause I think it's very important that Ido. Given the time, whenever that maybe, I want to go to somebody who iswilling to take time out, and sit down andreally go to it. Paulinho DaCosta was onour last album doing bits and pieces ofpercussion on a couple of tracks, and Ilearned a bit from him just in the fewdays we were in the studio. He said hewas willing to help me, but of course,he's so busy on sessions, and I'm sobusy writing and touring and recording,that it's a pipe dream. I certainly hope itcomes true, and the sooner the betterbecause I really would like to get moreinvolved in it.RM: What does your current set-up con-sist of?DS: I have a Ludwig natural-maple finishset comprised of 2 bass drums, which are24 x 16, 2 concert toms, 6/2 x 8 and 6 1/2x 10, 2 rack toms, 13 x 14 and 15 x 16,and 2 floor toms, 16 x 16 and 18 x 16.My favorite snare drum is the BlackBeauty, with the brass-cast shell. It rec-ords well and sounds good on stage. Thepedals for the kick drums are the chain-drives. I use Gon-Bop congas for a cou-ple of tracks we do acoustically in theset.

I use Brilliant finish Zildjian cymbals,except for my Chinese cymbal which is aPaiste. I have two 20" medium crashcymbals, a straightforward crash whichis an 18, a 22" rock ride, and the Chinese.I also have a 50" Paiste gong which I hitfrom time to time for effect. I use twosets of hi-hats, so when I use two kickdrums I can use the secondary hi-hat,which is on my right, to ride on, and stillhave the hi-hat sound. I have them notquite closed so I get a sort of sizzle. IfI'm doing straight 8ths or 16ths on them,

then I'll close them tighter. So I've got afew alternatives.

For miking the past year I've beenusing Ciducer contact mic's. They comein the form of a three-quarter by eight-inch strip which is taped to the topmostpart of the shell of the drum, immediate-ly under the strike head. A very finecable comes out of a mini-jack, into abox, and goes straight into the mixingconsole. The sound quality is phenome-nal. The reproduction of the drum soundis far greater than with conventionalmic's. There is nothing lost becausethere's no dispersal of sound before ithits the mic. It also eliminates the guitarsounds and all sorts of other monitornoises that are crossfired across thestage. It's a big help for the guy at themixing console. I'm very, very pleasedwith them. There are not too many peo-ple using them as far as I know, but theycertainly are good. I've used them onthree tours with no breakages or prob-lems.RM: Do you use them in the studio?DS: I didn't record Fool Circle with thembut I've laid down a few things just formy own ears to hear them back. I'm notgoing to go into a studio and say to aneminent engineer like Geoff Emerick, "Iwant to use these," because that's hisgig. He knows what he wants and he'sgotten a great drum sound. I'm pleasedwith it. But we sat for a few hours onenight and did a few things just to hear thepotential of them, and they sound verygood.RM: Do you have to use regular mic'sfor the cymbals?DS: Yes, I have mic's on both sets of hi-hats, and two overheads to catch thecymbals.RM: What kind of heads do you use?DS: I use Ludwig Rockers with the silvercenter-spot. I only use one head on thetoms, but on the bass I have a front headwith about a 14-inch hole in it, which Ifind quite good.RM: Do you ever use any electronicpercussion?DS: I have Syndrums but I don't usethem on stage. I fool around with them.I've never actually gotten myself toomuch involved with them.RM: Do you tune your drums differentlyon stage than you do in the studio?DS: Basically, I just tighten the headsslightly. For recording I use fairly slacktop and bottom heads on the snare, andthe snares fairly rolled off. I don't reallyuse too much padding on the tom-toms,just a bit so they don't ring too much. It'sfairly straight-forward tuning. Usuallyfor stage, to get an extra edge to combatthe difference in level that the otherinstruments are playing at, I need to justput more tension on the heads.RM: What are your thoughts on drum


Heavily Wired—Part IIby Vince Gutman

Creating complex sounds with Electronic Percussion Synthe-sizers is a sure way to fascinate your listening audience. It alsoprovides the user an excellent opportunity to become morefamiliar with some basic techniques of signal processing."Beating" oscillators, amplitude and frequency modulation,and random noise sources all play an important part in creatingthe desired effect that you, the electronic percussion synthesis!,might have in mind.

Fig. I

Beating OscillatorsFigure I shows two Voltage Controlled Oscillators, VCO's

combined together, each tuned a slight fraction in pitch apart.The resultant sound will be perceived audibly "thicker" thaneither of the VCO's could produce individually. This process ismore commonly referred to as "beating" oscillators. Noticethat in Figure 2 the frequency of the "beating" is equivalent tothe sum and difference in frequency of the two separate VCO's.When the two waves are both positive or negative in amplitude,they reinforce one another, producing greater amplitude in theresulting "third" waveform. However, when one wave ispositive and the other negative, they cancel each other out andthe result is a drastic decrease in amplitude, producing silence.

Fig. 2

Amplitude ModulationThis textbook sounding technology actually breaks down to a

quite simple definition for our discussion purposes. "Ampli-tude" meaning the amount of signal (loud and soft) and "modu-lation" referring to the periodic change in that signal.

Fig. 3A

Some percussion synthesizers include a Low FrequencyOscillator, LFO (in place of a second VCO), and it is usedprimarily as a control oscillator normally operated somewherebelow the range of human hearing (below 20 cycles per second).Using this sub-sonic signal as a control voltage, we are now ableto produce tremolo and vibrato effects on our output waveform.For those of you who are unfamiliar with this technology,tremolo is a rapid amplitude modulation of a musical waveform,whereas vibrato is a rapid change in frequency or pitch of amusical note. For illustration purposes, Figure 3A shows theeffect tremolo has on a waveform when sine waves are used inboth cases.

When using a sine wave output from the LFO, the audibleeffect of tremolo is similar to that of listening to music on theradio while rapidly increasing and decreasing the volume con-trol (from loud to soft) at a systematic rate.

On larger systems, tremolo is accomplished by simply usingthe output waveform from the LFO section (or second VCO) asthe controlling voltage source for the VCA section. St i l l , withother systems, by enabling one VCO through the system andshifting the center "tune" point on the filter (at a very slow shiftrate) with an LFO, this same effect is very easily obtained.

Figure 3B illustrates the correct "set up" procedure neededto experiment with this form of amplitude modulation.

Fig. 3B

Note: To compare the effects of amplitude vs. frequencymodulation, simply use the same setting as in Figure 3B, withthe following alterations in the Figure 3B: turn 'Res' controlfully clockwise, turn Osc 1 counter clockwise, and Osc I sliderswitch to 'Off, to produce frequency modulation. The differ-ences between the two should now be obvious.

Electronic percussion synthesizers utilize st i l l another formof Amplitude Modulation termed "ring" modulation, to pro-duce metallic sounds such as bells, chimes and gongs. We wil lnot discuss the theory associated with ring modulation in thisissue, due to the complexity of its nature and the non-standard-ization from one manufacturer to another. However, to produce

these "metallic" sounds, it is necessary to incorporate twooscillators, one rich in harmonic content, such as a trianglewaveform, and the other can be a sine wave.

Frequency ModulationAgain, for our discussion purposes, we will define frequency

modulation as "periodic changes in the pitch or 'frequency' ofour ini t ia l ly derived waveform."

Singers and instrumentalists have used this age-old techniquefor years, mildly bending notes up and down in pitch, addingcolorful animation to their voicing.

With our percussion synthesizers, vibrato is a form of fre-quency modulation which is produced by using a Low Frequen-cy Oscillator, LFO, to act as the control voltage input toanother VCO. There will now be pitch changes in the outputwaveform that will correspond to the characteristics of the LFO(controlling) waveform. A triangle waveform will rise in ampli-tude gradually, and then instantaneously change direction.Square waves will produce an instantaneous loud and soft effectwith no audible rise and decay time in the amplitude. Many ofthe sounds that can be created by using the LFO in this fashionare best described as "science fiction" or "space" sounds,shown in Figure 4, which are useful for colorful accents whenplaying in an ensemble.

Fig. 4

Noise GeneratorsWhite noise is an important element in creating "composite"

percussive sounds, that when filtered sharply can produce adefinite pitch. Although it is most commonly used for "synthet-ic" snare drum sounds, as shown in Figure 5, after filtering,other applications include voltage controlled wind and surfsounds. Unfiltered white noise, however, sounds l ike hissingsteam.

Fig. 5

I have found that through incorporating minor changes in theexisting circuitry of most commercially available systems, st i l lother interesting sounds (such as hand clap and sucking air,among others) can too be created using "white noise." Anupcoming article in Modern Drummer will discuss this modifi-cation in detail, along with others that you may find advanta-geous to your existing synthesis system.

Figures I and 3B courtesy of Star Instruments.Figures 4 and 5 courtesy of Syndrum.

solos?DS: I don't do them myself. I'm not a bigfan of seeing them at any live show I goto. I've seen a few that I like a lot. Once Isaw Bonham do one that impressed me.The only other one I remember well,because it was so good, was Phil Collinsand Chester Thompson with Genesis.They did a whole thing which was verygood. Apart from that, I think the drumsolo that impresses me most, and cannever be beaten, can only be done by aworld famous pipe band in Scotlandcalled Shotts and Dykehead, who are ledby a man named Alex Duthart. Theyhave six marching drums, two tenors,and a bass drum, and they do a drumsalute which is phenomenally tricky andfast. Incredible! It's so tight, it soundslike one guy. I'm not knocking Americanmarching bands, but no matter how goodyour top marching band is, the technicalinvolvement of this particular pipe anddrum corps is so many degrees above,it's unbelievable. A lot of drummerswould do themselves proud to see that.I'm rooting for Scotland, that's a fact.RM: You mentioned earlier that youteach the drummers in a pipe band whereyou live. How did that come about?DS: I live in a very small place, and thereis a local band affiliated to the churchorganization. They advertised for a druminstructor but had trouble getting one, soI went by one week to say that I'd helpout for a month or two. I've been there

Sweet continued from page 81for two years. Not the whole time, ofcourse, but when I'm home. Some of theguys are real keen. Some of them prac-tice, some of them don't, and some ofthem will come out good. I'm a sticklerfor parity of both hands. I have themlead off with the right hand and then dothe same exercise with the left, and someof them can do it quite well. I might notbe around to take them much further, soif I can give them that, at least, then Ithink it's a fairly good start.RM: Do you think you will continueteaching in the future?DS: I don't know. Too many other thingsto do at the moment. I think I'll keepteaching somebody somewhere some-times, but I don't think I'll be into itseveral nights a week or anything likethat. It's just something I like doing forthat one night a week when I'm home.RM: Do you play any melodic instru-ments?DS: I play a few guitar chords.RM: Do you write your songs with theguitar?DS: Either that or sometimes I record abasic rhythm pattern and then sing themelody over it. I don't feel professionalenough to stick a guitar on another track,so I get one of the guys to do it. It's all inmy dreams that I'm going to learn to be abetter guitar player, and do a bit ofpiano. I don't want to become a one-manband or anything like that, I just want tobe able to put it down myself instead of

saying, "What do you think this chordshould be?" Fortunately, with Nazarethhaving been together for so long, somuch telepathy goes on that if I say,"You know, that thing like so and so,"everybody goes, "Oh yeah, this one,"and starts playing exactly what I had inmy mind. It's really a fabulous thing.RM: Some of the songs on the FoolCircle were rather grim.DS: These are only musical observationsof the world situations at the moment. Idon't think it's a precedent we're settingfor our future writing. There is also a fairdegree of humor and tongue-in-cheek inthese fatal words of content. It's sort of aDr. Strangelove set to music.RM: Your two songs were much moreoptimistic.DS: I don't know if I'm any more opti-mistic than the rest of the guys, but let'ssay I think I write in a lighter vein. We allagreed that the album needed it, too. It'smy first serious solo attempt at songs.It's not the first time I've done it, but it'sthe first time I've ever actually got twosongs onto an album. Maybe I am moreoptimistic, but hell, I don't want theworld to blow up. I want to keep writingsongs, playing drums, touring, and mak-ing albums.RM: I presume the Beach Boys were aninfluence on you, judging by the tributeyou paid them in "Victoria."DS: Oh yeah, absolutely. We actually dida cover version of "Wild Honey" on ourPlaying the Game album. There's analbum by Dennis Wilson called PacificOcean Blue, which is one of my favoritealbums. He's another guy who is comingdown from the drums, writing songs andsinging them.RM: You also had some luck with JoniMitchell 's "This Flight Tonight."DS: I don't know if she was overlydelighted with what we did with hersong, but it was certainly very successfulfor us. Any time that we take on anotherperson's song, that is a testimony to thatsong that it is basically and essentially adamn good song, because we take it topieces and then build it in a totally differ-ent fashion that, to us, still sounds good.There are too few songs that are so goodthat you can actually break them downand then rebuild them in a different man-ner. The ones we've done have alwaysshocked people who can't imagine Naza-reth doing a Joni Mitchell song, or aBeach Boys song, and that's part of thefun.RM: I understand that when she per-forms the song now, she introduces it asa Nazareth tune.DS: Yes, she certainly did that in Lon-don. We actually met her in L.A. whenshe was finishing the mix-down of Courtand Spark. We went into a room andplayed back our version of "This FlightTonight," and I still don't know to this

day if she genuinely was pleased with itor if she was just too shocked by the factthat someone had done that to her song.RM: Judging by her collaborations withCharles Mingus, I would guess that sheis the type who could appreciate the factthat Nazareth found a different way toexpress her ideas.DS: I really do think so.RM: Of course, that type of thing alwaysdraws criticism from so-called "pur-ists."DS: You can't knock that because it's acoming together of two persons' ideas inmusic. You can like it or dislike it, butthat's what it's all about. Why stop try-ing different combinations'?RM: Have you heard anything lately thatyou especially like or dislike?DS: Some of the drumming that goes onin the New Wave and Punk thing inEngland is abysmal. But then, it's suitedto what that music is. It seems to me thatthe time signature and the time keepingof the song is completely irrelevant. Ba-sically, a drummer should at least keeptime, and some of these guys don't. Itdoesn't bother the fans, it doesn't botherthe record company or the management,it doesn't bother the band, and evidentlyit doesn't bother them. But it reallymakes me go "ugh!"RM: Do you hear any young drummersyou like?DS: Oh yeah. There are always goodguys about. That's the nice thing aboutit. You'll never stop learning from thethings you hear some guys doing.RM: What do you listen for in a drum-mer?DS: First of all, I always listen to thesong, and then try to see what his appli-cation to that song is. Later, I'll listenclosely to see how he's going about it.RM: Of the established drummers, whodo you listen to these days?DS: Phil Collins I like a lot. I've beenlistening to him for several years. He hasmade a move from being a full-timedrummer with Genesis, to being a front-man, being a singer, and being a song-writer. It's interesting to me to see thejigsaw of the way he's gone about it. Hehas written the song, he's singing thesong, and he knows precisely where todo his fills and how he's going to dothem. That's a very exciting thing forme, maybe not necessarily to emulate,but to go for something like that. What'sbasically in my mind at the moment is toinvolve myself more with songwriting,do a bit more singing and work the drumsround about it, rather than do the jigsawthe other way around.RM: With your constant touring, how doyou find time to write and practice?DS: We tour in a coach now, so we do alot of writing on the coach. We have afour-track Teac cassette recording studioset up in the back of the bus, some

acoustic guitars, and a drum pad set, sowhen we do an overnight trip we can foolaround there for four or five hours layingdown some basic demos while driving.RM: How have you managed to retainyour sanity after all your years on theroad?DS: Well, I don't think we're a bunch ofangels, put it that way, and we still getthe road crazies and have a good time,but I think there's a fair degree of sanityin the band. The road can get to you, butit's an easy excuse to use. I think ourfeet are still fairly on the ground. It'sreally just common sense. There's a timewhere we will say "that's enough fortonight" or "that's enough to drink" orwhatever. You can't stay up five nightsin a row until five in the morning andthen do a show the next day. Thankfully,we didn't lose all our common senseduring the years of growing up with theband.RM: Do you have any specific guidelinesfor dealing with the road?DS: Don't be overly impressed by thethings that impress people who are not inthe business. People in the street thinkthat it's all champagne breakfasts, drugs,groupies, and blah, blah, blah. It's al-ways there. Use it for how you want it,but don't be overly impressed by it.Remain serious about your drumming,be serious about your songs, be seriousabout the guys that are around you.Don't abuse them and don't abuse yourown body. But have a good time. It's aquestion of balance.RM: Do you think as you get older youmight tour less and record more?DS: Yes, we have been applying thebrakes a bit over the past two years.We've had the opportunity to schedulethings a bit more sensibly and take moretime in album preparation and albumrecording. We'll never stop trying to getit better. I think we'll probably maintainthis degree of touring that we're on at themoment, which really isn't too frantic.Probably in two years or so we'll slowdown again and do one major worldwidetour a year, and spend more time doingalbums. But that has to come in its owntime.RM: So you are obviously not planningto leave Nazareth in the near future.DS: Oh no. We are fairly well committedas a band to make a sizable growth and astep forward. We're very lucky. A lot ofbands sell well in America and that's it.But before we even had our first hitsingle over here, we were living verywell off the rest of the world. All thatbeing so, we still feel that there's agreater growth potential. The musicwe're doing now is broadening our hori-zons. We're at a great stage in our careerand we're becoming more and more in-terested in furthering that career. Thereare still a few years left in us yet.

Jo Jones-"Adlib"by Richard Egart

This solo was transcribed from the album entitled, The MainMan—Jo Jones, recorded in November 1976, and released onthe Pablo label. The solo is heard toward the end of "Adlib"which appears on side 1, cut 3.

Jones keeps the first half of his solo light in texture. He givesa sense of unpredictability by incorporating two measures offive-four time (mm 10-11), by occasionally putting "empty"

bars between phrases (mm 16-17, 26-27), and by briefly estab-lishing a three-four feel in the snare drum (mm 28-30). Startingin measure 32, Jones relies on well-constructed four-barphrases to steadily build the intensity and bring the solo to alogical climax. The pattern in the final two measures was atypical swing-era device for bringing the band back in.

*Left stick on snare, s t ruck with right.

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Gladstone continued from page 23and set screws so that each snare could be individually adjust-ed. He would supply all gut snares at the customer's request.Billy had a loom on which he'd string the snares and tightenthem to a certain pitch. Then he'd cover them with shellac.He'd sand them with fine sandpaper when they dried, tune themagain and then apply another coat of shellac. The process wouldcontinue until he was absolutely certain no moisture couldpenetrate. The snares would never curl, and the sound wasincredible.

Perhaps the circular rubber practice pad was one of his verybest ideas. When the pad was placed on a snare drum, a star-shaped hole under the center of the pad would cause a vacuum.It could not be lifted off the drum, but was peeled off. It was anexcellent device for quiet practice while maintaining the soundand feel of a snare drum. The item is still quite popular today.

Billy was also a very fine pianist. He once asked me if I knewthat he could play piano. When I told him I didn't, he rented astudio at Nola's on Broadway and taped his version of TheMinute Waltz. I still have that tape and it's an absolutely perfectperformance of the piece. One time he purchased a piano inChicago, had it delivered to his hotel room and proceeded torebuild it. I saw the piano in 1960 and he had done a fantasticjob.

A great deal of Billy's drumming concepts were gatheredfrom his observations of the workings of the piano. The fingersystem, which he ultimately perfected, came about as a result ofcareful study of the piano action. One had to study quite sometime with Billy to fully understand his technical concepts, butbasically the action of the arm, wrist, hand and fingers in Billy'sdrumming system closely related to the action of the piano keystriking the rod, which strikes the hammer, which in turn strikesthe string. He believed it was impossible to drum with just armsand wrists. He felt the fingers had to be involved. He acquired agreat finger technique during his career which enabled him toexecute fast, delicate drum parts with great ease.

I also clearly recall the last year of Billy's life. He was in NewYork on a break from the My Fair Lady road show and decidedto have a much needed hernia operation. Cancer was discov-ered. Billy continued with the show but was failing fast by thetime they reached Boston in August of '61. Finally, the orches-tra leader convinced Billy to return to New York for a rest. Iknew he was in serious trouble the day he walked into mystudio. He was as brown as a coffee bean.

Billy was in and out of Flower of Fifth Avenue Hospital inNew York several times before he finally died in October. Hehad requested his ashes be spread around the Statue of Liberty.I don't know if that request was ever carried out, but I do knowthat the legend lives on. Billy Gladstone was one of the greatestdrummers of all time and a beautiful person with a heart as bigas New York City itself. I'm very proud to be able to say I knewhim, and that he was my friend.

"If you switched instruments, Will, you wouldn't have to gothrough this 2B or not 2B stuff."

GretschNighthawk II Plus

by Bob Saydlowski, Jr.

As the drum badges state, Gretsch hasbeen making drums since 1883. Nearly100 years later, they're s t i l l goingstrong—naturally, with some changes.

Gretsch started it all in Brooklyn, latermoved to Cincinnati, and have recentlybeen bought by Kustom Music in Kan-sas. Gretsch was once (and probably st i l lis) considered The jazz drum ki t . Never-theless, the company has had to changesome to accommodate modern playing.

The Nighthawk II Plus kit consists of a14 x 22 bass drum, 8 x 12, 9 x 13, 10 x14, 12 x 15 tom-toms, 16 x 16 floor tom,and 5 x 14 brass shell snare drum. Allthe drums (except the snare) are 6-plywood with no reinforcing rings. They arejoint-butted and have staggered lamina-tions. Synthetic glue is used in the lami-nation process. The interiors are coatedwith a grey aluminum-base shell sealantwhich helps to contain the sound.

The bass drum has 20 separate lugswith T-style tuners and fat, cast claws.The hoops are also 6-ply wood, finishedto match the rest of the ki t . Beneath thebatter head, Gretsch has installed itsfamed ajdustable felt-strip damper, acti-vated by a large round knob whichstretches or loosens the felt strip at theplaying head, allowing for variable de-grees of muffle. It's a good idea, and I'msurprised more companies haven't fol-lowed up on this innovation.

Gretsch has developed new spurs fortheir bass drums for extra shell support.The hollow steel tubes extend from theinside spur block position, up to the topof the shell where they join with themounting screws of the tom-tom holderbase plate. The cast blocks accept half-inch "disappearing-type" spur legs, an-gled a bit forward. The legs have largerubber tips that may be removed to ex-pose fat spikes. They are locked in posi-tion with a T-handle bolt. Besides allow-ing more support to the shell, the newspurs also provide a good place to stuffsome padding behind if needed. The idea

is sensible, as many drummers are re-moving front heads, and these internalsupport spurs help to prevent ovalling ofthe shell. Gretsch also makes counter-hoop clips to hold on the front hoop withall hardware. To further arrest forwardcreep of the drum, Gretsch also fits theirCyclops anchor to the front hoop. Theanchor is a long, thin pointed T-screwthat locks at the base with a wing nut.When screwed down, the sharp pointdigs into the floor and keeps the drum ina steadied playing position.

The bass drum comes fitted with aGretsch Permatone coated head on theplaying side, and a Permatone transpar-ent on the audience side. The drum wasvery resonant, but with a bit of an"edge" to it. Somehow, it was not quiteas loud as the other drums in the kit. Formodern playing, padding would be help-ful. A thicker batter head could also aidin decreasing some of the overtones.Single-headed, it produced a good solidattack, and I imagine it would be greatfor recording.

The 8 x 1 2 tom-tom has 10 lugs, the 9x 13 has 12. The 10 x 14, 12 x 15 and 16x 16 floor tom each have 16 lugs. All thedrums come with die-cast hoops and aninternal twin-head muffler is installed ontop and bottom heads. Each muffler isoperated by a large chromed knob, andcovers a wide area of the head whenadjusted "on."

Gretsch's Creative Research Serieshardware is reflected in their new 9002double tom-tom holder. The holder has asingle half-inch tube protruding throughthe shell, locked for height via a T-screwat the base plate which presses an innerpiece of spring metal set inside the cast-ing. This down post also has a drumkey-operated memory ring with a tongue thatconnects into a notch in the base castingto insure accurate height set-up. A pieceof felt is placed underneath the basecasting so the metal does not make directcontact with the resonating wood shell.

The drums are held by L-arms which fitinto large molded castings on the downtube. These castings are movablethroughout the length of the post in anydirection, and are tightened on eitherside by drumkey-operated screws, form-ing a clamp (much like Pearl's method ofindirect clamping). The castings aremodular, formed to fit somewhat liketwo jigsaw puzzle pieces. Adding anoth-er casting gives you a triple tom holder;take one away, and you have a single.The L-arms are knurled and are held bylarge eye bolts. Angle is adjusted via aratchet, set loose by a T-screw. Gretschhas gone so far as to fit memory rings onthe arms for distance and drum height.These rings have tongues to correspondwith notches in the post castings, and onthe drum brackets. However, the knurl-ing on the L-arms makes the memoryrings quite hard to adjust, as well assometimes making it difficult to adjustthe arm's angle. The tom-tom bracketsresemble Ludwig's old brackets with in-ternal eye bolts. The Gretsch brackets,however, are tightened with a T-screw,cushioned with felt, backed with metalplates, and emblazoned with the Gretschlogo. Personally, I never did like the eyebolt tom-tom mounting, though thisholder seems to do its job well, with aminimum of twisting and turning oncethe memory rings are locked in. Andthere is enough height to satisfy most alldrummers.

In this set-up, the 12" and 13" tomsmount on the bass drum, while the 14"and 15" drums are on a Creative Re-search floor stand, whose top tube is the9002 holder down tube with castings.The tube fits into a double-strut tripodbase with rubber wedge feet, and a nyloninsert at its tier. It's modelled after thenew Giant stands. There is also a memo-ry ring on the tube, minus one tongue,since there is no place on the tier joint fora tongue to locate.


The Editors are proud and hon-ored to announce the addition ofJAIMO JOHNSON and SAULGOODMAN to the Modern Drum-mer Magazine Advisory Board. Ourthanks to the new members.

EDITORS

Product Close-Up continued from page 90The 16" floor tom has three legs. The

brackets are cushioned with felt. Thelegs are hollow, flanged outwards onlyonce, and have rubber tips.

All the toms are fitted with GretschPermatone coated heads, top and bot-tom. The rack toms have a solid, punchysound, thanks to the die-cast hoops.They were all very resonant with thecoated heads. Even when changed toEvans Hydraulics, a definite pitch stillcame through. The floor tom had surpris-ing depth. It could be tuned down quitelow, and still maintain great power. Re-moval of the bottom heads gave more ofa "rock" sound, but with the same tonalclarity.

The snare drum included with theNighthawk II Plus is the 4/65; one of 15different models. It has a chromed-brassshell with ten double-ended lugs, die-cast hoops, no reinforcing bead, and acenter-throw strainer. A 5 1/2" wood-shellsnare is optional. The 20-strand snaresare tensioned at the butt end via aknurled-edge knob atop the butt casing.Plastic strips pass through small snaregates in the hoop, connecting with thethrow-off and butt ends. The throw-offside works very smoothly. I had heardthat on some Gretsch snares, the strainerhad a tendency to throw itself off duringloud playing. This problem seems tohave been solved, thankfully. This drumalso has the twin-head, knob-operatedinternal muffler, and has Gretsch's pat-ented snap-in key holder. A hole is cut inthe drum, the drum key is inserted, and itstays there unt i l you need it. The keyholder also allows for double venting ofthe drum when the key is removed.

Fitted with a coated Permatone batter,the drum was crisp and well-defined.Response was even throughout the play-ing surface. The die-cast hoops allowedfor a solid rim shot without sounding tooboxy. The 4165 snare drum is one of theheaviest of its size!

Gretsch has renovated their hardwareline with the Giant stands. The newseries comes from Japan, and are similarto the Tama Titan line.

Two cymbal stands are included withthe kit , one straight and one boom. Bothhave double-braced, wide-stance tripodlegs with fat rubber wedge tips and hugeheight setting castings with nylon in-serts. The 4850 cymbal stand has twoheight-adjustable tiers and can extend toa maximum of 62". The 4852 boom standhas one height-adjustable tier and a 33"-long boom arm. The arm has a threadedweight on the end, and the same ratchettilter as the 4850. These cymbal standsare both very stable. The straight standfolds to 29", while the boom stand com-pacts to 37" (which may not be enough tofit in some trap cases).

The 4988 snare stand also has double-braced tripod legs, and a nylon insert atits height joint. It has the typical basketdesign using a capstan nut on a threadedshaft to close in on the drum. Angle isadjusted by a ratchet tilter which is verysmooth, and again, the stand is strongand stable.

The 4849 hi-hat has double-strut legsand an externally-adjusted compressionspring. The footboard is hinged heel witha movable toe stop. It mates with thepulley via a leather strap wrappedaround a rivet rod. The base of the standhas two holes into which thin rods fromthe bottom of the pedal's heel plate con-nect. There is also a knob-operated spurat the base. The height tube has a memo-ry clamp and a plastic cup at its top witha till screw. I must admit that this hi-hatstand had one of the worst actions I'veever felt, probably due to a binding-up inthe pull shaft. Adjusting the spring reallymade no difference. Perhaps Gretschshould revert back to their old model hi-hat. It worked a lot better.

Last, but not least, we have the Giantbass drum pedal, practically an exactreplica of the now-outdated Pearl 810. Ithas a hinged-heel footboard with an ad-justable toe stop and a synthetic linkagestrap. Tension is achieved by an expan-sion spring stretched upward above theright side of the pedal. The footboardangle is adjustable, which in turn, adjustsbeater travel. But the linkage strap is tooshort. You have to deal with a footboardangle that is much too great to get thebeater a fair distance from the head. Atthe base of the curved frame are twosprung spurs. Pedal mounting is done bya block pressure plate, adjusted down tothe hoop by a threaded knob. It is notone of the easiest methods around. Anextremely hard felt beater is included.The action is good, despite the acutefootboard angle. Discounting its otherminor problems, the pedal is okay.

The Nighthawk II Plus kit reviewedwas finished in Walnut veneer, whichwas glossed beautifully with no visualdefects. Gretsch also has natural mapleand red rosewood finishes available,and, at a slightly lower cost ($2,403),white or black plastic covering. Foryears, Tony Williams has been usingGretsch kits in a Canary Yellow cover-ing. I'm told the finish will be availableto the public in the near future. There iseven an option to order the kit withouthardware, reducing retail by $440.

The new Gretsch catalog lists 29 dif-ferent drum kit configurations. As I saidbefore, after almost 100 years, Gretsch isstill going strong. Die-hard fans of theGretsch Sound will be happy to knowthat the Sound has not changed, and thatthe quality craftsmanship is in keepingwith the Gretsch tradition.

them. Later on, I'd like to get into somekind of tutoring. A very informal type. Ihaven't had any formal training myselfand I don't read, but a lot of people haveasked me about that. That's caused meto think about it for the future. Thechallenge would be getting the studentsto come to Texas. If I'm going to be onthe road, I want to do concerts ratherthan travel all over the place to teach.SF: What do you do at your clinics?TA: I'm really very open. I don't have abasic format. I just ask the people whatthey're interested in. Most of the timethey'll be interested in a certain part of asong and want me to play it. Or, I'll dothree minutes of solo. I like to leave itopen to audience preference. It's alwaysworked pretty good for me that way. I'dlike to do that exclusively for awhile, if Icould get it to where I could makeenough money from it.SF: Guitarist Robert Fripp has been writ-ing a series of articles which basicallysay that it is a losing proposition for aband to go on the road. How do you feelabout that? Is that accurate?TA: As far as Robert Fripp's con-cerned—definitely. He was with KingCrimson. At that point King Crimsonnever really did break real big, did they?They were never known as a concertband because they didn't sound thatgood. It was hard. I've got all the respectin the world for Fripp. I think he's a realpioneer. I think his element is the studio.I think that fact is reflected in the amountof money that he's earned on the road.But the road is where my livelihood is! Imake some money off records, but most-ly from playing on the road. A combina-tion of the two is ideal. Get a hot albumand go out and do a hot tour. If you'resmart, and you know what you're doing,and you've got some people behindyou—including the record company—then the money that you make on theroad is yours. Nobody gets a piece ofthat except the agent that booked thetour. It's up to your perseverance andyour know-how to make the money andget it home without spending it all outthere trying to make it. It's harder nowthan it ever has been, but it 's still being

Aldridge continued from page 54 done.SF: Do professional musicians at yourlevel get hit hard by taxes?TA: Oh God! Yeah, you might say that.SF: Is there anything you can do to avoidthat?TA: Just make a whole lot more money.SF: How about diversifying your in-come?TA: Yeah. In my situation they're takingeverything I make. I'm in the most disad-vantageous tax bracket that you can bein. Young. Unmarried. I don't have anyexpenses and I'm in a 58% tax bracket.The more you make the more the gov-ernment will get. It gets to a point whereyou can really make a lot to see yourselfthrough, but you should put the majorityof the money in long-term investments.That's the only way you can get awaywith it. The only way to do that is tomake a lot of money.SF: Where do you see yourself at 60years of age?TA: I ask myself that same questionmost everyday.SF: Do you come up with an answer?TA: Yeah. A poor folks home! Music isjust like any other business. I don't carewhat business you earn your money in.You should be able to invest rock androll dollars as easily as you can investdentist dollars. It just so happens that themajority of the population in rock androll are very, very young.SF: If you could be in an ideal situationright now, what would it be?TA: I'd like to be in a four-piece band. A"band." You know? With some peoplethat are interested in putting together afour-piece band.SF: For the long haul?TA: Yeah. It's hard to put a new bandtogether these days, but it's going to beeasier for me than someone who hasn'testablished themselves in the business.There's a shortage of record companyinterest right now. Even though the busi-ness is tougher than it's ever been, thatleads me to think that it can be morelucrative than it's ever been! But what Ireally want is a band situation. I don'twant to be a bandleader. I think that ittakes a band to lead a band. I'd like afourth of the responsibili t ies. I 'velearned a lot through the years that I'dlike to apply, but I don't want to haveanything to do with putting a band to-gether, being a bandleader, or having aband named after me.SF: Do you think it's possible for a newperson to get a band together and shootfor the top?TA: Yeah, it's still possible. It's harder. Ithink that aspect of the business hasgotten a lot more complex than some ofthe other aspects. It's not hard to get arecord deal and put a band together, orget something going. It's hard to seeanything come from it. It takes a long

time, and it's hard to see anything comefrom it after all is said and done. To keepit so that there aren't so many hands inthe pie that there isn't any money left forthe band. Keep the band as self-con-tained as possible. Instead of going outand flying—go by bus. Maybe not evenby bus. The first big tour The Police did,they traveled by van. Because it's yourmoney that you're spending when you'regoing out, even though it's money thatyou're getting from the record—it's re-cuperable. You're getting it against ad-vances. That's your money and a lot ofguys don't know that. That's a manag-er's job, and many times the managershould keep the band acclimated to thatkind of stuff.SF: He probably doesn't care that much.TA: Exactly. Because he's got five, sev-en or eight bands. It's not his money atall, unless he's an equal member of theband, which most managers aren't thesedays.SF: With your new band, will you try tokeep the manager within the band?TA: Yeah, I think so. Not so much beinga player in the band, but maybe give hima piece. That way, if the band goes indebt, the manager goes in debt. If themanager makes money, the band makesmoney. And make it an exclusive thingto where he can't have five or six bands.Managing is a full-time job! There areexceptions that have conglomerations ofbands, but those bands are primarilyalready broken before the managerswere even involved. I think the days ofthe conglomerate management compa-nies are past. It takes too much thoughttime to maintain five or six bands.SF: What sort of band situation wouldyou be happiest in?TA: Well, now I have a bit of strengthbecause I've been in the business andI've been screwed every way possible.It's not that I've gotten any smarter, it'sjust that I've done everything that I cando wrong! I can enjoy a position ofbusiness because I've been hanging inhere so long. I'm still relatively young.I'm 30 years old. I feel better than I'veever felt. But, I think the best protectionfor a band is for each individual to bedependant on one another. That way youdon't have to worry about anybodyscrewing you over. I'm not paranoid ofdepending on the people I'm playingwith. I think that's what ' l l keep a bandtogether through thick and thin. I thinkTravers got to the point where he was alittle paranoid of his dependance on me.I was never overconcerned of my depen-dance on Pat, because you have to de-pend on the people that you work with.You've got to deal with them up and up.If one band member depends on the nextone, then you don't have to worry. Ev-erything in those kind of situations justtakes care of itself.

New at Namm '81

SYNDRUM/DURALINE displayedtheir electronic Syndrums, however, em-phasis again this year was placed on theDuraline Superhead. The Superhead ismade of the same synthetic material usedon bulletproof vests and is available forstudio, concert and marching.

Wayne Cohen of LATIN PERCUS-SION introduced Cosmic Percussion, abudget line of Latin American instru-ments geared for the student market. LPalso introduced The Claw, a mike holderthat attaches to the drum set, and a newconga drum cradle which folds into oneunit for easy storage.

LUDWIG'S hammered, bronze-shelled snare drums.

CARROLL SOUND has expandedtheir percussion line to include five mod-els of tubular wind chimes. This year'sdisplay consisted of numerous ethnicdrums.

Creative Percussion Design fromMILESTONE PERCUSSION featuredTherrabond shellcylinders; shells with-out glue, lamination or plastic/veneercoverings.

Pictured above from left to right areChris Slade and Ray Ayotte of STACCA-TO DRUMS. The totally unique Staccatoline features laminated fiberglass shellsspecially designed for natural projection.Another new Staccato feature is theTune-Lock for rapid head-tensionchanges.

Reported by Clint Dodd

New stands, hardware, chain-drivepedals and this uniquely shaped bassdrum, from ORANGE DRUMS ofFrance.

Fiber drum cases from ANVIL arespecially designed to fit all percussioninstruments. The line combines tough,chemically-treated fiber material withwater-resistant coatings in one light-weight package. Three models to choosefrom.

The TAMA exhibit again included awide assortment of set-ups, includingthis outfit featuring Tama's Octobansand multiple boom stands.

SOUNDYNAMICS SYSTEMS has de-veloped a drum pick-up that attachesonto the lugs of any drum set and mostpercussion instruments. The Power Bar,pictured above, holds two separate mi-crophone elements and can be adjustedto suit any playing position.

Howie Oliver of PERDEL set up amassive display of triangles designed inevery shape for a wide selection of me-tallic sounds.

STAR CASE COMPANY displayedtheir durable flight cases made of whitestucco, laminated fiberglass over ply-wood with heavy duty foam insulation.

MIRAGE AUDIO SYSTEMS featuredtheir new Short Stack Mini-MonitoringSystem which attaches to any cymbalstand. This small system can handlepower in excess of 100 watts.

LUDWIG DRUM COMPANY showedoff their new Modular Grouping andSupport System, designed to minimizeset-up space.

Oscar Mediros of TROPICAL MUSICexhibits the new Big Juggs drumset fea-turing professional quality at competitiveprices.

SOUND CONCEPTS presented TheKicker, a sliding foot plate that fits ontoleading pedals to increase the torque andbeater volume. Spokesman Jamie Purdyclaims that bass drum volume can beincreased up to 40% with half the effort.

New to the REMO line are the Tim-panello Roto-Toms; pedal tuned percus-sion available in 12, 14, 16, and 18"diameters. The new Roto-Tom range en-compasses E below bass clef, to E abovemiddle C.

New from SPECTRASOUND weretrap tables and triangle stands. The ex-hibit also featured the popular Mark Treetubular chimes.

Pictured above are Armand Zildjian ofthe ZILDJIAN CYMBAL COMPANY(left) and newly appointed EuropeanSales Manager, Rainer Pitwon. The com-pany introduced a new edition of theirCreative Set-Ups of Famous Drummers,an informative cymbal guide with over200 suggested cymbal set-ups.

James Corder of the CORDER DRUMCOMPANY (formerly Fibes) proudlydemonstrates his drum line. The compa-ny also displayed nylon sleeve drum-sticks, marching percussion and windchimes.

Greg Oravec (left) and John Stannardof OM PERCUSSION, stand by theircreation called the Angle Chime. This sixfoot model produces a powerful triangletone when rotated. The company alsomakes wind chimes, chime ladders andother unique-sounding instruments.

SLINGERLAND presented a newacoustical mounting system, standard onall stands and mounts. Pictured is systemdesigner, Ken Stefanich.

CUSTOM MUSIC COMPANY dis-played Kori drums for the student on alimited budget. 9-ply maple shells aremade in Taiwan and are available insilver, blue and amber.

The Pressure Cooker, from GRIFFINRESEARCH AND DESIGN, is an elec-tronic practice pad kit which allows thedrummer an opportunity to practicewithout fear of an eviction notice. Theunit has outputs for tape or amplificationsystems with dual headphones.

GRETSCH exhibited their new PowerShells. These shells are 6-ply with stag-gered seams, and have a 2" difference indepth over diameter, instead of I".

PEARL introduced their new ExtenderSeries featuring an extended collar de-sign for that low-pitched, wet sound andincreased resonance. Pearl has also low-ered Roto-Toms into 8-ply, maple tom-tom shells for a greater choice of tuningand tone color.

The newly developed Rude cymbalsfrom PAISTE have been designed for theheaviest of rock drummers. These un-shaved cymbals produce a loud, roughand aggressive tone and are available inall standard sizes.

New from ROGERS was th i s 24-piecedesign featuring XL shells and a newmounting system called Multi-Stak.

The YAMAHA presentation was largerthan last year and featured many moresets. Company spokesman Ken Kramertold MD that Yamaha has a wealth ofnew equipment ideas on the drawingboard for release in '82.

Along with a variety of congas andLatin percussion, GON BOPS also intro-duced a new t i l t ing timbale stand. Anoth-er new item was a one octave set ofchromatically tuned cowbells.

DRUM WORKSHOP introduced theRackTom Mounting System uti l izing theGauger RIMS (Resonance IsolationMounting System). DW shells are 6-ply,rock maple with another 6-ply reinforc-ing ring laminated into each end of theshell. The company has also expandedits accessory line.

SONOR DRUMS has continued its de-velopment of the 12-ply shell. The latestoffering in the Signature Series are shellsmade from Makassar ebony, reportedly,the only ebony wood drums on the mar-ket.

Geoff Howorth from MUSICAID in-troduced the Simmons V ElectronicDrum Set. These British drums can beprogrammed to project a studio soundwith many variables. The set can also beplugged into any recording or amplifica-tion system.

PREMIER has replaced the 6000 Se-ries with the new Sound Wave Seriesfeaturing an improved lug design. Pre-mier has also reduced the height of theshell over the head surface.

Drumming great Joe Morello exploresthe possibilities of the Add-A-Tone per-cussion kit at the MEISEL MUSICbooth. Add-A-Tone is an acrylic cham-ber that fits against the inside wall of theshell for additional tone variation.

The Spyder Stand from CMT INDUS-TRIES is a neumatically adjustablethrone featuring 7" of height adjustment,back support and a custom designedseat. The base is available with heavy-duty, one-piece cast-aluminum legs.

A new line of Designer gig bags forsticks and cymbals was introduced byREUNION BLUES. These heavy-dutybags are made from quilted canvas andleather with protective linings, and areavailable in all sizes.

Cannon-Toms from UNIVERSALPERCUSSION are 8-ply, rock maplewith 8" diameters. Depths range from 6to 20" with no reinforcing hoops formaximum resonance. Cannon-Tomsmount onto heavy-duty cymbal standsvia Tama's Multi-Clamp.

Marty Cohen of AMBICO with newCamber Pre-Pack cymbals, drumsticksand a wide variety of cymbal and sticktotes.

ALSO ON DISPLAY

AQUARIAN ACCESSORIES: Syn-thetic drumsticks and a new Super Cym-bal Spring.

ASBA: French drum manufacturer re-cently entering the U.S. market. Cur-rently promoting a new line of bass drumpedals.

CALATO/REGAL TIP: New line ofdrum sticks for marching band madefrom hand selected hickory and featuringa heftier neck and shaft.

CALZONE CASE COMPANY: Highgrade fibre cases, precision formed withnickel-plated steel riviting.

DEAN MARKLEY STIX: Unfinishedhickory drumsticks, oil soaked.

DECATUR MALLETS: Full line ofmarching mallet percussion and new car-riers for bells, vibes and xylophone.

EVANS HEADS: Wide variety ofheads. Popular line of black drum headsnow available in sizes 6-28".

GRETSCH: Italian made UFIP cym-bals; bells and gongs; Sheng tuned metal-lic plates.

HEART TREE INSTRUMENTS:Handmade wooden percussion accesso-ries made from Michigan Red Oak. Ka-limbas (thumb pianos); Samba whistles.

IMC: Hondo drums; 6-ply Koreanmade equipment for the serious, yet bud-get-minded drummer.

MUSIC SALES CORP: Quiet-ToneMutes; practice pads with spring clipswhich attach to the hoop over the drumhead for quiet practice.

PRO-LINE RISERS: Carpeted drumrisers built on solid steel frames. Severalsizes available.

REMO/PRO-MARK: Wide selectionof drumheads; Vic Firth mallets andsticks; Pro-Mark percussion accessories.

ROLLERS USA: 15 models of hand-made, hickory drumsticks.

SILVERLINE CASES: Imported, vul-canized fiber trap cases.

SILVERSTREET: Deadringer har-monic hoops; Hot Rods synthetic drum-sticks; Hot Pads, pocket-sized practicepads.

STAR INSTRUMENTS: Synare elec-tronic drums; new 4 octave (C-C) elec-tronic vibraphone with polyphonic syn-thesizer.

VAUGHNCRAFT: Rotating windchimes; handmade woodblocks andsparking tambourine.

VISCOUNT: Tuned percussion fromthe U.K.

JIM KELTNER

TERRY BOZZIO

ED BLACKWELL

PLUS: SONNY GREEREVOLUTION OF THEDRUM SET—PART 1

October 1981 - Modern Drummer Magazine

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