Being the house drummer for Los Angeles’ longest-running (and only) jazz jam at the late Billy Higgins’ non-profit The World Stage means playing music without or without charts, including original music, at the drop of a hat. We have many name and not-so-name high-level players sitting in on a regular basis. This isn’t the type of gig that will make a person rich, but the immense riches to be had just by keeping the rust off my jazz chops is priceless! Or at least I thought so until a short time ago….
Read moreThis full dress drum set dates back to the mid fifties, and its beautiful "fan" decor is made of painted engravings and inlaid brilliants ... Three ply shell with re rings, rounded bearing edge ... Nickel-plated zamack lugs, polished aluminum hoops and nickel-plated brass rods... Metric sizes GC 60cm (23.6") / CC 35cm (13.8") / Tom 30cm (11.8")... and calf skins.
I've completely restored this drum set which was shown during the exhibition "Roll & Swing, the drum set's birth in France" at the MUPOP french museum.
Read moreThe Ludwig Standard drums were introduced in ’68 to compete with the lower value import drums made overseas. The unique thing about Ludwig Standard drums is that its shell was the exact mold found in all classic shells of that time. Consumers were getting quality grade shells offering the Ludwig signature sound. However, the standard series used less expensive hardware cutting the overhead cost. Standard series drums had most essentials belonging to a drum outfit distinctly unique to this line. Everything from utility hardware, shell hardware, finishes and badges. Standard drums were also the first to feature the Granitone sound enhancement coating on the inside of the shell. Standard drums debuted with 3 different configuration styles and 15 finishes.
Read moreSteve Maxwell informed me last year that he was adding me to The Craviotto Drum Co. Education Endorsers group. That alone is a great honor but along with this honor I was also awarded a Craviotto snare drum of my choice!
Read moreTodd Sucherman will play on Late Night w Seth Myers in December
Read moreI was referred to your site by Emory Grodek to list a drummer's swap meet 12/1/18 in the Buffalo NY area. It is from 12-5pm at The Music Room at 367 Main St East Aurora NY 14052. FREE Admission, vendor space available. For more information please feel free to email sk8ahead@yahoo.com. Thank you for sharing...
Read moreOn August 25th 2018, The Dropkick Murphys rocked out the brand new MGM Grand Casino in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. The outdoor weekend performance was a benefit concert for the Thomas J. Sullivan Foundation. Gunnery Sergeant Sullivan was killed on July 16, 2015 in a domestic terror attack while stationed at the Naval Reserve Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Springfield native Sullivan was attempting to save his fellow Marines when he was fatally shot during the assault.
Read moreI had once heard African drumming master Baba Olatunji say that the relationship to his djembe was a "trinity". The soul of the tree it was carved from, the spirit of the animal whose skin made the head, and Baba's heart in performing with it were a sacred triangle of sorts.
Read moreATTACK DRUMHEADS is now under new ownership. A team of industry veterans led by Jim Bickley, former vice president of Universal Percussion; Robbie McFarland, general manager of Hubbard Music retail stores; and Mark Tirabassi, president of Mavi Inc. has launched a new wholesale company, Cardinal Percussion. In addition to relaunching, rebranding, and retooling Attack Drumheads, Cardinal Percussion will wholesale and distribute many of the drumming industry's most popular brands of accessories. Headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio, Cardinal will also feature a complete line of Cardinal Percussion-branded small goods.
Read moreThis one is a blast from the past that I really never did an article about. This drum is on pgs. 14-15 in my book: THE CUROTTO COLLECTION. The story behind the purchase of this drum took a few turns for the worse before I was able to get involved. This drum was listed on EBay in the early 2000s. There were a number of bids, a lot of interest and the drum was reaching a pretty good price. All of a sudden a number of bidders withdrew their bids because someone had posted to the seller that his drum was a “6-lug” drum.
Read moreWhen I was a young professional musician, I had a reputation of being extravagant. It's a bit ironic because I'm a total cheap-skate. While I was making a pretty good living from drums, I still had to live frugally. I also had to allocated funds carefully. The main areas of contention were instruments and transportation. You see, I had very expensive drums and a fairly expensive car, whereas many of my peers made do with lesser equipment. There's a simple reason for that: TCB.
Read moreNEW ORLEANS (October 11, 2018) — The New Orleans Jazz Museum will debut a new exhibition, Drumsville!: Evolution of the New Orleans Beat. Launching on November 8, 2018, the exhibit will celebrate both the New Orleans Tricentennial and International Drum Month, along with the development of the drum kit in New Orleans and the ongoing evolution of rich local drumming traditions.
Read moreLudwig(WFL) started making cocktail drums in the 50’s as a means for singers and lounge acts to quickly get on and off a stage using up as little space as they could. Several different models were made including a set that included a 4x13 snare drum that attached to the side of the drum. This model was known as the Las Vegas model and was made around 1959. Other models had the main drum that relied on a set of snares that pushed up against the head to create a snare effect. A baffle was used inside to separate the bass drum sound from the snare sound. Ludwig’s stand up cocktail drums came in a 16x24 size and some of the lower end models were single headed leaving the bottom open.
Read moreOver the 14 years I’ve known Keiko, she has shared countless Elvin stories. One reoccurring story was about a collection of Elvin’s promotional posters they’d collected in their 30 plus years of touring the world. They came up in conversation many times, but we never discussed them in much detail. Earlier this year, the posters came up again. I eventually purchased the posters along with a forgotten cache of Elvin’s gear that had been stored in a friends garage in New Jersey (more about that soon). The posters arrived in a couple of Elvin’s old Jazz Machine trap cases. There were about 100 unique posters, photos and paintings, many of them with multiples, that Elvin and Keiko personally collected from gigs spanning 4 decades. They were collected from all over Europe, Asia, South America and the US.
Read moreI recently had an idea after looking at some old black and white vintage drummer photos. What I wanted to do was set up a photo shoot with one of my vintage kits and pose like the old drummers did in those cool promotional photos.
Read moreIn 1976 he moved to Los Angeles, California to play with bassist Glen Cornick of Jethro Tull…Later replaced by Foreigner’s Bruce Trien. He played with legendary session piano player Nicky Hopkins who had worked with the Rolling’s Stones, The Who, The Beatles and Jeff Beck. Ken also performed with ‘Badfinger’ - 1977 -1978, and Off-Broadway from 1978 to 1984. The original members of Off Broadway have since re-grouped, and are still playing to this day. Ken also enjoys sharing stories from his LA studio days, and his brushes with fame – Including: Tom Petty, Cher, Gregg Allman, and Keith Richards.
Read more“Antonio Sanchez remains one of the greatest drummers of this or any era. It is thrilling to get on the bandstand with Antonio every night. You just can't wait to play with him”. —Pet Metheny
Read moreRick Smith presented another successful vintage and custom drum show at The Sphinx Shriners Center in Newington, Connecticut. This years’ featured clinician’s were Gregg Bissonette and Richie Morales.
Read moreYou’ll notice in this issue that there are many more links to DrumSellers.com, the new classifieds and forum for Not So Modern Drummer. I am incorporating drumsellers.com ads into this monthly email publication. All the ads you see in this issue were posted for free. If you want to advertise your items for sale to the 60,000 subscribers of Not So Modern Drummer, please join drumsellers.com, post your listing there for free, then contact me via email about placing your ad in this monthly email. It’s $5 per ad.
Several well known collectors are now posting a lot of their gear at DrumSellers: Phil Wilson and Gary Astridge to drop a couple of names. Several manufacturers just started posting ads: Walberg & Auge Drums, Alternate Mode/Kat, Queen City Drums, Hayward Custom Drums. I’m inviting all retailers to use DrumSellers.com, whether brick and mortar or online dealers.
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