Drummers
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Drum Therapy: An Introduction
by Pat Gesualdo This monthly column is designed to assist drum instructors, doctors, and teachers in helping their special-needs students and patients develop physical and cognitive functioning via the drumming art form. Each month I’ll guide you through the Drum…
What Do You Know About...Richie Hayward?
by Bob Girouard Classic Hayward A hallmark of Richie Hayward’s style is his feel. The New Orleans influence is all over his playing, especially in the way he approaches shuffles and second-line rhythms. Here are a few of the drummer’s…
"Papa" Jo Jones: Drumming’s Fearsome Father Figure
It’s been said that modern drumming made its first step towards maturity when Jo Jones arrived in New York in 1936 with the Count Basie band. Within a few years, “Papa” Jo became the idol of hundreds of drummers across…
Michael McManus
Hello, Modern Drummer readers! My name is Michael McManus and I am a twenty-three-year-old drummer from Memphis, TN. First and foremost, I would like to say that I am honored to be writing something that will be featured on the…
Roy Haynes: The Hippest Of The Hip
It’s taken the jazz community nearly half a century to catch up with the inventive and super-hip stylings of Roy Haynes — the oft-proclaimed “father of modern drumming.” Nowadays, you don’t have to look too hard to spot Haynes’ influence…
Arthur "Zutty" Singleton: True Jazz Drumming Pioneer
“We just kept the rhythm going and hardly ever took a solo.” —Zutty Singleton Zutty Singleton was born in Bunkie, Louisiana in 1898, and was basically a self-taught drummer. During his illustrious career he worked with Steve Louis, The Tuxedo…
Warren “Baby??? Dodds: The World's First Great Jazz Drummer
“Dodds was swingin’ so much, I was late an entire set. But I couldn’t leave. I sat down and just stayed.” —Philly Joe Jones “Baby taught me more than all the others. He was the first great soloist.” —Gene Krupa…
Han Bennink: Things No Drummer Has Ever Done
In his video, Solo, Dutch phenomenon Han Bennink does things no drummer has ever done in any performance, much less on video. Han ties ropes around a drumset and then crashes the drums and cymbals together like dominoes spinning in…
Honor Society’s Alex Noyes
Hey, MD. I just touched down in Newark, NJ, after five crazy-hectic months of nonstop touring. Honor Society just completed the first leg of our tour in support of our debut album, Fashionably Late, which came out in September on…
Greg Parrow of Transmit Now
Hello, drummers, this is Greg Parrow, drummer with the band Transmit Now. I’m recently home from a several months on the road—always an incredible experience, but I’ll admit it’s quite nice to be back with friends and family for…
Ray Bauduc: His Own Inimitable Style
Strongly influenced by both Baby Dodds and Zutty Singleton, Ray Bauduc was Singleton’s counterpart in the white Dixieland revival. His style was an intriguing combination of vaudeville, ragtime, and the basic New Orleans rhythms he’d grown up absorbing. Bauduc was…
Timothy B. Schmit’s Herman Matthews
Howdy, MD readers. It’s been a long time, and I think I may have to reintroduce myself. My name is Herman Matthews and I play drums. For the past seven years I’ve been laying down the foundation for the legendary…
Max Roach: Setting Standards And Raising Bars
If you were to ask any jazz historian to name who they feel is most responsible for setting the standards in bebop drumming, 99.9% of the time you’re going to get one name: Max Roach. Roach wasn’t the first drummer…
Elvin Jones: The Great Liberator
When Elvin Jones moved from his home town in Michigan to New York City in 1956, the jazz-listening world wasn’t quite ready for the drummer’s outer-space conception. His loping, circular sense of swing and abstract, barline-blurring breaks weren’t easy to…
