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.
Jim Chapin
It's a steamy tropical night in South Florida. I'm sitting out on Jim Chapin's lanai, watching the eighty-one-year-old drummer rip off amazing licks on his ever-present practice pad while the tree frogs and locusts in the backyard provide a symphonic…
Chad Chapin of Tait
"It's definitely hotter when you have blood running in the rhythm section," says Tait drummer Chad Chapin. Chapin and his bass-wielding brother Lonnie began playing together twenty-two years ago at their dad's church in Bend, Oregon. "We'd go down to…
Oliver Charles
It wasn't the Gospel songs that Oliver Charles was asked to play during The Blind Boys Of Alabama and Ben Harper sessions last spring that knocked him for a loop. It was the singers themselves. "The music fit in with…
Stephen Chopek
Who the heck is Stephen Chopek? Where did this guy come from? Just ask Charlie Hunter. You know, that famous guy on Blue Note who plays the eight-string guitar. A couple of years ago Chopek was studying with New York…
Jim Christie
Jim Christie will play just about anything. "I love playing polkas," he says. "I'll play Norte-o music all day long. I love playing straight-ahead jazz. I love playing country. I like playing anything, as long as it's good." Just as…
Mike Clark
Ironically, jazzman Mike Clark will go down in history as the guy who cut one of the slickest funk tracks in history, "Actual Proof." Recorded in the '70s with Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, it featured a nimble Clark splitting up running…
Aaron Comess of Spin Doctors
When Spin Doctors parted ways with Epic Records several years ago, many wondered if we'd ever see another album from the guys who seemed to rule the early-'90s airwaves. After instant initial success, the future turned iffy, to say the…
Tre Cool: Update
By just looking at Tre Cool you can tell there's a touch of the devil in him. Listening to Warning, the latest collection of tunes he and his Green Day cohorts put out in October, it's obvious Beelzebub rears his…
Ken Coomer of Wilco
For the past five years Wilco has been the ideal forum for Ken Coomer's experimentation. Within the band's swirling mix, which touches on The Beatles, Hank Williams, and many points between, Coomer's ability to play just what's required - and…
Stewart Copeland: An Interview
Following are excerpts and additional coverage from the Stewart Copeland feature in the November, 2001 issue of Modern Drummer. A case can be made that Stewart Copeland is the single most influential drummer of the last twenty-plus years. A…
Jody Cortez: Breathing Life Into Loops
Jody Cortez has recently released a CD of loops under the banner King Cortez called Killer Loops (Big Fish Audio). "It encompasses performances in Latin, bebop, jazz, reggae, rock, funk, R&B, hip-hop, and straight-ahead rock," Cortez says. (It's available online…
Matthew Cross: Orange 9MM's Stickman Is No Pretender
Recording Pretend I'm Human proved to be a radical departure for Orange 9MM drummer Matthew Cross, an old hand at laying out well-rehearsed rhythm tracks while sitting behind the glass. "We demoed like seventy songs in the past year and…
Nick D'Virgilio
Phil Collins began his successful musical career as the exciting young drummer for an obscure prog band from England called Genesis. He eventually worked his way out from behind the drumkit to center stage as the lead vocalist. As lead…
Duduka Da Fonseca: Samba Deep
As a teenager growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Duduka Da Fonseca witnessed Brazil's bossa nova revolution firsthand. With renowned drummer Joao Palma as a neighbor, Duduka was accepted into an inner circle of drummers including Edison Machado, Dom Um…
