News
Keep up to date with the drum world via news items, interviews, lists, and more
JR Robinson and Future Youth Records Team Up to Help Youth Create World Peace Day Album
This past Monday, September 21, Future Youth Records, a nonprofit record label based in California that works with youth to create and distribute music promoting social justice—and that is spearheaded by a group of professional drummers—released their first Think Peace…
In Tribute to a Tribute: Reflections on the Modern Drummer Festival 2020
by Fred W. Gretsch This past Saturday, September 12 saw the return of one of drumming’s great events: The Modern Drummer Festival. Not held since 2011, this year’s Festival marked the 20th in its iconic history. Of course, given the…
Dafnis Prieto “Amanecer Contigo” Video Premiere
Dafnis Prieto, who will be featured in an upcoming issue of Modern Drummer, has allowed us to premiere a performance video of “Amanecer Contigo,” the leadoff track of his new album, Transparency. The album comes out on Friday, October 2,…
The Beatles to Release Official Book and Documentary Examining Their Infamous Let It Be Sessions
On August 31Callaway Arts & Entertainment and Apple Corps Ltd. are publishing The Beatles: Get Back, the first official standalone book to be released by the Beatles since The Beatles Anthology. The 240-page hardcover tells the story of the Beatles’…
Rat Scabies on the Upcoming Album by Professor and the Madman
Rat Scabies came to prominence with the Damned, the first British punk band to release a single (“New Rose,” October 1976), put out a full-length album (Damned Damned Damned, February 1977), and tour the U.S. (spring of ’77). Rat left…
Drummers on Record: Danny Gottlieb, Pedrito Martinez, Linda Pitmon
Mark Egan and Danny Gottlieb Electric Blue (Danny Gottlieb) Bassist Mark Egan and drummer Danny Gottlieb, who share a nearly fifty-year working relationship, are releasing their first-ever duo recording, Electric Blue, featuring just drums and bass. Egan and Gottlieb spent…
Remembering Quiet Riot Drummer Frankie Banali
“My passion in continuing Quiet Riot has everything to do with the fact that drumming is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Quiet Riot’s Frankie Banali told Modern Drummer in a 2015 interview. “I worked very hard and struggled a…
Ofri Nehemya on Omer Avital and Qantar’s New York Paradox
Bassist Omer Avital’s group, Qantar, offers a wealth of chops, but the premium is on soul and excitement. The Brooklyn quintet—including pianist Eden Ladin, drummer Ofri Nehemya, and dual saxophonists Alexander Levin and Asaf Yuria—are all Israeli expatriates wholly in…
Modern Drummer Festival 2020
Modern Drummer is rebooting its world-famous Drum Festival on September 12 at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time with a live-streaming event honoring the late, great Rush drummer Neil Peart. Proceeds of ticket sales will benefit brain tumor research at Cedars-Sinai…
Don Lombardi Receives PAS President’s Industry Award
Drum Channel founder Don Lombardi has received the Percussive Arts Society’s President’s Industry Award. The award is given each year to recognize outstanding leadership in the drum industry as well as significant contributions to drums, drummers, and drumming. After starting…
Jazz Great Charli Persip Passes
Charli Persip, one of the premier jazz drummers of the second half of the twentieth century, passed away on August 23 at the age of ninety-one. Persip was born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1929, and began playing on the…
Queen + Adam Lambert Share Live Performance of “The Show Must Go On”
Queen + Adam Lambert, featuring founding members Roger Taylor (drums) and Brian May (guitar), are releasing a live performance video of the song “The Show Must Go On” from their upcoming album Live Around The World, which comes out on…
Ben Hillier on Nadine Shah’s Kitchen Sink
When Nadine Shah had to leave London to look after an ailing family member while recording Kitchen Sink, she entrusted her frequent collaborator and co-writer Ben Hillier with helming the sessions on his own. Hillier is a distinguished producer and…
Widespread Panic Founding Drummer Todd Nance Passes
This past week, Todd Nance, founding drummer with the band Widespread Panic, passed away from “sudden and unexpectedly severe complications of a chronic illness,” according to his family. Modern Drummer wrote about Nance in 2000—when asked in that piece to…
