1984 MD interview: Ronald Shannon Jackson

March 4, 2012
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Here are some excerpts from an interview I reread many times on the long bus rides on drum corps tour, about the great avant-garde (that’s where he’s typically filed, anyway) drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. From […]

Best values in used cymbals

February 12, 2012
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By the way, during this recent bout of eBay-trawling, I noticed that the best deals on used cymbals appear to be: Dirty, filthy old Paiste 2002’s – A lot of drummers have the bad habit […]

Three Paiste cymbals

February 11, 2012
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UPDATE: I think I’ve correctly ID’d one of the other cymbals. I’ve been on a vintage Paiste cymbal-buying kick recently. Here are the findings on my finds: 22″ Formula 602 Dark Ride – circa 1975-76 […]

HFS

February 8, 2012
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Woof. Whew, the 602 Dark Ride arrived, and it’s really something. I knew it was going to be a giant slab of ’70’s; the cymbal equivalent of either a Maserati Ghibli (pictured), or a Buick […]

Cymbal post coming up

February 4, 2012
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We don’t write much about gear around here- there’s something of an epidemic of misplaced priorities surrounding the topic. But I’ve been on a cymbal-buying kick the past couple of weeks- a heavyish vintage Paiste […]

Sabian Raw Ride in action

November 30, 2011
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I finally got to record with the 22″ Sabian Raw Ride I was so excited tell you about awhile back. I’d say it has an unmistakable “A” sound- neutral-seeming, but very pretty, with a lot […]

Putting together a jazz drum set

November 7, 2011
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The Gretsch Catalinas on my 2010 Europe tour. A good point in the comments of the How to be a jazz drummer post- the sound of your instrument is very important. If you’ve been playing […]

Billy Higgins’ instrument

September 30, 2011
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Here’s a nice follow up on my recent Billy Higgins solo analysis. I was just surfing around and getting discouraged at how little of value I was coming across, when I stumbled across this 2000 […]

Still loving Sabian AA’s

September 12, 2011
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I continue to be very impressed and excited by what Sabian is doing with their AA line. I’ve long felt the A. line of Zildjian cymbals- and by association, the AA’s- to be in decline, […]

80″ Gong

May 18, 2011
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I have nothing to add. It’s an 80″ gong. Cost is $23,000, which has to make it one of the more expensive instruments in the world for the number of notes that are going to […]

Sabian AA’s are amazing

April 9, 2011
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I just received my 22″ Sabian AA Raw Ride (purchased blind on Ebay) in the mail the other day, and continue to be really impressed by the quality of the AA’s- these beautifully refined-sounding cymbals […]

Zildjian cymbal set-ups of the 70’s

March 15, 2011
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In the mid-70’s the Zildjian cymbal company put out what has become a classic booklet of cymbal set-ups of their pro endorsers. Who were all using those same bright, middle-of -the-road 70’s A’s across a […]