On the Road Again

Zach Alford is in rehearsal with Gwen Stefani preparing for her "Sweet Escape" Tour that kicks off April 21st in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alford toured with Stefani in 1995, and has also put in tours of duty with the B52's, David Bowie, and Bruce Springsteen. Joining Alford in the rhythm section will be bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, who has played with Bowie for many years. Stefani appeared last night on American Idol, giving advice to the singing contestants on the American TV program, and is scheduled to perform tonight on the mega-hit show.

Percussion Discussion

Steve Gadd on jazz from the Musician's Friend exclusive interview: "There are guys out there that can play it and the guys that are playing it have to have a real passion for it. They've got to go and listen to the guys that have done it before them. And it will go on because there is something about their love for it that they can't explain. They have to search it out now, because when I was growing up, it was what was happening, it was like readily available. A lot of the guys that have played it have passed on, but their passion and love for it will carry the torch for other people."

Pearl Reference Series - Top Shelf Traps

When Gene Okamoto and his cohorts at Pearl set out to create the ultimate drum set, they knew just where to start—with the Masterworks Series. Masterworks drums allow the drummer to create the kit of his or her dreams by choosing the wood type (either alone or blended), thickness, bearing edge, hardware, and color of each drum.
Reference drums are for players who want a perfectly matched set of premium drums without deciding all the details of their construction. Lessons were learned from other series—the sound characteristics of wood from Masters, and how blending wood types affects the sound from Masterworks.
Quest for perfection
It was known from Masters that maple has a very smooth frequency response with essentially equal amounts of lows, mids, and highs and very good projection due to its hardness. African mahogany has very strong lows and rich (think vintage) sound, but because it is relatively soft, projection is reduced. A 100% maple drum has great all-purpose sound. An all birch drum produces a natural EQ sound (boosted lows and highs) that’s great for recording and live applications requiring more cut. An all African mahogany drum produces a warm, rich sound that is ideal for near-field applications.
From Masterworks, the Pearl team discovered that the inner ply influences the sound the most. Adding birch to the inner ply gives the drum more cut and projection while African mahogany adds warmth and depth to the sound. Thicker shells make drums louder but also make the pitch go up. To make a drum that’s loud AND warm (especially useful for bass drums and floor toms), they added African mahogany to the inner plies with sensational results.
What Okamoto and company didn’t know, however, was how much birch and African mahogany was optimum and what was the optimum thickness of each size of drum. To find out, every combination of shell thickness from four to ten plies with two to eight inner plies of birch and African mahogany were made. Each size was carefully tuned and evaluated by Pearl’s staff of pro drummers using “control” samples made of 100% maple as a reference. It was soon discovered that the 12” all maple tom sounded the best and was the ideal “pivot” point for smaller toms with birch inner plies and larger toms with African mahogany inner plies.
As time went on, “winners” emerged in each size, which were assembled into a kit. The results were incredible! For the first time, a drum set was designed with each drum optimized for sound rather than made with one wood and thickness cookie-cutter-style.
Next came the hardware. Optimount tom holders were used for absolute tom stability with minimal damping. The floor toms use LB-200 bridge leg brackets with rubber gaskets for minimal shell contact. For bass drums, BRL-300 swivel lugs with stainless steel tension rods and CW-300 claws provide consistent tuning and perfect head seating. Snares feature die-cast hoops, stainless steel tension rods, and BK-55 swivel lugs for ideal head seating and tuning.
A clear edge
The next step was to perfect the bearing edges (where the shell contacts the drumhead). Pearl’s normal bearing edge is 45° from the inside out with a 45° backcut with the peak over the second ply from the outside. This edge gives a good balance of attack and fullness, but to see if there was something better, bearing edges of all angles were tried.
Gene Okamoto describes one of the “Eureka moments” during the process of listening to drums with various bearing edges as follows: “We were trying to come up with the perfect bearing edges for the low toms and bass drum, and nothing was quite working. I had to take a break and walked out into the hallway. It was then that I heard amazing low–frequency drum sounds coming from the testing room. I rushed back in and found that the research team was trying out round bearing edges. Everyone agreed that we had found the sound we were looking for.”
Accordingly, rounded bearing edges are used for the rack toms 14” and larger, floor toms, and bass. Toms measuring 13” and smaller are cut with 45° bearing edges to achieve maximum punch.
Sound check
The sound of the Five-piece Reference fusion configuration that Pearl sent me for testing was simply stunning. The higher toms had intense focus and cut, while the lower toms had astounding depth and resonant low-end power. The bass drum was among the very best I’ve ever played, with the kind of huge, enveloping warm presence that was felt as well as heard.
With 20 plies (6 inner plies of birch are surrounded by 14 plies of maple) the snare had tone that exploded like a cannon when hit hard, yet could express the quietest press rolls and grace notes. Its radical thick-shelled design ensures that all the snare’s sonic energy goes into moving air and creating sound, not excess vibration.
Star power
Reference drums attracted top players from the outset. Chad Smith used the first complete Reference set to record the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Grammy-winning Stadium Arcadium album, as well as on subsequent releases by the Dixie Chicks. Since then, the Reference Series has won many fans among the world's greatest drummers, including Dennis Chambers and Omar Hakim. There is a bunch of great stuff on Reference drums on Pearl's site, including entertaining video footage of Chambers and Hakim putting a Reference kit to the test, with some additional commentary by Morgan Rose of Sevendust.

Samurai Spirit: Yamaha's Musashi Snare

Specialty and custom snare drums are huge these days - especially considering that most of them are smaller-than-average drums. Consider the Musashi snare from Yamaha. Named after a legendary 17th century Japanese samurai warrior regarded by many as the greatest swordsman in history, it's a beautifully-crafted little drum that speaks loud. I had the opportunity to try out the 6-1/2" x 13" version of the Musashi (it also comes in a 6" x 12" size). This instrument, with its dark-stained 7-ply oak shell, had lots of personality both visually and sonically. Oak produces plenty of volume, and this snare was no exception. The tone was bright and aggressive as you might expect, though with a nice warmth and woody quality, no doubt in part to its 6-1/2" depth. The drum had a full-sounding sweet spot, and was capable of producing resonant, lightning-like rim shots. The Musashi would be a natural for reggae and Latin styles (the 12" version also thoughtfully includes a "side-stick wedge" for playing side-stick patterns). With its smaller footprint it would also make a killer jazz snare, though it also proved capable of the volume demanded by rockers. The Musashi cuts like the sword of the warrior whose name it bears.

Drum Track of the Week

"Mojo Cubano" from the year 2000 release Best Kept Secret by Ralph Irizarry & Timbalaye. Timbalaye, along with Son Cafe, is one of the bands lead by Timbale maestro Ralph Irizarry. From Puerto Rico, Izirarry spent 13 years in Ruben Blade's band, also working with artists including Paul Simon, Cachao, and Harry Belefonte, among others . On this cut, Irizarry unleashes a hurricane-like timbale solo over a repeating montuno piano riff. Guest artist Giovanni Hidalgo responds with one his trademark unbelievable conga solos. They then kick the riff into double-time with horn kicks pushing the stakes higher. Absolutely smokin' Latin jazz.

Percussion Discussion

Carlos Santana on Michael Shrieve: "I owe Michael a lot; He's the one who turned me onto John Coltrane and Miles Davis. I just wanted to play blues until Michael came. He opened my eyes and my ears and my heart to a lot of things. Some drummers only have chops, but Michael Shrieve has vision. Michael is like a box of crayons; he has all the colors."

TRAP - The Rhythmic Arts Project

The grooves that make you move can also help to heal you—drummer Eddie Tuduri is living proof. Eddie had a burgeoning music career working with major rock artists when his life was instantly changed in a body-surfing accident in 1997. Totally paralyzed for a time, as soon as sensation began returning to his hands he did what any serious drummer would do—he asked for a pair of drumsticks.
While hospitalized, Eddie found that making rhythms was very healing and, with characteristic generosity of spirit, shared his discovery with other patients in the ward. Soon he had an entire “band” of accident victims and people with chronic diseases and disabilities playing enthusiastically along with him. It was evident to both the staff and patients that these impromptu rhythm sessions seemed to improve skills like patience, coordination, and short-term memory skills.
By the time Tuduri left the hospital—walking out on his own after six weeks—he was the head of a bona-fide program that was helping people with a wide range of mobility, speech, and developmental disabilities. Since then TRAP has mushroomed to include nearly 40 facilities in eight states, and countless in-home applications using the Parent TRAP which is designed to enhance home schooling and therapies for kids.
TRAP uses percussion instruments to aid in leaning concepts like counting, learning left from right, colors, shapes and so much more, plus it is FUN! A step-by-step exercise book is included with each package to explain how to implement the program.
Pearl Drums has enjoyed a two year alliance with TRAP committing their considerable manufacturing and marketing powers to the project. The various Pearl TRAP percussion packages are ideal for organizing ongoing therapeutic drumming sessions in clinical, institutional, or home settings. Learn more by visiting www.traponline.com.

My top 3 drum performances of 2006

1. Billy Kilson with Chris Botti at the Britt Music Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon. I had heard of Kilson, but this was the first time I'd heard him play. Freakin' awesome. A ten-handed powerhouse. The rest of trumpeter Botti's band were also stars in their own right - Billy Childs on keyboards, New York studio ace bassist James Genus, and guitarist extraordinaire Mark Whitfield.
   
2. George Recile with Bob Dylan at the Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles. Recile has been in Dylan's touring band since 2002, and with understated elegance provided the perfect anchor to the band's rhythm section. Out of Hammond, LA, Recile has worked with many pivotal musicians in the New Orleans music scene. He obviously had a lot of chops, but kept most of them on the shelf, flawlessly navigating the deep-pocket blues shuffles and laid-back rock riffs that Dylan's music calls for.
3. Manas Itene with Michael Franti & Spearhead, at the Britt Music Fest in Jacksonville Or. Itene hails from Nigeria, West Africa, where he played with the Mandators, Nigeria's top reggae band, as well as other famous Nigerian acts like Sonny Okusons and Majek Fashek. Another groove merchant, Itene kept the band rocking with heavy roots-reggae and pulsing highlife and rock riffs. He also contributed vocally, covering most of the "toasting" and rap on their hip-hop and dancehall material. A high-energy individual.