That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

� Cymbals: In early jazz, one cymbal was called a choke cymbal. A drummer
would accent key moments in the music by striking the cymbal for a
dramatic crash, then choking it with his hand. The abrupt sound made
an exclamation point. In swing and bebop, drummers added more cymbals
and expanded their role, keeping steady time or adding crashes to
accent emotional high points.
Kits also included wood blocks, cowbells, and other percussive paraphernalia,
mounted atop the bass drum. By the ’30s, drummers had so much hardware
that a separate metal rack was added to hold these accessories. Jazz
drum sets became known as trap drums, for the contraptions kept in the tray.
Photos document the evolution of the drum set through jazz’s history. Bass
drums became much smaller and portable for road trips; they produced a
tighter sound suited to up-tempo swing and bebop. Snare drums, originally
made from bent, laminated wood, were later made from steel, which produced
a crisper, louder sound. Ludwig’s 1920s “Black Beauty” snare, made
of gunmetal engraved with a scroll pattern, became a coveted item that’s
still manufactured and popular today.
Drummers eventually added more cymbals, as well as one or two tom-toms,
often mounted atop the bass drum. Tom-toms have proportions similar to
a bass drum but are much smaller and provide a range of higher pitches,
depending on their size and tuning. Initially, these were Chinese drums with
painted heads that couldn’t be tuned. Eventually, a floor tom on legs became
standard as well. Later, tom-toms were made more like snare drums, only
deeper, and usually from bent wood, not steel.
Cymbals became bigger in the 1930s and ’40s, as drummers began to “ride”
them to keep time. The high-hat — a pair of cymbals on a metal stand
clapped together by a pedal — started out as one cymbal struck by an extension
of the bass drum pedal, then became a pair of cymbals mounted within
a foot pedal, and finally the high-hat that’s one of a jazz drummer’s essential
tools today. In Count Basie’s orchestra beginning in the 1930s, drummer Jo
Jones became a master of subtle high-hat rhythms and sounds.
Drums in modern times
By the 1940s, bebop drummers such as Kenny Clarke used drum sets that
are essentially the same as most jazz players use today. (Check out Chapter 7
for bebop details.) Drums now come in a variety of materials (wood, metal,
carbon fiber), and various drummers (like Buddy Rich) expanded their drum
sets to suit their personal needs. However, the basic drum set includes
� Bass drum (with pedal)
� Snare drum
� Mounted tom-tom
Chapter 4: Tools of the Trade: The Instruments of Jazz
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