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Set 2 : New Orleans, klezmer

(3 drums, 2 cymbals, 2 cowbells, 1 wood-block)

Set 2 : New Orleans, klezmer
  • Description:
    • 1: small crash (13'' or 14 ")
    • 2: crash-ride (thin and small) or medium Chinese 17 "or 18''
    • I: small cowbell
    • II: medium cowbell
    • III : wood-block
    • a: Snare drum 14'' x 5''
    • b: Floor tom 14''
    • c: bass drum 28''

The primitive model of the modern drumset, a hybrid between the accomplished drumset that we know today, with all their most modern elements and the military march percussions (as the mixed musical popular New Orleans and klezmer styles, first historical stages of the jazz style).

Note the lack of hi-hat pedal, not yet invented in 1910, date of appearance of the first industrialized bass drum pedal. Warren "Baby" Dodds, the first Black recorded jazz drummer ("King Oliver Creole Jazz Band"), used this type of kit, without hi-hat until the end of his life. However he integrated the invention of the tom, which it is true that it involved little difference in playing technique than the Chinese tom tom of the origins (it is often wrongly forgotten that Asian cultural contribution which shows once again that jazz and modern drumset are far from being purely from African origin as some simplistic or ignorant historians still believe, and make them typically North American art forms, U.S.A. being the land of all migrations).

Note also the presence of two cowbells and a wood-block, used to give the "chabada" with the absence of hi-hat and ride cymbal (later invention also).

The cymbals was initially simple marching bands cymbals (crashes with medium size and thickness in general), suspended by their strap or a string on an L-rod attached to the bass drum.

The large diameter of the bass drum made it not very ergonomic to add large suspended toms above it, this is why its size reduced gradually thereafter. On the other hand, this lack of toms allowed drummers like Baby Dodds to use the bass drum rim stroke.

One of the advantage of this type of drumset with only one pedal was to play standing up (standing on one foot), which is more comfortable for the back (but less for the legs). This set is very similar to that used by contemporary Latin timbales players like Tito Puente or Jose Luis « Changuito » Quintana (if we replace the snare drum and tom by a pair of timbales).

Finally, note the snare drum tilted to the right, to simulate the position of the parade snare drum (with a strap) and thus impose the classical or military traditional drum grip technique (the jazz drummers of that time often went first through the practice in a brass band (the "marching bands", very present in New Orleans at that time)) with the stick placed between the left hand thumb, middle and ring fingers (optimizing the movement from pronation to supination of the hand). Some contemporary drummers like André Cecarelli , Steve Gadd, Al Foster , Virgil Donati, Thomas Lang, Vinnie Colaiuta and Dave Weckl still use this ancient technique systematically on their modern kit because it allows an outset to the right of the set (and their set are precisely more provided to the right).

Marc De Douvan, march 2006, augmentation and translation in English: march 2015.

© 2005 Marc de Douvan Crédits Mentions légales