Modern Drummer: The First Decade
explain to drummers what the publication was in order to be granted interviews, by 1981 publicists and record companies were calling MD to request stories about their artists. And while drummers had always experienced a certain brotherhood that didn’t always exist in other instrumental groups, Modern Drummer fostered even more of a family feeling. Spagnardi insisted that MD maintain a
good balance of drummers from every genre, and he especially wanted us to cover the legendary jazz players, many of whom were still working. The early ’80s saw cover stories on (among others) Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Tony Williams, Philly Joe Jones, Shelly Manne, and Joe Morello, along with Steve Gadd, Phil Collins, Charlie Watts, Max Weinberg, Hal Blaine, and such up-and-coming drummers as Simon Phillips, Terry Bozzio, Kenny Aronoff , Stewart Copeland, Dave Weckl, and Vinnie Colaiuta. MD went monthly in 1983, which also saw
the launch of the Modern Drummer book division. As part of his emphasis on education, Ron wanted to publish method books, and we got off to a great start with Joe Morello’s Master Studies, which was a result of the “family” that MD was creating. Danny Gottlieb, who was then with the Pat Metheny Group, had become a good friend of the magazine, and when we told him we were interested in publishing some educational material, he told us that his teacher, Morello, had a whole briefcase fi lled with exercises he had created. Gottlieb connected us with Morello, and Master Studies was the result. That book was soon followed by releases from Bob Moses, Gary
Chester, Carl Palmer, and Bill Bruford. MD also published a book by Spagnardi, The Great Jazz Drummers, which provided short profi les of sixty-two infl uential players. Scott Fish left MD in the summer of 1983,
to be replaced by Rick Van Horn, who had been contributing a column on club drumming. Shortly after, the editorial staff expanded again with the hiring of William F. Miller as an associate editor. The magazine was continuing to grow, and in the fall of 1984 Modern Drummer moved into its own building in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. Another major event that year was the launch of Modern Percussionist, a quarterly magazine that covered such topics as mallet-keyboard percussion, symphonic percussion, drum corps and marching percussion, and world percussion. Twelve issues were published over three years, and they have become highly sought-after collectors’ items. Besides being on the cutting edge of the
drumming community, Modern Drummer was also at the forefront of the publishing industry. Art director Dave Creamer became very interested in the new technology of desktop publishing. He produced the last two issues of Modern Percussionist in-house on a Macintosh computer, and then began producing Modern Drummer the same way, making it one of the fi rst national magazines to be desktop published. (Creamer was written up in Folio magazine, which is aimed at editors and publishers, for his pioneering eff orts.) MD celebrated its tenth year of publica-
tion with a special issue featuring interviews with four MD Hall of Fame drummers (Buddy Rich, Neil Peart, Steve Gadd, and Louie Bellson) and six recent Readers Poll winners.
It was the last major published interview with Rich, who died just over a year later. That issue also contained Modern Drummer’s fi rst “Sound Supplement”—a fl exible record attached to the magazine’s binding. It featured drummer Andy Newmark and studio expert Jimmy Bralower demon- strating how various drum sounds were achieved in the studio. Roy Burns, who was on the cover of MD’s
second issue and went on to write a popular column for the magazine called Concepts, recalls the impact MD had on the drumming community. “For the fi rst time, there was a magazine devoted just to drummers,” Burns says. “For years we had put up with drummer jokes and put-downs, as though we weren’t real musicians. So Modern Drummer made us feel legitimate and released us from that feeling of frustration. The psychological impact on drummers of having our own magazine was very great, especially during the fi rst ten years. It gave us something to be proud of. Also, it wasn’t just a place to show off drummers; it was a place where drummers could learn, get inspiration and ideas, and read the ideas of famous drummers who were interviewed. Modern Drummer gave an insight into the professional end of the business that had never existed before. Other magazines have copied the format, but nothing had the impact of those fi rst issues of Modern Drummer, which made drummers proud of being drummers.”
Rick Mattingly served as features editor of Modern Drummer from 1981 to 1985, senior editor from 1985 to 1989, and editor of Modern Percussionist.
56 Modern Drummer January 2016
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