Cocktail Drum Experiment

Cocktail drum kits are remarkably portable and fun for rockabilly, folk, and rock, but I was wondering how well they would work for me in a contemporary jazz style, similar to how the great drummer. Peter Erskine has used his Yamaha cocktail set. Would the the limited number of drum "voices" be a hindrance? To find out, I recorded piano and bass parts (Casio PX310) in a pseudo- "Bill Evans Trio" style (the tune is Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance"), then added the drum part using a partially-homemade cocktail set . Amazingly, it felt comfortable and sounded the way I do on a full set. Your comments and reactions are welcome!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• cocktail drum
• cocktaildrum
• jazz
• trio
• improvisation
• percussion
• multitrack
• drumming
• Casio
• Privia
• DiVeglia
• PDP
• drummer
• drum
• Zildjian

[GregTyson]

Thankd for this most interesting post. I play piano with a bassist and we want to include a drummer but the issue is always conplicated by the large drum kits that drummers have. You've demonstrated the 'cocktail' kit brilliantly. Very nice playing all round. Thanks again.

[nemhserf2001]

@GregTyson Glad the "experiment" was useful to you. It's true that the vertical nature of a cocktail kit takes up a lot less space than a traditional kit, and is much easier/quicker to get on and off the bandstand. Musically speaking, the jazz drummer needs to really think about how to get a variety of sounds from fewer kit components, and to compensate for the lack of the traditional high-hat "chick" sound on the offbeats. If you use a cocktail drummer, let us know how it works out for you.

[nemhserf2001]

Actually, I played all the parts myself, including the drums. Some Erskine and Rich concepts may creep into my subconscious but it's my own sticks or brushes doing the actual playing! And, boy, would I be happy if other people mistook my playing for Peter Erskine or Buddy Rich!

[jomarcavalcanti]

What a great work you did here sir.. much respect :)

[terryfwicks]

Thank you!

[dmcguire70]

Sounds like u ripped off some of the sections from Peter Erskine and Buddy Rich .If thats the case then you should say so and not mislead ppl into thinking this is you.

:-)