Steve Smith's
Drum Talk: Drums du Jour
Having done a lot of touring on the jazz
circuit in the USA, Europe and Japan, I’ve
frequently had to play "Drums du Jour." This is
a term I got from my friend and serious jazz
road warrior, Adam Nussbaum, which translates
into: Rental Drums.
Let me give you a
little insight into what I’ve experienced, as
far as drum sets are concerned, at different
levels of touring.
At the top level is
the rock band with hit records. At this level
the band usually takes all its own gear most
everywhere. When I toured with Journey in the
1970’s and 80’s, we brought my drums all over
the USA. When we went to Europe or Japan I was
able to get a "loaner kit" of my exact
configuration provided to me by Sonor, the drum
company I’ve endorsed since 1977.
As our
popularity grew overseas, we were able to take
my personal kit with us, which is ideal. Now
that I’m mainly touring on the jazz circuit, the
money is much less so we don’t have the budget
to be shipping drums overseas, and sometimes we
can’t even bring them to some US dates. There
are lots of touring bands in this situation
where they have gigs around the country or
around the world, but there isn’t enough money
for them to take all of their gear with them.
This is where a good endorsement comes in
handy. Sonor has been very good about getting me
kits where I need them around the world, but
like any drum company, they don’t have drums
everywhere. When touring Europe with Vital
Information or Steps Ahead, we have done a lot
of bus/van tours. We could pick up a Sonor
"loaner kit" at the first gig and keep it for
the whole tour. This works out great, and I do
bring along some of my own accessories -- but
I’ll get to that later.
On some of the
Vital Information or Steps Ahead dates in
Europe, we had to leave the bus and fly to a few
gigs. For instance, the last gig where we'd use
the bus would be in Germany, but then we’d have
two gigs on the Canary Island, off the coast of
Africa. Or we would have a one-nighter in Tromso,
Norway, which is above the Arctic Circle, and
that's when Drums du Jour happens.
When I
toured the USA with pianist and jazz legend
Ahmad Jamal, he wouldn’t pay for the shipping of
my drums, so that was Drums du Jour every night.
When I go to Turkey to play jazz festivals with
the great Turkish keyboard player Aydin Esen,
it's time for, you guessed it: Drums du Jour.
Almost without exceptions, there will be
problems with rental drums. They are beat up,
have old heads on them, cymbals stands are
missing felts, the rental company may have
forgotten to pack certain items, etc. After
experiencing this for many years, I have finally
come up with a method of dealing with most of
the problems that arise with this less than
ideal situation. I carry quite a few items to
help in times of need. But first, I try to avoid
problems with a detailed rider.
In my
Vital Information band rider, it is specified
what I need. When preparing for your tour, be
very thorough in what you put in the rider,
since you can’t give them too much information.
I give them the brand, number of drums, sizes,
number of cymbal stands, hi hat stand, snare
drum stand, throne. I even include the obvious
because sometimes if I don’t put it in the
rider, it doesn’t show up. For example, I always
include requests for the tom mount that goes on
the bass drum, legs for the floor toms, a clutch
for the hi hat stand, felts on the cymbal
stands, plastic sleeves on the cymbal stands and
a carpet (not a blanket!) to set them up on.
Many times we’ll get to a gig and there is no
"drum rug," and then we have to search around
for a welcome mat or something to put the drums
on so they don’t slide all over the stage.
Here is a copy of the drum portion of our
Vital Information rider. I also use this rider
for other gigs as well:
Drums:
(SONOR DRUMS as per Steve Smith’s Sonor
endorsement and will usually be provided at no
cost by the local Sonor distributor. The
promoter will have to arrange delivery to the
venue.)
The depths of the drums sizes are
not important; Head Sizes are very IMPORTANT:
20" Bass Drum w/ Double Tom Mount Attachment
8" Mounted Rack Tom (Mounted on a
freestanding combination cymbal/tom stand)
10" Mounted rack tom (mounted on bass drum dbl
tom mount) 12" Mounted rack tom (mounted on
bass drum dbl tom mount) 14" Freestanding
floor tom with legs 16" Freestanding floor
tom with legs 5x14 Sonor wood snare 4x14
Bronze and or Brass snare (must have two snare
drums in case one breaks during the show)
One Sonor or comparable professional drum throne
- must be able to adjust high and be in PERFECT
working condition. (No Roc’N Soc) One Sonor
Hi Hat stand with clutch One Sonor 2000 or
3000 Snare stand (a small light stand) One
Sonor Bass Drum Pedal as a spare (Steve
brings his own main DW Bass Drum pedals) One
combination Sonor Tom/cymbal stand (this is
what 8" tom is mounted on) Six Sonor or
comparative boom cymbal stands with functional
felts and rubber/plastic sleeves HEADS Must
be Remo (NEW) Clear Ambassadors Please Note:
Bass drum must have Remo Clear Ambassadors front
and back NO HOLE IN RESONANT (FRONT) HEAD.
The felt strips that come with Sonor Bass Drums
WILL BE THE DAMPENING, NO HOLES CUT IN RESONANT
HEAD. HEADS for SNARE DRUMS must be Remo
(white coated Ambassadors) Top or Batter
side. On venues with wooden floor stages, a
DRUM CARPET must be provided Suggested size:
8x8. *Not a blanket, but a carpet large enough
to accommodate the drum set. Steve does not use
a drum riser as per stage plot. Most of the
time when I get to the gig, the drums are not
right or there is some problem with them. If
it’s a jazz festival, many times the promoter
has rented one or two kits for all of the
drummers to use. This is difficult because I
usually don’t have much time to really
personalize the drum set to my specs. In all
these situations I have to remain flexible to
keep from going nuts and getting off of the
focus of just playing some music.
Most of
the time the drums are workable and I'll be able
to get by. There have been times when the drums
are so bad there isn’t much I can do to fix
them. Like in Ankara, Turkey, the last time I
was there a couple of years ago, they forgot to
bring the cymbal stands and a tom mount for the
one rack tom. We waited until someone from the
audience went home to bring back a couple of old
and rusted cymbals stand (with no felts or
plastic sleeves, of course) and a snare stand
for the mounted tom. In those situations I just
have to get thru the gig the best I can and hope
that it doesn’t happen again, though it usually
does.
Even though I always ask for new
heads, it rarely happens. The drums usually show
up with heads that are thoroughly trashed.
Because of this I’ve learned to carry one set of
new heads in my cymbal bag. If you stack the
heads inside each other they don’t take up too
much space and fit easily in the cymbal bag. If
the heads on the rental drums are in bad shape
or if they are a type of head I don’t like, I
put on my heads and then take them off and pack
them up again after the gig. Having good heads
makes all the difference as far as a kit
sounding good or not. I use clear Remo
Ambassador heads and even if the drums are some
unknown brand and beat up, I can usually get
them to sound good with the new heads.
For me the bass drum is usually a problem. I
like to set up my bass drum with clear Remo
Ambassadors on both sides, with no hole cut in
the front head. The only muffling I use is a
felt strip on each head. Everywhere I go the
bass drum shows up with a hole cut in the front
head, an old blanket inside and usually a Remo
Powerstroke 3 on the batter side. Try playing
jazz on that setup! So I also carry 20" bass
drum heads and felt strips. What the band and
music is like determines what size bass drum I
ask for. Lately, I ask for a 20" bass drum, but
about 25% of the time the kit will show up with
a 22" and I’m out of luck. There is only so much
I can carry. Occasionally it will be an 18", but
usually they are set up without the hole in
front head, so that's OK.
Another
consistent problem with rental drums are the
cymbal stands. They usually have no felts or
very worn felts and no plastic sleeves, so the
cymbals are up against bare metal. I now carry
felts and plastic sleeves. They don’t take up
too much space, I just put them in the side
pocket of my Porcaro Cymbal Bag. I find that
I’ve had good luck with the soft Porcaro Cymbal
Bag and have opted for that vs. a hard case that
would be even heavier than the soft case. Again,
don’t forget to take the felts and sleeves with
you after the gig.
When touring the major
European countries like Germany, France,
Switzerland, Austria, Sweden etc., the drums and
hardware are usually decent. There are a few
countries where I’ve had consistently old and
broken down drums and hardware. To name a few
names, Turkey, Spain, occasionally Italy,
(though they are usually pretty good) any former
Communist country like Poland, Slovakia, the
Czech Republic, etc.
When I go to these
countries I also carry my own drum throne as
well A couple of years ago in Turkey I played
three nights in a row on three different bad
Drums du Jour: Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul. But
what made it the worst was the seats. One was a
seat from someone's desk with wheels on the
bottom! Hello!! (We were able to remove them)
Another was a stool from someone’s kitchen,
these were both non adjustable. The third was a
real drum throne but all the screws were
completely stripped and didn’t hold. This was
the worst one of all; I could barely play
because of the seat moving around so much and
then my back started to really hurt.
Now
I have a lightweight but solid drum throne that
I put in my suitcase. I actually noticed that
Jack DeJohnette does the same thing, and I asked
him about it. He likes to have the same seat
every night and he brings one that has a back on
it. It’s unlikely that he would consistently get
that from the various rental companies.
I
strongly recommend getting to the gig well
before the rest of the band and the soundcheck.
That way if there is a major problem, there may
be time to get someone from the rental company
to fix it. Other common problems besides a
forgotten drum or stand is the hi hat rod may be
bent and, as a result, the hi hat is very stiff
or the bass drum pedal has a bent spring so it
doesn’t work right.
To summarize: for me
to be as prepared as I can be for rental drums I
take with me in my cymbal bag in addition to the
appropriate Zildjian Cymbals; a full set of
heads, two felt strips, cymbal felts and plastic
sleeves. Zildjian has a nice kit that includes
felts and sleeves and some tools which is also
very helpful.
In my suitcase: a stick bag
with a selection of Vic Firth sticks, brushes
and mallets, etc., and a drum throne (when going
to the real boonies). I carry a DW pedal bag
with my personal DW double bass drum pedal that
uses the nylon straps instead of the chain. The
nylon strap pedal isn’t as common as the chain
pedal, so I’ve found I need to take that with me
also. A lot of the rental pedals are messed up
in some way and usually every drummer sets up
their pedal in a unique way, so I recommend
carrying your pedal also. Also in the pedal bag
I carry my own compact X-hat, a cowbell and
small cowbell mount. I carry the pedal bag on
the plane so it doesn’t get damaged in the
luggage compartment under the plane. I know many
players on the touring circuit who carry their
own snare drum, which is a nice, but I’ve
decided to draw the line there.
All
together, the few extra items that I bring
really don’t add too much weight or bulk, but
they make a huge difference in how I feel when I
play. That makes it all worth it, when I can
just relax and let the music happen. There you
have it. With a little preparation I’m ready for
the dreaded "Drums du Jour!"
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