The term given to the basic equipment of the jazz, dance band and rock drummer. The nucleus of every drum kit is a combination of bass drum, snare drum and suspended cymbal, with ancillary instruments (‘traps’) added to suit the taste of the performer and the style of music played.
The emergence of the drum kit was made possible by the invention in the late 19th century of various pedal apparatuses capable of striking the bass drum and suspended cymbal simultaneously, thereby freeing the hands for other instruments. Although first used for novelty effects such as the ‘one-man orchestra’, pedal devices soon found a place in theatre and pit bands, where the drummer was required to play a large array of percussion instruments and other noise-making contraptions known collectively as ‘traps’, a term ostensibly derived from ‘trappings’. Many of these instruments were later incorporated in the drum kit or ‘trap set’. Not all early ragtime and jazz drummers used the bass drum pedal: some struck the bass and snare drums on opposite beats using different ends of the stick (a technique known as ‘double drumming’), while still others (e.g. the New Orleans drummer ‘Baby’ Dodds) are known to have kicked the bass drum with the foot. However, by the 1920s the toe-operated bass drum pedal, now divested of its cymbal striker, had become part of the standard equipment of the jazz drummer, and the drum kit assumed the basic form by which it is known today. This form included a wide variety of cymbals and tunable tom-toms, a hi-hat (a pari of cymbals operated by a foot pedal), and exotic instruments such as woodblocks, temple blocks or cowbells clamped to the rim of the bass drum. The exact combination and placement of the instruments has always been left to the discretion of the performer, and the range is extraordinarily large.
Jazz and dance band drummers of the 1920s experimented with a large number of novelty instruments – car horns, whips, blank pistols, sirens, washboards and many others – that reflected their interest in expanding the sonority of the music. Although most of these instruments fell by the wayside, two became permanent features of the drum set: the Chinese tom-tom and the pedal-operated hi-hat. The tom-tom gradually evolved from primitive imported instruments to sophisticated American products with tuning devices and special stands for the larger ‘floor tom-tom’. The hi-hat was cultivated with great subtlety as a source of son continu or as a superior substitute for the dampened cymbal stroke. Another source of son continu was the use of wire brushes on the snare drum in lieu of sticks; originally patented as fly swatters, ‘brushes’ were to become a permanent part of the drummer’s equipment. Equally important was an expansion in the range of suspended cymbals, the names of which often clearly depict their function and sound: splash cymbals (10 cm in diameter), crash cymbals (36 cm), choke cymbals (10–20 cm), sizzle cymbals (large cymbals with brass rivets or rings loosely inserted near the rim) and, somewhat later, oversize ride cymbals (up to 66 cm). A distinction was made between the flat, reverberant Turkish cymbals and the more brittle, deep-pitched Chinese counterparts with flared rim and cupped centre. Eventually the Turkish models, especially those produced by the Zildjian company, found greater acceptance.
By the mid-1940s the jazz drum kit, as played by bop musicians, had reached its classical form, comprising: a medium-sized foot-operated bass drum (56 cm by 36 cm) with attached tom-tom and suspended ride and crash cymbals, a hi-hat operated with the other foot, a floor tom-tom, and a shallow snare drum with tuning lugs and snare release mechanism, the latter adding, in effect, an unsnared side drum to the ensemble. The colouristic instruments of earlier jazz were discarded in favour of intricate stickwork and a rapid flow of ideas over a narrow timbral spectrum. The basic pulse was transferred to stick-tip patterns played on the ride cymbal with the right hand, allowing players to respond fluidly with their other limbs to the assymetrical phrasing and irregular rapid-tempo rhythmic figures typical of the style. The smaller number of instruments enabled the drum kit to be played as a cohesive unit capable of rendering extraordinarily intricate accompaniment patterns and lengthy solos. Although stage and dance bands continued to cultivate a larger timbral range (e.g. chimes, gongs and temple blocks) and fashions for Latin American music occasionally enriched jazz percussion with exotic sonorities (bongos, conga drums, maracas and various scrapers), the bop drum kit became standard not only for the rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll styles of the 1950s, but for those art composers who wished to draw on the resources of jazz percussion (e.g. Stockhausen’s Donnerstag aus Licht (1978–9), which incorporates five processual layers on a single drum kit).
Subsequent changes to the drum kit were influenced by three main factors: technical improvements to the instruments themselves, an influx of non-Western instruments in free jazz, and the use of electronic instruments and amplification in rock music. Synthetic drum heads gradually replaced calfskin, and wood shells gave way to thin fibreglass and metal shells capable of being adjusted for amplification over public address systems. Tuning pedals for floor tom-toms were introduced in the 1960s, and cable-operated hi-hats in the 1980s. A fondness for large sets of tom-toms in rock music led to the introduction of a number of substitutes: roto-toms (small tunable frame drums on threaded spindles), octobans (a set of eight small single-headed drums of varying shell depths) and gong tom-toms (deep-shelled single-headed drums mounted on stands). Free-jazz drummers, following a predilection for world music, experimented with a wide range of gourds, shakers and other exotic percussion instruments or used their hands in lieu of drumsticks. Drummers have also been known to play stand-mounted sets of tuned bongos, timbales or antique cymbals. The greatest changes, however, have been effected by two electronic inventions: the drum machine and the electronic drum pad. Although widely used in commercial music to replace the drum set, programmable drum machines have met with limited acceptance among jazz and jazz-rock musicians. The electronic drum pad, however, which releases a pre-recorded analogue or digital sound when struck, has in some cases rendered the acoustical instruments of the drum kit superfluous. The sounds may be sampled from any source, including standard drums, and may also be triggered by striking an acoustic instrument.
BladesPI
W.F. Ludwig: Modern Jazz Drumming (London, 1959)
W.F. Ludwig: My Life at the Drums (Chicago, 1972)
T.D. Brown: A History and Analysis of Jazz Drumming to 1942 (diss., U. of Michigan, 1976)
J. Blades and J. Dean: How to Play Drums (New York, 1992)
R. Vaughan: The Drumset Owner’s Manual: a Heavily Illustrated Guide to Selecting, Setting up, and Maintaining all Components of the Acoustic Drumset (Jefferson, NC, 1993)
J. BRADFORD ROBINSON