Recommended Recordings, Books and Gear

Updated February 1, 2007

Here are some of the recordings and percussion books that I have found exciting and continue to enjoy. I have also included a list of the essential percussion equipment. These entries are in no particular order and are all worth the time to check out!

Big Band and Combo Jazz Recordings:

• Count Basie: Count Basie & Sarah Vaughn, The Complete Atomic Basie, April in Paris and Basie, Straight Ahead

• Clifford Brown: Study in Brown

• Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

• Duke Ellington: Blues in Orbit

• Herbie Hancock: Head Hunters

• Wynton Marsalis: Standard Time, Vol. 1

• Frank Sinatra: Sinatra at the Sands

• John Coltrane: Blue Trane

• Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus

• Miles Davis: Kind of Blue and  Milestones

Other Music Recordings:

• Béla Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

• Johnny Cash: American Recordings

• George Crumb: Makrokosmos III

• Eighth Blackbird: all of their works.

• Philip Glass: Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass and Einstein on The Beach

• Led Zeppelin: all recordings

• Bob Marley & the Wailers: all recordings

• Primus: Sailing the Seas of Cheese

• Parliament Funkadelic: all recordings

• Steve Reich: Different Trains and Electric Counterpoint

• The Roots: Phrenology

• Rush: Exit...Stage Left

• Tool: Lateralus

• Stevie Wonder: Innervisions

• Weird Al Yankovic: all recordings

• Frank Zappa: Zappa in New York and The Yellow Shark

Percussion Books:

• Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone

• Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer by Ted Reed

• Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer by Jim Chapin

• The New Breed by Gary Chester

Non-Music Books:

• Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

• The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey

• Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel

• Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Percussion Equipment:

• Stick Bag

• Practice Pad

• Metronome

• Drumset Sticks (i.e. Vic Firth 5A)

• Concert Stick (i.e. Vic Firth SD1)

• Brushes (Vic Firth Heritage Brush)

• Hearing Protection