Dave Weckl

Dave Weckl is one of fusion's most acclaimed drummers, making his name during a six-year stint with Chick Corea. Weckl was born in St. Louis and grew up listening to soul and jazz; he received his first drum set at age eight and developed his playing by listening to drummers like Buddy Rich, as well as R&B grooves. He majored in jazz at the University of Bridgeport, but left after two years to become involved in the New York jazz scene, also touring Europe with various bands. Weckl joined a fusion group called Nitesprite, where he attracted the attention of drummer Peter Erskine; Erskine helped him get a gig with French Toast, a band also featuring pianist Michel Camilo and bassist Anthony Jackson.From French Toast, Weckl branched out into session work, playing on numerous early-'80s sessions with the likes of Bill Connors (Return to Forever), the Brecker Brothers, Tania Maria, Paquito D'Rivera, Eliane Elias, and George Benson, as well as pop and soul albums for Diana Ross, Madonna, and Robert Plant. In 1986, Chick Corea saw Weckl performing in New York with guitarist Connors and invited the drummer to join his new Electric Band. Weckl spent a total of seven years with Corea, performing on numerous albums and also appearing with Corea's Akoustic Band; his skills received considerable esteem, and he augmented his work with Corea by continuing his session work and appearing often with the GRP All-Star Big Band. Weckl also released a series of instructional videotapes, and in 1990, he led his first solo date, Master Plan, for GRP. Heads Up followed in 1992, as well as Hard-Wired in 1994.Upon leaving Corea, Weckl's primary focus was recording and touring with guitarist Mike Stern; he also continued his work as a sideman. In 1998, Weckl led the R&B-oriented date Rhythm of the Soul, a return to his other boyhood musical love, and the like-minded Synergy followed in 1999. The Dave Weckl Band had really gelled by the time of Transition's 2000 release, but Weckl didn't leave teaching behind either, and released another instructional recording, The Zone, in 2001. After working extensively with a quartet for the last few years, he debuted their efforts with 2002's improv-heavy Perpetual Motion.

Swish cymbal

Zildjian swish cymbal

The swish cymbal and the pang cymbal are exotic ride cymbals originally developed as part of the collaboration between Gene Krupa and the Avedis Zildjian Company.

They have the upturned and flanged edge of a china cymbal with very small bell. The swish has a higher tone than the pang and is washier with a less pronounced ping, and this difference was accentuated as the swish was originally sold with rivets like a sizzle cymbal, while the pang was sold without rivets. However some drummers removed the rivets from the swish or added them to a pang. Typical sizes are 16 to 22 inches diameter for the swish, and 18 to 20 inches for the pang.

Sizzle cymbal

A sizzle cymbal is a cymbal to which rivets, chains or other rattles have been added to modify the sound.

These rattles have two main effects on the tone of the cymbal:

• Most obviously, the sound of the 'wash' of the cymbal is made louder and more penetrating, and is dominated by the sound of the rattles themselves.
• Also important but less obvious, the cymbal loses some of its sustain and dynamic range, because whenever there is insufficient energy left in the cymbal to lift the rattles the sound cuts out sharply.Both effects have musical uses, and can also be used to mask unwanted overtones in cymbals of lesser quality. However the best results are still generally obtained with high quality cymbals.

The most common form of sizzle cymbal used in a drum kit is a large ride cymbal with a number of rivets loosely fitted but captive in holes spaced evenly around the cymbal close to the rim. This might be called the traditional pattern sizzle cymbal. The loose fit allows the rivets to rattle in the holes. Swish and to a lesser extent pang cymbals with rivets installed in this way were heavily used as main ride cymbals in the swing band era. Many early rock music drummers, such as Ringo Starr, used a secondary ride cymbal with rivets, normally a ride cymbal thinner than the main ride and ideally one size larger. This was used for variety, to back a lead break or to give extra tone colour to the whole of faster songs.

Many other rivet patterns have been tried, but the only one to have gained much following is a single cluster of three rivets close together in an arc close and parallel to the rim. This gained popularity in some genres during the late 1980s and early 1990s and was predicted to replace the traditional pattern, but the traditional pattern has remained more popular overall. Bottom hi-hats, crash cymbals, splash cymbals and even bell splashes have been fitted with rivets.

Some cymbal makers claim that if the rivets are removed from a sizzle cymbal its previous tone will be restored, despite the fact that this leaves small holes in the cymbal. Whether this is entirely true is controversial, with a result that the value of a cymbal is generally reduced by rivet holes. However it is also true that many classic cymbals from which rivets have been removed have excellent sounds despite the holes.

Two chain sizzlers

In order to produce a sizzle sound without the need to bore holes in the cymbal, sizzler' may be used. There are two main patterns:

• Rivet sizzlers suspend rivets above the rim of the cymbal, normally in two groups 180 degrees apart.
• Chain sizzlers suspend several short lengths of ball chain on the surface of the cymbal, most often either near the rim or more commonly in many places along a diameter. These chains may be fixed, adjustable in length, or completely removable. Sometimes a single chain of balls from a cabasa is used.
• Home-made sizzlers may be made at home with a coin and electrical tape. Take a 3 inch piece of electrical tape and place one end of it over a coin. With the rest of the tape, place it on a cymbal about 2 - 3 inches in from the outer edge, away from the playing area. When the cymbal is struck, the sizzle sound will ring for about 20 to 30 seconds, depending on the type of cymbal and the positioning of the sizzler.

When a sizzle cymbal is required in an orchestra, most often a chain sizzler is used. This allows the finest control and greatest range of tone in the hands of a skilled percussionist, and also allows any cymbal to be used without any permanent effect on its tone, giving still more tonal possibilities.