Steve Weiss Music Blog

Volume 2 of Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba is now in stock and available for purchase. Volume 2 features 12 more fantastic works for solo marimba written by a wonderful collection of composers including Dutch minimalist Louis Andriessen, Pat Metheny Group pianist Lyle Mays, and many more.

The 2-CD set of Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba contains recordings of all 24 pieces, played by 8 of the most famous marimbists in the world today, including – Nancy Zeltsman, Gordon Stout, William Moersch, Ivana Bilic, Beverly Johnston, Jack Van Geem, Thomas Burritt, and Jean Geoffrey. Each of these players not only recorded these pieces, but also premiered them at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival this past summer in Appleton, Wisconsin.

These new items will also be available for purchase at the Steve Weiss Music booth (# 743-45-47-49) at PASIC ’09. If you’re going to the convention, stop on by and check out these great new pieces!

Attending PASIC this year? Be sure to check out the Keyboard Clinic/Performance on Friday, November 13th at 2:00 PM. This special clinic, sponsored by Steve Weiss Music (and others), will feature a very special new publication called Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba.

Commissioned by the Zeltsman Marimba Festival and ZMF New Music, this new set of 2 publications features 24 new works for solo marimba, 16 commissioned by some very famous composers, as well as 8 winners of the ZMF New Music composition contest. Recognizing the need to fill a vast void in marimba literature, Zeltsman took it upon herself and her organization to take on this very important, extensive project. In today’s current solo marimba literature, it is very common to find lots of entry-level 2 and 4 mallet solos. Also, you will find that most of the substantial literature for solo marimba is extremely difficult, and not well suited for intermediate players. Each of the pieces in the 2 books are 3-6 six minutes long and feature a range of up to 5 octaves, designed SPECIFICALLY for the intermediate marimbist.

Think of them as solos written somewhere between Yellow After the Rain and Two Mexican Dances. Volume 1 features pieces from some very famous composers – most notably 12-time Grammy Award winner Paul Simon (remember Simon and Garfunkel?). Also included are pieces by Steven Mackey (who wrote See Ya Thursday) and Robert Livingston Aldridge (composer of From My Little Island), two very popular composers of solo marimba literature. Other composers of pieces from the book (volume 1) are: Carla Bley, Ed Haddad, Anders Hillborg, Darren Jones, Gaetano Lorandi, Osnat Netzer, Gunther Schuller, Alvina Tan, and Derek Tywoniuk. Volume 2 will be available right around the time of the PASIC 2009.

As part of the clinic at PASIC, 8 of the 24 pieces will be performed by the same people who premiered these works over the summer at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival (who are some of the greatest marimbists in the world today): Ivana Bilic, Thomas Burritt, Jean Geoffroy, Beverly Johnson, William Moersch, Gordon Stout, Jack Van Geem, as well as the person who started the whole project – Nancy Zeltsman.

What a concert that’s going to be! Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba Volume 1 is currently available here at Steve Weiss Music, and will also be available from the Steve Weiss Music booth at PASIC 2009.

A few of the recording artists (including Nancy Zeltsman) will be in our booth signing the CD and books on Friday from 3-4PM and on Saturday from 1-3PM. Please stop by Booth # 743-45-47-49 to say hello.

Steve Weiss Music, your “All-Things-For-All-Drummers” place to shop and the leading drum and percussion product and information specialists since 1961, is going to change the way you shop online for your percussive needs. On Monday June 22nd, the Steve Weiss Music website will undergo a change that will enable you to more easily, quickly, safely, and effectively search and shop for all of your drumming needs.

We redesigned the site from the ground up to take advantage of cutting edge web and browser technologies. Along with the many things you will notice and immediately be able to use, there are a ton of features and benefits that are behind the scenes and will be working for you to ensure that your shopping experience with us will be more enjoyable and far more informative than ever before.

To help everyone discover the new features and benefits of our upgraded website, we are giving away FREE gifts with purchase during the week of June 22nd…..Monday thru Friday. Simply visit our website each and every day of this week and be one of the first 100 customers to purchase anything, that’s right ANYTHING, and you will receive the Giveaway-Of-The-Day for FREE!

Steve Weiss Music has been your trusted partner when purchasing every kind of percussion product known to man, both standard and strange. And since the inception of our website in February 2004, we have worked vigorously to provide each and every customer with a selection and shopping experience that is second to none.

We proudly present our upgraded and improved website, designed to better help everyone find and purchase all of the drum and percussion products you need and desire. Thank you for your continued support for the past 48+ years of our business and 5+ years on the world wide web……enjoy the show.

SWM

Steve Weiss Music has teamed up with Thomas Burritt from the University of Texas at Austin to offer a unique opportunity to learn interactively on the web. Thomas caught our attention with his Percussion Axiom TV online show and we thought it would be fun to team up and create a contest around learning a piece of music interactively online.

Starting June 15th, Thomas will begin teaching the marimba solo Katamiya by Emmaneul Sejourne in online videos as part of his PATV show. Katamiya can be found in the book 7 Stücke für Marimba. The winner of the contest will be selected based on who is the most “interactive” online with Thomas Burritt and Steve Weiss Music.

Click Here to Watch the Introduction Video with Thomas Burritt and Read About Contest Specifics

Several years ago, Pearl Drums introduced the Eliminator line of bass drum pedals that featured many adjustments and options that were not available on any pedal to that point. Today, they introduced the Pearl Demon Drive Bass Drum Pedal series that takes any pedal currently available to all new heights. Direct Drive, a first on any Pearl pedal, enables the foot board to act perfectly in sync with the players foot to eliminate the slight “hick-up” feel that a chain or belt drive produces after the beater strikes the head. Combine that with all of the other features that the new Pearl Demon Drive Bass Drum Pedal has, and you can literally adjust it to any feel and positioning you desire. Some would say that too many adjustments is a bad thing or that you will never need that many adjustments in your life. Having too many adjustments is not the point, and neither is the fact that you will most likely set-it-and-forget-it (ah….the long awaited Ron Popeil reference). The point is that you actually have the ability to set this pedal to whatever YOU want it to be; that is the beauty of it. If you never mess with it again, it has accomplished what it is designed to do, give you the player the ability to put your own feel and touch to it. This pedal will not be available until late April or early May, 2009. This is a bit of a drag and it is certainly not the least expensive pedal ever made. But, when it does hit, the wait and expense will be worth it.

   

The newest Pearl Limited Edition PHH1580 Philharmonic Concert Snare Drum is a 15″x8″ African Mahogany shell drum with wood hoops and is sure to be a collectors item that is as beautiful to look at as it is to play. This special production concert snare drum features a 4-ply African Mahogany shell that produces incredible overall tonality with a slight emphasis on low end tone. The 15″x8″ shell size and unique synthetic gut snares produce a true “concert march” sonic quality that would make J.P. Sousa proud, while still providing a “here and now” quality that will translate over to a wider range of song selection. In addition to the 4-ply 15″x8″ shell with full rounded bearing edges, this drum also features 6-ply wood hoops, 8 chrome tube lugs with insulated low profile chrome claw hooks, an SR-500 Triad Strainer system with 2 sets of synthetic gut snares and 1 set of heavy coated cable snares, Remo Diplomat batter and Renaissance snare side heads, and a limited production quantity label on the inside of the drum.

Steve Weiss Music is pleased to announce that we now carry the full line of Bopworks Drumsticks. These sticks are reproductions of popular “light” jazz models from the 50’s and 60’s. Sticks from this time period tended to be shorter and thinner with longer tapers than modern sticks. These designs allow you to play “off” your ride cymbal more without becoming overpowering or washing out because there is less weight in the front of the stick. The Bopworks sticks are ideal for combo gigs in small rooms but are versatile enough for almost any jazz gig that comes your way. We tested these sticks on several light ride cymbals, such as the Bosphorus Masters Series, and the sound was phenomenal. They created a full, articulate ride cymbal sound without the excessive overtones created by heavier sticks. Fast tempos at soft dynamic levels were effortless, but you could also punch a big accent when needed. They had a somewhat “bouncier” feel than modern sticks due to the longer taper.

The Bopworks line-up currently includes four “standard” models and three signature models.

The signature sticks are faithful reproductions of sticks used by the artist at the height of their popularity. All of the Bopworks models are made from hickory and are matched for pitch and weight.

For additional information, visit http://www.bopworks.net/

On October 22nd, the local percussion community lost a special friend, business owner and overall champion for drums and percussion throughout the entire tri-state area. Sam D’Amico passed away last week and in so doing, left all of us with a tremendous void in our hearts for his special combination of humor and business dealings with our entire percussion community. Sam had recently closed his South Philly business after proudly serving all drummers for over 33 years. Through good times and bad, Sam would always open his shop every day with a smile and plenty of time to give to his community of drummers…famous, or not.

A recent news article in the South Philly Review details some of the reason why Sam was so special to so many people.

All of us who had the pleasure of knowing Sam will dearly miss him and will certainly keep his entire family in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you Sam, for being devoted to your family…tens of thousands of customers included.

Gretsch Drums has added two new colors to their lineup of Catalina Club Jazz Shell Pack Drumsets, both of which are a limited production run and by the looks of them, neither will last long in on the showroom floor. Both the Silver Oyster Pearl Catalina Club Jazz (which has some resemblance to a Ringo finish but not as “black” in color) and the Emerald Green Pearl Catalina Club Jazz look even more stunning in person than in the pictures. Both Shell Packs have the same four sizes as the regularly produced colors of Natural, White Pearl and Red Rustic Pearl…14×18 Bass Drum with an attachable riser and single tom-tom holder, 8×12 Mounted Tom, 14×14 Floor Tom and a 5×14 matching snare drum.

According to Gretsch Drums, only 65 of the Silver Oyster Pearl finish were made and 140 of the Emerald Green Pearl color. Unlike other years where a special Limited Reserve finish was made offered at the end of a calendar year and then offered as a stock finish the following year, Gretsch Drums is claiming that these two finishes will not be produced after this initial reserve quantity is sold out.

Emerald Green Pearl

Silver Oyster Pearl

I recently picked up a Vic Firth Heavy Hitter Tenor Pad to find out what the multi-tenor world was all about. So far, it has been an interesting and rewarding side venture in my practice time. I came across a lot of great material in Bill Bachman’s Quad Logic and Julie Davila’s Modern Multi-Tenor Techniques and Solos. These books are totally worth checking out if you want to get a taste of the tenor world.

One challenge I came across with my new Vic Firth Quad Pad was mounting it in a comfortable playing position. I started off by placing it on my desk at home. This option was not happening due to the desk being too low. I then moved on to placing it on top of my dryer. Yet again a no go due to the pad being to high. The next day I brought the pad back to work to test out some alternative stands to get it in the perfect playing position.

Option 1 utilizes a Pearl S1000LS Concert Height Snare Drum Stand. The overall stability was pretty good. A small amount of “wobble”, however I’m sure that it is nothing out of the ordinary for marching tenors. When it comes down to it there will be a small amount of instability when you wear a set of tenors anyway. The great thing about this option is portability. This stand will fit easily into a small backpack. The height on this model is adjustable from 27″-36″.

Option 1

Option 2 utilizes an Ultra KKS700BK X-Type Style Stand. This option was the best as far as stability goes. Minus the tallest height setting, the stand is rock solid. When I initially tried this one out, I thought that height adjustment would be a concern. I soon found out that the height settings allowed this stand to go from 27″-40″. This height adjustment was versatile enough to get a blessing from one of our vertically gifted co-workers (He is 6′ 8″). The one downside of this option is the size of the stand. It’s relatively portable, however the S1000LS has the poratability side of things locked up.

Option 2

We would love to hear the stand solutions that you have come up with for this pad. Feel free to leave a comment so we can check out what you do with your tenor pad!