Gene Krupa recorded the first big drum solo on Benny Goodman’s “Sing Sing Sing (With A Swing)” in 1936, featuring accented swung eighths on the floor tom. Baby Dodds, one of the earliest pioneers of the trap set, performed with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and Louis Armstrong in the ’20s, and recorded “Tom Tom Workout” with three toms and the snare as a fourth. One iconic drummer after another has brought tom playing to the forefront. Then, in 1936, Slingerland catalogued the first modern style separate-tension toms with separate hoops and lugs on the top and bottom. In 1928, Leedy Drums offered Giant Chee Foo toms, which were barrel shaped drums.
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These were advertised as putting “pep in a dance orchestra,” but failed to catch on and were discontinued. Seeking to improve upon on the tack drum, Ludwig produced the first fully tunable tom called the Jazz Combination in 1922, featuring two drums mounted on a bass drum. Because the heads were tacked on, and therefore, pretuned, these instruments were dependent on just the right environmental conditions, such as not too much humidity, to sound good. Shells were painted with a red lacquer, and skins decorated with colorful, traditional symbols. The tom tom varied from 9″–15″ in diameter and was 3″ or more in depth. In the early 1920s, the tom tom (also known as tack drum and shallow drum) entered the Western dance band and musical theater/silent film pit orchestras, along with the other Chinese percussion instruments such as wood temple blocks and the Chinese cymbal.
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Taking away these resonant workhorses is tantamount to sacrilege. Although toms are removed for the sake of simplicity and practicality these days, throughout their nearly century-old history, they’ve been an essential part of the trap. And in recorded music, toms (unless muted) tend to cover up precious midrange frequencies, unintentionally taking the spotlight away from other instruments.
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Mt power drumkit 2 whipping post tv#
Recently, this is evidenced by the number of drummers appearing on late night TV shows with 2-piece setups. Either way, they’ve become the most underused, underappreciated part of the drum set, since in much of today’s popular music - especially in country, rock, and hip-hop - the kit has essentially been condensed down to kick, snare, and hat. Most drummers just call them toms, though some still use the proper name: tom toms. From Drum Magazine’s August 2017 Issue | Text And Music By Andy Ziker