Tag Archive for: drummer

“I always knew I wanted to play drums, even as a kid. I would bang pencils on the desks in school until the teachers took them away!” – Ken K Mary

Ken Mary began his career as a professional musician at the age of age of 15 in Seattle, WA. Over the years, Ken’s resume and discography has grown to include an incredible and wide ranging list of artists and records that have been associated with his drumming, producing, writing and singing skills, and recordings featuring his talents have combined sales of well over 5 million copies worldwide. Ken has recorded and performed with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Alice Cooper, The Beach Boys, and Gene Simmons of Kiss. He has been a member of Fifth Angel, Alice Cooper, House of Lords, and Flotsam and Jetsam, toured with German metal legends Accept, and has appeared on recordings of multimillion selling artists including Don Dokken, Kip Winger, Jordan Rudess, Impelliteri, Bonfire, and many other artists including Bad Moon Rising, Chastain, and Northern Light Orchestra.

Ken is considered one of the top drummers in the world, with drumming influences that include a diversity of playing styles and drummers such as Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Neil Peart, John Bonham, Steve Gadd, and Tommy Aldridge. He began his drum studies with Seattle area jazz and fusion drum instructor Dick Stensland, who was so impressed with Ken’s natural skills that he taught him lessons for free when Ken was no longer able to afford lessons. Ken began playing drums with traditional grip, but plays just as easily with matched grip. His style can range from the very technical, to laying down a very solid groove and feel, to playing an almost “floating” jazz interlude. He is considered one of the early forerunners of very fast double bass drum fills that incorporate use of interwoven hands and feet, as evidenced by his early session work with Alice Cooper, House of Lords, and Bonfire. Mega-platinum Producer Michael Wagener (Metallica, Alice Cooper, Janet Jackson) states,”Ken Mary is a brilliant session and live player. Whether it is blazing fast and precise technical playing or just a great sense of groove, he’s your guy. One of the best.”

A review of the first House of Lords self-titled album in Modern Drummer garnered this glowing review of Ken’s playing, ”A major reason for their (House of Lords) originality, if not the major reason, is Ken Mary’s drumming. Unquestionably, he is the best hard rock drummer in America today. Nobody plays like Ken Mary” and further, “Want to learn something? See these guys live, buy this album and pay attention to Mr. Mary.”

Famed producer Andy Johns, who engineered classic albums by Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, and who was famous for firing many famous drummers on his productions, loved Ken’s playing Bassist Chuck Wright recalls. “At the end of Ken recording a very Bonham inspired drum track for ‘Can’t Find My Way Home,’ Andy grabbed Ken, put him in a headlock (Andy was a very large man at 6”3”) and said to him repeatedly, “You and Bonham, man, you and Bonham.” Ken adds, “Since Bonham was an inspiration to my playing, and Andy had recorded him so many times, this was one of the biggest compliments of my life. That and the fact that he didn’t fire me! Lol.”

Ken was always interested in music production as well, and was fortunate to work with some of the most famous engineers and producers in music history. Along with the aforementioned legendary Michael Wagener and Andy Johns, he also had the opportunity to work alongside Mac (Queen), Mick Guzauwski (Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey), and Desmond Child (Ricky Martin, Aerosmith) just to name a few. He established a world class SSL recording facility, SonicPhish Productions, in 2003 that continues today, most currently used to produce the new Fifth Angel album “The Third Secret” and much of the tracking for Flotsam and Jetsam’s “The End of Chaos” and “Flotsam and Jetsam.” A partial list of the companies and corporations SonicPhish Productions has worked for include RCA, MCA, Epic, CBS, Benson, Roadrunner, JVC, Atlantic, DGC, BMG, Relativity, Organic, Invincible, Reunion, Fox, Universal, EMI, Zebra, Provident, Reunion, Sony/BMG, Suburban Noise, BEC, ABC Family, Nuclear Blast and AFM Records.

From playing small, smokey bars in southern Indiana, to touring world wide with national music acts, Los Angeles based heavy hitting drummer, Tosha Jones, quickly made a name for herself throughout the world’s music scene. At just the ripe age of three, Tosha began expressing herself through music, song, and dance. In 1991 as a true drummer at heart, Tosha joined her jr. high school band and eventually begged her parents for a real drum kit instead of playing on various pots and pans and her mother’s Tupperware.

Stemming from numerous garage bands and many Battle of the Band competitions throughout the Midwest, Jones finally jumped ship from working multiple factory jobs in Indiana and saved up enough money to move to Los Angeles, California as she immediately landed the Vans Warped Tour in 2008 with then, all-female punk rockers, The Randies.

Respectfully, after years of rejected auditions and trudging the streets of the Sunset Strip along Hollywood, Jones found herself in various bands on the road opening for national rock acts such as Stone Sour, Halestorm, Seether, & Skid Row, while eventually landing a long tour stint playing drums for Grammy nominated rock band, Saliva in March of 2018. As one of her personal career favorites, Tosha was contacted by American Idol (2015) to play in an all-female drum line for contestant Tyanna Jones, performing the song “Run The World” by Beyoncé.

Fast forward to Covid-19’s protocols and cancellations in 2019/2020, and unfortunately like many other musicians finding themselves away from touring, Jones was part of numerous collaboration videos online which includes Sheltering Sky’s Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot) in their 2021 Björk’s cover “Army of Me”, and most recently “Throwin’ Stones”, which hit on the recent attack of Ukraine. Jones was also featured in artist/singer, Chloe Trujillo’s videos, “Mana” and “The Heaviest Sound is Silence”. You can also find Tosha playing drums online in the star-studded cast for the David Z Foundation covering “Zombie”, by Bad Wolves.

In December 2021, Jones was asked to play drums on a few tour dates for alt rockers Carolina Liar, best known for their hit songs “Show Me What I’m Looking For” and “I’m Not Over”.

In January of ‘22, Jones received a last-minute call to bash the skins for the fresh hard rockers, Black Satellite, as they were direct support for Nita Strauss’s (Alice Cooper, The Iron Maidens) 2022 Winter Wonderland Tour.

In Spring of ‘22, Jones was invited to be a camp counselor for the famous Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp where iconic musicians such as Melissa Etheridge, Nancy Wilson (Heart), and Kathy Valentine from The Go-Go’s were the special guests.

Sponsored by Five Star Guitars, Rhythm Traders and Music Millennium

From playing small, smokey bars in southern Indiana, to touring world wide with national music acts, Los Angeles based heavy hitting drummer, Tosha Jones, quickly made a name for herself throughout the world’s music scene. At just the ripe age of three, Tosha began expressing herself through music, song, and dance. In 1991 as a true drummer at heart, Tosha joined her jr. high school band and eventually begged her parents for a real drum kit instead of playing on various pots and pans and her mother’s Tupperware.

Stemming from numerous garage bands and many Battle of the Band competitions throughout the Midwest, Jones finally jumped ship from working multiple factory jobs in Indiana and saved up enough money to move to Los Angeles, California as she immediately landed the Vans Warped Tour in 2008 with then, all-female punk rockers, The Randies.

Respectfully, after years of rejected auditions and trudging the streets of the Sunset Strip along Hollywood, Jones found herself in various bands on the road opening for national rock acts such as Stone Sour, Halestorm, Seether, & Skid Row, while eventually landing a long tour stint playing drums for Grammy nominated rock band, Saliva in March of 2018. As one of her personal career favorites, Tosha was contacted by American Idol (2015) to play in an all-female drum line for contestant Tyanna Jones, performing the song “Run The World” by Beyoncé.

Fast forward to Covid-19’s protocols and cancellations in 2019/2020, and unfortunately like many other musicians finding themselves away from touring, Jones was part of numerous collaboration videos online which includes Sheltering Sky’s Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot) in their 2021 Björk’s cover “Army of Me”, and most recently “Throwin’ Stones”, which hit on the recent attack of Ukraine. Jones was also featured in artist/singer, Chloe Trujillo’s videos, “Mana” and “The Heaviest Sound is Silence”. You can also find Tosha playing drums online in the star-studded cast for the David Z Foundation covering “Zombie”, by Bad Wolves.

In December 2021, Jones was asked to play drums on a few tour dates for alt rockers Carolina Liar, best known for their hit songs “Show Me What I’m Looking For” and “I’m Not Over”.

In January of ‘22, Jones received a last-minute call to bash the skins for the fresh hard rockers, Black Satellite, as they were direct support for Nita Strauss’s (Alice Cooper, The Iron Maidens) 2022 Winter Wonderland Tour.

In Spring of ‘22, Jones was invited to be a camp counselor for the famous Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp where iconic musicians such as Melissa Etheridge, Nancy Wilson (Heart), and Kathy Valentine from The Go-Go’s were the special guests.

Sponsored by Five Star Guitars, Rhythm Traders and Music Millennium

In 2017, Jordan joined the ranks of Century Media Records/Sony Music Entertainment artists, Adrenaline Mob (a position formerly held by both Mike Portnoy and AJ Pero). Jordan was introduced as the new drummer for Adrenaline Mob with a drum solo video that received over 2.5 million views and is still climbing. Jordan’s debut album with Adrenaline Mob titled “We The People” was released in the summer of 2017. It debuted at #2 on the iTunes Metal Chart, and #15 on the iTunes Rock Chart, and was supported by a US headline tour.

Unfortunately, the tour ended in tragedy. A truck driver fell asleep behind the wheel and struck the band’s bus, injuring the entire band and crew, and killing bassist David Z and tour manager Janet Rains. After this accident, Adrenaline Mob dis-banded and everyone needed time to heal.

Jordan was then asked to form a new band which is now known as Stereo Satellite which features Jordan, his brother Jared Cannata on guitar, singer Lukas Rossi (Rockstar Supernova), and bassist Erik Leonhardt (Tantric). In less than a year, Stereo Satellite had opened for Bon Jovi, played the Shiprocked Cruise alongside bands such as Stone Sour, In This Moment, Seether, P.O.D., and Black Label Society.

In 2018, Jordan also joined the ranks of two more bands; Sugarmore, a group of musicians with a mixture of rock and theatrical backgrounds who create pop-fusion versions of modern hits, as well as the band Voices of Extreme. Sugarmore’s focus is creating video content, and has garnered 75,000 views with their first two videos. With Voices of Extreme, Jordan spent portions of 2018 and 2019 touring the US opening for Tesla.

In May of 2019 Jordan filled in for Johnny Dee and toured with Doro Pesch of Warlock for a co-headline tour with Metal Church alongside Chris Caffery (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Savatage), Tommy Bolan (Warlock), and Nick Douglas (Doro).

Also in 2019, Jordan did two European tours with Dark Sky Choir. One of which was in support of Queensryche and Firewind.

The pandemic certainly put a hold on almost all musical activity, but now in 2022, Jordan is a member of Tokyo Motor Fist which features members of Trixter, Danger Danger, and Rainbow. Jordan also tours with multi-platinum artists Slaughter when their usual drummer Will Hunt is out with Evanescence.

When Jordan isn’t on the road, he also works as a studio musician and drum instructor. Jordan has his own top of the line studio which allows him to record for clients and teach students all over the world as well as traveling for studio sessions. Jordan has always loved sharing his passion for drums and enjoys passing his knowledge on to students of all ages and experience.

With multiple bands, multiple recordings, and multiple videos being released routinely, Jordan is looking forward to what the future holds!

If you’re interested in hiring Jordan, email him at info@jordancannata.com.

Jordan’s social media links are as follows:
Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Official Website

Brought to you by Rhythm Traders, Five Star Guitars and Music Millennium

A U.S. Marine from rural Crystal Hill, Virginia, Stacey Lamont Sydnor appeared to be fascinated by rhythm from the time he could use his hands to beat on his mother’s pots and pans. At the age of eleven, his grandmother bought him his first “gold sparkle” snare drum and he’s never stopped playing since.

Early on, he was influenced by the sounds of Traditional (Quartet) Gospel and his father’s love of old school soul and R&B (Johnny Taylor, James Brown, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes). While in elementary school, he joined the band, became classically trained, and learned to appreciate Big Band Jazz.

Under the tutelage of mentor, Damon Brown (www.batclefmusic.com), he went on to win multiple awards around the state of Virginia and became well known, becoming exceptionally popular with local Gospel Quartet groups in Southern Virginia and North Carolina. He also excelled in his new found love of Jazz, Theatre and Southern Rock.

He started touring professionally at the age of fifteen with Gospel artists, the Heavenly Five and the Pilgrim Jubilees of Chicago. He also performed as a drummer/percussionist for a variety of musicals to include: “Anything Goes, “Cowboys” and “Westside Story”. From there he went on to perform in the US Marine Corps Band, attaining the position of Principal Percussionist in a little under two years. While in the Marine Corps, he teamed up with fellow marine, Mike Corrado to form The Mike Corrado Band (www.mikecorrado.com). The band toured for eleven years now and has sold over 100,000 albums independently.

His resumé runs like a Who’s Who of, well, every possible genre of music.

He’s performed with:

  • Pop/Country/Rock Stars: Seal, Trisha Yearwood, Daughtry, Starship, Hillary Duff, Robbie Williams, Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child), Taylor Dayne, Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray), Bobby Brown, The Rembrandts, and Daniel Powter & Macy Gray.
  • Hip Hop artists Sean “Diddy” Combs, Missy Elliot, Timbaland, Flo Rida, Busta Rhymes and Ice Cube.
  • R&B and Soul artists Alicia Keys, Jermaine Jackson, Philip Bailey, Chrisette Michell, Keri Hilson, Layla Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, Bobby, Brown, Gladys Knight, Jill Scott, Melanie Fiona, Teedra Moses, Faith Evans, Stevie Wonder, Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child), Macy Gray, Denise Williams, Shirley Murdoch, Tank, Avant.
  • Motown/Funk/Soul Legends: The Jacksons, Earth Wind & Fire, George Clinton, Sly Stone, The Temptations, Heatwave, Bloodstone, Malo, The Delphonics, The Floaters, The Deele, Billy Paul, Percy Sledge, Peaches & Herb, The Intruders, the S.O.S. Band and Mandrill.
  • Gospel Recording Artists: Deitrick Haddon, Donnie McClurkin, Fred Hammond, Ann Nesby, Damita Haddon, Tammi Haddon, The Soul Seekers and Yolanda Adams while serving in the music ministry of Bishop Noel Jones.
  • Smooth Jazz Artists: Jonathan Butler, Keiko Matsui, The Late George Duke, Marcus Johnson, Althea Rene, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Mike Phillips and the late Wayman Tisdale.

He is currently still working with The Jacksons & Philip Bailey of Earth Wind & Fire as well as a member of The Myron McKinley Trio!

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He’s back! Fresh outta the studio, where he’s working on the next opus. He may share a little bit of his musical genius with us, but this dynamo NEVER disappoints.

If I was looking to wingman anyone on the planet, I’d recommend this guy to any lucky lady. If a band needed a drummer, songwriter, singer or all-around good-looking rockstar, I’d tell them to get Josh Thompson. Sound like a man crush? YES, it is!

Come crush with me when we go live at youtube.com/allaccesslivewithkevinrankin

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Official Site Instagram

Emmy award-winning drummer and percussionist Scott Pellegrom is known throughout the drumming community as the “mad scientist.” His playing as a soloist and band leader exudes creativity, from surprising ideas to blinding hand speed, using found objects to pulling unconventional sounds from conventional instruments. Videos of his hyper-creative playing can be seen on Drumeo, the Dream Cymbals and PDP/DW Drums social media channels, Scott’s Instagram (@scottpellegrom), and numerous other places around the web. Incorporating elements of drum and bass, jungle, and fearless improvisation into his playing, this “drummer’s drummer” defies expectation and genre, whether it’s playing jazz standards or today’s most experimental music. In March 2020, Modern Drummer recognized Scott as one of the top five soloists in the world and top five clinician/educators in the world. Read more

https://youtu.be/ESP1C9P8tLY

The infectious grooves and million-dollar smile of drummer Dave Kendall has graced more stages in the Pacific Northwest than almost anyone.

Dave’ll bring that smile and brilliant conversation to All Access Live to discuss the earliest metal days and his beloved band “Gargoyle”, to today’s contemporary country group “Night Rose”.

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Wow, folks… this got as deep and powerful as you can get. Danny shared his heart and spirit as he disclosed the challenges of being homeless, struggling to maintain sanity, and redemption through tenacity and fortitude. Watch ’til the end. It’s important.

Danny’s given title is “Student of Life Majoring in Gratitude”, which exemplifies his journey perfectly. One of the most inspiring drummers to grace the rock n’roll scene in the Pacific NW, Danny Carbo first entered my radar while touring with Jerry Joseph and Little Women. I was a teenager, sneaking into clubs and happened upon Danny’s beastly playing in Bozeman, MT, and I saw him take a folk-rock Americana band to a monstrous level.

We’ve shared bands together, lots of laughs, and PLENTY of tears. We welcome you to join in those reflections on All Access Live.

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When you see Kyle Baltus play drums, the first thing that’ll cross your mind is “HOW can that kid play that hard for that long?” He’s sought after for his feel, intuition and powerhouse drumming.

I believe that some people are put on this planet to play music – it’s their life’s calling. I know this to be true about Kyle. He’s got all of the ingredients of the perfect bandmate: he’s a talented drummer, has the showmanship part nailed, and is an easy hang (which is SO important!).

We’ll talk about his international touring, recording, music video production and the experiences he’s had along the way. Kyle’s got some great stories, and we’ll get the inside scoop on ’em backstage on All Access Live.

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