Traps Magazine Cues Up Lenny White's Return To Forever And Much More

Traps Magazine Cues Up Lenny White's Return To Forever; Historic Hit Man Drum Battles; Progressive Percussionists Of The 70's; Moments with Miles Davis Discography And Much More

San Jose, Calif., -- Enter Music Publishing, publishers of hip, drum/percussion magazines worldwide, today released its Summer Issue of Traps Magazine. Committed to covering “The Art of Drumming”, this issue of Traps extensively explores the history of jazz-fusion drumming through the pioneering players of these highly related genres in 90 pages.

Traps editor, Andy Doerschuk, in his "Entrance" Editor Column, best summarizes this compelling issue of Traps. As he notes: “Our cover stories continue to be the most expert and in-depth drumming coverage you can find, while other stories (covering jazz and fusion) remain focused on pertinent information for the discerning drummer, who wants to learn about the legends, their sound, techniques and gear.”

Lenny White: Reunited With Return To Forever, By Any Means Necessary
Lenny White, without a doubt, is one of the most well respected drummers of jazz and fusion. His incendiary contributions with Return To Forever ignited the fusion era, fusing rock rhythms with jazz harmonies. The passion and zeal with which he attacked the drums in his early days has never dimmed. When Return to Forever decided recently to reunite, White he met up with the other members of the band to rehearse for their upcoming summer tour, even though he was suffering from a broken shoulder and hadn't actively drummed for nearly four months. As he says in the cover story, “I couldn't play for 30 seconds on a pad it (the pain) was so bad.” Yet his band mates – keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and guitarist Al Di Meola didn't notice any difference is his ability to pull of the precision playing necessary to hold down the throne. Bill Milkowski takes the reader on a journey through White's impressive career, particularly his contributions to Miles Davis' seminal fusion recording, Bitches Brew, which also included drumming legends Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham.

Is the winner Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson or Elvin Jones?
While drum battles are rare today, they were a popular publicity gimmick in the 50's and 60's, challenging g the drummers and tantalizing audiences who had the opportunity to witness some of the greatest jazz drummers in history. Writer, Bruce Klauber, takes the reader on a historic tour of these exciting drumming moments. One of the highlights of this story is the ongoing series of drum battles between Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. The battles between these drummers were not meant to be boxing matches for the two rivals had tremendous respect for each other: As Krupa commented, “Anyone that goes up against Buddy in these (battle) situations is going to get blown away." A discography of rare battles is included.

Brian Blade In A Q & A
During this intriguing article, Blade is asked about how and why Joni Mitchell is one of his heroes. In his response, Blade explains how two of her recordings, Hejira and Mingus, have been influential to his ability to write well-crafted songs, “particularly the harmonic aspects of Hejira," which continues to impact his writing style.

Six Progressive Percussionists – Miles Camp, Weather Report Syndicate Or Both
These six percussionists – Moreira, Alias, Mtume, Un Romao, Acuna and Badrena – were active participants in the fusion revolution. Generally speaking, they all had “Latin-tinged styles and did stints with Miles, Weather Report, or both. Traps explores the impact of each of these artists and how they're contributions stand up three decades later.

125 Years Strong – Gretsch Drums
The Gretsch drum company has been building drums in pretty much the same way for 125 years. Played by legends from Tony Williams to Phil Collins, Gretsch remains one of the world's leading brands. TRAPS photo star Robert Downs and writer Jared Cobb take readers on a photo-essay tour of the Gretsch factory. One thing is quite clear from this story; Gretsch drums will outlive any drummer, based on the fine crafting of these special sounding drums.

Epilogue: A Definitive Miles Davis Discography
As previously discussed, many of the drummers written about in this issue of Traps played at some time in their career with Miles Davis. In a thoughtful introduction to this discography, which is part 2 of an overview of the drummers who worked with Miles, Phil Hood, publisher of Traps, writes, “There is no way to quickly characterize Miles or his music, for he was always in transition." This discography takes readers through all the musicians who played on his important recordings from 1961-75

Traps Issue Six is now available on newsstands, in music equipment stores and at Borders, Barnes & Noble and other chains in North America and selected foreign outlets.

About Enter Music Publishing
Founded in San Jose, CA in 1992, Enter Music Publishing, Inc. is a leading publisher of drum/percussion magazines, with distribution in 40 countries. DRUM! is the flagship publication of Enter Music Publishing, Inc. and continues to set the industry standard for editorial quality and innovation. In addition to DRUM! And DRUM! Digital, the company publishes TRAPS and HOW TO PLAY DRUMS. Additional information about the company can be found at: drummagazine.com.