(Book). In various interviews over the past 35 years Charlie Watts has expressed admiration for the talents of many drummers. But the fundamental connections of those he has noted as his favorites, help define his particular style, approach, and priorities as the drummer for the "Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World." Here then, are 26 biographies of Charlie Watts' favorites drummers. Included are Art Blakey, Chico Hamilton, Art Taylor, Phil Seamen, Ginger Baker, Jerry Allison, Papa Jo Jones, Jim Keltner, Kenny Clarke, Davey Tough, Billy Higgins, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Jake Hanna, Tony Williams, Max Roach, Joe Morello, and Big Sid Catlett.

Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters is both a gonzo rush—capturing the bristling energy of the Rolling Stones and the times in which they lived—and a wide-eyed reflection on why the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World needed the world's greatest rock 'n' roll drummer. Across five decades, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has had the best seat in the house. Charlie Watts, the anti-rock star—an urbane jazz fan with a dry wit and little taste for the limelight—was witness to the most savage years in rock history, and emerged a hero, a warrior poet. With his easy swing and often loping, uneven fills, he found nuance in a music that often had little room for it, and along with his greatest ally, Keith Richards, he gave the Stones their swaggering beat. While others battled their drums, Charlie played his modest kit with finesse and humility, and yet his relentless grooves on the nastiest hard-rock numbers of the era ("Gimme Shelter," "Street Fighting Man," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," etc.) delivered a dangerous authenticity to a band that on their best nights should have been put in jail. Author Mike Edison, himself a notorious raconteur and accomplished drummer, tells a tale of respect and satisfaction that goes far beyond drums, drumming, and the Rolling Stones, ripping apart the history of rock'n'roll, and celebrating sixty years of cultural upheaval. He tears the sheets off of the myths of music making, shredding the phonies and the frauds, and unifies the frayed edges of disco, punk, blues, country, soul, jazz, and R&B—the soundtrack of our lives. Highly opinionated, fearless, and often hilarious, Sympathy is an unexpected treat for music fans and pop culture mavens, as edgy and ribald as the Rolling Stones at their finest, never losing sight of the sex and magic that puts the roll in the rock —the beat, that crazy beat!—and the man who drove the band, their true engine, the utterly irreplaceable Charlie Watts.

Here's the inside story: the history of the Rolling Stones - according to the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood have come together for this remarkable project. They've also opened up their personal and band archives to include many rare and intimate images that are interwoven with the text. The book gets right to the heart of what makes the Stones the Stones, as musicians, songwriters, performers, and colleagues. They describe how their music has evolved and how it has affected and changed their lives. They also reveal, with refreshing frankness, how their own lives have helped, or hindered, their music-making. The Stones' own words - insightful, funny, poignant, surprising, and above all, completely authentic - are complemented by insider reflections from key players in their story over the years such as Ahmet Ertegun, David Bailey, and Cameron Crowe. A comprehensive reference section including discography, and chronology, studded with the Stones' personal comments on the music and memories, completes this must-read volume. Here, in their own words and images, is the life and work of a band which has played the soundtrack of our lives for the last forty years.

Update to popular book on legends of rock's golden era Now in its long-awaited second printing, Bob Cianci's Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties, the universally acclaimed history of Sixties rock drummers and drumming, has been reissued in its original form with a revised section that thoroughly updates information on the drummers featured within. This group of rock drummers are arguably the most revered and copied musicians to ever sit behind the kit. All the prominent drummers of the era are spotlighted, including Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell, Hal Blaine, and other legends. Long out of print, the original first edition of Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties was published in 1989 and went on to become a collectors' item. This in-demand book is back and better than ever, with a new cover, improved layout, and much more information for anyone interested in the Sixties, its music, and rock drummers.

Stanley Booth, a member of the Rolling Stones' inner circle, met the band just a few months before Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1968. He lived with them throughout their 1969 tour across the United States, staying up all night together listening to blues, talking about music, ingesting drugs, and consorting with groupies. His thrilling account culminates with their final concert at Altamont Speedway—a nightmare of beating, stabbing, and killing that would signal the end of a generation's dreams of peace and freedom. But while this book renders in fine detail the entire history of the Stones, paying special attention to the tragedy of Brian Jones, it is about much more than a writer and a rock band. It has been called—by Harold Brodkey and Robert Stone, among others—the best book ever written about the 1960s. In Booth's afterword, he finally explains why it took him 15 years to write the book, relating an astonishing story of drugs, jails, and disasters. Updated to include a foreword by Greil Marcus, this 30th anniversary edition is for Rolling Stones fans everywhere.

(Book). This much sought-after work has been re-issued after years of being unavailable! In The Big Beat , Max Weinberg speaks to 14 pioneers of rock drumming. Included are fantastic interviews with Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, DJ Fontana, Levon Helm, Jim Keltner, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, Roger Hawkins, Bernard Purdie, Dino Danelli, Kenney Jones, Russ Kunkle, Dave Clark and Johnny Bee. This book has been out of print and unavailable for many years. Hudson Music has located the last remaining supply. Highly recommended used copies are for sale on the web for more than $100! Order now, supply is limited.

Miscellaneous Percussion Music - Mixed Levels

If you want to have more fun on the drums, improve your skills faster, and play along to real music, then you need to build a solid foundation. The Best Beginner Drum Book gives you a clear path for getting started on the drums and skipping the frustrating obstacles that most new drummers face: setting up your kit, holding the drumsticks, learning notation, creating catchy beats and fills, learning musical styles, and playing your favorite songs.

Peter 'Ginger' Baker is a legend. A pioneering drummer who transcends genre, he's done much to popularise world music with his fierce passion for the rhythms of Africa. He is that rare thing - both critically acclaimed and globally successful. He has also lived a life more rock'n'roll than most.Ginger tells his story for the first time. It's often harrowing but outrageously honest as he journey's from war-torn south London to his adopted home in South Africa's beautiful Western Cape - where he has his own polo club. Along the way he tells of his life-long love of jazz, how he discovered the drums, life on the road and reveals the heroin use that should have killed him. He talks candidly of his three marriages, his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Cream in 1993, their 2005 reunion and his own plans for the future.

Never have so many famous drummers been gathered together in one place! Drummer and writer Spike Webb has spent more than three years meeting fellow drummers in bars, clubs and cafes, shooting the breeze for a couple of hours and extracting anecdote after anecdote for posterity. This is truly a labour of love - and somebody had to do it. In this book you'll meet drummers like Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Don Powell (Slade), Adam Facek (Babyshambles), Steve White (Paul Weller), Topper Headon (The Clash), Woody (Madness) and world-class session players like Toto's drummer Simon Phillips. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant but always entertaining, it's the ultimate insight into what it really means to be a drummer and an explanation, at last, for what really makes someone do a 20-minute solo. You'll be asking for an encore!