Category: News hats

A hi-hat hihat high-hat etc is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal all mounted on a metal stand It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock pop jazz and blues Hi-hats consist of a matching pair of small to medium-sized cymbals mounted on a stand with the two cymbals facing each other The bottom cymbal is fixed and the top is mounted on a rod which moves the top cymbal toward the bottom one when the pedal is depressed a hi-hat that is in this position is said to be closed or closed hi-hats The hi-hat evolved from a sock cymbal a pair of similar cymbals mounted at ground level on a hinged spring-loaded foot apparatus Drummers invented the first sock cymbals to enable one drummer to play multiple percussion instruments at the same time Over time these became mounted on short stands also known as low-boys and activated by pedals similar to those used in modern hi-hats When extended upward roughly feet cm they were originally known as high sock cymbals which evolved over time to the familiar high-hat term The cymbals may be played by closing them together with the pedal which creates a chck sound or striking them with a stick which may be done with them open closed open and then closed after striking to dampen the ring or closed and then opened to create a shimmering effect at the end of the note Depending on how hard a hi-hat is struck and whether it is open i e pedal not pressed so the two cymbals are not closed together a hi-hat can produce a range of dynamics from very quiet chck or chick sounds done with merely gently pressing the pedal this is suitable for soft accompaniment during a ballad or the start of a guitar solo to very loud e g striking fully open hats hard with sticks a technique used in loud heavy metal music songs While the term hi-hat normally refers to the entire setup two cymbals stand pedal rod mechanism in some cases drummers use it to refer exclusively to the two cymbals themselves History Initial versions of the hi-hat were called clangers which were small cymbals mounted onto a bass drum rim and struck with an arm on the bass drum pedal Then came shoes which were two hinged boards with cymbals on the ends that were clashed together Next was the low-sock low-boy or low-hat pedal-activated cymbals employing an ankle-high apparatus similar to a modern hi-hat stand A standard size was inches cm some with heavy bells up to inches cm wide Hi-hats that were raised and could be played by hand as well as foot may have been developed around by Barney Walberg of the drum accessory company Walberg and Auge The first recognized master of the new instrument was Papa Jo Jones whose playing of timekeeping ride rhythms while striking the hi-hat as it opened and closed inspired the innovation of the ride cymbal Another claim published in Jazz Profiles Blogspot on August to the invention of the hi-hat is attributed to drummer William O’Neil Spencer b -d Legendary Jazz drummer Philly Joe Jones born as Joseph Rudolph Jones b -d was quoted describing his understanding of the hi-hat’s history Jones said I really dug O’Neil He came to a club in Philadelphia where I was working in I think it was and talked to me about the hi-hat I was using a foot cymbal the low-hat O’Neil was the one who invented the hi-hat I believe that man He suggested I close the hat on ‘ ‘ and ‘ ‘ when playing time The idea seemed so right hadn’t heard anyone do that before The editor of the Jazz Profiles article made specific mention of others who are thought to have invented the hi-hat including Papa Jo Jones and Kaiser Marshall A Modern Drummer article credits Papa Jo Jones with being the first to use brushes on drums and shifting time keeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat providing a swing-pulse focus Until the late s standard hi-hats were inches cm with inches cm available as a less-common alternative in professional cymbal ranges and smaller sizes down to inches cm restricted to children’s kits In the early s hard rock drummers including Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham began to use -inch cm hi-hats such as the Paiste Giant Beat In the late s Zildjian released its revolutionary -inch cm Special Recording hats which were small heavy hi-hat cymbals intended for close miking either live or recording and other manufacturers quickly followed suit Sabian for example with their -inch cm mini hats In the early to mid- s Paiste offered -inch cm mini hi-hats as part of its Visions series which were among the world’s smallest hi-hats Starting in the s a number of manufacturers also experimented with rivets in the lower cymbal But by the end of the s the standard size was again inches cm with inches cm a less-common alternative and smaller hats mainly used for special sounds Rivets in hi-hats failed to catch on Modern hi-hat cymbals are much heavier than modern crash cymbals reflecting the trend to lighter and thinner crash cymbals as well as to heavier hi-hats Another evolution is that a pair of hi-hat cymbals may not be identical with the bottom often heavier than the top and possibly vented Some examples are Sabian’s Fusion Hats with holes in the bottom cymbal and the Sabian X-cellerator Zildjian Master Sound and Zildjian Quick Beats Paiste Sound Edge and Meinl Soundwave Some drummers even use completely mismatched hi-hats from different cymbal ranges Zildjian’s K Z hats of different manufacturers and even of different sizes similar to the K Custom Session Hats where the top hat is a inch mm smaller than the bottom Max Roach was particularly known for using a -inch cm top with a -inch cm bottom…

Men Without Hats are a Canadian new wave and synth-pop band originally from Montreal Quebec Their music is characterized by the baritone voice of their lead singer Ivan Doroschuk as well as their elaborate use of synthesizers and electronic processing They achieved their greatest popularity in the s with The Safety Dance a worldwide top ten hit No in the United States and Pop Goes the World After a hiatus for most of the s and s Doroschuk reformed the band in and released Love in the Age of War The group based in Vancouver has continued to perform including tour dates in support of the release of two studio albums Men Without Hats Again Parts in and respectively History Early days Men Without Hats was founded in Montreal in initially as a punk rock band featuring Ivan Doroschuk vocals Pete Seabrooke guitar Dave Hill bass and John Gurrin drums In Doroschuk restarted Men Without Hats giving the name to a new synthesizer-based group that he formed with J r mie Arrobas vocals keyboards and his brothers Stefan Doroschuk bass and Colin Doroschuk guitar Influences on this electronic outfit included Gary Numan OMD and Ultravox Years earlier while in high school Arrobas and the Doroschuk brothers had played together in a short-lived band called Wave along with drummer Igor Krichevsky Many years later Stefan would reuse the Wave name for a country-pop band founded in the late s with his daughters Mary-Lynn and Emmy-Lou The Doroschuk brothers all three of whom are classically trained musicians were born in Champaign Illinois while their father a Canadian was earning a doctoral degree They moved to Montreal as young children when their parents returned to Canada The group’s name came about because the brothers following a self-described principle of style before comfort refused to wear hats during Montreal’s cold winters calling themselves the men without hats In addition to the Doroschuks the group has also included numerous additional members and guest or touring performers many of whom quickly came and left during the first five years Frontman and songwriter Ivan Doroschuk was the only constant member while Stefan and Colin Doroschuk as well as Arrobas remained as relatively steady members through the early s Their first recording to be released was the EP Folk of the ‘s At this point the band had changed styles from punk to new wave and officially consisted of Ivan vocals bass and Arrobas keyboards also appearing on the EP were auxiliary members Stefan Doroschuk bass Roman Martyn guitars and Lysanne Thibodeau backing vocals Shortly after the release of the debut EP Martyn left and was replaced by Jean-Marc Pisapia who stayed only a short time before leaving and later founded The Box Pisapia was replaced briefly by Tracy Howe who also left in short order co-founding Rational Youth shortly after his departure Howe was replaced by keyboardist Mike Gabriel Arrobas and Gabriel left the group just before the recording of the next album International success Ivan and Stefan the latter now promoted to full membership status subsequently recruited Allan McCarthy percussion electronics to join the group and recorded their full-length debut album Rhythm of Youth The trio subsequently enjoyed a hit in Canada with The Safety Dance which peaked at No in May The song soon charted in the United States spending four weeks at No on the Billboard Hot and was a major hit on the UK Singles Chart peaking at No The song also reached the top ten in various other European countries and peaked at No in New Zealand and No in South Africa where it was the th highest-selling single of Adding Pierre who had guested on Rhythm of Youth as an official fourth member Men Without Hats released the album Folk of the ‘s Part III in While lead single Where Do The Boys Go was a top hit in Canada the album failed to match the international success of Rhythm of Youth In the band released the EP Freeways consisting of multiple and multi-lingual remixes of one of their earliest efforts Ivan and Arrobas’s song Freeways which had previously been released as a B-side in To support the EP the group undertook a related tour footage from which would later in be released on DVD as Live Hats Reshuffling the line-up again the band released the album Pop Goes the World in with Ivan Stefan and Lenny Pinkas The song Pop Goes the World reached No on the Billboard Hot No on the Canadian Singles Chart and was No in Austria The song was featured in the film Date with an Angel and became the fifteenth biggest selling single in South Africa for The group’s next album The Adventures of Women Men Without Hate in the st Century released in featured a cover of ABBA’s song SOS The musicians on the album were essentially the touring band from Pop Goes the World which included Bruce Murphy on keyboards and guitar Marika Tjelios on bass Richard Sampson on drums and Heidi Garcia on vocals and keyboards The album Sideways dominated by electric guitars instead of keyboards revealed a dramatically different sound for the band based in part on Ivan’s exposure to Nirvana Ivan said We had a contractual obligation for one more album with PolyGram so I said to them we’ll take half of the allotted budget if they would allow us to do the record I wanted so we did this guitar-oriented record but PolyGram were horrified ‘Men Without Hats without keyboards aren’t going to work ‘ they claimed and that was the end of the story with PolyGram The line-up on the album was Ivan on vocals F lix Matte on lead guitar John Kastner on rhythm guitar Stefan on bass Michel Langevin on drums and Colin on keyboards The group officially disbanded in after the career setback of failing to attract another American label as a result of the negative reception to Sideways The band’s final concert was a…