Accessibility links
Beat Week Morning Edition talks about drums with drummers.
Special Series

Beat Week

Morning Edition talks about drums with drummers.
Percussionist Bobbye Hall Is A Liner-Note Legend

A young Bobbye Hall in the studio. Courtesy of Elizabeth Hall hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Elizabeth Hall

Percussionist Bobbye Hall Is A Liner-Note Legend

Hall has played with everyone from Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson to Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. She grew up in Detroit in the '60s, and was sitting in on Motown sessions before she could drive.

Percussionist Bobbye Hall Is A Liner-Note Legend

Listen · 7:22
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/376045541/376045542" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Mystic Rhythms: Rush's Neil Peart On The First Rock Drummer

Rush's Neil Peart performs at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2013. Kevin Winter/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Mystic Rhythms: Rush's Neil Peart On The First Rock Drummer

Peart is one of the world's greatest rock drummers, but his earliest influence comes from jazz.

Mystic Rhythms: Rush's Neil Peart On The First Rock Drummer

Listen · 7:23
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/375171736/375308979" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Original Funky Drummers On Life With James Brown

John "Jabo" Starks (left) and Clyde Stubblefield laid the grooves on many of James Brown's biggest hits. Here, they clown around on the cover of their joint DVD, Soul of the Funky Drummers. Rittor Music hide caption

toggle caption
Rittor Music

The Original Funky Drummers On Life With James Brown

Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks should have been rivals: James Brown hired both of them to do one job. Instead, they stuck together, and laid the foundation for modern funk drumming in the process.

The Original Funky Drummers On Life With James Brown

Listen · 7:22
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/374818384/375064591" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
How Santería Seeped Into Latin Music

Santería ceremonies traditionally make use of hourglass-shaped batá drums. Eric Pancer/Flickr Creative Commons hide caption

toggle caption
Eric Pancer/Flickr Creative Commons

How Santería Seeped Into Latin Music

Santería ceremonies are for calling out to the spiritual world, and that spiritual connection is made through music. Felix Contreras explores how some sacred beats made a secular crossover.

How Santería Seeped Into Latin Music

Listen · 4:12
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/375389153/375544078" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Tabla Master Who Jammed With The Grateful Dead

Zakir Hussain learned from the best — his father, Allah Rakha, was a tabla legend. But Hussain's career really took off when he started working with the rock musicians he grew up admiring. Jim McGuire/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Jim McGuire/Courtesy of the artist

The Tabla Master Who Jammed With The Grateful Dead

Schooled from birth in an ancient instrument, Zakir Hussain always wanted to rock. He found a way to do both after George Harrison gave him some shrewd career advice.

The Tabla Master Who Jammed With The Grateful Dead

Listen · 7:13
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/375637915/375799694" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org