Photo by Shiho Fukada.

Paul Francis is this week’s guest. He is responsible for the different sounds available coming out of the Zildjian factory in Norwell, MA.

The Superbowl happened and the Halftime show was musical directed by Adam Blackstone and Brian Frasier-Moore played drums while Roland Gajate-Garcia played percussion. Friend of the show, Tom Rarick, performed with the color guard who presented the colors for the star spangled banner. Friend of the show, Kassandra Kocoshis was there as well to play for the NFL honors.

Black History Month

Our official DnP Black History Month playlist can be found by CLICKING HERE.

The list of 29 movies (one for each day), can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Bonus movies/documentaries to watch that Damon recommends on Netflix are the Quincy doc and Black Godfather.

Gig Alerts

Damon is playing the Brooklyn Bowl on Valentine’s Day with the Atomic Funk Project for the “Divas of Soul” show.

He is a special guest playing with Morgan James at the FTC Stage One theater in Fairfield, CT on Friday the 28th of February.

The Thrill is Gone tribute to B.B. King concert will be held on Feb 16th and 17th at the Capitol Theater. There are tons of performers backed by a house band of Steve Jordan, Pino Palladino, Issiah Sharkey and more!

The Love Rocks concert looks like it is sold out, but maybe you can find some tickets on stubhub or something like that.

Marcos is playing with La India on Feb 7th at Empire Lounge in Elizabeth, NJ.

He is playing at Murphy’s Law in Bridgeport, CT with Karibe Mambo on the 14th of Feb.

At the Copacabana Times Square on the 16th with Eddie Torres.

He is playing at Casona in Hartford, CT with Manolo Mairena on Feb 21st.

And, back at Rockwood Music Hall with Jeremy Bosch on Feb 28th.

Educational Spotlights

A list of five programs you can use to transcribe music can be found HERE.

Also mentioned is Percuss.io is a music education initiative who’s goal is to make complex music accessible through technology and visualization, as well as, the community of musicians over at Soundslice. Check out libraries of transcribed music or create your own. You can even use this with teaching students (or yourself).

You can listen to the Six Figure Home Studio Podcast to learn how to step up your home studio and also make some great money off of it.

Product Review

Universal Audio came out with a new DAW (digital audio workstation) called the Luna Recording System.

You can also check out some of the Universal Audio Products to help step up your home studio, featuring some of the Apollo products.

Music News

Billie Eilish’s Bedroom Studio Costs Less Than $3,000 - Article
Three part series on setting up your home studio: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3.
You can also download a free home studio handbook HERE
Q Acoustic Concept 20 Bookshelf Speakers can be a substitute for dishing out tons of money on Focal studio speakers.
As promised, below is the list of inexpensive microphones (courtesy of Aaron Sterling).

NFL Is Uploading a Super Bowl LIV Visual Album to Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music & More - Article
2020 NFL Halftime show Spotify playlist. Haltime shows from 1993-2020 playlist.
The U.S. Department of Justice has formally filed judgment on Live Nation, officially extending the Consent Decree through 2025. - Article
Grammys 2020 Meltdown: A Timeline of Everything That Went Down - Article

Iconic Recording

Elvin Jones’ performance on the John Coltrane album “A Love Supreme”, part three ‘Pursuance’

Paul Francis Interview

The first Zildjian cymbals were created in 1618 by Avedis Zildjian, an Armenian alchemist who was looking for a way to turn base metal into gold. He made an alloy of tin, copper, and silver into a sheet of metal, which could make musical sounds without shattering. The Sultan Osman II the Young gave Avedis the name Zildjian (Zilciyân), (zil is Turkish for "cymbal," ci means "maker", and ian is the Armenian suffix meaning "son of"), and in 1623 granted him permission to leave the palace to start his own business in a suburb of Constantinople named Psamatia.

The Zildjians likely also produced instruments for Greek and Armenian churches, Sufi dervishes, and belly dancers of the Ottoman harem, who wore finger cymbals (called zils)

In 1850 Avedis II built a 25-foot schooner, in order to sail cymbals produced in Constantinople to trade exhibitions such as the Great Exhibition in London, and to supply musicians in Europe.

In the early 1900s, there was the Armenian Genocide by the Turks that started. The Zildjians were spared, because of their relation to the attourney general, but because they were the age of army eligibility, they left. Ended up in Boston and were convinced to resume making cymbals.

Damon suggests a docu-series on the Zildjian family and Paul states his interest in the writer David McCullough.

Original location of Zildjian Cymbals (1929) 39 Fayette Street, Quincy MA. The location is now demolished and condos have been put up.

Avedis III sought out jazz drummers like Gene Krupa and Chick Webb, to understand their needs. The new cymbals he developed were widely adopted by swing and later bebop musicians, laying the foundations of the modern drum kit and playing technique. You can see Gene with Avedis, as well as Avedis with Chick below.

Not only was jazz becoming bigger and more popular, the stock market crashed in 1929 (black tuesday) which added challenges to anyone trying to start a business in the early to mid 1900s.

Sweetwater comes up in conversation because of the candy that arrives with your order. You can hear more of the story Nick D’Virgilio tells in this interview HERE.

Another big boom for the Zildjian company was when the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. It is rumored that some of the other brands used also got a boost in sales (Ludwig Drums, Rickenbacker Guitars and Hofner Basses).

In 1968, Avedis split production into two separate operations, opening the Azco factory in Meductic, New Brunswick, Canada

In 1975, Zildjian began making K. Zildjian cymbals at the Azco plant. These were made until 1979. Within four years (1980), all K Cymbals were being made in the Norwell US plant, because the Ks demanded far more oversight. Armand worked with friends, the drummers Elvin Jones and Tony Williams to relaunch the K Series.

In early 1977, Armand Zildjian was appointed President of the Avedis Zildjian Company by his father. Soon after, Robert Zildjian split from the company amidst conflict with his brother, Armand. In 1981, Robert started making Sabian cymbals in the Canadian Azco factory.

Paul started at Zildjian at age 20 with sweeping floors well before moving on to lathing new beat hi-hats. He took lessons from Dick DiCenso, father of Dave DiCenso.

The newest cymbals to come out are the iSeries, but you can also check out some of their other options on their YouTube page.

Here’s a little evolution of the sound from the cymbals created at Zildjian.

Paul talks about working with various drummers to come up with new sounds, or create what they hear in their heads like Bill Stewart, Peter Erskine, or Zach Danziger.

Marcos and Paul talk about hearing certain sounds from listening to albums or hearing great players play a specific sound. Also, the way a player hits an instrument goes into that sound as well as the public catching up to the new sounds created.

Here are some Pro-Tips from Paul for selecting your own cymbals.

Be sure to hear some of these cymbals and more in the Zildjan Live! series on YouTube, featuring top players playing Zildjian cymblas.

The song leading out of the interview is “I Saw Her Standing There” by the Beatles from the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 with Ringo Starr on drums.