07/01

Hello and welcome to the latest update from your friends at J. D'Addario & Company. Inside this month's newsletter read about the latest from our endorsees including Daniel Lanois, Bill Bruford, Ben Verdery, Joe Henry, James Campbell, Ani DiFranco, Paul Brady, Kalani, Billy Ward and many more.

Please read on!

To submit artist news, please e-mail John Ferrante at
john.ferrante@daddario.com

J. D'Addario sadly mourns the passing of our friend Steve Ettleson, and offers sincere condolences to his family. Steve was a well-respected member of the percussion community, and we're very glad we had the opportunity to work with him during his time as a member of the Evans team.

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Company News:

The Long Island Chapter of the United Way recently honored J. D'Addario & Company, Inc. D'Addario received The People's Hope Award for the Most Improved Campaign of 2000-2001. This distinguished award was presented at a gala function attended by many of the top organizations on Long Island.

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Artist Quote of the Month:

"Simply the best tone of any string I've ever played." - Al DiMeola

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Evans News:

Bill Bruford's Earthworks band is currently on tour in the U.S. You don't want to miss this tour! Bill's band features Patrick Clahar on Saxophone, Steve Hamilton on Piano and Mark Hodgson on Acoustic Bass. For more info and tour dates, please visit www.billbruford.co.uk.

Thunder-down-under, Chad Wackerman performs at "The Ultimate Drummers Day" in Melbourne, Australia on June 10th. Ultimate drummer indeed!

The ever-cool Peter Erskine embarks on a clinic tour this month. For dates and locations, please visit <http://www.evansdrumheads.com/clinice/home.html>

Mr. James Campbell has been more than busy for the month of May. Jim recently finished an 8-day tour in Japan. While there, he visited Osaka, Nagoya, Hamamatsu, and Tokyo. Jim's trip was highlighted with two clinics at the Ginza Yamaha Store in Tokyo on May 16 as part of the "New Stage" Series. He also presented workshops for over 800 band directors at the "2001 Japan Band Clinic" held at the Nemu No Sato Resort. Campbell's clinics focused on Contemporary Drum Corps Technique and Concert Cymbal Performance. Campbell also hosted six percussion masterclases at MusicFest 2001 held in Ottawa, Canada from May 23-27. The festival was attended by approximately 11,000 band and choral participants who attend masterclasses and give public concerts. Jim's class topics included seminars on concert snare drum, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, and accessories.

Thom Hannum will be inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame this year. Congratulations, Thom!

Tony Verderosa releases two new Instructional VHS Videos entitled VFX/Live Electronic Music Performance Vol 1 and 2. These in-depth videos cover Tony V's unique acoustic-electric approach to live drum n' bass, breakbeat, and techno. Lots of live performance footage, interviews and step by step examples. Also released: New VFX/Tony Verderosa Live Concert VHS featuring a 70 Minute Live Solo Concert/Documentary, Backstage Interviews, and Live Playing/Remixing filmed in NYC and Montreal. For more info, please visit www.TonyVerderosa.com

Tool, featuring Danny Carey, is currently on a six-week festival run in Europe to support their latest release Lateralus. In August, the band tours the states with - are you ready for this? - King Crimson, featuring Pat Mastelatto!

Evans proudly supported the first North Alabama Percussion Festival. With more than 70 students attending, the North Alabama Percussion Festival was the place to be for informative hands-on presentations given by Thom Hannum and Neal Flum.

Rockin' Rick Latham and the Johnny Winter Band taped a Nashville TV Special to air in late June. The evening also features Jethro Tull and The Tubes.

Billy Ward is touring with Joan Osborne beginning June 7th. The tour will extend through August 18th, concluding in Japan.

Dave Mattacks is currently on a UK tour with Mary Chapin Carpenter. A U.S. tour commences at the end of this month. Dave is digging the new Evans EMAD bass drum head.

Cyber-drumming anyone? Check out Kalani's www.drumlesson.com, one of the Web's most comprehensive sites on all things drums.

Louis Appel (Southside Johnny &The Asbury Jukes) recently played the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J. Mr. Bruce Springsteen surprised the audience of 2,500 people when he joined the group onstage for an hour. Southside will be playing stadiums throughout Europe with Bon Jovi for the month of June.

Indie-rock drummer David Kostiner and his band Creeper Lagoon have just embarked on a month-long tour of the UK in support of their latest DreamWorks release.

Claudio Slon lives out his dream by performing this month at the Moscow Conservatory Hall. Way to go Claudio!

"I've been using the new EMAD bass drum head with the AF patch & EQRGS pad. I don't know what it is about that combination, but it has to be the best bass drum sound ever!" - Al Webster

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D'Addario News:

D'Addario and Planet Waves are proud to welcome Daniel Lanois to our family of Performing Artists. An accomplished singer/songwriter/guitarist, seven time Grammy Award winner Daniel Lanois is primarily known for his trademark record production. He has inspired acts such as Bob Dylan, U2, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Peter Gabriel to capture their most compelling works in the studio. Most recently Daniel and U2 took home the Grammy for Record of the Year for the single "Beautiful Day" from the album "All that You Can't Leave Behind." Daniel is currently in the studio recording the much-anticipated follow up to his second solo CD, For The Beauty of Wynona. As yet untitled, this new release promises to be a sonic masterpiece.

Classical guitarist Ben Verdery is gearing up for a tour of Japan.

In other classical news, guitarist David Russell's latest CD David Russell Plays Baroque Music has been chosen as the instrumentalist CD of the month in BBC Music Magazine.

The Pat Metheny Group is going into the recording studio in this month. The band consists of Pat, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, and Antonio Sanchez. For the month of July, Pat will take a little break from the recording to play select dates in Europe.

Singer/songwriter/producer Joe Henry's latest release entitled Scar and is now available on Mammoth Records. The follow-up to his brilliant Fuse, Scar features Ornette Coleman. Joe is currently on tour and performs on The Late Show with David Letterman on 6/25. Don't miss him!

The prolific Michael Manring has been doing a lot of recording lately with various projects. Attention Deficit, featuring Manring, Tim Alexander from Primus, and Alex Skolnick from Testament, just released their second CD entitled The Idiot King on Magna Carta records. Also look for another release from Michael's group Yo Miles. The band records versions of Miles Davis' music from the seventies. For more info, check out www.manthing.com.

Queen of heartache Lucinda Williams releases her sixth album, Essence. This follow-up to her Grammy-winning 1998 Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is a must-hear!

Singer/songwriter Paul Brady releases Oh What A World on Compass Records.

Guitarist Chris Whitely is back with his latest release, Rocket House, on ATO Records. Rocket House is Chris' seventh album and his first full-fledged studio recording in five years. Dave Matthews guests on the track "Radar."

Ani DiFranco releases revelling/reckoning, a two-disc, 29-song collection, on her own righteous babe record label. For more info on Ani's summer tour, please visit www.righteousbabe.com.

The man, the myth, the legend, Ben Harper performs on The Tonight Show on June 6 and on the Craig Kilborne Show on June 7th. Back-to-back Ben!

Congratulations to Mark O'Conner for taking home the Academy of Country Music Award's Fiddler of the Year honor!

Mr. Al Di Meola releases The Grande Passion on Telarc Records. In other Al news, Ovation has just released the Al Di Meola Signature custom Legend guitar.

Bassist Rick Fierbracci is on tour with Frank Gambale and Steve Smith in Costa Rica. Ric will also be on tour with Andy Summers in Australia next month. For more info, please visit http://www.andysummers.com/tour.html.

Guitarist Mordy Ferber releases his latest MR.X, featuring Jack DeJohnette, Eddie Gomez & Dave Liebmanon, on Halfnote records.

Rob Balducci can be heard on a Jeff Beck tribute CD entitled Rewired. Rob covered the song "You Never Know." The record will be released worldwide on the Progressive Arts Music Label. For more info check out www.robbalducci.com.

Bassist Zev Katz is embarking on this summer's Roxy Music Tour. In related news, Zev recently finished working on Bryan Ferry's upcoming solo album.

Guitarist/songwriter Mark Selby joins a stellar list of D'Addario artists - including Beck, John Hiatt, Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams- in contributing tracks for Avalon Blues - A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt. This stunning collection is already garnering advance raves and is set for a June 12 release. Mark is currently on tour in the U.S., having just returned from Paris.

Al Petteway & Amy White's most recent recording, Gratitude, received the 2001 Association for Independent Music Indie Award in the Acoustic Instrumental category.

Violinist Jeremy Cohen will be soloing with the Reno Philharmonic in July and will be teaching Jazz Violin at the Henry Mancini institute at UCLA this summer. For more info, please visit www.violinjazz.com.

Eight-string guitarist Andrew Schulman continues the steady solo engagement he began in September 1999 at the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel in New York, playing a repertoire of classical and popular music. This spring he played a series of solo concerts in New York libraries. He will join host John Schaefer of WNYC-FM for a live broadcast on June 14th.

Replay, the latest CD from University of New Mexico Professor of Music Michael Chapdelaine has just been released. The new CD features pop tunes arranged for solo guitar (steel string and nylon). For more info, please visit www.unm.edu/~mchap/songlist.replay.html.

Guitarist Tomo Fujita, Assistant Professor at the Berklee College of music, tours Japan this month, hosting clinics at music schools and music stores. For more info, visit www.tomofujita.com.

Jimi HaHa, of Jimmie's Chicken Shack, has been writing songs with Aaron Lewis from Staind, Art Alexakis from Everclear, John Wozniak from Marcy Playground and Butch Walker from the Marvelous Three for an upcoming third Island Defjam album.

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Planet Waves News:

That's right, those are Planet Waves cables you'll see being used on the Alanis Morissette band's current UK tour by guitarist Joel Shearer, bassist Chris Chaney, and Ms. Morissette herself.

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Vandoren News:

Saxophonist Sherman Irby has release a new album, titled Black Warrior.

Donald Harrison is currently on the road with his quartet. This summer, Donald will embark on a world tour with The Art of Four, featuring Billy Cobham, Ron Carter, and James Williams.

Woodwind whirlwind Mel Martin performed in May with the UC Davis Jazz Band.

That's all for this month. Thanks for reading!

Get the latest D'Addario, Evans, Planet Waves, and Vandoren news at <http://www.daddario.com>