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lanuary 2009 drummagazine,com

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Los Angeles-based percussion-ist Pete Korpela has col laboratedwith Cooperman to bring anotherunique twist to the tradit ionalpandeiro. By combining the tra-dit ional pandeiro plat inel la stylewith a ganza/shaker sound,the voice of the instrument canchange in new and excit ing ways.The plat inel la, the dome-shapedbrass j ingle, works in conjunctionwith a hybrid "shaker" plat inel lathai is fitted to a base plaie madeof Remo Fiberskyn"

Cooperm ,'I

FRAME DRUMSl l I knew about the awe-someness of Coopermanhand drums I had learnedthrough word of mouth.

So when I was given the assign-ment to actual ly get to play someof the handmade-in-the-U.S.A.drums, I was elated. My f indings:The Cooperman pandeiro, shakerpandeiro, and Glen Velez tarare top quali ty. There's nothingmore beautiful than a drum thatplays as great as i t looks. Made inVermont, these wonderful instru-ments are the best of the best.Cooperman takes advantage ofthe tradit ions of sol id bent-woodshell construction and couples i twith the creative innovations ofsome of the leading hand-drumart ists in the world.

Some experts have suggestedthat the North Afr ican/MiddleEastern tar has been aroundfor ihousands of years. The

craftsmen at Cooperman haveharnessed the essence of thathistory while enl ist ing the exper-t ise of guru hand drummer GlenVelez to del iver a true musician'sinstrument. Part of the Cooper-man Art ist lnnovations series,the Glen Velez tar is the real deal.

The tar features Cooper-man's patented internal tuningtechnology, which is, in a word,incredible. Al len screws are setdeep into the r im of the shel land take a T=grip Al len wrenchfor tuning. Having the tuningscrews inset al lows for a drumthat is not shackled by exter-nal hardware mechanisms andmaintains the instrument 's t ra-dit ional appearance. lhe wood

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in lay is also qui tebeaut i f u l .

Playing the i .Glen Velez tar wasa pleasure. Thedrum has many

t. : . ,- . ,-

features that , ' " '

enhance the ca-pabi l i t ies of the insirument. Onereal ly cool feature of the single-ply ash-wood-shel l drum isthe unique cushioned arch gr ip,The grip helps prevent handfat igue and makes playing morecomfortable. Using a synthet ichead al lows for wonderful to-^- l i+. , -^ l

i *^.^-- ; , ,^ r l -Lr ia i [y ano rmPresstve I tmores.Del icate dynamics are cr isp, andthere's no problem pr-oject ingwith plenty of volume.

Wiih the traditional character-istics of the Brazil ian pandeiro inmind, Cooperman has come upwith one heck of an instrument.With a 10" diameter, 1.875" depth,and removable six-j ingle setup,this drum is truly unique. AIongwith the internaituning system,the drum is not encumbered byuueighty or bulky external hard-ware. The precision - cut bearingedge r-nakes playing comfortable.The ornately engraved cuppedjingles are separated by a flatj ingle that gives the pandeiro itstraditional dry sound.

The ability to remove thejingles and chante the setup isa top-notch added bonus fea-ture. Depending on the needs of

your musical si tuation, you canadd or remove j int les to dial in amore precise sound. The processis quick and easy, so you canchange ai the gig or in the studio.A separate smaller Al len wrenchis provided for this act ion.

The t imbre of the drum is alsoflexible because of the variabletuning capabi l i ty . Shipped witha natural goatskin head, thepandeiro can also be f i t ted witha synthetic Remo head. l f youdon't want to deal with changingweather, which can complicatetuning, I would recommend go-ing ihe synthetic route

By Gary Gardner

72 onuut

the flat Fiberskyn base is attachedto what looks l ike a wrap that coversthe base. Inside the "shaker" j ingle is anicely balanced quantity of shot, whichgives the smooth ganza effect. Thesenew jingles easily frt into the regularj ingle slots and create a wonderful mixof colors. You can piay the pandeirotraditionally or shake it horizontally.Plus, with the easy j ingle removal sys-tem, you can adjust the ratio of shaker

I j ingles to t radrt ional j ingles - a very II handv feature indeed. I

r

ln ConcertSitting in a great big room with tremen-dous natural reverb, some friends andI put the Cooperman drums throughour own private ccnceri. Playing the6len Velez tar was a real joy. Great bigtones with super sustain. The shellis well bala::ced and. with the cush-ioned grip. playing is quite comfort-able. The drunr ieaiiy cranks out somevolume. and:he Remo Renaissancehead prociuces ciear'and defined dy-namics. Xne ove i'tone muffling systemdefrnitely does rvhat its name implies- no buiid-up washing out the moreintricate rhvthrrs played on the drum.

Ihe shaker landeiro I received hasone brass p:atineila with frve shakerjingles, and ir reaily added a uniquesound to:he group. Very smoothshaker pu'ses +vith just enough fromthe platinei:a. i did remove one shakerjingle and add€d another brass j ingleand that gave a lttt le more weight tothe samba feel with the three drums.Alternatlng between the traditionalpandeiro ard sfraker pandeiro was afun mix. fte crisp sound from the tra-ditional cr"'-.rm really drives the flavor of,36!3. ringer rolls and slaps poppedout with nice tonality. l l

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