Editor’s note: Berklee College of Music is proud to count the Zildjian Company among our corporate benefactors. We have had a long relationship with this outstanding maker of Cymbals. The Zildjian Family, especially Armand Zildjian and his daughter Craigie Zildjian, and the company have supported Berklee with gifts as well their time as trustees. Below you will read about the creation of four scholarships; to learn more about the scholarships go to the Zildjian Scholarship Funds page.

Bob Kramer Studio

This was one night the drummer didn't have any trouble getting some applause. At the American Drummers Achievement Awards, the drum solos came fast and furious. Make that very fast.

The concert at the Berklee Performance Center on September 13, 1998, honored four living legends of the drum world and commemorated the 375th anniversary of the Avedis Zildjian Company, the world's premier cymbal maker. Jazz greats Louie Bellson, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, and Max Roach were treated to trophies, video biographies narrated by Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes, and musical tributes performed by four of today's top drum set artists—two of them Berklee alumni.

Proceeds of the event will establish four permanent scholarships at Berklee, in the name of each honored drummer. The sold-out concert, augmented by "Golden Circle" contributions and donations from the Avedis Zildjian Company, raised $80,000 to fund the endowed scholarships.

Steve Gadd, Terri Lyne Carrington '83, Peter Erskine, and Marvin "Smitty" Smith '81 each led groups honoring one of the jazz greats, their selections often invoking the master's legacy. Pianist Michel Petrucciani and bassist Anthony Jackson assisted Gadd on a locomotive-powered "Take the A Train" for ex-Ellington drummer Bellson, and Erskine led bassist John Lockwood and Berklee saxman George Garzone through an original "Blues for Elvin" as well as "Giant Steps" for Coltrane collaborator Jones. Playing tunes drawn from Haynes's days with Chick Corea, pianist Danilo Perez '88 and Lockwood set up Carrington for a free-form solo that echoed, as well as honored, her fellow Boston-area native. Then Smith, after playing in the company of Berklee's Larry Monroe, Greg Hopkins, Consuelo Candelaria, and Lockwood, paid fitting tribute to Roach with a solo composition for drum set.

Comedian Bill Cosby, a noted jazz booster—and an aspiring jazz drummer himself, as a young man—hosted the event, adding his own observations on the honored drummers in the guise of comments attributed to a fictitious alter ego, "Sticks" Hooper. Cosby also put the masters to the test, challenging them to perform one-minute solos using nothing but sticks, a high hat and one of four props chosen by lot. Each rose to the occasion, Bellson drawing music out of a metal folding chair, Haynes adding foot stomps to his high-hat-and-milk-crate "kit," Jones finding African-sounding rhythms in the shell of a trash can, and Roach evoking a host of sounds from a music stand and high-hat stand.

"It was one of the best concerts I've seen at the Berklee Performance Center," says Executive Vice President Gary Burton, who served as musical director. He gave credit to all the performers for pulling off a jam-packed program with grace, style, and—thanks to emcee Cosby—humor. "Three-and-a-half hours, and never a dull moment."

Bob Kramer Studio

It was an emotional evening for all involved. "I had the best time in the world," says Erskine. "There was a lot of love in the room that night." For the four performers, all at the height of their careers, this was a chance to pay homage to their early idols, Erskine explains. "These are the guys who created the language of our music," he says. "Not so long ago, we were sitting in front of record players, listening to these guys and staring at their pictures on record jackets. It was a real kick to get to play for them."

"It was very cool for me," agrees Carrington. "I was honored to be asked to do it."

But it was the honorees who were most touched by the evening's tributes.

"It was one of the most interesting, loving, delightful evenings I've had in my whole life," says Louie Bellson. "I sat right by Max, and we were both like kids in a candy store." The memories of that evening, says Bellson, will "be with us forever."

For Craigie Zildjian, a Berklee trustee as well as general manager for North America and vice chair of the board of the Avedis Zildjian Company, the event was not just everything she hoped it would be; "it was more," she says.

The American Drummers Achievement Awards certainly made for an unusual corporate anniversary celebration. But then, as the oldest continuously operating company in the United States, the Avedis Zildjian Company didn't have much of a standard for comparison. "There's not a lot of precedent," says Zildjian. "You can't go to other companies and ask, 'How did you celebrate your 375th?'"

That's just as well because the Norwell, Massachusetts-based cymbal manufacturer is not much like other companies. In Constantinople, in the year 1623, an Armenian alchemist named Avedis discovered a bronze alloy that produced a bright, clear sound—and did not shatter—when struck. The instruments Avedis created with this alloy earned him the title of "Zildjian," or cymbalsmith, bestowed by the ruler of the Turkish empire. Several generations later, in 1929, another Avedis Zildjian moved the family business from Turkey to the United States, just in time to outfit the newly evolved drum kit. Early dance-band drummers had only heavy, marching band cymbals to play. At the urging of Gene Krupa, the Avedis Zildjian Company began to make the lighter, brighter cymbals that became a staple of the modern drum set.

Today, the Avedis Zildjian Company remains the world's preeminent cymbal maker. Under President Armand Zildjian and his designated successor, daughter Craigie, the Avedis Zildjian Company has become the 41st-largest music-industry supplier in the world, according to Music Trades magazine, with more than 170 employees and a commanding share of the world market for cymbals.

With the Avedis Zildjian Company's success so closely tied to the development of modern drumming, an awards night honoring a group of legendary jazz drummers seemed a natural way to celebrate a milestone anniversary. But putting on such an event was something new for the company. Here, the Zildjian family's long-standing relationship with Berklee College of Music—Armand is an overseer and Craigie a trustee—provided the answer.

"It was during Berklee's 50th anniversary celebration, which was great, that I mentioned to [President] Lee [Eliot Berk] that we had this big anniversary coming up," says Craigie Zildjian. "He said, 'Call on us.' And when we mentioned the idea of honoring these four drummers, Gary [Burton] just beamed. 'I love all those guys,' he said."

Berklee students were the logical beneficiaries of the concert. "Once we came up with the idea of doing a tribute show, we thought immediately that the money raised should go to a higher cause," says Colin Scofield, vice president of marketing for the Avedis Zildjian Company. With the Avedis Zildjian Company already the sponsor of an endowed scholarship at Berklee, an appropriate "higher cause" quickly sprang to mind: scholarships for young drummers.

Bob Kramer Studio

"This is a very special corporate legacy gift that demonstrates to the entire world the importance and value of giving back to the future of music," says President Lee Eliot Berk. "We are very pleased that the Zildjians chose to share their anniversary with Berklee in this thoughtful and very generous way."

It's a fitting way to perpetuate the names and legacies of the four drummers; honorees and performers alike seem to agree.

"A great purpose is served" by the scholarship funds, says Elvin Jones. "There can't be any substitute for practical experience," says Jones, who laments what he calls the "demise" of the clubs, theaters, and music halls where he served his musical apprenticeship. "But there's a lot to be said for formal education, too. An environment like Berklee is a microcosm of what you'll experience later in life."

"It's important to learn by playing out and about, but it's also important to learn all the things a school like Berklee can teach you," says Carrington. "That way you become a total and complete musician."

The concert was also an educational experience for the many young drummers who attended, says Percussion Department Chair Dean Anderson. "In the audience, there were many Berklee students learning about their forefathers. That's something they don't get enough of," says Anderson. And in the examples of Berklee graduates Carrington and Smith, he says, they could see the fruits of a Berklee education.

It's only through scholarships like those funded by the Zildjian event that some aspiring musicians can get that kind of education, says Carrington, who came to Berklee on a scholarship in 1981. "Scholarships are a very necessary thing," she says. "I commend Zildjian for wanting to spend their anniversary on something so positive."

But Craigie Zildjian notes that the cymbal company wasn't the only source of generosity. Bill Cosby donated his "entirely unique" services, she says, and Ed Bradley returned his fee for narrating the video tributes to the scholarship funds. Throughout the day, she says, the performers "kept thanking us for the opportunity to do this—for nothing."

"I lobbied for the chance to perform the Elvin Jones tribute," admits Peter Erskine, who received an honorary degree from Berklee in 1992. "I stood at the fax machine and fed in eight or ten photos of me with Elvin. Finally, Colin picked up the phone and said, 'Okay, okay, you can do Elvin.'"

It was that kind of enthusiasm—for the honorees, and for the cause—that made the American Drummers Achievement Awards a night to remember. "There was an overwhelming outpouring of love and respect," says Scofield.

An outpouring that was much appreciated.

"I've got my poster [of the concert] hung up already," says Louie Bellson. "It's a reminder of a marvelous night—just magnificent."