“I can tell you this: there ain’t but one Tony Williams when it comes to playing the drums. There was nobody like him before or since.” So says Miles Davis in his autobiography, and almost as celebrated, sought after and pored over is the Tony Williams ride sound, as heard on the Davis albums Four and More and Nefertiti.

As students of online drum forums will know, the Old K Zildjian/Tony Williams sound is the holy grail of ride cymbals. What is it like? Broadly, the stick sound is more of a pah than a ping; the wash is low; the cymbal sounds slightly trashy. If you really want to know, listen to the records…

Cymbal manufacturers have jumped on this natural selling point. The Zildjian Company have, sensibly in my view, avoided marketing a Tony Williams ride, but have traded for years on the Old K sound, the sound of cymbals made by Kerope Zildjian. Turkish manufacturer Istanbul Agop make an Epoch ride, ostensibly a copy of the Nefertiti ride lent to drummer Lenny White by trumpet player Wallace Roney. Cymbalsmith Roberto Spizzichino has created a number of TW ride cymbals, which are exclusive and expensive.

Reviewers frequently say this or that cymbal is reminiscent of the Old K sound. Cymbals as disparate as the K Series Pre-Aged Dry Light Ride (not to be confused with) the K Custom Dry Light Ride (or) the K Constantinople Light Ride, all apparently recall the Old K sound, even though the first is a graceful, lively but not effusive cymbal with a dry but clear stick sound, the second sounds to some ears like a trash can lid, and the third… well, you get the idea.

The truth is, all quality cymbals are unique. It is impossible to copy a cymbal, since no two cast cymbals of the same size and model ever sound exactly the same. It is possible only to arrive in the same ballpark. In addition to this, cymbals age: there exists an interview with Roberto Spizzichino, where he says that one of his cymbals bought by Brian Blade via a third party was subsequently not recognisable to him as his own work. The Nefertiti cymbal itself will have aged and changed its sound. Furthermore, just as we accommodate Eastern food to suit Western taste, I’m sure we accommodate Eastern cymbals to suit the tastes of Western musicians. According to Wallace Roney, Tony Williams’ rides were of medium to medium-heavy weight; most of the copies appear to me to be thinner- or have I missed something?

When I was a teenager, the hip thing was to have Avedis crash cymbals and a K ride. To differ from this seemed to undermine your credibility (if your technique hadn’t already done this). Again, when I was young, I wanted to be different: we all did. Yet we all wanted to be the same, or at least dress and act within the same parameters as our peers. As Frank Zappa told a heckler in the Albert Hall, “Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform!“ In choosing cymbals, we want to have our own sound, whilst remaining within the boundaries of a consensus. Apart from anything else, it gives us something to talk about. And it sells cymbals.

But Old K is not the only game in town, or even in jazz. What about Art Blakey’s Sweet Ride, or Roy Haynes’ Flat Ride. Haven’t you ever wanted to play an Ed Thigpen Crystal Ride? So many cymbals so little time…