Yamaha Live Custom Drums take centre stage and prove huge hit at North Sea Jazz Festival

Founded in 1976 the award-winning North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands has grown into the world's largest indoor festival. Originally based in the Hague the event now takes place in Ahoy, Rotterdam. This years event, one of the biggest ever, spanned fifteen stages, boasted over 1200 performing artists and attracted over 25,000 visitors each day.

Yamaha drums and pianos have enjoyed a long and successful partnership with Festival organisers and performing artists over many years and this years event was no exception. In a major success for the Live Custom Drum series, the Promoters designated Yamaha as the official drum partner. Meaning that most drummers at the event could perform on the new Live Custom Drums , enjoy its superb tone and durability whilst simultaneously providing a high-profile showcase for the new Live Custom Kit to drummers and music fans throughout the world.

The popularity of Yamaha's Live Custom Drums amongst artist and organisers began in 2012 when Yamaha's specialist drum artist relations team took prototype versions for artists to evaluate (check link below). Yamaha received much valuable feedback at this time which was then incorporated into the final production kits that proved so popular this year.Watch footage of the evaluation here.

Yamaha supplied 16 full Live Custom kits complete with Yamaha hardware and it was reported, without exception, that drummers and drum technicians were genuine in their praise for the excellent sound, tuning stability, eye-catching looks and ruggedness of Yamaha hardware. Over the course of the 3-day festival Yamaha estimate that the Live Custom Drums were played by over 200 drummers, including: Marcus Gilmore (Chic Corea), Troy Miller (Laura Mvula), Kendrick Scott (Terrence Blanchard), Jamire Williams (New Cool Collective) and Mark Colenburg (Robert Glasper).

Yamaha's Wolfgang Csenteri commented "The kits performed fantastically, Live Custom is every inch a Yamaha kit and takes our stage friendly heritage to new heights"

Pictured: Troy Miller on stage with Laura Mvula playing Yamaha Live Custom Drum set.