The Longest Story in Music
- jamesgeraghty
- Oct 10
- 7 min read
If you are thinking about music companies that have been around a while, you might well settle on something like Stradivarius, who certainly date back a long way. They made stringed instruments like violins and violas in the late 17th and early 18th century. But there was no company that took on the legacy of Antonio Stradivari and his family, after his death. For longevity, you might think of Steinway & Sons, those famous makers of high quality pianos - impressively on the go since 1853.
But if you want both quality and duration, you are barking up the wrong trees.
Zildjian, or the Avedis Zildjian Company to be more specific, who manufacture cymbals and drumsticks, are the oldest continuously operating music company in the world.
It was founded in Constantinople (Istanbul) in what was the Ottoman Empire in 1623 by Avedis Zildjian, an ethnic Armenian. Like his father before, he was a metalsmith and alchemist who worked in the court of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1618, whilst trying to make gold, he instead worked up an alloy of copper, tin and silver into a sheet of metal, which made some wondrous musical sounds without breaking. This impressed Sultan Mustafa I, who gave Avedis eighty gold pieces as a bequest and gave official recognition to the name Zilciyan (or Zildjian), to mean “son of a cymbal maker” or “family of cymbalsmiths”. (Zil is Turkish for cymbal, ci means maker, and ian is the Armenian suffix for ‘son of’).
1623 saw him leave the royal palace, with the Sultan’s permission, and set up his own business in the Armenian sector of Constantinople, called Samatya - the Zildjian company was born. Their early trade was in making cymbals for the mehter, the military bands of wind and percussion instruments which belonged to the legendary Janissaries (the household army of the Sultan and believed to be the first standing army in the world). These bands played music for battle, but also for the courts of the Ottoman rulers.
Cymbal History: they have been around for thousands of years, with depictions going back to at least the 7th century BC (in the Armenian Highlands) and are also found in Babylon, Assyria and ancient Greece and Rome. There are also ancient examples from Indian culture and religion. In the first millennium CE, it seems that they were already being used in war, to frighten enemies or to celebrate. The Janissaries were using them in their bands by the 14th century, bringing them into our story.
Zildjian also started to make cymbals for Greek and Armenian churches, Sufi dervishes (Islamic beggars who chose a life of poverty) and for the belly dancers of the Ottoman harem, who used finger cymbals.
When Arvedis died in 1651, a tradition was born that continues to this day; the business and the secret recipe for the metal alloy was passed down to his heir, Ahkam. Things continued in much this way for the next two hundred years.
The early 1800’s saw changes in the Ottoman Empire, which meant Zildjian were looking for new markets. The Janissaries’ were disbanded, and in fact most had been executed or exiled by 1826 (they had mutinied against proposed changes to the army). By 1850, the business was looking further afield. Avedis II built a schooner in order to take their cymbals to trade exhibitions such as the Great Exhibition that year in London, and also to sell to musicians right around Europe. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Zildjian cymbals were used by composers like Berlioz and Wagner. When he died in 1865, his sons were too young to take over from him, so his brother Kerope II took over. It was he that introduced the K Zildjian range of instruments, still used by classical musicians to this day.
Things almost came to a disastrous and abrupt end in 1868, when a series of fires left the family unable to pay off their debts. There were offers to move the business to Paris but they didn’t want to leave and they were saved by the intercession of Sultan Abdulaziz who realised that keeping them there was a sound move since their work was “unrivaled throughout the world.”
A genocide and a big move:
When Kerope died, the business went back to Avedis’s side of the family. His eldest, Haroutane II, had become a senior lawyer for the Ottoman government and so it went to the younger brother, Aram. He was involved with the Armenian nationalists, at a time where atrocities were being committed against them by Sultan Abdul Hamid II (estimates range from 600,000 to 1.5m in the early 20th century). Aram went into exile in Bucharest, and Kerope II’s daughter Victoria ran the Constantinople factory until Aram could return around 1926.
In the meantime, Haroutune II’s son Avedis III had moved to Boston (in 1909), founding a confectionery company. But in 1927, his Uncle Aram sent him a letter letting him know that he was actually going to inherit the family cymbal business. With the situation becoming too hard for Armenians in Turkey, Aram joined him, and in 1928 the pair (with Avedis’ brother Puzant) started manufacturing their cymbals in Quincy, Massachusetts.
And so, the current incarnation, Avedis Zildjian Co. was founded in 1929. They set out to get the attention of drummers of the latest craze, seeking out jazz players like Gene Krupa. This allowed them to develop thinner cymbals that worked for the swing and bebop musicians of the age.
Gene Krupa & Buddy Rich: 'Drum Battle' (The two greats duke it out on the Sammy Davis Jr Show)
Having come from the turmoil and ethnic unrest of Turkey, Avedis vowed that there would be no discrimination in his business and works closely with the black African-Americans of the jazz scene like Chick Webb and Papa Jo Jones.
Armand Zildjian, returning from World War II, was the most musical of the family and started to run the business operations. By the 1950s, they were employing fifteen staff and selling around 70,000 cymbals each year, fuelled by the continued growth of modern jazz. He started to hand pick cymbals for the top professionals, understanding what they needed and allowing him to keep abreast of the changes happening in music. As well as Krupa, Armand developed relationships with the likes of Buddy Rich, Max Roach (Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis) and Elvin Jones (John Coltrane).
The Ringo effect:
The moment where the business went to another level came in 1964, when a little Liverpool outfit called The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Ringo Starr was using their product on his drumkit and suddenly everyone wanted them. By the end of the year, demand has grown to 90,000 cymbals - and things got so crazy that by 1968 they had to open a second manufacturing plant in Meductic, New Brunswick (Canada).
The Beatles: Twist & Shout (Live on Ed Sullivan, 1964)
The Sabian split:
Armand Zildjian was the new President of the company in 1977, appointed by his father - but the relationship with his brother Robert had soured. Robert left the family business and in 1981 formed his own rival company, Sabian, who made their product at the Azco factory in Canada (formerly a subsidiary of Zildjian). Sabian comes from the first two letters of his children’s names - Sally, Billy and Andy.
Zildjian now:
When Armand Zildjian died in 2002, aged 81, as ever the alloy recipe and business passed down to his daughters Craigie and Debbie, who incredibly became the fourteenth generation of Zildjian’s at the helm (the fifteenth generation is also now involved in the business).
The Cymbal Vocabulary:
It seems that Zildjian has invented many of the terms modern drummers will be familiar with. As they say themselves, “we literally invented the cymbal vocabulary - Rides, Crashes, Effects were terms Avedis Zildjian III developed to help artists describe what they were looking for.”
Apparently a phrase developed around the Ride cymbals was that, “they got the dancin’ devils in ‘em.” It was work with Papa Jo Jones that helped them refine the hi-hat cymbal and turned it into the basis of what we know today. These early days in the States also saw the development of the Paper Thin Crash, Splash and Sizzle cymbals.
With at least 15 people involved in the manufacture of each cymbal produced, it gets even more intricate for the specialist ranges like Kerope and K Constantinople, which are only made in small batches of around 50 and use a 14-step process.
Each cymbal is tested sonically before it can have the logo printed on it, or as they say, “it gets a Zildjian kiss.”
Zildjian Legends:
Given that it is the most popular of the cymbal brands, it is unsurprising that many of the greatest drummers of the last century have used them - including many of my own favourites.
Buddy Rich (Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie) - one of the most influential jazz drummers of them all. He used Zildjian, but also other brands like Paiste during his long career. He appeared in a promotional advert for Zildjian in 1980 - he used to get his cymbals specially selected for him by Lenny Dimuzio, the former Zildjian Artist Relations Manager.
Max Weinberg (E Street Band) - the heartbeat of The Boss’s band, Weinberg has been a consistent user of Zildjian cymbals, even while frequently moving between drum manufacturers.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Dancing In The Dark (Live in Barcelona, 2002)
Ringo Starr (The Beatles) - he was at the heart of the great upswing in Zildjian interest, after The Beatles appeared on US tv in 1964. He would go on to work with them on a signature Artist Series drumstick, noted for having a versatile, lighter style.
Neil Peart (Rush) - the backstop of one of the best technical bands out there, Peart used Zildjian into the early 2000s, when he switched to Sabian (a big deal considering his long history with Zildjian, and the story of Sabian).
Mark Brzezicki (Big Country) - a fantastic drummer from one of my favourite bands, Brzezicki switched from Paise to Zildjian in the 90s.
Ginger Baker (Cream) - an innovative maverick, who mixed blues, rock, jazz and African rhythms across his career. He was using Zildjian since way back before his Cream days, making him an early adopter of the brand from a rock perspective. He received the Zildjian Drummers Achievement Award in 2008 for services to drumming.
Cream: White Room (Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 2005)
Clem Burke (Blondie) - one of the great showmen drummers, always impeccably dressed and ready to play whenever the opportunity arose, he used Zildjian right through his career, particularly liking the tone.
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