[M.D. Holloway]

The sticks you mention are brushes and years ago they were made of wire. They provided a very soft hit and when you have a drummer with wooden sticks playing with a band made up of a bass, few horns, maybe a piano there might not be a lot of amps. the brushes forced the drummer to be quite. Now it all handled with mics and amps and sound boards and a drummer can get really physical. Sometimes they even put them in a plexiglass cage. Personally I consider that a sign of a weak drummer. Someone with chops can play amazing and be very quite or play without having to slam and over power the other folks. Drummers are not taught that anymore. Maybe they never were. I blame it on Animal of the muppets!