I live in an area that has a lot of local breweries, and people around here talk and write about beer a lot. So recently, when I saw an article about the blurring of lines as to what’s considered a “craft brewery” and what isn’t, I realized that there’s a connection between drums and beer that I hadn’t considered: confusion about industry categories and how to describe them.
Read moreTerry Guinn's Drumiture
Drummer Terry Guinn has found a special way to combine his two passions - drums and art. He converts drums into furniture and advertising specialty pieces that capture a musician’s career or a fan’s love for his favorite team, school, or band. Terry's motto is "Save a Drum." He can find a discarded drum and bring it back to life with his unique original art. “I took a drum I found in the gutter and gave it a wonderful new life when I presented it to the San Jose Sharks NHL hockey team’s mascot 'Sharkie.' Check out the pictures of some of his work in the pictures below, especially the one he did for Neil Peart and the one he did for the Johnny Mercer family.
Saving drums and helping charities with his "Drumiture", Terry is starting to be well known and recognized for his passion and kindness. He is now receiving back what he has given all these years from some great people he has met along the way. One particular piece of drumiture that he is proud of was created for Rod Morgenstein, drummer for the Dixie Dregs and Winger. "Rod sent me his very first two drum sets after we talked at my booth at NAMM in 2013. I worked with him for over a ten month period creating this piece. He didn't want the integrity of the drums compromised, so we came up with hanging them from a rack so no holes had to be cut for legs or mounts! He didn't want photos of himself inside them so we put all his major influences inside each different drum. After renting a motor home and driving across the country, I arrived at his home in Long Island and began to install it. He is calling it his "Museum Piece". He has his very first cymbal he ever got and is using my piece to display it and all his vintage band and music memorabilia! He is a very generous and gracious man and it was a honor to create and deliver this for my mentor and now very close friend, Rod Morgenstein."
See more of Terry's unique art at www.drumiture.com
The Eggstar Drum
EGGSCITING DESIGN EGGCELLENT SOUND EGGSPERT CRAFTSMANSHIP
The idea for this drum first came to me many years ago while watching my mom, Lola Rokeach, refinish a table with eggshells. Yes, actual eggshells! The finish looked very striking to me, and I thought that it would look pretty cool on a drum.When I mentioned it to her about a year ago, her response was "Well, bring me a drum." My mom, in addition to raising eight kids, is quite an accomplished artist. She's done everything from sculpture, to painting, to rug making, and oh yes, furniture refinishing. She celebrated her 80th birthday last June. She was pretty confident that the eggshell finish would work on a drum. I wasn't so sure, but I thought that it would be worth a try.
I didn't want to use just any old drum. I had to get something special. I'm a Yamaha endorser, but I didn't want to bug them about doing a custom made one-off that might or might not work anyway. Besides, I was thinking about a single--ply solid shell for this project, and Yamaha has yet to offer one (I hope that they do someday). I did want to get someone involved who knew something about drum finishes.My mom lives just outside of New York City in the small town of Harrington Park, NJ. On one of my recent trips back there, I visited my old friend Neil Richter, also a drummer, also from Harrington Park, NJ. He told me that he had recently reconnected with yet another drummer from Harrington Park, Rob Kampa. Readers of this newsletter may know about Rob from his drum company Magstar, and his work with DrumMaker. Rob is known as one of the best drum craftsmen in the country. I had read rave reviews of Rob's custom drums over the years, in Modern Drummer magazine and on the internet. I also knew Rob when I was a kid.Between Fall of 1969 and Spring of 1970, I played in the percussion section of the Harrington Park School band with Neil and Rob. They were in eighth grade, I was in fifth. Rob, Neil, and another Harrington Park drummer named Mike Murtaugh, who was already in high school by this time, were the best drummers around. I thought that those guys were about the coolest dudes that ever lived. Getting to hang out with them definitely helped plant the seeds of my desire to be a drummer early on.Rob has been living in Nashville for the past few years, but still gets up to New Jersey every once in a while to visit family.
The more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that Rob would be the perfect guy to help make this happen, If he'd be willing. He could even get together with my mom and figure out the woodworking logistics if necessary. Well, Rob and I reconnected on the phone. Once we got to talking about drums, we decided to order a 5.5 x 14 solid shell from Vaughncraft. Vaughncraft sent a shell that was so beautifully figured that it would have been a crime to cover up the wood grain. I loved the shell but had planned to let it go. My wife and two daughters knew how much I hated to let that amazing shell go. They decided to have Rob build it for me as a Christmas present. So Rob built an incredible drum with a beautiful soft gloss finish, ten tube lugs, and a trick strainer. It looks and sounds fantastic. Merry Christmas!But we were still left with the task of finding a shell for the egg drum. We didn't want to order another solid shell. It seemed crazy to ask for one that was crappy-looking so that we could cover it. So we decided to use one of Rob's eight-ply Keller shells that he had already stained black. I had heard great things about Rob's multi-ply drums. This seemed to make the most sense. I had sent Rob some photos of a table that my mom had done her eggshell magic on. After seeing the photos, he suggested that we use black hardware for contrast.He sent the shell up to my mom in New Jersey. I still wasn't sure if the eggshell thing was going to work on a drum. I could tell that Rob was a bit skeptical too. My mom seemed to be the only one who was sure that it would work.She got going on it. Eggshells-- lots of eggshells, Elmer's glue, and ten coats of varnish. I was worried that the eggshells might be easily knocked off, but she told me, "Those eggshells aren't going anywhere."
Then she sent it back to Rob. He put all of the hardware on, and here it is. The drum has eight tube lugs, triple flanged hoops, forty-five degree bearing edges, and a trick strainer. The EGGSTAR has been hatched! It sounds great and looks eggstraordinary! It's got plenty of crack, and it's high in calcium too!I'm eggstatic about it!
-Dave Rokeach
David RokeachDavid Rokeach is a freelance drummer in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has played with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Musselwhite, Mark Murphy, Rita Moreno, Merl Saunders, Aaron Neville, Patti Labelle,The Rubinoos, The Broadway Show Jersey Boys, Holly Near,and many others. He has been a faculty member at Jazz Camp West, The Stanford Jazz Workshop, Lafayette Summer Music Camp and The Jazzschool in Berekeley. You can visit his website at www.davidrokeach.com.