Jeff Burke is an administrator of the Facebook Group “Rogers Drums USA Group” , a discussion group about all things Rogers, old and new! The group also takes Rogers exhibits to the different drum shows around the country.
Welcome everyone to my Rogers World! I am super excited to have this fantastic opportunity to share my love for these amazing drums with the readers of ‘Not So Modern Drummer.’ My passion for drums started when my family lived in Venezuela. My mom and dad loved Dave Brubeck. When I was five years old, my family and I went to a small, intimate venue that held about 250 people. We sat about fifteen feet from these amazing jazz musicians. Joe Morello’s set up was right in front of me. It was so cool! I became fascinated and in love with drums. Forever after, I banged on everything in the house.
While I lived with my family, my sister’s friends had a band and would set up at the house. The drummer had drums with two bass drums that he would let me play until the band, sadly, broke up. When my family moved to Mexico City, the high school had a super cool band that played Grand Funk, Savoy Brown, Rare Earth, Buddy Miles, and Led Zeppelin! However, I didn't have any drums. Thankfully, the band director let me play theirs. The band director loved my style and asked me to play in the intermediate band. I was in drumming heaven folks! It was like Christmas every day!
One day, one of the drummers brought his personal snare and hi-hat. The snare was a Rogers Dyna-sonic.. The hi-hat… a Rogers swiv-o-matic! My goodness, the Dyna-sonic was everything to me. I could not believe what I heard and felt; it was just the best and sounded so sweet. I was toast and again… done! Stick a fork in me! That was about 69-ish. After the band let me play, my folks bought me my very first drum set. It was a John Grey blue sparkle with Everplay heads; the drums needed so much work. My dad helped me by having someone make and bend a pipe to connect the tom to the bass. We found a screw to hold the tom in place and bought a cheap pedal and an MIJ hi-hat. I was good - my folks let me set the drums up and jam to the stereo in the living room. Now that I think about it while writing this, I bet the neighbors hated me! Yikes, sorry neighbors!
After new heads on the drums and a few blisters and calluses, I was ready to play with my own drums! The band director asked if I would like to join the main band at the age of twelve. Oh man! I did the curly shuffle on the floor for hours. This is when I got a chance to play the other drummers black Fullerton , 12-13-16 22 bass and COB dyna-sonic . He let me sit behind those absolutely beautiful Rogers drums - a most beautiful Rogers drumming moment that I will never, ever forget. I cut my teeth playing afterwards playing at parties, conventions, events, get togethers, tourist places and hotels in Mexico City until we moved back to the USA in 74. At the age of fifteen, I was jamming! I found some Rogers hardware and found some other drums and built a drum set using Rogers parts. They were orphans and whatever I could find at stores in Houston: The House of Drums, Evans Music , Rockin’ Robins, and Parker Music.
My interests in Rogers history started to grow. I got my first Dyna-Sonic that I still have and then bought a Fullerton black set just like I had played on that unforgettable day when I was so much younger. They were perfect. After finding and collecting my first Rogers drums in colors like gold sparkle, blue sparkle and a red sparkle, my interests started to wander. Who are these folks that have built these incredible drums?
Stay tuned for more articles about the drums in my collection that tell the history of Rogers drums and the people who made them…and also the future of Rogers USA as the company was recently re-started.