From the editor:
I received this message from Don McCaulay recently. Don is Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts’s long time drum tech and is also the producer of the upcoming April ‘22 New England Drum Show, along with Vic Thomas. Don has been involved with Not So Modern Drummer in the past and has become a cornerstone of the vintage drum community. I am pleased to announce that Don has offered to write some pieces for NSMD. Maybe an “on the road” article, he says. I also want to thank Don for a particularly great moment for me in 2015 at the Rolling Stones concert in Nashville. He invited me, Sam Bacco, Clay Fuqua, and Fred Eltringham to meet Charlie Watts before the concert. It turned out that Charlie was busy meeting with D.J. Fontana, Elvis’s first drummer and could not meet with us. But Don took us on stage to get a close up look at Charlie’s drum set and tell us about some of the eccentricities of Charlie’s set up. Thanks, Don. That was as cool as it gets.
“Hey George. Hope you and yours are doing well. I was prepared to approach drum magazines and other publications about this historic discovery that I found for my boss, Charlie Watts in which he gave me a portion of the items as my commission. I have decided to sell some of these pieces. But the same week I finished the website the entire world went straight into lockdown.. So I’ve been waiting until the time seems right, which seems like a month from now? Would you like to show this story on NSMD? Ideally I want to present this in all the appropriate magazines at the same time so the word gets out all at once and every collector has the opportunity to purchase. check it out!”
The short story is that, in a secret sale, Charlie Watts bought the entire collection of Gene Krupa’s collection of instruments and other personal items from his career that were found in 2018 in a storage facility. They had been stored for forty five years since 1973, the year Krupa died. The items were much of what he used for the last six to eight years of his life. Below is the text from Don’s website about this sale of his items from Gene Krupa’s personal collection, and also an episode of Drum History’s podcast with Brooks Tegler, who helped Don catalogue this “big haul”. This interview with Brooks goes into detail about the story and the collection. - George Lawrence
from Don’s site:
Gene Krupa's Personal Drum Collection Sharing the recently discovered Gene Krupa drum collection with the world.
Gene Krupa, considered by many as the world's greatest drummer, has influenced generations with his ferocious drum solos and enthusiastic stage presence. He became the first drummer to be a star of the silver screen performing alongside the best jazz musicians of his time, most notably with The King of Swing, Benny Goodman. Gene's contributions to the drumming world are immeasurable, collaborating with the Slingerland drum company as their first endorsee inventing the tunable tom - tom. With the Avedis Zildjian cymbal company Krupa helped standardize the names to their cymbals such as: the swish, splash, crash and ride becoming known as the founding father of the modern drum set. In 1978, Eugene Bertram Krupa became the very first drummer to be inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.
These historic items for sale are from Gene Krupa's personal drum collection and were purchased directly from the Gene Krupa estate. All of these pieces and more were rumored to have been destroyed during a fire at Gene’s home in Yonkers, NY in April of 1973. After the fire and before renovations of the home, the items were privately moved to the Morgan & Brother Storage, Co. in Manhattan, NY. Gene passed away just 6 months later on October 16th, 1973. Everything remained in that storage locker until they were discovered by myself and another collector in 2019.
Some of these items can be seen in the documentary film, "Born To Swing" and in these photos of Gene with Benny Goodman at the 1973 Carnegie Hall concert. Which would be Gene's last public performances.
The entire collection has been personally reviewed by Krupa historian and author, Brooks Tegler.
Understanding the historical impact and provenance behind this collection would not have been possible without his tireless help. Please refer to Brooks' report to learn more about each item and click on the link below to purchase his new online book on Hudson Music, dedicated to the life of Gene Krupa with a chronological view of the equipment he once used.
https://hudsonmusic.com/product/gk-the-tools-that-built-the-gene-krupa-legend/
Each sale will be accompanied by a Certificate Of Authenticity, and all items sold will remain on mcaulaydrums.com as a source of provenance.
Take a listen to Bart van der Zee’s Drum History Podcast to hear the full story of this discovery. Drum History Podcast is the official podcast of Not So Modern Drummer.
The entire collection has been personally reviewed by Krupa historian and author, Brooks Tegler.
Understanding the historical impact and provenance behind this collection would not have been possible without his tireless help. Please refer to Brooks' report to learn more about each item and click on this link to purchase his new online book on Hudson Music, dedicated to the life of Gene Krupa with a chronological view of the equipment he once used.
Each sale will be accompanied by a Certificate Of Authenticity, and all items sold will remain on mcaulaydrums.com as a source of provenance.
More of Brooks Tegler’s detailed documentation of the Krupa collection like this can be seen on Don’s website Mcauleydrums.com , as well as contact info and sales info.
Don Mcaulay