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The first vintage & Custom Drum Magazine, since 1988
I had once heard African drumming master Baba Olatunji say that the relationship to his djembe was a "trinity". The soul of the tree it was carved from, the spirit of the animal whose skin made the head, and Baba's heart in performing with it were a sacred triangle of sorts.
Read moreRead moreI saw the pictures on your web site of a nearly complete drum set from the same era. I have an absolutely 100% complete drum set from the 1920's that has the oil painted mountain scene on the bass drum, two sets of spikes, (it was actually used a lot) the foot pedal, the high hat with cymbals, foot pedal and all, the snare and stand, the floor tom and stand, the chicken drum and holder, the wood block and holder, the cow bell and holder, the tambourine and holder, the accessory table with cymbals, cymbal stands, the complete set of turtle shells, etc . . . I can send you pictures if you want. I am willing to sell it all for the right price, though shipping may prove to be difficult. I have been told by many that it may well be the last complete set from that era. My uncle played them a lot. He got them in high school and played in many big bands. He was the drummer in the local Lansing, MI band called Buddy K and played with the Dorsey brothers and many other big bands that often traveled without drummers.
(From left to right) Mark Tirabassi, Jim Bickley and Robbie McFarland.
ATTACK DRUMHEADS is now under new ownership. A team of industry veterans led by Jim Bickley, former vice president of Universal Percussion; Robbie McFarland, general manager of Hubbard Music retail stores; and Mark Tirabassi, president of Mavi Inc. has launched a new wholesale company, Cardinal Percussion. In addition to relaunching, rebranding, and retooling Attack Drumheads, Cardinal Percussion will wholesale and distribute many of the drumming industry's most popular brands of accessories. Headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio, Cardinal will also feature a complete line of Cardinal Percussion-branded small goods.
Read moreThis one is a blast from the past that I really never did an article about. This drum is on pgs. 14-15 in my book: THE CUROTTO COLLECTION. The story behind the purchase of this drum took a few turns for the worse before I was able to get involved. This drum was listed on EBay in the early 2000s. There were a number of bids, a lot of interest and the drum was reaching a pretty good price. All of a sudden a number of bidders withdrew their bids because someone had posted to the seller that his drum was a “6-lug” drum.
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Sad Car
When I was a young professional musician, I had a reputation of being extravagant. It's a bit ironic because I'm a total cheap-skate. While I was making a pretty good living from drums, I still had to live frugally. I also had to allocated funds carefully. The main areas of contention were instruments and transportation. You see, I had very expensive drums and a fairly expensive car, whereas many of my peers made do with lesser equipment. There's a simple reason for that: TCB.
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NEW ORLEANS (October 11, 2018) — The New Orleans Jazz Museum will debut a new exhibition, Drumsville!: Evolution of the New Orleans Beat. Launching on November 8, 2018, the exhibit will celebrate both the New Orleans Tricentennial and International Drum Month, along with the development of the drum kit in New Orleans and the ongoing evolution of rich local drumming traditions.
Read moreLudwig(WFL) started making cocktail drums in the 50’s as a means for singers and lounge acts to quickly get on and off a stage using up as little space as they could. Several different models were made including a set that included a 4x13 snare drum that attached to the side of the drum. This model was known as the Las Vegas model and was made around 1959. Other models had the main drum that relied on a set of snares that pushed up against the head to create a snare effect. A baffle was used inside to separate the bass drum sound from the snare sound. Ludwig’s stand up cocktail drums came in a 16x24 size and some of the lower end models were single headed leaving the bottom open.
Read moreOver the 14 years I’ve known Keiko, she has shared countless Elvin stories. One reoccurring story was about a collection of Elvin’s promotional posters they’d collected in their 30 plus years of touring the world. They came up in conversation many times, but we never discussed them in much detail. Earlier this year, the posters came up again. I eventually purchased the posters along with a forgotten cache of Elvin’s gear that had been stored in a friends garage in New Jersey (more about that soon). The posters arrived in a couple of Elvin’s old Jazz Machine trap cases. There were about 100 unique posters, photos and paintings, many of them with multiples, that Elvin and Keiko personally collected from gigs spanning 4 decades. They were collected from all over Europe, Asia, South America and the US.
Read moreI recently had an idea after looking at some old black and white vintage drummer photos. What I wanted to do was set up a photo shoot with one of my vintage kits and pose like the old drummers did in those cool promotional photos.
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Ken Harck plays and endorses Chicago Drum instruments
In 1976 he moved to Los Angeles, California to play with bassist Glen Cornick of Jethro Tull…Later replaced by Foreigner’s Bruce Trien. He played with legendary session piano player Nicky Hopkins who had worked with the Rolling’s Stones, The Who, The Beatles and Jeff Beck. Ken also performed with ‘Badfinger’ - 1977 -1978, and Off-Broadway from 1978 to 1984. The original members of Off Broadway have since re-grouped, and are still playing to this day. Ken also enjoys sharing stories from his LA studio days, and his brushes with fame – Including: Tom Petty, Cher, Gregg Allman, and Keith Richards.
Read more“Antonio Sanchez remains one of the greatest drummers of this or any era. It is thrilling to get on the bandstand with Antonio every night. You just can't wait to play with him”. —Pet Metheny
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New England’s Premier Drum Show
Rick Smith presented another successful vintage and custom drum show at The Sphinx Shriners Center in Newington, Connecticut. This years’ featured clinician’s were Gregg Bissonette and Richie Morales.
Read moreYou’ll notice in this issue that there are many more links to DrumSellers.com, the new classifieds and forum for Not So Modern Drummer. I am incorporating drumsellers.com ads into this monthly email publication. All the ads you see in this issue were posted for free. If you want to advertise your items for sale to the 60,000 subscribers of Not So Modern Drummer, please join drumsellers.com, post your listing there for free, then contact me via email about placing your ad in this monthly email. It’s $5 per ad.
Several well known collectors are now posting a lot of their gear at DrumSellers: Phil Wilson and Gary Astridge to drop a couple of names. Several manufacturers just started posting ads: Walberg & Auge Drums, Alternate Mode/Kat, Queen City Drums, Hayward Custom Drums. I’m inviting all retailers to use DrumSellers.com, whether brick and mortar or online dealers.
Read moreA little later Buddy comes over puts his arm around me and says; Jack would you play for me? Picture this: A fifteen-year old kid sitting behind Buddy Rich’s drums. I still don’t have the words to describe how incredible that felt.
Read moreBobby T Torello and Bill Ludwig III at Dynamic Percussion Drum Shop
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“Damn, gotta’ couple of really good students...The lesson is - I will charge them and steal their licks. If you are interested in me stealing your licks… Hit me up for a few lessons. “
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THE RECORDING ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS Will air on PBS - October 5, 2018
Read moreWendy Lubbers doesn’t know exactly how the now-famous Gretsch drum logo originated. But she speculates that Fred Jr.—knowing how creative her dad was, and seeing the many logos he had designed for local small businesses and schools—approached Bob about creating a new Gretsch drum logo. “My dad was as big-hearted as he was talented,” says Wendy. “He did a lot of free artwork and logos for his friends. I’m sure he jumped at the chance to work on something that was music related—especially for Uncle Fred and for Gretsch drums.”
Read moreThis installment of Vintage Happiness is on my first Leedy love. This was the first Leedy set in my collection and the one that made me buy several more Leedy sets!
I became a big fan of the art deco lugs and T-rods from this era. This is the era that many collectors refer to as the “Slingerleedy” period when Slingerland owned Leedy and manufactured these drums as well as Slingerlands from 1955 through 1966. This is a 1965 Leedy Shelly Manne Outfit No. 11 in Sparkling Champagne Pearl.
The set consists of a 14x20 bass drum, 9x13 tom, 16x16 floor tom, and the fantastic 5.5x14 Shelly Manne snare with the Broadway throw off. The drums also have the “chocolate milk” interiors, which is consistent with Slingerland manufacturing.
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