SKF NOTE: Sorting through another box of my audio cassettes, I found the third and final part of my interview with Freddie Gruber circa 1982. We were seated at the kitchen table in Buddy Rich’s NYC apartment. Here’s my original post about our interview.

So this final part of the interview is 30-minutes in total and includes some insightful remarks from Freddie Gruber which I will post as time permits. I haven’t listened to this tape in more than 30 years. It was fun listening to it again for the first time.

In this segment, Freddie has just finished answering my questions about his part in the founding of DW Drums. I ask what drums he played when he was an active player. Freddie showed me an “advertisement photo” of him with a set of Leedy & Ludwig drums.

He tells me he now, of course, plays DW Drums, adding, “Not that I do that much playing, because I actually don’t.” Freddie reminds me he has been teaching 24-25 years, longer, he says, if we count the years post-Leedy & Ludwig when Freddie was “teaching in kitchens of after hour places” with whatever drums were available — even if they were borrowed drums.