SKF NOTE: This exchange is from the full transcript of my September 8, 1977 Mel Lewis interview. Modern Drummer magazine used my edited transcript as Mel’s first MD feature interview.

You can see in the photo I’ve included with this post, large sections of Mel’s interview cut from the final product. MD feature interviews had word limits, and Mel’s full transcript was way over the limit. So some things had to go.

This blog gives me the opportunity to share some of the “cut” good stories in my transcripts.

Like this one.

I didn’t know at the time Mel and Frankie Dunlop were boyhood friends. Neither did I know how experienced and versatile a drummer Frankie was.

This interview, it turns out, was my first step in finding and interviewing Dunlop for Modern Drummer. That interview, and the interview tapes, were destined to be Dunlop’s only feature interview. I’ve made the tapes available for listening here.

In this back-and-forth with Mel, he is telling me about his early drumming experience in Buffalo, NY, often subbing for his father, who was also a professional drummer, on shows, in pit orchestras, for Vaudeville shows, and in big bands. Lewis mentions his friend, Frankie Dunlop, who had a similar drumming background, and lots of valuable drumming experience.

I especially like the image of a young Dunlop traveling to NYC from Buffalo, taking drum lessons with Max Roach, and returning to Buffalo and sharing what Roach taught him with Lewis.

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Mel Lewis: Frankie Dunlop came from Buffalo with me. Frank was a wonderful young drummer then.

Q: Could he do shows and all that too?

ML: Sure!

Q: You’re talking about the same Frankie Dunlop who played with Thelonious Monk?

ML: Yeah, that’s right. Oh yes. Frank, to me, is an excellent drummer. To this day. He hasn’t had all the good luck I’ve had.

Well, he wasn’t always in the same place I was. Wherever he worked…. He was with Maynard’s band. He sounded great in Maynard’s band.

So, he had his big band experience. ‘Course, he claimed he got a lot of that from me. He used to show me all Max’s licks. He used to come and study with Max when we were kids. And I would sub for him on his gig with George Clark’s group. ‘Cause that was the only way George would let him go. If I played.

So he’d com back and I’d sit down and I would listen to what he just learned and I’d pick it up.

We were the two early Bebop drummers in Buffalo.

But I had that big band experience. and George used to insist that he listen to me. So we helped each other all the time. Frank and I were good friends. We still are. We don’t see each other as often as I’d like to, but it’s always fun.

Q: Where is he? Is he still in NYC?

ML: Oh yeah. Well, he lives out of the City right now. I think he’s back playing with Lionel Hampton right now.

Frank has worked a lot of shows. He works the mountains ’cause he lives out in that area. Frank does a lot of the mountain work.

In Buffalo he worked shows, he played in all the clubs too. And with Maynard’s band. And with Monk! Oh, he sounded great with Monk.

Q: Yeah. Definitely.

ML: So, I mean, there it is. He’s got those roots too. And he can do it.