SKF NOTE: This interview clip is respected drum teacher, Freddie Gruber, telling me how he and Don Lombardi co-founded DW Drums.

In preparing remarks to go along with this excerpt I am disappointed to find Gruber’s name missing from the origin stories, written and video, on the DW website.

You will hear me ask Freddie, during our “Modern Drummer” interview, “Do you want to talk about DW? How they got rolling? And your involvement with that?”

Gruber’s answer is fully in sync with the origin stories on DW’s website. Except here, Freddie’s in the founding story. On the DW website he’s not. https://www.dwdrums.com/stories/founders-feed/

This excerpt is from audiocassette Side B of my “Modern Drummer” Freddie Gruber interview. We were at Buddy Rich’s NYC apartment kitchen table. Buddy was not home, but I was in awe at being so close to Buddy’s presence.

Gruber’s students include Neil Peart, Steve Smith, Dave Weckl, Vinnie Colaiuta…and DW Founder Don Lombardi.

Gruber, a product of post-World War 2 NYC, is known by his peers of that era as a visionary jazz drummer. Perhaps the best example is drummer Jim Chapin’s description of Gruber’s drumming circa 1949: