SKF NOTE: A great 1968 photo of Buddy Rich. I’ve said it before, but photos like this one were drum lessons in themselves. Especially pre-internet and when opportunities to see Buddy and other great drummers live or on tv were rare.
How is Buddy holding the sticks in his hands? How has he positioned his drums and cymbals? Where is Buddy sitting in relation to his snare drum?
A photo like this would answer — and raise — many questions. And I remember positioning myself and my drums and cymbals like Buddy’s to see how I liked it. The horitzontal crash cymbals, the low ride cymbal, and the hi-hat cymbals the same height as the snare drum? None of that worked for me. So what? That’s how we learned.
SKF NOTE: This recording, which I wasn’t sure I still had, is one of my favorite moments from preparing to write a profile of Freddie Guber. I came across an unmarked cassette this morning, inserted it into my tape player, and there was Jim Chapin describing Freddie Gruber’s drumming circa 1949.
I remember this conversation well, and Jim’s singing how 19-year old Freddie Gruber played drum solos in 1949-50 is amazing. Jim Chapin, one of the great drum authors/teachers was one of the few people alive who was familiar with Freddie some 40 years earlier.
SKF NOTE: There was a moment, after deciding in 1982, to write a History of Rock Drumming, I realized how huge a task was ahead of me. Much later, there was a moment I knew there probably would always be missing pieces of rock drumming history, blanks never filled in.
I remembered those moments this week listening back to, while digitizing, a few of my 1982 recorded backgrounder interviews with music industry people and musicians — like Henry Glover. And also, I remembered while reading this news story about drummer Billy “Stix” Nicks who, said tv station WNDU, “played the drums for Junior Walker and the All-Stars….”
Great, I thought. Billy “Sticks” Nicks’s name is new to me. One more piece of the Motown drummers’ puzzle?
I learned that Mr. Nicks and Jr. Walker played together in a local band. Jr. Walker went on to form his classic Jr. Walker and the All Stars with James Graves on drums.
According to Billy Nicks’s web site, “Nicks also played and recorded for the prestigious Motown/Soul record label with “Jr. Walker and The All Stars” for the 1965 LP release, “Roadrunner”, on songs: “How Sweet Is To Be Loved By You”, “Pucker Up Buttercup” and title track “Roadrunner”. Unfortunately, due to record company and production issues Nicks never received documented credits or royalties for the Motown “Roadrunner” release.
Searching a bit more, two web sources cite James Graves, now deceased, as the drummer on all the songs Mr. Nicks’s web site credits to him.
And so it goes, just as I remembered researching in 1982 and beyond. I still think it would be valuable to know the drummers on all recordings, but especially the classic recordings.
Yet as recently as this week I am reminded that with many recordings we may have to live with the great sounds of unknown drummers.
SKF NOTE: I came across Shelly Manne’s obituary a few days ago. His playing had a major impact on me — and I still get excited discovering Manne albums I missed, and Manne albums newly reissued, or available for the first time.
As with Shelly’s drumming — which I detailed on this blog in 2015 — even this obituary caused me to smile when I noticed the end photo of Shelly drumming behind a very young Michael Jackson with the Jackson 5.
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