SKF NOTE: Last Saturday I visited Tony Cruz at his Nyack, NY home. We were meeting in person for the first time, but being interviewed on camera, by Tony, about drummer extraordinaire Gary Chester was the real purpose for my visit. Tony and Katrina Chester, Gary’s daughter, are producing a Gary Chester documentary.
I left Tony my only complete transcript (61 typed pages) of Gary Chester’s interview so he can scan the pages. Also, I passed on to Katrina the original two-page typewritten letter Gary wrote to Modern Drummer to introduce himself and to give us a first peek at his strong career as a studio musician.
Somewhere I have my Gary Chester interview tapes — which I will digitize and give to Katrina. The one tape I’ve located is digitized and with Katrina and Tony. On that tape you can hear Gary Chester introducing me to Katrina — who was age 14 at the time.
If you’re a former Gary Chester student, co-worker, and have some stories you’re willing to share, please consider contacting Katrina and Tony. Every piece of the tapestry helps. I know, for example, Gary gave lesson instructions to students through audiocassette. Katrina and Tony have at least one of those in hand. Odds are there are more of those cassettes floating around.
SKF NOTE: An pre-internet example of how drummers kept up with news of our favorite players. This December 19, 1974 Down Beat magazine release about Ed Shaughnessy‘s “new 17-piece ensemble” Energy Force has a photo of Mr. Shaughnessy worth studying. Pearl was a new drum company at the time. Seeing Ed’s drumset — the two different size bass drums, the position and tilt of his four rack toms, his cymbal choice and placement — pure gold for drummers.
I never heard Energy Force. Neither can I find any evidence the band ever cut an album. “We’ll play concerts, clinics, and clubs…,” Shaugnessy says in his press release, which also tells us Shaughnessy plays “acoustic and electronic drums.”
SKF NOTE: An excerpt from my 1/12/1982 interview with Owen Hale for Modern Drummer. A reader asked a general question, “Can a studio drummer earn enough money to consider it a steady job?” I posed that question to Owen when he was a new studio drummer at Muscle Shoals studio.
Roger Hawkins had mentioned Owen Hale to me as a new studio drummer who deserved some attention. When Roger Hawkins puts his stamp of approval on a drummer, it’s a good idea to pay attention.
A trumpet player for fifteen years, Owen didn’t start playing drums until he was about twenty years old — and played his drumset backwards. But as you can see from the 1982-2016 photos of Owen included in this YouTube video, he was the perfect drummer to ask about studio drumming as a steady job.
SKF NOTE: Finding snippets of unrelated phone conversations within my Modern Drummer interview cassettes is affecting how I digitize my cassettes. These unrelated snippets are also reminders of my work habits — and my work-around tricks — pre-internet, pre-digital sound.
Case in point: This green 90-minute cassette is relabeled “Bill Maxwell 8/17/82” on side A. Side B was originally marked as Side A of my phone interview with Owen Hale on 1/12/82. But I scribbled out that info and wrote “Sandy Nelson” on that side of the green cassette.
What’s actually recorded on this green cassette?
Mostly it’s Bill Maxwell’s interview. Bill was in New York City on business — including a Radio City Music Hall concert with Andrae Crouch, The Winans, and Shirley Caeser — and wanted to come to the MD offices to say hello, and to conduct his interview.
Blank audiocassettes were usually at a premium in MD‘s office during my time there (1980-1983). Ideally, I could have kept all of my cassette interviews intact. That is, it would have been great having blank cassettes on hand, but I didn’t.
I’m sure I had already transcribed Owen Hale’s interview, which was published in the November 1982 Modern Drummer — ten months after I interviewed Owen. When Bill Maxwell showed up in my office and agreed (suggested?) we do his interview right then and there — I bet I had no new cassettes, so I grabbed the best of my on hand tapes and recorded over Owen Hale’s interview. (Sorry, Owen.)
Then, after transcribing Bill Maxwell’s interview tapes, I must have needed a tape to record my conversations with drummers and other people I was cold calling for my MD “History of Rock Drumming” series. I would hook up my trusty old Radio Shack suction cup mic and tape recorder to my MD land line telephone, and start the tape rolling before I dialed the phone number. That way, I would have backup information (dates, phone numbers, names, etc.) in case I was unable to take notes while speaking on the phone. Plus, I could be more relaxed and focused for my conversations.
So, Side B of this green cassette begins with what I believe is Earl Van Dyke’s phone answering machine and me leaving him a voice message. Mr. Van Dyke was keyboardist and bandleader of Motown’s famed Funk Brothers studio band.
Next on Side B is this recording of my brief, first (phone) conversation with the great Sandy Nelson. I later interviewed Sandy for “The History of Rock Drumming.” I posted the transcript of our interview here. Later, I believe someone (Robyn Flans?) did an MD feature length interview with Sandy.
I don’t know if my nervousness comes across in this soundfile. But I was very nervous. Sandy Nelson was a major influence. I owned and listen to his drum solo 45-rpm hit singles — Let There Be Drums, Drums Are My Beat — time after time. Just getting to speak with him was an honor. And when Sandy tells me at the start of our conversation, “You got the wrong Sandy Nelson” – I had to think quick to — hopefully — persuade him to talk with me.
Finally, Side B of this green cassette ends with an excellent remaining segment from Owen Hale’s 1/12/82 interview, with Owen answering an MD reader’s question, “Is it possible to earn a living as a studio drummer?”
Scott K Fish 
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