I estimate it began when I was about six years old. I placed a copy of the Beatles’ A Hard Day's Night on our phonograph and started tapping away. Then I thought to myself, ‘there must be something better sounding than pillows and a table’. So I quickly procured a block of wood and one of Mums metal pot lids. Voila, I had my first homemade drum set. Good thing, ‘cause back then I had a few quarters to my name but that was about it.
Moving through the next few years I finally managed to convince my parents to allow me to buy my first three piece, rather cheap kit, and a couple of cymbals. Can’t remember where the money came from actually. This coincided with my “banishment” (not really) to the basement. Over the next few years I added a few more drums. I even made a couple more out of sheet metal with the extra heads I had. I must have painted them a dozen times. Here’s at least two of those colors.
Back in those days, the 70’s, all I had was an FM radio. I played along to any song with a solid drum track, usually of the rock variety. I was thus at the mercy of the DJ. My goal was to play along and reproduce the drum track as accurately as I could. A few years later I inherited an 8-track player and was able to play what I wanted, when I wanted. I have recently discovered that is exactly how a few other famous drummers started. We all agree that imitation is the highest of compliments.
During high school I joined a band named “Stone Free” with a few friends. We played various small venues, a county fair, and even recorded several songs at a local studio. This availed us a few more gigs. During that time I began doing a lot of drum shopping at a drum store in Connecticut. I even built and ordered my first ever custom drum set. It was beautiful! We had many months of creative fun together.
Then life happened. We disbanded and drifted apart. High school was over and it was time to get serious about a career. I mean, who really makes it big in the music business anyway. While not at work I had the opportunity to go to several drum clinics, one with Bill Bruford of the rock group Yes. Another with drummer Steve Smith of Journey. A third with drummer Chester Thompson of Genesis. (Chester was kind enough to explain and play the intro to Sweet Love by Anita Baker upon my request.) A fourth with drummer Terry Bozzio of Frank Zappa and Missing Persons fame. I liked the drum set he played at that clinic so much that I bought it and used it for the next 25ish years, in a Nazarene church, no less. True story but I’m getting ahead of myself.
After moving to Seattle in 1990 I pursued joining a band which played rock and roll. Unfortunately for me, the Grunge scene at that time was electrifying the hearts and minds of musicians and singers alike (but not mine) and rock bands, at least in Seattle, were taking a back seat to this new peculiar phenomenon. Jazz was cutting edge there also but was not my forte unfortunately. To me, playing jazz was like the Calculus of drumming. And I was not good at math at all.
Months later I met a guitarist by the name of Stephen King (no, not the author). He actually hired me for a few of his gigs, mostly weddings. That was fun for a season. Shortly thereafter I met an individual who was hired to perform the music for the play Oklahoma at a local Seattle venue. He hired me and I brought a small trap kit, squeezing into a corner, stage right. That was probably the funnest experience I’ve ever had simply because the kids made it so enjoyable.
When that show concluded I found myself searching for a musical home again. This time I found a group of musicians who were playing at local coffee shops and such. The music was Christian in nature but upbeat nonetheless. Since two of its members were married, “life” got in the way and we soon disbanded.
Around 1992, I think it was, my wife and I were going to a marriage seminar at a local Nazarene church. During a break I sauntered across the hall to peer into the sanctuary. To my amazement I saw an actually drum set on stage and thought “I have to inquire about this”. This was new. Well I spent the next 8 years playing every Sunday at that church while working full time in my “real” career. The best of both worlds one might say. To play with a full choir and orchestra was new to me but I was up to the challenge. I found the drum tracks to be formidable if only because the drummers on those tracks were mostly from Nashville and played on various styles of recordings which in turn, helped me increase my drumming “vocabulary”.
At the close of 1999 we moved to Tennessee and I quickly found a Baptist church with an even larger choir and orchestra and proceeded to fulfill another 20 years of weekly playing. I never made it to the “big time” but that’s ok. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories from drummers and musicians who could attest to the extreme competition worldwide and uncertainty of a consistent paycheck.
Drumming, like writing, is therapy for me. Age, in its cruelty, steals away that which was once vibrant, expressive and even timely 😉. I chose to end the percussive part of my life at the top of my game, for me anyway. I never claimed to be an expert at it. I simply found a percussive need and filled it.
And that feels pretty good.
Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Psalm 150:5
Jim
What a fun journey to read. Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Psalm 150:5. You have certainly achieved this!