Drum History

Cadan takes us through his masters thesis which covers the long and often misunderstood history of the drum kit. His studies included interviews with Thomas Lang, Daniel Glass, Steve White, Matt Brennan and many more which he shares in this episode. The title of his thesis is "From Double Drumming to Double Bass Drums" and we not only discuss many historical elements along the way, but the process...

The Ludwig Supraphonic is known as the most recorded snare drum in history and has an amazing background that dates all the way back to 1914! Uli Salazar is the Senior Marketing and Artist Relations Manager at Ludwig and he gives us a great deep dive into the technology that evolved over a 50 year period leading up to the release of the Supra in 1964. We talk about the lugs, the shell design, the...

Steve Lauden is the author of "The Forbidden Beat: Perspectives on Punk Drumming" which explores the history of punk percussion with personal essays, interviews and lists featuring their favorite players and biggest influences. Steve breaks down the early history of punk drumming form the 60's proto-punk, through the iconic 70's and 80's, up to the modern pop-punk of the 2000's through today. We d...

(Originally released in April 2018) What was it like to be a Trap Drummer in the silent movie era as talking pictures take over and your job was becoming obsolete? Listen as Kelli and I discuss how this great percussion genre became extinct. Trap Drummers were percussionists who performed alongside silent films and performances before the advent of "Talkies" (talking pictures). Using a wide array...

Bill is the Music Director on Sesame Street and shares tons of great information on the famous drummers that have played on the show like Questlove, Anderson Paak, Evelyn Glennie, and more - plus we discuss Buddy RIch and his performance with with Animal on The Muppets in the 80's. Bill talks about how it works when a Muppet plays the drums and how it is synced up with a real drummer, and also the...

Ronn discusses his new acquisition of the classic Canadian brand, Milestone Percussion! Milestone was founded in the 1970's by Michael Clapham, and became a beloved brand of Fiberglass drums that hold a special place in many drummers hearts. Now, in 2022, Ronn has brought the original brand back to life and is relaunching with the extreme attention to detail that we have all come to expect from al...

Randy takes us through the decades of rare finishes including Leedy's "Autographs of the Stars", Ludwig's "Top Hat and Cain", all sorts of Pearl and Oyster finishes, and through the psychedelic 60 and 70's with Citrus Mod, Psych Red, and Mod Orange. Randy is a longtime collector and restorer of vintage drums and shares stories of many kits that have come through his hands, and discusses many ultra...

Richard King has been collecting and dealing with high end drums since the 1980's, which has led him to be a dealer and broker for celebrities and also provided drum kits for a number of films. He has a very long running business that specializes in rare and hard to find drum hardware that he has meticulously cleaned, categorized and ready to sell out of his house. Richard shares information on hi...

Dr. John Owens shares the vibrant lineage of street drumming, the lives of urban percussionists, and the rhythms that make it all happen! He has a history as a street drummer in Washington DC, a performer at Disney, and a member of the US Army Band. He is the author of "Street Drumming: The People, History, and Grooves" which is a soup to nuts guide on everything there is to know about Street Drum...

Bill Ryder is a longtime listener of the podcast that decided to do extensive research on Ludwig drumheads and the important role that they played in the history of modern plastic drumheads and present it on the podcast. Ludwig's crimped style of drumhead was unique and different from how Remo and Evans connected Mylar to the flesh hoop with a resin epoxy and how they arrived at the use of Mylar i...

Louis Bernstein not only had a large, high-end drum collection but he also had a true passion for hunting down many of the original famous drum films and tapes that we all enjoy on YouTube today - but Louis was faced with the challenge of moving to a Condo in 2013 and sell off the majority of his collection. He shares the process of how downsizing a collection of 140+ snares, 4 kits, countless rar...

Daniel is a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil, along with being a contributor to "The Cambridge Companion to the Drum Kit". Daniels history for this episode goes back to 1917 in Brazil and takes us through the amazing history of drum sets, drumming styles, and iconic drummers which has many parallels to the American and European histories we usually hear on the show - but...

Don Lombardi is the founder of DW Drums and he shares the full story of this legendary American drum brand. Drum Workshop has amazing origins in Don's garage where he recycled the name from his drum teaching business and turned his garage into a workshop where he and his student, John Good, created canister thrones that could raise and lower - and the rest is history! I learned so much about the C...

Barry James was a student of George Lawrence Stone in the 1950's and is continuing on his teachings to this day by releasing two new books that he worked on with Joe Morello that are finally ready to be released! Barry's new book's are called "Counting the Exercises in Stick Control" which supplements "Stick Control" and teaches how to read it the way Stone originally intended, and the second is "...

Gary Astridge is Ringo Starr's historian and curator of his equipment who does talks around the world about all things Ringo! He shares tons of great information about the recent documentary, "Get Back", including his equipment, the relationship of the band, and what happened to Ringo's drums after the album was finished. I also ask Gary a bunch of great questions that were sent in from listeners...

Joe Mekler aka Joey Boom tells us all about the Delaware Drum Show which is one of the top drum shows in the USA and is happening on February 27th (2022). Joe is not only an expert on World War 2 drums, but he is a master restorer of vintage drums and a staple of the vintage community. In this episode, my friend Joe shares everything you need to know about this years show and the legacy that he is...

Mandy is the Director of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and she shares tons of great insider information on how the Rock Hall works! She is a drummer who teaches us things like how many drummers have been inducted twice, can an iconic studio musician be inducted, and how many female drummers are in the Hall of Fame? This is a cool episode that really shines a light...

Joe talks about working with Neil Peart and Stewart Copeland on the amazing books that he created to spotlight their legendary careers. Joe Bergamini is a prolific author, drummer and teacher and shares the story of how he convinced these mega drummers to let him in and create books that are detailed transcription books, but also work as a coffee table book that shares all the details of the drumm...

This is a fun conversation with Youtube legend Terry Keating (aka Bonzoleum) about how his long history of collecting drums and tips and tricks he has learned along the way, He is known for his passion and knowledge about John Bonham, but Terry is also extremely knowledgable about a wide range of vintage and not so vintage drums. He is a genuinely nice guy who has worked very hard on building his...

John worked for Zildjian for 24 years in a number of roles from artist relations all the way up to vice president of the company. I asked him to teach me how the industry works, and he did a great job of breaking down many roles in the drum world and how they all work together. John has personally worked with brands like Simmons, DW, and Zildjian - but these positions and roles are typically indus...

George Fludas is a Bonzo fanatic who shares his immense knowledge about John Bonham including a biography of the iconic Zeppelin drummer, a discussion of his touring years with Zep, and a look at what we do and don't know about his famous gear. This is a very long awaited episode that I have wanted to do for a long time and I am very happy that George came on to share a very respectful and interes...

Billy Gladstone was a legendary performer and the maker of some of the rarest drums in existence with only 61 snare drums and 2 drum sets that are still known to be among us today. Chet Falzerano provides a fascinating biography of Billy and tons of info that is only available from his extensive research he did for his book on Gladstone. This episode also features a short interview segment with th...

This is a quick episode where Bart shares a short biography of "Syncopation" author, Ted Reed, and discusses some Drum History Pod info about things that are coming up! Big thanks to JDA for providing the information about Ted Reed on drumforum.org. Here are the links to the videos that most likely feature Ted Reed on drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qP0UPuc-DU https://www.youtube.com/watch...

Tommy teaches us about his amazing period correct collection of snares that Buddy Rich played spanning his career from 1950 to the early 1980's! We dig deep into 15 specific snare drums including Buddy's famous relationship with the forbidden Fibes snare drum that he loved so much, his wood DynaSonic, his on/off relationships with Slingerland and Ludwig, and of course - Buddy playing Trixon! Tommy...

Jason Gianni shares audio examples from artists including Fats Domino, Elvis, Ray Charles, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and many more that showcase the evolution of rock drumming from the 1940's to the 1960's. We discuss the drumming of these great artists plus Jason plays examples on his own kit! Jason is an instructor at the Drummers Collective in NYC and a professor at the New School in NYC and the Un...