Drum History

Cocktail drum kits date back to post World War 2 in an orchestra pit in England where space is at a premium and the drums needed to grow taller, as opposed to wider. the "stand up drum set" evolved from there and became a staple of jazz lounges, street performers, comedy acts and many great drummers who wanted a unique look and feel to the drums they play.

John Mettam is the founder of cocktaildrum.com and a longtime performer and cocktail kit enthusiast. He shares the full story of these iconic drum sets with us year by year as we go through the catalogs of Slingerland, Gretsch, Leedy, Rogers, and Ludwig. This is a great history filled episode with tons of fun stories throughout.

follow along at www.cocktaildrum.com under the catalogs tab

Enjoy this episode!

Jerry was the drummer for the iconic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" soundtrack and he shares the story of the writing and recording of the album and great info on the creation of the TV special. He tells us about how he wanted nothing to do with Charlie Brown for 30 years, until he came to the realization that he has made millions of happy people and he should embrace it. We also hear the full story of his illustrious career and his background in drumming.

You can learn more about Jerry at his website: https://jerrygranelli.com/

Happy holidays and enjoy this episode!

We are lead to believe that the bass drum pedal was invented in the USA, and that the drum set as we know it today was first created in the states - but Fritz shares examples that show many revolutionary drum inventions that were first created in Europe. We also discuss brands like Sonor, Trixon, Paiste, plus drumming and drum building in communist countries and many other great facts and stories along the way.

Fritz is a veteran in the drum industry and has owned and operated DrumHouse Freiberg since 2001 in Germany. He brings a very unique knowledge base to the show and shares lots of information that I have never heard anywhere else. Check out the DrumHouse here: https://www.drumhouse.com/

Enjoy this episode!

Orion was a 14 year old drummer boy in the Civil War when he earned the Medal of Honor for an extremely courageous act in battle. Marlene Shares his amazing story that begins when he enters the war at 12 years old through the rest of his life, and the lives of his musical family. We learn all about drummer boys and the role they played in the war, including Johnny Clem - the youngest noncommisioned officer in army history who began as a drummer.

Marlene wrote "Diary of a Drummer Boy" which is Orion's amazing true story written in a diary format. She provides a great perspective on these heroic young drummers and paints a great picture of what life was like for these boys, including playing games on the battle field and putting their lives in danger on a daily basis.

Enjoy!

Peavey Drums were short lived but the Radial Pro series has become a cult classic to many drummers. Rob shares his experience with the first generation of Peavey Drums that was full of problems from the beginning that never got off the ground and the second generation which is the ultra unique Radial Pro's that were short lived but are a part of drum history. This episode is a lesson in the harsh realities of the music business.

Rob is an industry veteran of 40 years including running multiple music stores, creating Rebeats, and operating the Chicago Drum Show. He is a wealth of knowledge on many topics and has become a great friend of the show.

Here is a webpage Rob has created covering Peavey Drums: https://www.rebeats.com/peavey%20drums.html

Enjoy this episode!

N&C is the oldest drum company in the US, founded 166 years ago in 1854. The company began at a kitchen table with Silas Noble making Toy Drums for Christmas presents. Once the Civil War broke out, he then partnered with James Cooley to make drums for the Civil War and the company grew massively from there.

Jay and Nick Jones are the the 6th and 7th generation to continue on the family business. They carry on the masterful drum building that has existed for almost two centuries, and they also still build toy drums to carry on the legacy. At one point, N&C was making 100,000+ toy drums a year and created most kids drums and drumsets in America through the 1900's. After a catastrophic logistics problem in 2001, they put the Toy Drums on the back burner and changed gears to become the powerhouse custom drum shop that we know today.

Enjoy this great episode!

Mike has 650 rare and valuable snare drums in his San Francisco home! He tells us all about the rarest snares that he owns and how he got into this level of collecting. Mike also shares tips and trick for how to begin your own collection and how to utilize eBay to find great deals on legendary snare drums.

Mike is a true legend in the drum community and his collection of snare drums has got to be one of the largest privately owned collections of snare drums in the world. Mike is not buying these drums to flip them, he buys them and restores them purely for the love of drums.

Learn more about Mike here: https://www.curottodrums.com/

Enjoy this episode!

Mike is the co-founder of SJC and shares the great journey he and the company have been on in its 20 year existence. They erupted on the scene right when boutique drum companies were popping up everywhere, and I think it is safe to say that they came out on top - but it was full of serious ups and downs in the relatively short existence of the company.

We hear about the rocky relationship that Mike had with his co-founder brother Scott, who is a true mastermind at drum building and a massive part of the DNA of the company, and also the behind the scenes story of being featured on the CNBC TV show, The Profit. This also features great information on the transition from a complete custom shop company, to partnering with Guitar Center to make affordable SJC drums available to everyone.

This is the most modern company that I have had on the podcast and I had a blast learning about SJC. Check out SJC at

https://www.sjcdrums.com/ and on social media at @sjcdrums

Enjoy this episode!

Max Abrams was THE drum teacher in England in the mid 1900's and taught Stewart Copeland, Simon Phillips and my guest, Neal Wilkinson. He operated like a drill sergeant and didn't give his students much praise, but it created countless professional drummers. Before he was a teacher, Max was a top drummer around the Jazz and Big Band scene in England in the 30's, 40's, and 50's.

Neal Wilkinson is one of the UK's top studio drummers and has worked with artists like Paul McCartney, Van Morrison, Annie Lennox and has performed for multiple major films and TV shows.

We also learn all about Drum Hangs, an awesome new project that Neal and Russ Gleason have created to bring the worlds top modern drummers to all of us via Zoom hang outs where you spend an hour with drummers like Nate Smith, Vinnie Colaiuta, Dennis Chambers, Peter Erskine and pretty much every other famous drummer you can imagine. Russ tells us all about it at the end of the episode.

Learn more at www.drumhangs.com and find them on social media at @drumhangs

Mapex was founded in 1989, but its parent company, KHS, goes back 80 years in China and has a very interesting story beginning in after school music programs. Jeff is the brand manager for Mapex and is full of great stories about this relatively young drum brand and goes through the origins of all the iconic lines of drums that Mapex is famous for today.

Jeff is the brand manager of both Mapex and Sonor drums and is a working drummer in Nashville, Tennessee.

Learn everything about Mapex at www.mapexdrums.com