About two decades ago, as a curious teenaged jazz drummer, like many listeners keen to explore the earlier forms of the music I first alighted on Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven records. I started there partly because I already knew some of Louis’s later work, and because I’d read about these early records’ … Continue reading Instruments #4: The ‘Bock-A-Da-Bock’ or Hand Cymbal, 1927-9
Drums
Instruments #3: The ‘Snapper’-style Snare Drum, early 1920s
Before I start today’s article, an admission. When I was first planning ‘Drums In The Twenties’, one concern was that I didn’t want it to become solely an outlet for thinly-disguised bragging about vintage drum gear – something by which the internet is already well served. Speaking honestly, I don’t really have that much interest … Continue reading Instruments #3: The ‘Snapper’-style Snare Drum, early 1920s
Instruments #2: Jasper Taylor’s Wooden Washboard, c.1924
The tradition of washboard jazz is a deep and wide-ranging one, with numerous legendary players down the decades occasionally having reason to pop the thimbles on at one time or another in search of a bit of down-home gutsiness, a crowd-pleasing showpiece or simply a lightweight and space-saving alternative to the drumset. But the origin … Continue reading Instruments #2: Jasper Taylor’s Wooden Washboard, c.1924
Instruments #1: The Barry ‘Collapsible’ Bass Drum, c.1919
I’m going to kick off this series of articles about drum equipment from the ‘twenties - and more specifically those few period instruments I’ve managed to find or make, and use day to day - with the one piece of kit which has had the biggest impact on my working life and which always causes … Continue reading Instruments #1: The Barry ‘Collapsible’ Bass Drum, c.1919
Drums In The Twenties 