A new book about the history of Kent Drums has been published by Dennis “Mouse” Brown. Dennis is arguably the foremost expert on Kent Drums and is very active on the FaceBook Group, Vintage Kent Drums Appreciation Page. Dennis had access to two of the three Kent brothers who started and ran the company, so there is lots of good first hand information in the book, and many myths about the company are dispelled. Many catalog pages and pictures of the Kent family, Kent Drums and “Kent Drummers” make this glossy hard paperback book a fun read.
Kent occupies a small but interesting corner of the vintage drum world. The drums were manufactured from 1946 to 1977 in Buffalo, NY. Bill Kent said, “The inspiration and the purpose of Kent Drums was to give the youth the opportunity to be able to have an affordable drum outfit which was known as a starter set.” So, the drums were marketed to beginners and competed with the Japanese low end sets of the sixties, but were superior to the imports in many ways even though they had their own quirky idiosyncrasies. They have become collectable and many pro drummers have a snare drum or drum set. Some of them sounded very good, which is surprising for a two ply drum shell. Dave Weckl is known to have used a Kent snare drum in the recording of his first solo album. I have two kits and use them on ‘cocktail’ gigs occasionally. One of my junior high school friends had a bright orange sparkle Kent drum set and I though they were cool. There are always Kent drums for sale on DrumSellers.com.
The book is definitely worth the price of admission and Mouse’s contact info is in the book. You can buy the book at DrumSellers.com soon, Ebay or directly from Mouse.