-This issue was delayed
-Arnie Lang passes
-New England Drum Show postponed
-Summer of Soul a must see
-We sell back issues of Classic Drummer/Vintage Drummer magazine
-Sorry for the delay of this issue. “Somebody” forgot to clean the email list and we got pulled over by the spam cops. They let us go with a warning and all is good now.
-Arnie Lang died on July 5th. I did not know Arnie personally, but the moment I bought Not So Modern Drummer he got in touch with me and started sending his printed Lang/Gladstone newsletters and even copies of his old newsletters. He would enter his Lang Percussion drums in the Snare Drum Olympics contest and the judges would go ga-ga over them. So I knew him from afar and heard many great stories about him. My wife, Georgetta, and I finally met Arnie at the 2018 Chicago Drum Show and we had a nice long conversation. I knew about Arnie’s reputation as one of the great New York percussionists and as the heir to the Gladstone tuning system hardware. But the most impressive thing about Arnie was his personality. He was ninety years old and just as spry and ebullient as a man half his age. He talked to me like he had known me all my life. I remember wishing I had known him much earlier in my career. i feel like I missed out on a great friendship. In his column this month, Bob Campbell has gathered tributes to Arnie from his students and peers, and some great pictures of Arnie and his friends, who are some of the greats in percussion and music. If you knew Arnie and would like to add to this memorium, please get in touch with Bob or contact me.
-Don Mcaulay sent this message a few days ago; “So we have decided to wait and do the New England Drum Show in 2023. We’ve had issues with the venue and since I’m about to go on tour for 4 months, and start a new tour in the Spring of 2022 (w Charlie Watts and the Stones), it doesn’t seem fair to the exhibitors that I may not even be there. Everything is in place for a much better show in 2023 at an actual convention center that has a hotel and a restaurant in side - close to Boston in a fairly upscale neighborhood. More on that soon.”
-“Summer of Soul”, the new documentary about the 1969 Harlem Music Festival is a must see for drummers. QuestLove, well known as the drummer and co-founder of the Roots band which plays on the Tonight Show, produced this superb film and you can tell that he was digging and concentrating on the great drummers that were featured at the Festival. The lost footage of the festival was discovered after fifty years of sitting in a basement after none of the major film companies wanted to produce a movie of it. The film documents the cultural shift in the black community of harlem as a microcosm of the nationwide cultural revolution going on at the time
-I was enthralled with all the great drumming by Max Roach w Nina Simone, Greg Errico w Sly and the Family Stone (what was that cool finish on his Ludwig Drums?), Ray Barretto, Mongo Sanataria, one or more of the Motown drummers ( I could not recognize the faces to tell exactly who it was) - so many great drummers I can’t remember them all. AND it starts off with a big band performance and a drum solo by Stevie Wonder! Do yourself a solid and watch this documentary on Hulu or wherever else it is available.
-We are now selling back issues of Classic Drummer and Vintage Drummer print magazines at www.DrumSellers.com. Billy Jeansonne, the founding publisher of the magazines, has graciously allowed us to sell his back issues collection alongside our back issues collection of Not So Modern Drummer magazine. My friend Billy sold the business years back, but still sells the back issues. You can buy the entire collection of all back issues still in print for $34.95 here https://www.drumsellers.com/en/listings/1537819-17-classic-drummer-magazine-slash-vintage-drummer-magazine-back-issues AND you can buy the entire collection of Not So Modern Drummer Magazines for $63 here https://www.drumsellers.com/en/listings/574066-63-dollars-29-back-issues-not-so-modern-drummer-collection
And remember, play as many gigs as you can before the next pandemic!