Drum Kits -- '20s and '30s

[Cody K]

It's Sunday morning and I'm supposed to be baking cakes because an old friend I haven't seen in years is coming later today to introduce me to his wife and kids, and where there are kids, there need to be cakes! Before getting started with the baking though, I hadda put on a record that was playing in my noggin -- Douglas Williams' great blues clarinet piece Slow Death, recorded for Victor (21269) in Memphis on January 31, 1928, and described on the label as a "Clarinet solo with piano and traps".

Traps. I guess I know 'em when I hear 'em, but how, exactly, are they defined and described? Off to the internet, where I ran across this interesting page on early drum kits such as were used on the old records we love so much. It's another fine product from Samm Bennett, a longtime musician and walking blues/jazz encyclopedia who used to live in Boston and now lives in Japan. There's such great pictures and so much background in the article that I thought others on the forum might be interested and figured I'd share it here.

http://www.polarityrecords.com/vintage- ... d-30s.html

Lots of other fine stuff on Samm's Polarity Records site, too -- very much worth flipping around if you don't have cakes to bake this morning. Enjoy! Here's a sample pic, looks to me like the awesome silent film star Laura La Plante having a ton of fun out in the back yard.

Now off to the kitchen with me...in a minute...

[phonogfp]

Thanks, Cody, for posting this. A very interesting web site! Being somewhat technically-minded, I find the evolution of drum sets ("kits") fascinating.

My parents met at college in the marching band - they were both drummers. I have the Ludwig marching snare and stand that they each claimed belonged to them. Dad died in 1998, and mom will turn 94 next month; still driving and quite active.

Below is a photo of dad when he was fronting "Johnnie Paul & His Orchestra" ca. 1940. They traveled around northern Illinois and Indiana before U.S. involvement in WWII intervened.

Thanks again for the web site link...

George P.

[Cody K]

George, that's a great picture! Your pop looks like a real hep cat! Interesting that he's got his Chinese temple blocks lined up at that late a date. The colors are pretty terrific too -- obviously pre-photoshop hand painting. Do you know who added the color? Your dad's skin tones look pretty natural, as if they were probably done by the photographer, but the drum kit resembles work I've seen that was done post-studio by venues that wanted to brighten up displays in windows or in outdoor frames. At any rate, it's a great pic to have of one's own drummin' dad.

[phonogfp]

Thanks Cody. Dad's older brother was pursuing photography, and he took a number of publicity photos of dad, the band, and even the three cute girl singers! Uncle Ed was undoubtedly the one who applied the post-production tints.

Dad was an interesting guy. He was one of 9 kids brought up during the depression by his mother (dad's "father" was a no-account who came home once or twice a year). Dad was the second-oldest (born 1917), so he had to start working as soon as he could as a little kid. From then on, he worked pretty much constantly to help feed the family. When he graduated high school, he wanted to go on to college, but his mother discouraged him. Nevertheless, dad put himself through college (it took him 11 years to get a Bachelor's degree) while helping feed the family. The dance band was part of all that, in addition to house painting, roofing, soda jerking, etc. Dad enlisted in the Army in 1942 and wanted to be a flyer, but he was told he was too light (6 feet tall; 117 lbs.), probably due to childhood malnutrition. He went into Antiaircraft, but eventually wound up in the Infantry seeing combat on Okinawa. Later drafted into the Army during the Korean Conflict, the local draft board supervisor told dad that he could get out of it, since by now he was married with one child (my brother). Dad replied that if he didn't go, it would mean someone else would need to, so away he went - - this time to postwar Germany where he worked in Intelligence. (He never would talk about his experiences in early 1950s Germany, saying it was "too terrible.") He finally earned his PhD and eventually became well-known in the field of Speech/Language Pathology, Chairman for many years of the largest undergraduate training department in the world.

He always appreciated good music, and especially liked some of my Chicago albums because of Danny Seraphine's virtuosic drumming on the CTA album (particularly the solo on I'm A Man). Dad also liked James Lent's performance of Ragtime Drummer on a 2-minute Indestructible cylinder...

Never having had a real childhood, dad had few interests outside his work. My obsession with antique phonographs utterly baffled him, but on several occasions he fronted me funds necessary to buy them. Dad came home from the war an alcoholic and immersed himself in his work. Of all his accomplishments against the odds, I told him that beating alcohol in 1978 was the thing for which I was most proud of him. I think he and I were afflicted with a similar compulsion, but he provided me with a life where I could pursue something other than alcohol.

Sorry about the unintended "memorial."

Best to all,

George P.

[Wolfe]

You could consider traps to be a basic drumset (snare, bass drum, cymbal) with the accoutrements that came along in the day - things like woodblocks, triangles, bells, etc. Things all useful in vaudeville and used in early jass/jazz.

Gene Krupa is often credited as the guy who fashioned the pared down modern drumset in the form that we know it today - bass and snare drum, tenor and bass tom-toms and cymbals/hi-hats.

I've had that vintage drumset page bookmarked in my browser for some time now. It's very interesting.

I'm a lapsed drummer, having started back in grade school and played for years. Though these days best I get up to is diddling around on a practice pad once in awhile. I intend to pick it up again more sometime in the future.

Here's some audio of a 12 year old Buddy Rich in 1929. He was billed as "Baby Traps" or "Traps the Drum Wonder" with his parents in vaudeville. I believe this to be the audio (disc) portion of a lost Vitaphone soundie.

https://youtu.be/n7EbDkzPm3k

[Henry]

Of all his accomplishments against the odds, I told him that beating alcohol in 1978 was the thing for which I was most proud of him. I think he and I were afflicted with a similar compulsion, but he provided me with a life where I could pursue something other than alcohol.

Sorry about the unintended "memorial."

Best to all,

George P.

Thank you, George, for this heartfelt tribute to your father. My own dad was similarly affected by service in WWII, and he likewise overcame his demon. I wish now (too late!) that I had told him what you told your dad.

[estott]

A musician friend used to call the set of woodblocks, triangle Etc. "The Toy Counter"

[Cody K]

George, thanks for the background on your dad. I really enjoy stories like that. Folks had to be clever to find their way out of the depression. My own dad grew up from a similar start, and struggled with the aftereffects all his life. Pretty darn impressive that your dad made it all the way through to a doctorate, with some very interesting stops along the way.

[phonogfp]

Thanks Cody. From the posts and PMs I received, it's clear that dad was not unique in his approach to life and some of the challenges he faced. Like most everyone, he was a product of his times. It was quite a generation.

George P.

[Edisone]

A musician friend used to call the set of woodblocks, triangle Etc. "The Toy Counter"

Theater organ people still use that term, for the ranks of similar novelties.