Check out Wynton Marsalis on being thankful at Thanksgiving.  Wynton Marsalis is a classical and jazz musician, composer, producer, educator, and more.  On Thanksgiving Eve, Wynton Marsalis takes a look at where we are as a country today, and what we should be grateful for this holiday.  He is someone I admire and thought you might too!

Legendary singer Tony Bennett just published a memoir, “Life Is A Gift: The Zen of Bennett.” Bennett joins the “CBS This Morning” co-hosts with CBS News cultural correspondent Wynton Marsalis to discuss his new memoir.  For all of you who just performed at Evening of Drummers, check out Wynton and Tony talk about preparing.

Wow, last Saturday was such a great night!  The 5th Annual Evening of Drummers was truly a success!  I'd like to thank all of the parents and students who were involved.  Whether you helped set up, break down or brought refreshments, everyone came together to make the evening run smoothly.  This evening would not be possible without your support.  And of course, great job to all of the performers!  Also, thanks for all of the feedback, "Likes" and videos posted on Facebook and the drum school blog.  I'm looking forward to the next one!  Happy Thanksgiving!  

Welcome to the Drum School Blog!  This blog as well as the Drum School Facebook page is for all of the students of J.J. Clarke’s Drum School to share information and converse about drums and music!  Please feel free to leave a comment, post a video of your favorite drummer, share something you learned in one of your lessons, tell us a favorite quote from a musician or just join an existing conversation.  Enjoy!

I figured the best way to start off the Drum School Blog is with a drum solo from Buddy Rich!  Buddy Rich is one of the greatest (some say the greatest) drummers of all time!  Even though he passed away in 1987, there is still much to be learned from him and the amazing music he left behind.

As I'm sure is the case with countless others, Buddy Rich inspired me to become a drummer!  When I was about 13 years old, my father gave me audio cassette tapes of the drum battles between Gene Krupa (another incredible drummer to check out) and Buddy.  Ever since then, I was hooked and I knew that’s what I wanted to be.

One of my favorite quotes about Buddy Rich is from Louie Bellson (yet another incredible drummer to check out).  Louie said this on the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert – Tape 1.  “The story goes like this.  My turn is up.  There I am at the gates.  St. Peter’s there to greet me.  He says, ‘Louie, it’s nice to have you.  We’ve been looking for you for a long time.  You’re gonna be our number one man’.  I looked at St. Peter and said, ‘Wait a minute, you have people up here like Chick Webb, Big Sid Catlett, Jo Jones, Shelly Manne’.  St. Peter said, ‘No, they’ve had their chance.  They’ve all played.  Now, you’re gonna be our number one man.  In fact, you’re gonna play all the drum solos up here’.  And just as St. Peter said you’re gonna play all of the solos, I hear this tremendous solo off in the distance.  I looked at St. Peter and said, ‘St. Peter, you told me I’m going to play all the drum solos.  That sounds like Buddy Rich to me’.  He said, ‘No Louie, that’s God, he thinks he’s Buddy Rich’.”

Check out this video “Away We Go” from circa 1967.  It’s one of my favorites.  Utterly fearless, amazingly powerful, bold and purely Buddy!  For information and history about Buddy Rich and the amazing music he created, I encourage you all to check out Modern Drummer’s upcoming December issue which features him.