Last night my wife and I watched a new "Great Performances" show on PBS. The show featured the British actor/musician/s-i-n-g-e-r Hugh Laurie who plays the lead on the American television series, House. Laurie is a talented piano player who also plays guitar and sings. He has a passion for old Blues, Boogie Woogie, and Ragtime music. This show featured Laurie in a live performance ant Tipatina's in New Orleans. The band's arrangements were written by Alan Toussaint who also led the band complete with horn section. Two featured guest performers were Irma Thomas and Tom Jones. The show was a very well made production featuring great music.

I could not find out who was playing drums. The guy added tons of musicality to the songs with a set of mismatched drums that all looked to be from the 1930's or earlier. He used a fairly large (26"?) bass drum, two tacked bottom head toms mounted one on each side of the bass drum, one small trashy cymbal on the bass drum, and one modern looking crash/ride on a stand. He frequently played with his hands rather than sticks, no hi hat. He played with tea towels draped over the toms and snare heads much of the time. The cymbals were never used to ride the rhythm--they were used only for accents, and sometimes struck with his bare hands. Did anyone else see the show? Who is this great drummer with a reverence for old time drumming? I forgot to mention that he is a fairly large and beefy--not fat--white man in his 30's or 40's. And, does anyone have any idea of what the drums are? I think that a close up of the mounted tom to his far right had old Radio King lugs.