Finally got a chance to go through a few pics of the show/display which I'll post up here, hopefully for your enjoyment! First, a few comments:

I want to THANK our most esteemed and exalted Webmaster, David Anfuso for his friendship and help in putting this display together! Also THANKS to Rob Cook for asking me to show this year, and for sponsoring the booth/space, along with www.vintagedrumguide.com who essentially underwrote my costs. THANK YOU!!! The response and reaction to this display far exceeded my expectations! It was an excellent show!

My display/tribute was a focused collection of all the snare drums Buddy Rich played on a REGULAR BASIS during the years 1950 to 1982. In that span there were 15 snare drums! Buddy was most certainly a snare drum hound! All the drums are correct to the year/era, manufacturer, build, wrap, hardware, that he would have played them, and THAT was the difficult part in assembling this collection. I had them set up left to right in chronological order. I heard all weekend from so many guys that the quality of each drum was outstanding! Indeed, as that was also part of the collection process: To find the BEST examples I could! This collection took approx. 20 years to assemble! Just about every single drum in the collection actually sounds good too. Some of them I have gigged many times. Not just "rack queens" here! I also brought out my 1949/50 WFL Buddy Rich Super Classic kit to act as the center piece of the display. There was a LOT of interest in those too! I wrote out a complete history placard on each drum describing the the drum itself, build, when BR played it, if he liked it, and if he didn't! I also brought out pics from my collection, with more than a few never seen prior. We also had video running of Buddy playing on two screens throughout the entire show. I saw a lot of guys stand and watch Buddy for as long as a 1/2 an hour at a clip! In addition...

I want to THANK all the VDF members that came over to meet/chat, and there were many! It was my pleasure to meet all of you! THANKS for all the kind words on the display too! Tom Osborne stopped in .. ( Don Osborne Sr., owner and president of The Slingerland Drum Company's son ) .. to see the display. He worked at Slingerland back in BR's day, so he loved the Slingerland models and had some great Buddy stories to tell too. He is actually a trumpet player, so we talked a LOT about Buddy's trumpet section and a bunch of the different arrangements/charts. It was a good time! One of the biggest surprises was...

... on Sunday when Buddy's daughter Cathy Rich and the guy that sits in the drum chair for the current Buddy Rich Big Band, Gregg Potter, came to the show specifically to see this display! It was great to meet and chat with them both! Cathy said Buddy would have loved this display/tribute based on the sincerity and professionalism of it. She also thanked me for keeping BR's memory alive and in the present. I was moved by that actually. She was a bit surprised at just how MANY different model snare drums he had played during this period. I chatted with Gregg Potter at length, and I gotta tell you... he is a real nice guy! Between the two of us, at one point, Dave said jeeze... do either of those guys ever shut up??!! LOL!!!

I'll attach a few pics that Deb took, and I hope you enjoy them!

Tommyp