I think you can turn it around and mention that he never said a bad word about anyone else either. As opposed to others of his generation. He was always encouraging to young players. A true gentleman. I met him once after a fabulous show and he took time to talk and mingle!

Louie Bellson lived with Pearl Baily in my small town about two miles from my home. He graduated from the same High School as I did in 1939 (1980 for me). I am going to look up the Guy from the bar ( joker joe) and see if I can take a look at Louies drum kit. Joker Joe is about seventy years old and I dont think his kids play drums so if I keep in touch mabye someday I can buy it. For now I would just like to see it. Joker Joe told me that Louie owned Remo drums, is that true?

Jeff C

He played Remo as his final kit. I believe he may have been in a partnership with Remo Belli!

I just read that he was president of Remo.

Jeff C

jccabinets!...

REMO drums?... YES, he did! But Louis also played/endorsed: Gretsch.. Rogers.. Pearl.. Slingerland.. and ended his career playing... REMO! I met with him after a clinic in 1975 at EU Wurlitzer Music in Boston. What a GREAT guy! Took the time to chat with EVERYONE that came up, one on one. He was playing/endorsing Pearl drums at this time and I wanted to know HOW he got his bass drums to sound the way they did. He had a"trick"... he shared it openly. Just an excellent guy!, not to mention excellent player. I still listen to "The Louis Bellson Explosion" featuring Don Menza album/CD to this day. I bought it right after seeing/meeting him that day. I am indeed a BR nut... but LB was all class, whereas with Buddy, you took your chances! LOL!!!

Tommyp

OK...now I am curious...what was Louie's "trick?"

Ya what is the trick. I have a double bass and am about to give up with it. Not only can I get them to match sound wise, I just cant play them very good. Oh and I will have to checjk out that albumn/cd for sure.

Thank you,

Jeff C

Its always refreshing to hear that someone so talented was also a great human being.

Lingontega/jccabinets!... Sorry 'bout the small delay in reply. I wanted to get back yesterday, but ran completely out of time. Anyway!, regarding the "trick" that LB told me about:

You have to take into immediate account that this was 1975 and there were NOT as many head choices as there are today. Louis was endorsing Pearl drums, but all his heads were of course REMO. He had wide open TWIN 14X24 bass drums... coated white front/reso... NO PORTS... yet those bass drums sounded "studio like", but with plenty of punch/tone/volume. At the time, we were all cutting ports in the front head, or no front head at all.. ( which for the record I did not do! ) .. and stuffing the bass drum with as much laundry as you could get into it! The sound Louis was getting was the sound I wanted. HOW was he doing it??? Here's the skinny.. ( again, 1975. Today this is cake to achieve without going through all that! ) ..

Batter heads were Coated Emperors... front/reso heads were Coated Ambassadors. No felt strip that I could see because... the "trick" as Louis told me, was that he bought a set of Flannel Sheets.. ( white ) .. and he placed one over the front of each bass drum, then put on the front head. Tension/tune to taste, then cut away the excess flannel sheet that is sticking out all around the drum, taking care to get in close. From the front/side you couldn't even SEE those white flannel sheets as they blended right into the white drum head. There you have it! In essence, what Louis was doing back then, was pre-muffling that ENTIRE front head, much like a lot of the heads offer today. This allowed him to keep the integrity and look of the bass drums undisturbed, but cut out a TON of the "ring", leaving just enough for projection/tone. It worked freaking GREAT!! Those bass drums were awesome. So that,

Plus getting to chat with him, and him taking the time to tell me exactly how he did it, was incredible. Great player!, great guy! Hope you enjoyed the story!

Tommyp

I was fortunate enough to see Louie on three occasions. When I got into drumming my Mom was a big support. She used to push for me to go to the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. The one cool thing that Jacksonville has had for as long as I can remember. I saw him play with Woody Herman's band there in 85 or so. Then, in 86 and in 87 I went to see him at the Florida Theatre. Not only was he and Pearl Bailey awesome, they were nice people. The first time I met him I shook his hand and was blown completely away. This at that time was one of the last of the original big band era drummers. The second time I met him I brought a Remo poster for him to sign. After the show I approached him and he remembered me from the previous year. He signed my poster and I asked him if I could have a pair of sticks. He went behind the drums and got his seat case and reached in it and gave me a brand new pair of Mike Balter 5a nylon tipped sticks. Again, I was speechless. It wasn't because he gave them to me that I was floored. It was because he didn't have to. He looked you in the eye when he talked to you and he made time to talk with others as well. He knew and loved his fans. He was a cool guy. I was 15 at the time so I played with the sticks but I still have one. I will never part with it.