One Day Last Week

Hello dear LinkedIn folks,

I have been sidling up to this post for a while.? It is time for me to bust at least one of my own potential myths.

A large part of my working background is tied up with collecting and collections and trying to understand what they mean.

Apart from drums in nurseries the next best job / work I ever had was working designing and sometimes assembling exhibitions in museums.

I am a materialistic person. I am not only full of love and peace and art.? I am into the stuff and things we fill our lives with and what it all means to us.

I might have seemed to have waded into condemnation in my last published article which I called "Drums Clogs Balls".? I am interested in the various reasons we find attachment to things in our lives.

I think the mega-wealthy Victorians might have used stuff to insulate them selves from reality. What if it never went out of fashion?? I wonder if we do the same sort of thing in 2023?

We have something called a "Heritage Industry" in the alleged uk.? The English Heritage Industry is quite possibly the biggest myth-maker going.? Do not muddle "Heritage" with "History".? In the same way do not muddle written history with facts or even things stated as fact with truth and or proof of anything.

I am trying a different direction I think some of my "Photo Poems" were starting to seem grim for the sake of grim.? I need to create my justification and to take a break from Blackpool Noir and get a bit deeper into my problem with stuff.

Lets see where it goes?

How do things connect me to who I think I am?

I found myself moving away from my developing hard-boiled bleak seaside eye one morning last week.? It might have been because of the bongo date behind the guitar and singers with the congregation in the church at the end of our road last Sunday.

Drumming and history entered a conversation with a couple of friends over breakfast after the service.? I'm a drum-nut I love playing drums and people say to me that they can tell, which I think is nice.? I would rather be identified as a person who simply enjoys their work than be identified as an expert.

I was brought up with "Church on Sunday" and I returned to church going for a number of reasons that I might write about at some point.? No, before you ask, I was born once in 1958 I haven't noticed anything as dramatic as that ever since excluding being present at the birth of three children (and one or two lambs).

I felt the need to check something out when I got home from church last week because of the chaotic type of divergent mind that God gave me.

I was pleased about that moment because I had been wondering what had happened to this old label.

It fell out of the pages of the book I needed to reference that I was able to go straight to on a bookshelf, inside which I had slotted the above item for safe keeping, plus the book also cured my academic itch.? Caused, yup by going to church? Which also went on to prompt this post, which might turn out to be a new departure for me on @Linkedin world.? Who knows?? OK yes God does!!

The "Drum-Kit" is a relatively new idea in the world of percussion and one of the great early developers of "Drum-Sets" was Warren "Baby" Dodds, born in New Orleans in 1894.? Warren was a drum giant and he gigged with giants, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and King Oliver are all on his list with many more.? Baby Dodds died in 1959.

The word "gig" is derived from engagement in the jazz era, we are told now in 2023 that we live in a "gig economy" I personally think we ought to have evolved a bit more by now but there you go.? Musicians have been gigging for a hundred years in "Western Civilization" ("So that's what you call it?"? said, Ghandi to Churchill).

I'm digressing. Or am I?? I am not an Historian.? Objects to me are things full of stories.? Human beings make things and collect things.? Human-beings make art out of stuff. Art causes conversation and conversation makes the world go round.

Baby's words, the ones I was looking for.

"They didn't have music in the church there was only singing"

(quote from page 3 The Baby Dodds Story published by Contemporary Press 1959).

Above Warren Dodds with his Motor in 1923.? One hundred years ago.? He certainly looks like was doing alright from the picture.

The lost label that I put inside my copy of The Baby Dodds Story as told to Larry Gara for safe keeping speaks for itself.

Something called provenance.

Around a Baker's dozen (not Ginger) years ago I had some time to spare waiting for a steam drawn train to take me to a place called Grosmont in North Yorkshire from the market town of Pickering.

I took a stroll along the very lovely Pickering High Street.? The Hawkes Snapper in the picture jumped into my eyes from a Second Hand Shop window.? I couldn't tell anything about the make or anything it was in such a state.

I went in and asked, How much for the old drum?? I thought it was a fair price, I didn't haggle and bought it without further inspection.

I like mending old drums.? I know antique afficionado's would have say leave the patina on the shell but I can never resist having a proper look at what shiny thing somebody was buying all those years ago. So old drums get polished in this old man's shed.

I know how to lap a velum skin but again I' going to want to play the thing so if I can find or make a credible modern version of a skin I will.

I found that https://jas-musicals.com/ stocked 13 1/2" single ply plastic / nylon type drumheads for the use on a South Asian Dhol which fit the old Hawkes and Son Snapper.

I fitted a couple of those Jas heads plus a layer of a cut down Remo diplomat bonded with a a bit of Evo Stick to heavy up the resonance a bit.? I also found a 13" fairly old Snappy Snare wire.

I sometimes take it to the cafe with a few other rescued drums.? This is me It is who I am what I am into the way God made me etc. etc. below is a picture of the original Hawkes Snapper snare wires.

What's my point?

This drum is at least 99 years old.? The label I removed before I set to work on the repairs looks original.? I straightened the shell and got a couple of lugs re-braised with brass and so on.

The London based manufacturer is interesting enough to research.? It comes from Dodds' era, it could have been a part of a very early drum-kit, I wonder who played it? How was it played? I play it now. Does this story mean anything? Is anyone bothered? I am I am fascinated by stories and stuff.

To be continued . . . . . . ? Maybe.?