I’d like to thank Buddy and Ringo the two that started this obsession.

About a year ago, the marketing communications company I work for Allen & Gerritsen, was contacted by a potential client to do some Audience Research, that client was Zildjian Cymbals.

Suffice to say a music junkie, hack drummer, a Ringo wannabee like myself was insanely excited about doing work, any work, for a brand like this.
A brand I’d had grown up with.
Those like me who for the first time saw Ringo Starr sitting behind his Ludwig kit on the Ed Sullivan show back in 1964, were watching him play Zildjian cymbals.
I was nine at the time.
The day after their performance on national television, Zildjian was back ordered 90,000 cymbals.

And so it began.

My birthday present.

A few years later I was fortunate enough to be sitting stage side with my parents, age 13, watching one of the greatest, if not THE greatest drummer that ever lived play live at the legendary Lennie’s On The Turnpike, Buddy Rich.
This was 1968, roughly 4 years after The Beatles now historical performance.
And yes, he was playing Zildjian cymbals too.

It was then I realized only the best, the greatest, play Zildjian.
Little did I know back then, this would never change.

This photo above is Buddy at Lennie’s. It may even be the show I was at. He played there a few times.

I took the program from that night up to him, ask him to sign it for me, he gave me that “Kid get the $*&# outta my way look”, but signed it anyway. He must have thought why the hell is this little kid here.
From what I remember, there weren’t too many 13 year olds in the audience.

I was in heaven.
He was my hero.
That signed program is long gone.
I recently bought myself this signed scrap of paper and some photos from a concert in Toronto back in 1971 for my collection.

Strange as a kid I was obsessed with what was then, and still now a big band jazz drummer like Buddy Rich.
My grandfather played the sax, loved big band music and jazz and would often play for me.
Maybe that’s where this connection to this kind of music came from.
But thinking back, it still seems kind of strange to me.

I eventually found out all my heroes played Zildjian cymbals.
Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, some of the greatest drummers of our time and my life all played this brand.
And so I wanted to play them as well.
I took drum lessons for years, had recitals, my song was “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock.
I eventually was able to play by ear, pick up the beat of a song by listening to it a few times, started my own band, jammed with friends through high school, but never became the drummer I wanted to be.
So I sold my drums, cymbals and all and headed off to art school in 1973.
Looking back, probably a smart move.

Here’s a drum head with the name of my high school band, Sponge Armor.
Recreated by my daughter, Alyssa.
Thanks pal.

Fast forward 37 years, and now this brand is back in my life.
Damn, it feels good.

But what makes this even better today, are the amazing people I’ve met at Zildjian over the course of this relationship.

Here’s a picture of Ringo’s concert used drumsticks from his Boston show.
A gift to me from John DeChristopher, Vice President Artist Relations & Event Marketing Worldwide at Zildjian.
Here he is with “you know who” the night of the show.

Doesn’t get any better than this does it?

Charlie Watts. Gentleman, Artist, Horse Breeder, Cricket Fanatic, Jazz bandleader and one of the world’s greatest drummers.

Charles Robert “Charlie” Watts (born 2 June, 1941) is an English drummer best known as a member (from January 1963 through the present) of The Rolling Stones. He is a jazz bandleader, record producer, commercial artist and horse breeder. Mick Jagger sometimes refers to Watts as “The Wembley Whammer” when introducing him during concerts.

Charlie Watts was born to a lorry driver for a precursor of British Rail and his wife at University College Hospital, London, and raised (along with his sister Linda) in Islington and then Wembley. He attended Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School from 1952 to 1956; as a schoolboy, he displayed a talent for art, cricket and football.

Watts’s parents gave him his first drum kit in 1955; he was interested in jazz, and would practice drumming along with jazz records he collected. After completing secondary school, he enrolled at Harrow Art School (now the University of Westminster), which he attended until 1960. After leaving school, Watts worked as a graphic designer for an advertising company, and also played drums occasionally with local bands in coffee shops and clubs. In 1961 he met Alexis Korner, who invited him to join his band, Blues Incorporated. At that time Watts was on his way to a sojourn working as a graphic designer in Denmark, but he accepted Korner’s offer when he returned to London in February 1962.

Watts played regularly with Blues Incorporated as well as working at the advertising firm of Charles, Hobson, and Grey. It was in mid-1962 that Watts first met Brian Jones, Ian “Stu” Stewart, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who also frequented the London rhythm and blues clubs; but it wasn’t until January 1963 that Watts finally agreed to join the Rolling Stones.

Watts has been involved in many activities outside his high-profile life as a member of the Rolling Stones.
In 1964, he published a cartoon tribute to Charlie Parker entitled Ode to a High Flying Bird.

Although he has made his name in rock, his personal tastes focus on jazz; in the late 70s, he joined Ian “Stu” Stewart in the back-to-the-roots boogie-woogie band Rocket 88, which featured many of the UK’s top jazz, rock and R&B musicians. In the 1980s, he toured worldwide with a big band that included such names as Evan Parker, Courtney Pine, and Jack Bruce, who was also a member of Rocket 88. In 1991, he organized a jazz quintet as another tribute to Charlie Parker. 1993 saw the release of Warm And Tender, by the Charlie Watts Quintet, which included vocalist Bernard Fowler. This same group then released Long Ago And Far Away in 1996. Both records included a collection of Great American Songbook standards. After a successful collaboration with Jim Keltner on The Rolling Stones’ Bridges to Babylon, Charlie and Jim released a techno/instrumental album called simply Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project. Featuring the names of his favourite jazz drummers, Charlie stated that even though the tracks bore such names as the “Elvin Suite” in honor of the late Elvin Jones, Max Roach and Roy Haynes, they were not copying their style of drumming, but rather, capturing a feeling by those artists. Watts At Scott’s was recorded with his group, The Charlie Watts Tentet, at the famous jazz club in London, Ronnie Scott’s. In April 2009 he started to do concerts with “The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie” together with pianists Axel Zwingenberger and Ben Waters plus his childhood friend Dave Green on bass.

Besides his musical creativity, he contributed graphic art to early records such as the Between the Buttons record sleeve and was responsible for the famous 1975 tour announcement press conference in New York City. The band surprised the throng of waiting reporters by driving and playing “Brown Sugar” on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan traffic; a gimmick AC/DC copied later the same year, Status Quo repeated the trick for the 1984 video to “The Wanderer” and U2 would later emulate it in the 2004 video for “All Because of You”. Watts remembered this was a common way for New Orleans jazz bands to promote upcoming dates. Moreover, with Jagger, he designed the elaborate stages for tours, first contributing to the lotus-shaped design of that 1975 Tour of the Americas, as well as the 1989–1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour.

There are many instances where Jagger and Richards have lauded Watts as the key member of The Rolling Stones. Richards went so far as to say in a 2005 Guitar Player magazine interview that the Rolling Stones would not be, or could not continue as, the Rolling Stones without Watts. An example of Watts’s importance was demonstrated in 1993, after Bill Wyman had left the band. After auditioning several bassists, Jagger and Richards asked Watts to choose the new bass player; he selected the respected session musician Darryl Jones, who had previously been a sideman for both Miles Davis and Sting.

In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the July 2006 issue of Modern Drummer, Watts was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame along with Steve Gadd, Keith Moon, Buddy Rich and other highly esteemed drummers.

Charlie Watts plays Gretsch drums and a variety of brands of cymbals, mostly UFIP. His drums are 1956-7 Gretsch Round Badge: a 22″ (56 cm) bass drum, a 16″ (41 cm) floor tom, a 12″ (30 cm) tom and a 5-by-14-inch (13 cm × 36 cm) snare drum. Cymbals he is known to use include: an 18″ UFIP Natural Series Fast China, a UFIP Rough Series China with rivets, a very old UFIP Flat Ride, an Avedis Zildjian Swish, and a very old set of hi-hats, brand unknown.