Drumhead commemorating Ludwig's 100th anniversary 1909-2009

The Winthrop University percussion studio recently toured Ludwig Industries in Monroe, NC. I remember touring Ludwig when they were located on N. Damen Avenue in Chicago while attending graduate school at Northwestern University in 1976. In the early 1980s the entire facility was moved to North Carolina. Many of those old machines I saw in action at the Damen Avenue facility are still in use today. “We had some incredible engineers designing machines,” said plant manager Jim Kinsey. “When we moved to Monroe, we figured ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ so we’ve just kept using those great old machines.”

Some little-known facts I learned on this tour:

Since there is such limited demand for 20″ fiberglass timpani, they don’t use a mold for the 20″ drums. If you order a complete five-drum set of fiberglass timpani, the 20″ will be made of aluminum and painted the same copper color. The original color of the fiberglass is whitish grey, and the original color of the aluminum is a dull silver.

Rack of timpani bowls ready for drilling

Drilling timpani bowl for the tuning gauge assembly

It takes two hours of sanding on a specially-designed machine to bring a copper timpani kettle to the mirror-like finish we are accustomed to.  

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I first met Artie Lieberman through Peyton Becton, Principal Percussionist with the Charlotte Symphony, several years ago (see the post from October ‘09 about Peyton’s recent visit to Winthrop here). I was playing with the symphony and made a remark to Peyton about their new orchestra bells. Peyton said, “They’re not new. Artie Lieberman refurbished them — even replated the bars.”  I looked Artie up. Soon he was retuning all the mallet instruments at Winthrop University. Turns out Artie had apprenticed at the old Deagan factory in Chicago as a young man. He had grown up in New York and studied with Fred Albright since childhood. It was Freddie Albright who encourged Artie to learn more about the manufacturing process and set up the apprenticeship with Deagan. Although Artie would eventually make his living in the automotive industry (starting with gas stations, then moving on to car dealerships and eventually the oil business), he never lost his passion for percussion instruments.

 

Today, Artie’s business, Mallet Instrument Service (with its subsidiary, Vintage Percussion) is thriving. When I first met Artie, I knew of Bill Youhass’ work with Fall Creek Marimbas and Gilberto Serna’s of Century Mallets in Chicago, but I had no idea we had an expert tuner and repairman right in our own community! “Been doing this for years,” said Artie. “Right now I’m working on the Boston Symphony’s xylophone, the London Symphony’s bells, and Bob Becker’s Deagan Artist Special.” But Artie,” I exclaimed, “you don’t even advertise!” “Don’t have to,” he replied in all sincerity.

Lionel Hampton’s 1920s vintage Deagan vibraphone

Artie’s father was a bread deliveryman in Manhattan. One of his best customers was Lionel Hampton, who liked to have his breakfast at a certain coffeeshop in Greenwich Village at 4:00 AM, when Mr. Lieberman typically delivered fresh bread. Artie’s father asked Lionel Hampton if he would recommend someone to teach his son to play drums. Hampton referred Mr. Lieberman to Freddie Albright, who agreed to teach young Artie, on the condition that they must begin on the xylophone. Once Artie learned to read music on the xylophone, they could begin to split the lessons between xylophone and drums. Lessons progressed nicely, and later on Mr. Lieberman again approached Lionel Hampton asking about the purchase of a used vibraphone for his son. Hampton replied that he happened to have one he wasn’t using and would sell it for $300.00. The recently refurbished instrument remains in Artie’s collection and is pictured above.    

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Peyton Becton demonstrates his flawless thumb roll technique!

Peyton Becton demonstrates roll techniques on snare drum

Peyton Becton with Winthrop Percussionists

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I’m very sorry to report that the NAFDA South event in the Atlanta area scheduled for September 12 has been cancelled. The NAFDA leadership made a valiant effort, but as the date drew closer there were too few pre-registered participants. My understanding is that they will go back to the drawing board and look into other possible dates/venues in the near future. Stay tuned!

BMW

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Dear Friends,

This is a terrific opportunity to immerse yourself in frame drumming for a day in the Atlanta area September 12. You get five workshops with notable frame drum experts plus an evening concert for just $100! I think it’s a great deal. My students and I will be there performing some new works in the evening concert. Check us out on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bmichaelwilliams

To reserve a spot at NAFDA South, send email to nafda1@gmail.com or visit www.nafda1.com/nafdasouth.php.

Hope to see you there!

BMW

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At PASIC 2005, I participated in a panel discussion sponsored by the PAS World Percussion Committee. My portion of the discussion had to do with percussion ensemble literature. I compiled a handout of representative percussion ensemble literature influenced to some degree by world music. The list is loosely categorized by geographical influence (Asian, African, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, etc.). We ran out of handouts at PASIC (who knew so many people would come to a panel discussion?), and over the years I have received emails from people requesting a copy. For those interested, it is now on my website in the “Writings” section, or you can just click here http://www.bmichaelwilliams.com/worldperc.pdf.

BMW

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NSR with BMW and Winthrop percussion students

We had a great time with N. Scott Robinson at Winthrop during the first week of April, 2009. Students had an opportunity to study with Scott privately and in group sessions on all types of frame drums including tar, riq, bodhran, and kanjira. His handouts on technical development (which we understand will soon be part of his new book) were very helpful. Scott does a fantastic job communicating with students in a clinic setting. As part of his residency, he also presented a PowerPoint slide presentation titled “The New Percussionist.” You can find more information about this terrific presentation at www.nscottrobinson.com/presentations.php.

We were most excited to have the opportunity to perform several of Scott’s compositions on our spring percussion ensemble concert, including Ghanaba Celebration for singer/handclappers, Sankofa for congas, shekeres, djembes, and African bells, Trio for Ogun for three congas and three conch shell trumpets (which we performed at PASIC in Austin last November), and a work commissioned by the Winthrop University Percussion Ensemble, Carnatic Variations for tars and bodhrans with solkattu. Scott also performed two of his solo compositions on the concert, Shaken, Not Stirred for riq and Global Positions for ghaval. All pieces are available on NSR’s website, by the way. Check them out at www.nscottrobinson.com/ordering.php (well, maybe not the new piece just yet, but it’ll probably be up soon).

Scott was a featured clinician at the South Carolina Day of Percussion held at Winthrop April 4, 2009. His clinic on hand drumming and brushes was full of very practical hints on performing in a variety of real-world settings.

My students had a great hang with NSR at Winthrop and SCDOP. He’s a wonderful musician, composer, teacher, and friend.

Thanks, Scott!

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Welcome to my news page and blog.  Over the years I’ve had experiences or insights that I thought were worth sharing with a wider audience, but may not have been so significant or thoroughly researched as to warrant a published article. Perhaps this blog will be the perfect venue for little tidbits I’ve discovered about this and that.

I guess I’m a bit of an anomaly in the percussion world, but maybe not. After all, percussionists are by nature “jacks of all trades.” I began my career as an orchestral percussionist and high school band director, then did some research and writing on John Cage, wrote some pieces for frame drums, studied West African drumming, and later learned to play a lamellaphone from Zimbabwe. Some years ago I remember asking a colleague what he’d thought of an article I’d recently published about Stockhausen’s percussion solo No. 9 Zyklus. His response was, “You wrote that? I thought it was another Michael Williams.”

The fact is, diversity is what we percussionists do best. My teacher at Northwestern University, Terry Applebaum, always said, “Our virtuosity is our versatility.” I took that wisdom to heart and it is a major platform in my teaching philosophy. Anyway, I hope to engage you on these pages with some observations, experiences, and my own questions about a variety of topics; frame drums, djembe, contemporary percussion, percussion education, mbira, and my own musings about everything from Almglocken to Zen.

Thanks for visiting… and come back any time!

BMW

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