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Scott writes:
Music photographer Charles “Chuck” Stewart shot a series of full-page black-and-white Gretsch drums magazine ads featuring some of the legendary jazz drummers of the 1950s-1960s. These Gretsch ads remain favorites among drummers-including me. Most of my copies of Stewart’s Gretsch photos are from the inside front or back covers of older Down Beat magazines.
This photo of Philly Joe Jones is from that Gretsch ad campaign. At the time, as I’ve written before, magazine ads like these were among the few ways young drummers could really see what the great drummers were playing. Unless you were a drummer living in a major city, you could hear Jones on records, possibly on jazz radio, maybe on tv, but it is very unlikely you would have an opportunity to see Philly Joe Jones play in person.
I don’t think I’m the only young drummer who spent hours studying these ads for drum sizes, for how drummers positioned their drums and cymbals for height and angles, and for cymbal sizes and types.
With ads such as this Philly Joe ad, drummers could see how Jones sat in relation to his kit, and how he held his drumsticks.
Another unique part of this ad, most of the drummers in this Gretsch series were photographed behind 20-inch bass drums with 8×12 and 14×14 tom-toms. Philly Joe’s set is a 22-inch bass drum with 9×13 and 16×16 tom-toms. At the time, I remember my surprise at Jones playing a “big band” drumset.
I didn’t know, at that time, what a great big band drummer is Philly Joe Jones.
Thank you Gretsch, thank you Charles Stewart, for providing generations of drummers an education and hours of entertainment, through your legacy of fascinating photos of legendary drummers and their drum sets.
To read this story and his other articles visit: HERE
Scott K. Fish was part of the original team that created Modern Drummer, he started as a freelance writer in 1976 and was the Managing Editor of Modern Drummer magazine from 1980-1983. By the time he left in October 1983, he had written almost half of Modern Drummer‘s feature articles. His interviews and articles were enjoyed by readers and artists alike, his questions were not run of the mill, as Bill Bruford put it, your questions are about “life beyond the cymbals.”
Scott K Fish is a public relation, writing, marketing, and communications expert across all media, with a 25-plus year track record in high profile positions.
Scott is an extremely active blogger and he often posts the original interviews with the artists that he used as reference for his article. We encourage you to follow Scott’s blog at www.ScottkFish.com, we will continue to post one of his posts weekly.
Please consider contributing to support Scott’s ongoing writing. We need to support writers like Scott who continue to educate us, the readers, about important drummers, their contributions, and how their work has been so impactful. You can support him at the link: HERE
