Drums reverberate

Concerning Geoff Boucher’s “Beat at Their Own Game” (June 15), my memories concerning dealings with super drummers during their heyday, the late ‘60s and ‘70s, are considerably less charitable.

While not ascribing the following behavior to all drummers, many of them do qualify. I recall triple-scale drummers, the highest-paid and ostensibly the best that their craft had to offer, never wavering from their expected exorbitant fee. I remember triple-scale drummers leaving during the middle of takes, because the clock had indicated that the three-hour segment was completed and they felt no obligation to continue until completion. (Studio time and musicians’ rates were calculated in three-hour segments.)

Lawrence Cohn

Los Angeles

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“Beat at Their Own Game” was so cool. You won’t find pieces like that in the drum trades because they might be considered unflattering.

I played drums for 15 years, but after shoulder surgery I have all but given it up, so I can relate to that part of Hal Blaine’s misery. It’s a tragedy that he no longer has a drum set in his home.

Machines will never replace the “swing” that a human drummer provides, the ability to groove, to slip in and out of time, laying in front or just behind the pocket.

Brian Bentley

Los Angeles