Villa - an interesting shell producer

sacco

Senior Member
I discovered who built the Hollywood Meazzi shells in the sixties and seventies: Villa, an Italian shell producer still active and still offering interesting products: https://www.facebook.com/VillaDrumShellsAndHoops

Probably not many of you know about Italian made Hollywood Meazzi drums, but they were quite famous in the sixties and seventies. Excellent drummers, including Max Roach, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham used them. Recently, I attended a Billy Cobham clinic and I was lucky enough to talk to Billy after the clinic (what a nice person, a real gentleman!): since my first set was a Hollywood Meazzi and since I knew he had used them in the past, I asked him what he thought about them. Quite interestingly, he told me these drums were good - "Maybe the wood was a little too soft" - and he also told me that even Tony Williams used them when he first toured Europe, because in the sixties Gretsch would not make sets available for him overseas!

Well, enough said: Villa seems to be well worth a look for those who intend to build drums starting from raw shells!
 
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