Blues Drum Kit

con struct

Platinum Member
Courtesy of the Real Blues Forum. Here's a photo of Muddy Waters' first permanent drummer, Elga Edmunds. The drums look very funky enough, just check out that ride(?) cymbal.

elga_zpsa05e5d3c.png


His sweater's pretty out there, too.
 
If that isn't a Blues drummer I don't know what is Jay :)
I have a sweater just like that :)
 
funky kit indeed, it's setup kind of strange too, the snare seems far more forward than hats.
I've been listening to a lot of old Howlin Wolf and Elmore James lately, and I don't hear much more than snare, ride,hats and bass drum in all of those recordings.
 
Wow what a great shot. I'm surprised the snare is a deeper one. I would have guessed most guys in that era would use a 5" drum. What do I know. Too bad you can't hear them in the picture. They look like they would have sounded....old fashioned, not like today's drums. Not putting down old fashioned, it is what it is.
 
I have to wonder if he actually used those very drums when he finally got to record with Muddy. Actually, I think the first recordings he was on were by Jimmy Rodgers, on the Chess label. I probably have those records somewhere, I'll look.

Edit: Thinking about it, Chess had its own set of drums.
 
I have to wonder if he actually used those very drums when he finally got to record with Muddy. Actually, I think the first recordings he was on were by Jimmy Rodgers, on the Chess label. I probably have those records somewhere, I'll look.

Edit: Thinking about it, Chess had its own set of drums.
As far as I know from reading about the era, most of the studio's had their own drums back then.
 
I have to wonder if he actually used those very drums when he finally got to record with Muddy. Actually, I think the first recordings he was on were by Jimmy Rodgers, on the Chess label. I probably have those records somewhere, I'll look.

Edit: Thinking about it, Chess had its own set of drums.

Are you sure Bernard Purdie didn't play on all those blues tracks? What would he say?

;)
 
Wow what a great shot. I'm surprised the snare is a deeper one. I would have guessed most guys in that era would use a 5" drum. What do I know. Too bad you can't hear them in the picture. They look like they would have sounded....old fashioned, not like today's drums. Not putting down old fashioned, it is what it is.

Deep drum will have a wetter sound, better for shuffling on, less rat-a-tat. Even today if all you're doing is traditional blues a loosely tuned deep snare gets "that" sound. Or is it that "that" sound comes from drums like this, and we just associate it with blues? Like the sound of old cheap guitars and amps?
 
Or is it that "that" sound comes from drums like this, and we just associate it with blues? Like the sound of old cheap guitars and amps?

Come on now, I read somewhere it took Stevie Ray Vaughn his modified stratocaster and its signal running through as many as TWENTY high-end amplifiers to get that cheap guitars and amps sound we so love!
 
A buddy plays bass in a couple of blues bands. One night they had a guest band from Finland. Here's what the drummer played...

olddrums2.jpg
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