James Beck ‘Jim’ Gordon was born on July 14th, 1945, grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley and was educated at the same High School as Jeff Porcaro: Ulysses S, Grant. That said, since by my reckoning Jim is nine years older than Jeff, I doubt they could possibly have been there at the same
Irving Cottler was born in Brooklyn, New York on 13th February 1918. You may not know the name, but you certainly will have heard him playing because he was none other than Frank Sinatra’s drummer of choice, whenever, wherever and whatever he was playing. He joined ‘Old Blue Eyes’ in 1962 and stayed with him
I first met Jeff Porcaro at a Music Trade Show in London at Alexandra Palace in London. As far as I can see, it was the first and the only musical instrument show to be held there although gigs still go on there even as we speak. I’m pretty sure I still owned a
I was saving this for May 2018 which would have been Bonzo’s seventieth, but in the end I couldn’t contain myself. So here it is albeit just a year early! I don’t believe I ever met John Bonham although I’ve certainly had several near misses. Since we were contemporaries and both rushing around the world
Daniel Humair was born in Zurich on May 23rd, 1938 and he is famous not simply for being a drummer, composer and arranger, he’s also an exceedingly accomplished painter (he describes his own art as ’Figurative Abstract’) and in the past he’s even been something of an inventor. For the purposes of this edition
