I was born March 7, 1955 in Altadena, California. One morning at age three,
after seeing Buddy Rich on television, I got all the pots and pans out and started banging on them
before my mom was up. Oddly enough though at age five I started taking guitar lesson but that did
not last long. When I was seven, while attending Summerhill School in England, the kids went to see
a local band called The Wild Oats. I sat right next to the floor tom and watch, felt and heard with
great delight. Drum fever had taken.
Shortly after that I started taking drum lessons a local music store in Costa Mesa. My lessons
were simple with single and double stroke but the instructor was more into the length of my hair
then teaching me.
On my thirteenth birthday I was given a new drum set. It was a gold sparkly set of Crown drums.
I had those drums for years and would work on them constantly. One of the first things I did to them
was to seal the inside of the shells with white paint and Varithane. Next, I packed the lugs with felt to
keep the springs noise down. After that I redid my bearing edges all the while trying different head
combinations from coated, pin stripe, to hydraulic.
I recall the time that Louie Bellson had played on my Crown drums. It was at a benefit concert
with the late Ella Fitzgerald. Man, that bass drum kept moving on him while he was playing and without
losing a beat he’d reach down and pull it back. I was, and still am, amazed of Louie’s skill. Alas,
I was to shy to ask him for lessons as I thought he wouldn’t have time for someone of my caliber. A
year later I bumped into Louie at a Duke Ellington tribute. I tell you the kind of man he is he is
“top drawer”. Let me explain. You see, me being tall (6’-5”) and Louie being short I spotted him before
anyone else had. When I approached him asking about taking lessons he all of the sudden became surrounded
by music biz people. “Louie about that record”, “Louie about that gig”. I sheepishly tucked tail and
started to walk away when he grabbed my arm and said to stay. It still gives me goose bumps just
thinking about that to this day. It turns out that he had remembered me and I ended up taking lessons
with his brother Henry for two and a half years.
During the time I spent with Henry I was in as many different bands playing as many different
styles of music as I could get my hands on. I was playing traditional jazz (Dixieland), Big band
jazz, country, top 40, hardrock, and easy listening.
After studying with Henry I studied with David Garibaldi of “Tower of Power” fame. Man that dude
would give me stuff to work on that just squeezes your brain. I mean, you can feel your brain starting
to squirm around in your head. Very strange feeling! At the time I was studying with David I was in a
local Orange County band called “Gopher Broke”. We played together about three years and started to
make a name for ourselves. That was a really fun band to play in with great bunch of fellows. I also
was doing some recording for Janus Communications. I learned quite a lot working with them. It was
very exciting to hear things you had laid down being played in some presentation.
Recently, I’d say in the past two to three years I’ve been studying with Chuck Silverman. We’ve
been working on the basics and some grooves. Going back to the basics is no easy task mind you. We’ve
been working on match grip and rudiments. At the same time he gives me different Latin grooves to work
on – very cool! I started becoming interested in the congas too. That’s how I landed a summer tour with
the Kelly Bowlin Band. Chuck gave me some tips on playing congas that have just flat out saved my hands.
Yours,
Mark "BoneS" Pryor