According to most of our research, the parade and field drumming known as “Syncopated Drumming”, was and is specific to the Long Beach, California region. The nucleus of syncopated drumming can be traced back to the Long Beach Junior Concert Band which was founded in 1952 by Marvin Marker. LBJCB trumpeter, Roger Johnson, remembers the “syncopated” style as early as 1955, and many of the LBJCB drummers we have had the pleasure to interview (Walt White, Roger Keels, Jerry Muszynski, Drake Jenkins) all said that syncopated drumming was well in place by 1959 when they joined LBJCB. We are curious to find out if syncopated drumming may have been a part of The Long Beach Youth Band, James E. Son’s Long Beach Concert Band, and if in fact this is where Marvin had adopted this drumming style for his group. Dave Schaafsma recalls this story on the World of Pageantry website:
“The Long Beach Junior Concert Band was formed after a financial scandal occurred in the old Long Beach Youth Band in 1952. Many of the older members quit out of disgust, but got bored. So they talked Marvin into organizing something. He made the arrangements for the basement rehearsal room at Wilson High School and he invited James E. Son, a former member of world famous John Phillip Sousa Band, to come down to rehearse the new band. They had about 40 kids the first rehearsal and Son enjoyed it, so he signed on to be the musical director while Marvin became the executive director. About 1955 or so there was a falling out between James Son and Marvin and the band closed down for a month or so. Finally Marvin called a rehearsal again and invited Son to return as musical director, but he was a no show at the rehearsal. It was at that point Marvin became the full director of the band and stepped onto the podium. After seeing that the band was continuing without him, Son formed another band and called it the “Original Long Beach Junior Concert Band”. The two bands competed against each other on many occasions. At the same time the old Long Beach Youth Band was still in existence, so for a while there were really THREE youth bands in Long Beach at the same time. The Long Beach Youth Band disbanded in the late 1950’s and James E. Son’s Original Long Beach Junior Concert Band continued until the early 1960’s. As we all know, the real LBJCB continues to perform to this day.”
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When we spoke with Marvin in 1998 about where syncopated drumming came from, he told us that in the old days, between band numbers, the drummers would just keep time, rat tat tat, rat tat tat, rat tat tat tat tat. Pretty dry, also known as “dead beats”. In 1959 Marvin joined the Air force in Lackland TX, where he heard one of the snare drummers in the Air Force band take the snares off of his drum and used it as a tenor, he realized the potential for the drums not only as a time keeper, but as a fun “syncopated” way to march down the street and a real crowd pleaser.
Now according to our time line, Marvin joined the Air Force in 1959, seven years after LBJCB was started, 4 years after R. Johnson confirmed syncopated drumming was already happening in LBJCB. Many LBJCB drummers site “Lackland” as the first syncopated LBJCB cadence, though no one can remember what it may have sounded like or have any written music or recordings of this cadence. Roger Keels has told us that the slow syncopated drum style comes from the US Marine or Military band of the early 1950’s era. though I have not found any evidence of this tempo or style recording wise. There is also supposed to be a recording of the Long Beach Youth Band on red vinyl that features a cadence written by JT Krump called “Syncopated”, though the piece is supposedly played at a faster tempo, it may have been the cadence that is the name sake for the syncopated style. Roger Keels has the only copy we are aware of and we are very interested in a copy of this or at very least a digital recording. Roger Keels describes this seminal recording: “I produced/burned a CD version/copy from the original Long Beach Youth Band album … which was a 78 rpm pressed upon RED Vinyl (commonly called The RED ALBUM ) … which was studio recorded in 1958. Track #4 – On Parade …begins with a drum cadence opener of 4 different cadences. J.T. Crump as the Head Drummer played snare in this feature. The 3rd cadence is the streetbeat feature that would soon become the true original ‘FIRST SYNCOPATED STREETBEAT’. Although the style and meter of these cadences as recorded was played at about 105-110 bpm … it soon began to evolve into a much slower meter of 90-95 bpm for parade purposes … and in turn added a few swing style licks to the style of the groove, and to the resolve of the 8 bar cadence as well. In regards to the introduction and structure of the syncopated style parade cadence … the Long Beach Youth Band Drummers began to creatively use the lower voice that the tenor style drum would/could produce in trade-off to the snare. Circa 1958-59 …the USMC Honor Band used standard style snare drums without the snare. These drums also had a tympani style chrome bottom/no snare. This produced a new lowered voice for a leg drum without a snare … similar to that which a floor tom produces for a standard 5 piece kit … used by feature solo drummers such as Gene Krupa, Cozy Cole, Louis Bellson (ref youtube – Gene Krupa: Sing Sing Sing & Cozy Cole: Topsy Part Two ). Together with the bass drum … this new voice structure became the true bass line or foundation for most of the syncopated rhythm licks that we all hear and play today.” ROGER KEELS TENOR-BASS 1959-66 December 31, 2014 at 7:17pm Additionally, JT Krump is also sited as writing the cadence “Number One” of the famed “1-5” cadences of LBJCB. Our guess to when exactly the Long Beach high schools began to incorporate syncopated drumming into the marching bands would most likely be the mid to late 1960’s, when the bands became larger, because enrollment was booming. Big bands meant big drums! Since the band members from LBJCB came from the surrounding schools, many of the drummers brought the syncopated style to their own high school, and over time almost all of Long Beach Unified School District were marching all syncopated drum sections in their bands. For an inside look at the syncopated drumming culture form a trainee’s point of view, we suggest picking up: Drummers: Rites of Passage on the Parade Route (Book I – The Trainee) Chronicles of a Teenage Syncopated Drummer by Brian McBride » Read Less
