"A living legend in his own time," "Mr.
Percussion." These are some of the ways that people around the world know
Bobby Christian. Anyone who was lucky enough to have seen him perform saw
his passion for music. His unexpected passing on December 31, 1991, at the
age of 80, saddened not only Bobby's family, but percussionists and musicians
everywhere who had been touched by his special musical talents and engaging
personality. In what turned out to be his final interview, at PASIC '91 in Anaheim, California last November, Bobby laughed and reminisced about his life and career. Since then, many others have contributed their thoughts on this special man. This story will try to capture Bobby's own way of communicating -- both verbally and musically.
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JUNE 1992 
by Lauren Vogel photos by Lissa Wales Used with permission |
How did Bobby Christian become interested in percussion? "One morning when I was about six years old," remembered Mr. Christian, "I woke up at about 5:30 and got two pieces of peanuts and I started playing fast beats. [Bobby demonstrated an intricate pattern of accented 16th notes by drumming with his hands on his lap. ] My brother woke up and asked me what I was doing, so I did that again. When he saw me drumming like that, he went out that day and bought me a set of drums."
This was also the same brother who was responsible for his younger sibling's first lesson in show business. "My real name is Sylvester," laughed Christian, "but my brother Bob decided that it was not a good stage name. So he called me Bobby?" And so did everyone else.
Christian began his drum studies with a teacher named George Petrone, who was himself a student of Roy Knapp. "George told my mother that he couldn't teach me anything else, and asked if it was all right to send me to his teacher. So, to and behold, I went to study with Roy Knapp, which I continued to do for about twenty years.
"When I was 14,"Bobby continued, "I graduated from grade school and I went into high school. But I started to make money so fast that I went to the school of hard knocks instead, if you know what I mean! A bandleader by the name of Louie Panico heard me play and invited me to join his band. So I played with him for five years at the Canton Tea Gardens in Chicago, "After that I joined Sophie Tucker's band for about two years. Then I decided that was enough road work, so I went back to Chicago and jobbed around a little bit. But by now it was 1932 and I had gotten married, so I needed to get a steady job someplace."
Bobby continued, "I got a call from Eddie Varzo, a gypsy fiddle player, who asked me to join his band. I said, `What do I want to join a gypsy band for?' I kept refusing, he kept calling ...kept refusing ...kept calling. Finally, I took the job, and it was a very nice job.
"I was playing at the Bismarck Hotel in downtown Chicago when I joined him, and Paul Whiteman was playing at the Palace Theater. Every night he was playing the Theater, Paul came to the Hotel for supper. The day after he heard me play, Paul sent me a telegram asking me to join his band. Did I want to join Paul Whiteman? Absolutely!
"I joined Paul Whiteman's band in 1938, and he said to me, `Kid, all I can give you is 250 bucks a week.' Man, that was a lot of money then! Besides that, I charged him 150 bucks for every arrangement I was doing. I ended up making 450 to 500 bucks a week-a big salary."
Shortly after Bobby Christian joined the Paul Whiteman Band, they spent almost four months playing the Casa Manana Theater in Fort Worth, Texas, followed by another five months on the road. Then they returned for a week at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, where Bobby was reunited with his family after a nine-month absence. Vernyle, one of his young daughters, asked Bobby's wife, Josephine, "Mommy, who's that man?"
That was enough of that," Bobby said. "I went to work that night and said, 'Pops, I'm giving you notice.' when I told him why, Paul Whiteman started laughing and said, `Well, at least finish this date with me and then play the Coconut Grove in California'. So I finished the dates with him, but before I left, he told me that any time I wanted a job, I'd have one." Twenty years passed before they would meet again, but Paul Whiteman would indeed live up to his word.
In the meantime, Christian was doing a lot of jingle work around Chicago-two to three jobs a day, sometimes fifteen in one week-and played in radio and television bands at both NBC and CBS. He played on Budweiser jingles for twenty years, Schlitz for ten years-and the list goes on and on. "I was playing percussion then -- timpani, xylophone, vibes, and so forth. They usually hired an extra drummer to play all the set parts."
Due to his hectic jingle schedule, sometimes Bobby needed a sub to cover a job. Maurie Lishon, former proprietor of the famous Frank's Drum Shop in Chicago and himself a professional percussionist, recalls, "The first time I was called to sub for Bobby at NBC in Chicago, there was one chart with a fairly simple bell part. But Bobby made a career of `padding the part' by playing hundreds of notes to keep busy! I just played the original melody line. Remember, this was my first shot subbing at NBC. The conductor stopped the orchestra and said, `Lishon, that's not what Bobby plays there.' My reply, knowing Bobby's playing approach, was that if he wanted what Bobby played, he'd better call Bobby!
"When Bobby heard about it, he said, `Mush' -- he always called me Mush --`I bet Joe left you alone after that!' He was right, and I did numerous subbings at NBC, which ultimately led to much radio and TV work and a nineteen-year stint on the CBS Chicago staff."
During the late 1930s, Bobby Christian also played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He recalled how one day conductor Fritz Reiner summoned him to his office. "I kept my appointment with him and he told me, `Mr. Christian, you are going to be my snare drummer.' I replied, `Dr. Reiner, I am not going to be your snare drummer!' In those days they were only paying $90 - 95 per week for a percussion player. I told him I could make more money in one day than I could working a whole week with the Symphony. He got mad and chased me out, but I would still play extra man for him occasionally.
"One time I had a little tambourine roll to make in a Debussy piece. 'Brrrrp': That was it. Reiner was conducting and we got to my part and nothing came out! I went to Frank's Drum Shop and got a very light sandpaper to glue all around the head. So at the performance the next day, I went 'brrrrrp,' and it was there. Fritz Reiner, who used to be a percussionist --a bad one-- before he became a great conductor, said, `It sounded good. That's it!' [A big grin spread across Bobby's face as he remembered.]
"I decided I wanted to see if I could get a New York [Musicians Union] card, so I quit my jobs in Chicago and went to New York. It took me about a year to make it. Then I went to see my old boss from Chicago, Dr. Roy Shields, who had promised me a job in New York after I got my card. Unfortunately, what he was going to give me fell through, but he told me to go see Paul Whiteman, who was rehearsing over at ABC. So I went to see Paul.
"I was standing at the door there while he was conducting. He turned around, looked at me, stopped the band and said, `By God! Bobby Christian!' He came up tome, hugged me, and said, `You start tomorrow!' He kept his word!
"This was back in 1955," Bobby continued. "I had two radio shows in New York: Tales Of Tomorrow and The Meredith Wilson Show. I wrote the music for both of them for two years. But I didn't like New York -- it was a real jungle, even though the people were nice. So I came back to Chicago and just took it easy for a year. Then I decided to do some calls and I got all my work back." Around this time, Bobby also toured the Far East with the Toscanini Symphony of the Air.
"Beginning around 1960, I started to do a lot of writing for Dick Schory and his Pops. We used about eight percussionists and a fifteen-piece orchestra and did most of our concerts for Ludwig. In those days, Dick Schory was one of the big guys at Ludwig, promoting their new `total percussion' emphasis. We were fairly innovative at that time. We did arrangements of classical, jazz, bossa-nova -- it was really great. We used to do our own compositions and arrangements, where one of the guys would have to go from xylophone to timpani in eight bars and have to run like mad. Boy, did that look great! We could have used two or three sets of chimes around the stage, but no, we just had that one set!"
Michael Batter, a drummer/percussionist in Chicago and president of Mike Batter Mallets, recalls the first time he saw the Dick Schory Percussion Pops perform at the first Ludwig Symposium in the mid-1960s. "I was fourteen years old and studying drums with Roy Knapp, who recommended that I attend the week-long happening at Northwestern University. The highlight of the week was the Friday night concert featuring the Percussion Pops with their drummer Joe Morello, and percussionists Tom Davis, Gary Burton, and Bobby Christian. How's that for a percussion/drum section?!
"The final number had a large `boom' from the concert bass drum on the fourth beat of every eighth measure. Each of the three percussionists had to literally run to pick up the beater and play a fff on the bass drum from the opposite end of the stage.
"The tune was coming to a climax, and Bobby Christian was doing most of the running on stage. The last percussionist to play the bass drum did not leave the beater on top of the drum, but took it to his next instrument instead. Now, Bobby went to the bass drum for the final note. He looked around for the beater and spotted it on the opposite side of the stage. He ran as fast as possible to get the beater. He had only five beats until the final solo bass drum boom. Bobby without hesitation, wound up like a baseball pitcher and threw the beater across the stage!"
Bobby laughed as he remembered the outcome. "What do you think? It was right on the button! Ask Maurie Lishon, he'll tell you about it. We used to write these things on purpose!"
Maurie Lishon concurs. "I have seen Bobby perform percussion gymnastics beyond description. At times I even suggested that he try some of his lightning-like instrumental segues on roller skates!"
Mike Batter continues, "It was, indeed, a miracle that the beater landed right on beat 4. It brought the entire audience to its feet. After the concert I questioned Bobby, `How did you know when to throw the beater?' He replied, in a typical Christian-ism, `Well kid, if you want to know, you'll have to take lessons from me!' So, in turn, I did.
"Of course, my first question was, `How did you do that?' Bobby replied, `First we start with the quarter note...' and we proceeded to learn the basics. For almost twenty-five years I joked with him about hitting the bass drum right on beat 4. He always said the same thing even the last time I saw him. `You're not ready to know the answer yet!' and smiled that big smile of his."
It was during his years of performing with Dick Schory that people began to call Bobby "Mr. Percussion." He modestly elaborated, "I did all the writing, and they used to come to the concerts and watch me perform. There were some tough things we used to do then --really hard-- but it was great!"
During the last twenty years, Bobby Christian had been doing one of the things he enjoyed the most-giving clinics for aspiring musicians throughout the country and even overseas. Besides teaching them to make a correct drum roll, how to tune timpani, and the right approach to playing bells and chimes, Bobby loved to show them some of his "tricks," among other things.
"Sometimes I would walk into the studio and the producer would ask me where my tenor drum was," related Christian. `Oh, you want a tenor drum sound?' I'd ask. `Yes. Where is it?' he'd persist. `I've got it, don't worry,' I would say. Then I'd take a snare drum and put it directly on a small timpani, which I had tuned to a low pitch, maybe a D. Then I would play on the timpani head.
The sound that produces is ten times as broad and loud as they want it. "If they wanted a drum that sounds like a Revolutionary War field drum, I would take a snare drum and put it on a stand. Then I would take one of those suction cups that come with toy guns, and put it in the center of the drum. It brings the pitch down a fifth. Try it sometime!" Bobby exclaimed.
"Another way to make a large snare drum sound if you don't have a snare drum with you is to take a triangle and put it right in the middle of a timpani. Then you play about three or four inches from the edge of the timpani with sticks, and you get a big field drum sound. It sounds like ten drummers! People always say, `Why didn't I think of that?'
"I'll tell you another triangle story. I take a triangle and set the bottom of it on the timp head. Then I move the pedal up and down while I strike the triangle-it sounds like a curial! I have a million of these things!"
Bobby Christian proceeded to explain how he got a rattlesnake sound by stringing up a lot of beads, laying them on the timpani, and rolling on the head with drumsticks while moving the pedal up and down. Or how he got a werewolf sound by holding a big bell about an inch over the timpani, striking it hard, and having the engineer bring up the sound while he moved the pedal. Or how he laid a cowbell on the timpani head and struck it while moving the pedal.
What about a gong? "There's a lot you can do with a gong. You can play it in the center and just get a bell-like sound. You can play it off the center and get a different tone. Play it on the edge and you get yet another sound. You don't have to buy three or four gongs-you only need one.
"Have you noticed that when gong players hit a gong forte, it goes [Bobby clapped his hands] `bah,' and then it responds? But I've got a trick: use two gong beaters. Put one against the gong, and hit the mallet that's on the gong with the other one and pull it away real fast. Then it's right on the button and you get the full sound.
"Did you ever notice that most gong stands are made in the wrong shape, usually bent or round? It should be moon-shaped. For example, if the band's playing and you have a roll and everybody's going to stop, you've got to be able to get around it. Use your knees and your hands and you'll get a real secco stop without any extraneous sound.
"I have a friend in London," he added. "Nigel Shipway is his name, and he's had the Cats show for about ten years. He's using all my tricks and getting the work there!"
If Bobby Christian could give a clinic to all the young percussionists out there, what points would he have emphasized? "The first thing I want to get across --besides learning the first thirteen rudiments-- is that they learn to read well and hold the sticks properly. Finger drumming is all right, but it's not natural. So I tell them to play authentically, with either the matched or traditional grip.
"Secondly, I would ask them to work on their drum rolls, because if they don't do that, they're out of business. The next thing I would ask of them is, if they're going to play timpani, they must know their chords first. Learn intervals and sing them. You have to know solfege in order to tune to minor thirds, major thirds, and so forth. That's my approach to this type of drumming with kids."
And he knew the "kids." In fact, even up until the time of his death, Bobby was still giving lessons to nine students, ranging in age from 18 to 35. From beginners to intermediate, they still came to study with the Master himself.
One of his former students is Jim Catalano, currently the marketing manager for Ludwig. Jim remembers studying with Bobby from 1975 to '77 while he was attending Notre Dame. "I was preparing for my master's recital. Instead of working on the technicalities of the Carter timpani solo or the Creston, Bobby would work on the tonalities and the recording techniques of claves --practical things that would be really important in music, rather than just the recital pieces."
Another person who was greatly influenced by Bobby Christian was his own grandson, John Nasshan, Jr. "I will never forget when I was in the first grade and Gramps and I walked through the snow to my school so he could hear me play snare drum in the band concert," recalls John. "I don't know how we sounded, but having my grandfather in the audience made me feel like we were the New York Philharmonic."
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Bobby Christian liked classical music and good jazz. Who were some of his favorite drummers? "Lou Benson plays a nice, neat rock, and Ed Shaughnessy plays the whole thing," Bobby said. "Of course, the daddy of them all was Buddy Rich! This guy was great. It used to kill me when some drummers would nudge me and say, `Bob, he's rushing.' And I'd say, `What's the difference? He's just rushing about a half inch. That's a lift.'
"Good timpani players are Vic Firth and Solly Goodman. And there's a drummer from New York --Buster Bailey. This guy is something else. He's the only one who can play a real snare drum roll. In fact, Buster and myself were the only ones who had what we call a real American Roll.'
"I'll tell you a story about the roll: I went to do a jingle date and it opened up with a snare drum solo for two bars. I thought, `Boy am I going to show this conductor what I can do! I'm really going to make a great roll.' So I started to play, and he interrupted me to ask me what I was doing. Then he started again, and I played the worst roll I could think of. And he said, `That's it!' I'd practiced all those years to make a good roll and, all of a sudden, my big chance comes and the conductor says, `Give me the other roll.' Isn't that funny?"
When asked what his favorite percussion instrument was, Bobby hedged the question by telling a story about George Gaber (percussion instructor emeritus at Indiana University). "I told him once that if I just concentrated on one instrument, like timps, I'd cut him to pieces." Bobby held an imaginary cigar in one hand, and in a voice imitating that of Mr. Gaber, said, "We-e-e-ell, I don't know about that." Following a hearty chuckle, Bobby continued, "If you concentrate on one instrument, you're going to play it well. But don't forget that we have to play xylophones, bells, chimes, timps --all that just to make money.
"But I guess my favorite is vibes --jazz vibes," Bobby finally confessed. Bobby was a Ludwig/Musser clinician and endorser for many years during the 1960s and 1970s, and rejoined them as an active clinician again just a few years ago.
"I've been working on some new vibe mallets for almost ten years," Bobby confided. "If you have four sticks and they're medium/medium soft, and you hit the vibes, the sound goes `bah-ong.' It's almost an afterthought. But when you play with these mallets, the sound is right there. Without divulging too many `trade secrets,' they're not wrapped. The mallets are made of rubber. Nigel Shipway is having them made in England."
Mallets that are currently available (through Malcolm Publishers) are the Bobby Christian Super Segue Timpani Mallets. Bobby elaborated, "You can use them if you have a multiple drum piece. It's like a piano mallet --it's got a rubber piece on top so you can make one-handed rolls, and a felt hammer on the other side. You can go from a quick snare drum roll to a suspended cymbal roll to the xylophone or vibes." Christian's demonstration of the mallet's capabilities was truly incredible.
"What I like to do is invent sounds," Bobby said. "I call that the `natural' way of doing things. Instead of going to Hawaii and buying a Hawaiian drum, or going to China and buying a Chinese tom-tom, I invent sounds. There are certain things you've got to buy --like a bell tree or a gong. But then I stopped buying things. I just started creating the sounds out of the instruments I already owned."
Bobby Christian was very excited about an upcoming project he was working on. "I'm going to cut an album in January in Vegas," he explained. "I'm going to use the Vegas musicians, and It's going to feature yours truly throughout the recording on vibes. And I'm even going to play a drum solo!"
Bobby's unexpected death will leave an empty record slot on our shelves, but not in the souls of all those musicians that he touched. "Half the names I'm going to recall are names of musicians that the kids have forgotten about or don't even know," he lamented once. But Bobby Christian is one percussionist who will be remembered for a long time to come.