Back beats and rim shots

by Warren W. Vaché, Sr

Back Beats and Rim Shots is the biography of a drummer. This drummer is Johnny Blowers, a man who never wanted to do anything else but play drums and has devoted his life to them. This is the Johnny Blowers who gambled his future on a chance-of-a-lifetime trip to New York City, braving the Big Apple without friends or connections and staving off starvation with soup and crackers until the almost unbelievable "big break" started him on the road to success. This is the Johnny Blowers who went on to play in Bobby Hackett's first band at Nick's, the famous jazz spot in Greenwich village, making classic records for Vocalion; who then joined the great Bunny Berigan band at the urging of singer Red McKenzie; and who later toured and recorded with practically every big name in the entertainment world - Frank Sinatra, Eddie Condon, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bunny Berigan, Yank Lawson, Billy Butterfield - just to skim the surface of a long list. Back Beats and Rim Shots is the story of a