Drums Are My Beat! - Sandy Nelson

 

The City

Drums Are My Beat!

Sandy Nelson

STEREO IR Imperial LP 12083

1962

From the back cover: Drummer-Boy Sandy Nelson is not much different from any other handsome, crew-cut young man of today, except in his approach to dancing. The average teenager worked about who to take, whether or not to buy a corsage and if he can remember to execute all the proper steps without counting out loud. But Sandy's concern lies in whether to use piano and guitar, whom to hire and if he can remember to play everybody's  favorite tunes before the night is over.

For Sandy' music is Young American's music, his beat is the Teen Beat that youngsters all over the world dig, demand and dance to. Sandy is the drummer boy every young Hollywood couple wants to dance to.

"I'm very pleased with the reception people give my music," says the soft-spoken young percussionist who is destined, in the opinion of critics, to become the world's greatest drummer.

When he does, it will be altogether fitting and no surprise to his family since Sandy springs from a lineage that has much greasepaint coursing through the veins of its family tree. His mother's great grandfather was a concert violinist in Europe and another branch of his kin were Danish circus people.

The yen to perform sprang early in Dandy' life. Born in Santa Monica, California, he was only seven when his parents took him to see Gene Krupa play at a los Angeles theater. The tremendous display of rhythm and flashing percussion offered by the then-world's greatest drummer make an enormous impact on young Sandy. He asked Santa Claus to bring him a set of drums for Christmas – and when the kindly old gent in the red suit and whiskers complex, he couldn't have known that he was helping launch the career of a young man destined to supplant Krupa at the top of the tympanni tribe.

In addition to developing his proficiency at the paradiddle, Sandy also branched out into the study of piano and, while attending University High School in Los Angeles, embarked on a professional musical career, His first job was with a teenage band playing a parties and cock 'n roll shows, then graduating to sitting in on recording session with The Teddy Bears and Gene Vincent.

Soon he decided to cut out on his own, so he financed his own recording of "Teen Beat." The record sold well and attracted considerable attention. It was at this time that Imperial Records signed Sandy and his very first albums proved the wisdom of the move.

"What I would like to do now," says Sandy, "is design a band that combines the sounds of Fats Domino and Louis Prima along with my own sound. I'd like to get a big, rocking', swingin' thing going with it."

His ultimate goal, he says, is "just to be a good musician." With his determination – demonstrated by his habit of packing the drums into a station wagon, driving out into the desert and playing for hours on end, all by himself – his beat and his creative ability  (as evidenced by his fantastic six-minute "Day Drumming" in this album), Sandy Nelson can't miss becoming an important drummer, perhaps the most important one of them all. And very soon.

Drum Roll

My Blue Heaven

Hawaiian War Chant

Twisted

Caravan

Drums Are My Beat

Day Drumming

Drum Stomp

Hum Drum

Topsy

The City