There is a book call Star Sets, by Jon Cohan, published by Hal Leonard that gives great detail on kits for about 50 different drummers from the 20's through the 70's

Detailed diagrams of the layout, drums, cymbals and couple pages on each drummer.

I like the book. Man those cats played some big old bass drums!!

Baby Dodds kit circa 1928 is detailed quite nicely.. no luck on Chauncy Morehouse.

Thanks so much! I'll be seeking out a copy,.. right,.. NOW!

Help2

Check Amazon for the book, they seem to be cheaper than Ebay..You will love the book too..Mikey

You need to go for the books unless you have access to a library with a strong historic music collection.

Some book titles that may help.

Baby Dodds Story

Drummin Men (covers early jazz players, may include Morehouse, I don't recall.)

ReBeats sells drumming books: http://www.rebeats.com/books.html

Since Morehouse was a Leedy endorser, you could look for Leedy catalogs. some stuff right here including a pic of Morehouse behind what looks like a 24" kick: http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/reference_catalogs.html

Also, you could search Google Book, and see if you can find any useful chapters in books for Morehouse or the Wolverines.

Some more resources:

1. Playing with Red Nichols and his 5 Pennies

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6476345339967561237#

2. Complete History of the Leedy Drum Company by Rob Cook

a. Featured in a Leedy ad, Cook notes that the first pearl covered drums were sold to Morehouse who was playing with Jean Goldkette at the time.

b. Pic of Morehouse with a pair of tymps.

3. Warren Vache wrote a chapter on Morehouse in Jazz Gentry, Scarecrow, 1999.

Chapter is called Chauncey Morehouse the Georgian from Niagara

4. His N’Goma drums look like one of the earliest iterations of the Octoplus there are some cool pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41656934@N05/with/3842984346/

Patrick

Patrick!...

Awesome!...thanks so much,.. I actually forgot about the Baby Dodds book,.. I was going to order that one actually. I found the "Star Sets" last night and that's on its way!

Every now and then I get strange and start in on practicing a press roll and woodblock and cymbal combo for, like 2 hours!....ha! I get in the mood where I just play 20s music for about an hour then drill the beats, accents, etc into my head and hands!Eye Ball

I think my dog has begun to hate me,... my wife just ignores it after a while,....gotta love her!!

My pleasure,

Until you asked I only knew of Chauncey Morehouse as a name in books. Because he played with so many greats there is a ton of stuff to listen to so rooting around for info on him was big fun.

The funniest bit I tripped across was a book by Nick Tosches, who has had a bit of an obsession with Emmett Miller since at least his old column "Unsung Heroes of Rock and Roll". In his book Where Dead Voices Gather, he is trying to track down the players who accompanied Emmett Miller. He chases down Joe Tarto who can't remember playing in a band that was called the Georgia Crackers with Emmett Miller and a bunch of greats like Krupa. Tarto pushes Tosches over to Morehouse who can remember other Millers, not Emmett, but throws in a few funny anecdotes including one about what the guys all thought of the name Chauncey.

cheers,

Patrick

I know that I found some photos (only two so far in a dance band book I have) where Morehouse is pictured with what appears to be a 28 or bigger (probably larger to be honest with ya!) bass drum! I know as things progressed it seems that the bass drums got smaller in the late 40s and so on....so the 1951 Leedy pic, though interesting, isn't the era i'm looking for...though its always helpful to know that he was a Leedy man I presumed he was after I talked with a friend about him,...Cool1

Hi,

I have found a bunch of stuff by searching out his musical partners (Biederbecke, Paul Specht and Jean Goldkette).

Here is a terrific article with pictures galore of the band including his kit. I made a complete hash of guessing Avedis Zildjian's height based on a door frame recently, so I am reluctant to guess on any instrument sizes. But you can get some notion of his kit dimensions from the other musical instruments.

http://bixography.com/morehouse/morehouse.html

BTW, I can't find him in the Wolverines at all. Two Vics on drums that I know of, what am I missing?

cheers,

Patrick

Oh wait a minutes I was thinking Vic Moore, not Morehouse!.... oops!!