This is my conversation with Burleigh Drummond. It took place in May 2024 from his home in California.
Burleigh Drummond is an American drummer, percussionist, producer, songwriter, and singer. He is a founding member and the only drummer/percussionist for the five-time Grammy Award nominated band Ambrosia. He performs onstage in the band with his wife and fellow band member Mary Harris, and the couple are also both active members of Bill Champlin’s Wunderground and their own band Tin Drum.
A self-described Army brat, Drummond's parents were in the U.S. Army, with his father a full colonel and his mother an army nurse. The family moved often and ended up being stationed in Ankara, Turkey, where as a child Drummond had an experience: he watched and listened as artisans hammered out a large copper plate, not unlike a cymbal, "spinning and hammering in sublime synchronicity". From an early age Drummond realized he would be involved in the percussive arts.
After playing in various bands, Drummond signed up with a musicians contact service "for $5", and within a week all three members of what would become the band Ambrosia came by his residence and formed the group "before we ever played a note". Drummond has described Ambrosia compositionally as "Joe Puerta and David Pack were like our Lennon and McCartney and I was kind of the George Harrison!"
Drummond recorded on every Ambrosia record from 1970 to the present and toured internationally with the band throughout its history.
Drummond and his wife, Mary Harris, formed the band Tin Drum in the 1990s, and have released three albums. Harris and Drummond, who married in 1983, have performed together onstage with Ambrosia, Tin Drum, and since 2018 in Bill Champlin’s Wunderground.
30 май 2024
