Billy Gladstone

[aboveforever]

Billy Gladstone (William Goldstein -1893 - 1961) was born in Romania and moved to the United States and played in New York theaters, including the Capitol Theatre and the famous Radio City Music Hall (for 18 years) in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also an inventor and invented many drum accessories, snare drums, and drum sets.

He is famous for his snare drum technique which is called "the Gladsone Technique". This technique uses the fingers to control the rebound of the stick as opposed to the "Moeller Method" which uses a fluid whipping motion to control stick rebound. Of course these drummers (Galdsotne and Moeller) gleaned these methods from watching other drummers and putting their observations down in drum manuals they published and through private lessons.

Many great drummers were taught formally and informally and inluenced by Gladstone including Joe Morello, Shelly Manne, Loui Bellson, Gene Krupa, and Buddy Rich.

Buddy Rich said, “My roll is probably the best roll in the world outside of one other drummer and I’m not modest. The greatest drummer that I have heard in my life as far as rudiments and the roll is concerned is Billy Gladstone.”

From the December 1980 Modern Drummer article “Buddy Rich Revisited" by Cheech Iro; Buddy Rich said: “Billy Gladstone’s concept was totally legitimate. He was a great snare drum artist. Great wrists! I’m opposed to all that talk about finger control and all that nonsense. I heard him play Ravel’s Bolero one time and he was phenomenal. I used to sit in the last seat in the last row of the balcony at Radio City Music Hall and listen to him articulate off the snare drum. Every stroke was like an arrow, and he used a wrist motion. He had his drums very high and flat, because he was a showman and he would raise his hands, but the actual playing was done more from a forearm and wrist motion rather than the whole arm.”

‎This is a recording that Ted Reed released with a note, "Max Manne (Shelly Manne's father), tympanist at the Radio City Music Hall, doing an interview at radio station WINS (New York City) October 5, 1937." He (Max) talks about Billy Gladstone. When Radio City Music Hall opened in 1932 the percussion section consisted of Billy Gladstone on snare drum, Max Manne at the tympani and Joe Castka both cymbals and bass drum. All three were brilliant musicians but in this interview, Max Manne also describes Gladstone's as an inventor.