Ludwig Drum Company
Peter Erskine has played a very visible role within the music industry as a noted drummer, author of method books and in designing several percussive products. He is also a welcomed sight at the NAMM Show where he can be found happily posing for photographs and checking out the latest gear. His...
Jim Catalano loved playing drums as a small boy but never imagined a life in music. Jim jumped at the chance to work for the Ludwig Drum Company in the early 1980s. There he became known throughout the industry at trade shows and conferences promoting music education materials as well as the...
Harold Jones has toured with Tony Bennett for over three decades, topping off a solid career as a jazz drummer with a flare for singers. Harold worked with Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald as well as Carman McCrae. His association with the music industry goes back to the 1940s when he endorsed the...
Bill Cooper is an independent sales representative whose background includes a great many experiences that have helped Bill best serve his dealers. Bill, who played French horn in school, taught college, owned a chain of music stores in Ohio and worked for St. Louis Music for 17 years before...
Dick Schory had a very successful career as a composer and arranger of percussive music. With over a dozen albums as a musician and arranger and another 400 as a producer, Dick has made a significant contribution to music. Dick also worked for the Ludwig Drum Company as a sales and marketing...
Jackie Mills as a drummer put down the beat for jazz and big band stars such as Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday. As a record producer, he played a critical role in the careers of Janis Joplin, Irene Kral and Bobby Sherman. As the co-founder of Choreo Records (later...
Bill Crowden was one of the true veterans of the music products industry! He owned and operated Drums Ltd, one of the hot spots for jazz, symphonic and rock drummers for several decades. The store was located on Wabash Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. When Bill married into the Ludwig family by...
Brooke Ludwig Crowden remembers her grandfather, William F. Ludwig, working around the factory inspecting drums and insisting on a quality product. She remembers the day her father, William F. Ludwig II, took her to meet the Beatles on the occasion of her father presenting Ringo Starr with a...
William F Ludwig III, known within the industry as B3, sat next to his sister Brooke as the two reflected on the Ludwig Drum Company’s 100th anniversary for the NAMM Oral History program. He spoke of his father and grandfather, the company founder, and the impact they had on the music products...
Dick Richardson was working with the Lyons Band Instrument Company in Chicago in the early 1960s when he was given the chance to run the Musser vibraphone division of the company. Dick become president and soon expanded the product line, bring on key endorsers such as Lionel Hampton and Gary...