Joe Raynor, Drummer Man : A tribute to a truly awesome drummer

Joe Raynor, Drummer Man
A tribute to a truly awesome drummer

Home | Hey Joe | Rudiments | Memories | BoomThwack

"Hard to Beat"

In 1941 Joe competed in a National Gene Krupa drumming competition.

He came in second place out of 40,000 contestants!

Some guy named Louie Bellson came in first!

Walking home...

I was a student of Joe's from '60-'72.
Joe told me that when he was walking home with his trophy after coming
in 2nd to Louie that that was when it was announced that Pearl Harbor was bombed.
On the same day.
-Jim

Thanks!

Thanks for establishing this site! Joe was an awesome drummer and person.. I had the pleasure of studying with him for about ten years during the 80's. Prior to that I studied under two of his former students. In addition, I had the honor of "anchoring' one of his famous drum shows where he featured his students
Joe was a wonderful friend and mentor. He was always looking for ways to help his students grow musically and in life. Sometimes I'd go to lessons and not even pick up the sticks. We would just shoot the breeze about stuff going on in my life or one of Joe's many experiences. He hooked me up with gigs on more than one occasion, came to see my bands play, and even got me started teaching at H&H Music. I have very worn copies of all three of his books (there may be more, but I have the yellow, green, and orange rudiment-centric books) and many more hand-written transcripts from "the master".

Unfortunately, I don't think I have any pictures to share, but I'll look around. One thing that you may or may not know is that Joe taught Frank Beard from ZZ Top. I showed up at lessons one day after hearing "It's only Love" on the radio. If you remember, that song has a great paradiddle interchange going on between bass drum and snare drum with a little buzz roll with the left hand thrown in on the first beat for good measure. Anyway, I played it for Joe and was going on about how much I liked what Frank had done. So, Joe got up and pulled out a promotional "Not for retail" copy of ZZ Top's first album and asked me "Did you know that Frank Beards real name was Rube?" (short for Ruben) After that I think we spent the entire lesson talking about Frank and ZZ Top and why I liked his drumming so much. I know that Joe taught many other people, as well. However, two that you may know are Keith Karnagy who used to own the Drum, Keyboard, and Guitar Shop and Mike Henry the owner of The Percussion Center.
Oh well, I could probably talk about Joe all day.
Thanks for carrying on Joe's legacy!
-Paul

Another student of Joe's...

I bumped into one of my favorite drummers the other week, Uncle John Turner. "Unk" is a great drummer who has worked with Johnny Winter, BB King, and Lightnin' Hopkins just to name a few. He's the only guy I think I've ever met who played at Woodstock! We got to talking, and I mentioned Joe Raynor...and...turns out "Unk" took lessons from Joe back in the early '60's!