Gary Chester spent his drumming career making other people look good. He was one of the hardest working, most reliable, and most accomplished studio drummers in history. As if that wasn’t enough, Gary became an educator and developed an incredible system of drumming that we all know now as The New Breed.

To celebrate Gary’s birthday and his enormous contribution to drumming and music history, Modern Drummer is declaring October 27th as Gary Chester Day.

For those of us who were not around or never had a chance to meet Gary before his passing in 1987, here is a great video of him speaking during a clinic at Sam Ash that year. This video was so graciously provided to Modern Drummer by Gary’s daughter Katrina and is a short clip from the upcoming Gary Chester documentary:

 

Another glimpse into Gary’s personality can be found in the original 1983 Modern Drummer interview with Gary Chester by Scott K Fish:

A partial list of Gary’s recording and performance credits are located on the Official Gary Chester facebook page. This list continues to grow as more information is discovered. After all, Gary was a team player and did not always seek recognition for his work.
For Partial Credits List: Click Here Advertisement

As we mentioned above, Gary authored the book “The New Breed”, which is an extremely challenging system, but can be liberating when applied correctly and in-line with Gary’s teachings:

The GREAT news is that through Gary’s daughter Katrina, a student can be paired with a New Breed approved drum teacher for Zoom classes from anywhere in the world! The majority of the teachers were original and direct students of Gary himself!

If you are interested in this amazing opportunity to take Zoom lessons from Gary’s prodigies, just send an email to: GaryChesterTheDrummer@gmail.com. Read this review from an NB student in Nashville, TN. Advertisement

 

Here is Episode 1 of a great video Series by Gary’s students whom are now in the pool of available teachers:

You can find the rest of this series on the Modern Drummer portal page for Gary Chester or on the Youtube playlist

 

Finally, be sure to follow All things related to Gary Chester on the following channels:

Facebook: GaryChesterTheDrummer
Instagram: @thenewbreeddrummer
Mailing List Sign-up: Gary Chester Mailing List

 

Happy Birthday Gary Chester!