We lost a legendary New York City drum teacher when Sam Ulano passed away at age ninety-three on January 2 of this year. Ulano was a dear friend of Modern Drummer, especially in his vigorously active later years, during which he phoned our offices frequently and mailed us his drum books and his one-page “Foldys” instructional texts, all tricked out with his distinctive homespun artwork. Ulano also held court at the 2011 Modern Drummer Festival, greeting the crowd from the stage with his metal practice sticks in his hands and taking any opportunity to appeal to the editors to stop promoting the drum rudiments and quit listing stickings in our education articles. Indeed, Ulano had strong opinions and wasn’t shy about expressing them. “Sam had one curse word in his vocabulary,” MD advertising director Bob Berenson says, “and that was rudiments.” “Rudiments don’t show up on any big band chart, […]

July 2014 Issue