![]() This exponential growth of creative freedom, along with the growth of the television and radio stations that spread it, made using two bass drums a logical bit of experimentation. ![]() The ’60s were an incredibly fertile time for popular music, with much creative ground broken in many different styles, all at more or less the same stime. Drummers all over the nation copied the New York cats kits stayed small and bass drums stayed single. A double bass kit was the last thing busy metropolitan drummers needed. This was done not only for musical reasons but also for a very practical one - small drums fit easily into taxi cabs that moved the busy New York players from gig to gig. Be-bop further shrunk the trap set used by drummers and led to the popularity of smaller bass drums, such as the ubiquitous 20” x 14” and even the miniscule 18” x 14” sizes. New York in the ’50s and early ’60s saw more and more small combos playing jazz, including the be-bop, which was the new thing. ![]() But even as these pioneers mastered the double bass kit, paired kicks remained an oddity, awaiting a more open-minded era to break into popular use. Other swinging jazz drummers took Bellson’s lead and began using two bass drums, including Sam Woodyard (who followed Louie in the Ellington band), Rufus Jones, and Ed Shaughnessy, among others.
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