Episode 19 – Ralph Humphrey

SnapSessions! presents Episode 19, featuring an interview with maestro drummer/music teacher Ralph Humphrey as well as articles “Sometimes a Protester” and “Tom Lehrer, Satirist Extraordinaire”. 

Humphrey talks about his long and storied musical career, starting as a clarinetist in a Dixieland Band called “The Derbies”, when he was still in high school and then his transition to percussion with a variety of jazz bands. Humphrey talks about his exposure to Indian rhythms and odd meters with Don Ellis and Cuban percussionist Chino Valdez, before he became a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention in the early 1970s. We learn about his career with Zappa and as a sessions musician in LA including working on cartoon shows like the Simpsons, The Animaniacs, and King of the Hill, and his days on “Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idol”. Finally Ralph tells us about his move into music education with the Los Angeles Music Academy and other schools where Ralph learned and then revamped the percussion curriculum.

Episode 19 is 88 minutes long and includes an intro, Doug Nunn’s personal narrative in “My Life as a Protestor” (starts at 58 seconds), the tribute “Tom Lehrer, Satirist Extraordinaire”(starts at 16:45), as well as the interview with percussion star, Ralph Humphrey (starts at 29:37). 

SnapSessions! includes original music by Marshall Brown, production by Marshall Brown and Ken Krauss, voiceovers by Ken Krauss and Doug Nunn, and articles and interviews by Doug Nunn. Our SnapSessions! artist and logo maker is caricaturist, Daniel Stieglitz.

Head to our website thesnapsessions.com to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Soundcloud. 

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