Bobby Christian

A longtime fixture of the Dick Schory Percussion Pops Orchestra, percussionist, arranger, and composer Bobby Christian also headlined a series of space age pop LPs much sought after by exotica aficionados. Born Sylvester Christian in Chicago on October 20, 1911, he acquired his first drum kit at the age of six, later studying for two decades under the famed percussion educator Roy Knapp (who also tutored Gene Krupa and Hal Blaine). Christian quit school at 14 to join Chicago bandleader Louie Panico, spending the next five years playing at the local Canton Tea Gardens. In 1930,...