Leslie “Star Drums” Milton Still Having Fun Doing What He Loves

w/picBy Candice RichardsonThe Seattle Medium “Listen, concentrate and have fun!” is a motto Leslie “Star Drums” Milton lives by – with an emphasis on the fun. At 74 years old, his smile is wide and childlike – especially when you bring up his favorite topic: music…more significantly the soul of blues and the 63 year old journey it set him on from the streets of New Orleans to the bright lights of Hollywood to the Great Northwest. From the time Milton could walk he was tapping out some sort of beat. At two years old he was given his first set of toy drums, a little tin drum with small wooden sticks. “I would destroy those,” said Milton. “I would bend them, break them and then cry all day until I would get a new one.” After the toys, nothing was off limits in making when it came to making a beat. “By the time I was 10 I was breaking dishes,” added Milton. At 12 years old he received his first set of drums. They were a gift given to him by his parents and uncle Ernest “The Kid” Milton, a show drummer in his own right who took Milton under his wing. His musical influences ranged from country and western to R&B and greats like Duke Ellington, Harry James, and Woody Herman. Then it was the big band sound of Billy Eckstein, Sarah Vaughn, Al Hibler and Frank Sinatra that caught his attention. In 1957, at the age of 15, Milton received an opportunity most musicians work years to get to — to play at the Apollo Theater in New York City as part of the orchestra backing up headliner Roy Brown. The teenager, whose father had just passed away that year, immediately brought the band leader to his mother to get permission. She said: “You’re responsible for my son. If anything happens to Leslie, don’t come back.” Milton celebrated his 16th birthday in Albany, NY and from that point on developed a love for travel that never left. “I didn’t want to leave,” he said. “I wanted to see more of the country, see more of the people, see what the next night club looked like.” Before he came back to New Orleans the young drummer had traveled all over the south, Midwest and East Coast. The bright spot in returning home: Janice – his girlfriend, soon to be future wife, waiting for him. By the time he was 19 years old he was married, had joined the Musician’s Union and stayed working and playing at venues like the Dew Drop Inn. “When he got back I was just excited that he was back and we could be together,” said Janice. “Anywhere he played, I was there. All the big stars performing at the Municipal Auditorium stopped in at the Dew Drop Inn and Leslie would play with them. Acts like Chuck Berry, Bobby Bluebland, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. It was fun and exciting. The club hardly ever closed.” In 1961 at the age of 23 Hollywood beckoned for Milton after playing a set of shows with a 12 tone jazz band, the Atonalists. “In 1961 I caught the freedom train with $1.25 in my pocket, two pieces of chicken and one hard-boiled egg,” Milton said. When the band’s set of gigs were over, Milton sent for his family who were staying in Los Angeles at the time. His music career and reputation as a drummer skyrocketed. He played with Bumps Blackwell on the Ed Sullivan Show, and The Rivingtons (Papa Ouh Mau Mau). He spent three years playing live and in recording sessions with Sonny & Cher. He found even more success with the Watts’ 103rd Street Rhythm Band who had a hit called “Spreading Honey” and who backed Bill Cosby at the Whisky A Go Go and the Johnny Carson Show and appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s famed film, Hotel. Los Angeles presented even more opportunities for Milton like playing on American Bandstand, The Dinah Shore Show and recording sessions with the likes of Johnny Otis, Etta James, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and Quincy Jones. But even though he was making great money, Milton said he was wearing himself out between shows and family. Playing 3-4 nights a week for sixteen years straight took its toll and to put it simply: “It was getting too crowded on the freeway and I hated waiting to get home to eat dinner.” In 1977, Milton came to Seattle. The idea was that yes, Seattle was a slower pace, but great opportunity was to be had in the Great Northwest. Milton continued sharing the stage with the greatest in the business opening up for Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon at the Show Box, and recording and touring with the Slamhound Hunters whose album Private Jungle includes his original song, “Swamp Crab.” In 1980, news of volcanic activity at Mt. St. Helens was all over the television and radio airwaves. Milton got a little hook caught in his brain and for days drove his family crazy singing the words, “Mt. St. Helen’s has blown her top.” The idea led to a song, “The Mt. St. Helen’s Blues” which, once the eruption happened months later, became a hit throughout the NW and Canada, making it into Dairy Queen commercials and documentaries about the eruption. Other standouts, included playing for President Clinton at the Paramount in 1996 and being awarded with the title of Living Blues Legend by the Washington Blues Society in 1999. Another standout for Milton was what at first was called “Leslie Milton’s Extravagant Solo.” It had an outer space theme with a countdown and smoke billowing throughout the stage, the bass drum rumbling to signal take off. After taking a family meeting to discuss the production, his daughter’s husband suggested the name Star Drums after the popular film Star Wars. “It was always set to take the audience into an imaginary trip into outer space,” said Milton. “I’m bringing it back too. Star Drums will soon be docking in a neighborhood near you.” “People who saw it in the 70’s and 80’s still come to him and talk about it after watching him play to this day,” said Gael Kurath, otherwise known as Lady Keys and who is one part of Milton’s current career incarnation: Leslie Star Drums Milton and Lady Keys. The duo has performed up and down the I-5 corridor. They’re mostly known as the house band for Everett’s now retired Alligator Soul, where they played for a decade. “It’s showmanship. It’s a combination of visual arts. It’s a show-stopper,” added Kurath. “One of the reasons it works is because he’s such a phenomenally talented drummer. Someone who was mediocre and had the same visual idea couldn’t pull it off. It’s fun, creative, bright. It takes you out of your world, takes you on a trip and takes you on a flight. He’s tapping into your imagination.” Kurath said more than an entertainer, Milton has taken his 60+ years and has used them as experience as a master teacher. Not only does he give drum lessons to young people who want to learn the basics, she says seasoned musicians like herself always have something to learn from him. “He taught me that entertainment is more than playing music,” said Kurath. “As an entertainer he feels it’s his job to make people happy and to enjoy the crowd and the people and link up with them. And it’s what people are looking for. Most of the time they aren’t looking to have just quality music, their looking for that link. That’s something Leslie has. He always has just the exact right feel. Some musicians can play all the right notes but they don’t get it. He gets it.” For more information on Leslie “Star Drums” Milton visit www.stardrumsladykeys.com.