Old Town Merchants/Donna Shor A walking encyclopedia on drums

At the General Washington Drum Shop in Alexandria, proprietor and drum major George C. Carroll is a walking encyclopedia on drums and musicians dating back to Roman times, and the author of a dozen books on such subjects.

Carroll said that an event from Europe in World War II ties into a dance that takes place this week in Alexandria. And Carroll said that what has become a widely reported piece of WWII lore has especially resonated with him, because it has also tied into his own life.

As Carroll and others have told it, on Dec. 15, 1944, in England, a U.S. Army Air Force major “hitched” a ride to Paris aboard a British Royal Air Force plane. It flew low over the English Channel toward France to avoid higher elevations where ice would build up on the wings.

But a strike force of RAF heavy bombers, returning from their mission to strike enemy positions on the continent, unknowingly crossed above the small plane. Following normal practice, RAF bombers over the Channel released all bombs that had not been dropped during their mission, so they would not risk detonating as the planes landed.

That night, the falling bombs destroyed the smaller RAF plane in a “friendly fire” explosion. Among its dead was the U.S. officer, Major Alton “Glenn” Miller, the famed swing band leader.

Carroll said that he played drums for the Glenn Miller Orchestra later — when it was under the leadership of Ray McKinley — whenever he had free time from his army stint.

And this year on the same night of Dec. 15, people who still thrill to such Miller hits such as “String of Pearls,” or “Moonlight Serenade” and “In the Mood,” can dance to them at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Route 1 South (Richmond Highway) when the Swing Command, the George Carroll dance band, offers its own Glen Miller tribute.

Carroll said profits will benefit military victims of Katrina, and the local first responders who returned from helping others to find their own homes destroyed.

Those interested in drums, musicians and history, can also stop at his shop at 203 N. Fairfax Street. But be warned; there is no sign on the shop, and neither it nor Carroll are listed in the phone book. However, those who make their way to the General Washington Drum Shop will see not only merchandise for sale, but also historic, ancient drums that he would never part with.

Among the items he will sell are red-and-blue toy drums at $8, some with a coin slot cut in the top so they can be used both for banking and banging. There are also planter drums at $32 and secure on their red stands, to hold greenery. Hanging planters, complete with cordage and leather “ears,” start at $8.

All are from the Massachusetts firm of Noble and Cooley, where workers are still stamping out drums on the same machines — never retooled — since 1853.

The drum shop also offers typical drums that are red on the rims and base, blue on the body, and patterned after the only known drum from Revolutionary War days. That original is now at the Georgia Historical Society, Carroll said.

Visitors to the store can see huge bent-maple, nail-studded drums, like Shaker boxes, and the brightly decorated drum that Carroll used in a fife-and-drum corps he organized during President Kennedy’s term.
Carroll said he later beat that same drum at the president’s funeral.

Turning to his drum-history interest, Carroll said that drums once were crucial to military operations as commanders used their rolls, flams, drags and paradiddles to direct phases of battle, special ceremonies and everyday corps life.

And he said he has reissued Charles Stewart Ashworth’s book on the “New, Complete and Unusual System of Drum Beating,” that was first published during the War of 1812, in which the fledgling United States fought against invading British armies.

Carroll said Ashworth’s book is not only rich in historical drum beats, but is itself tied to another of those events that resonates for a musician-historian.

He said the British army attacking the new U.S. capital city found unbound stacks of Ashworth’s new drumming book, and used them to start the fire that burned the White House and much of governmental Washington.