BEAT GOES ON MUSICIAN KEEPS DRUM COMPANY ALIVE 50 YEARS.Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer VALENCIA - Amateur drum circles drum circle, n a spiritual, communal, or therapeutic music experience in which participants join together in a circle with drums, move, dance using various percussion instruments, voices, and other devices. have been big for years. But Remo Belli wants to widen the circle, bringing in more people so they have a healthy way to interact and make music. Fifty years after he switched from his job as a drummer to become a Mylar drumhead drum·head n. See eardrum. manufacturer, Belli, 79, is still keeping the beat. Remo Inc., the company he founded, employs about 320 people and has a manufacturing plant in Valencia. The company makes 18,000 drumheads each day, Remo said. "I never planned on doing this. I planned on being a musician," Belli said Wednesday as he stood near an employee sanding down a spinning drum. "I never in the world planned on this," Belli added. Manufacturing drumheads has taken Belli on trips around the world. His office has a pair of lutes made by a friend in Tunisia, and high on a shelf behind his desk sit a menorah menorah Multibranched candelabra used by Jews during the festival of Hanukkah. It holds nine candles (or has nine receptacles for oil). Eight of the candles stand for the eight days of Hanukkah—one is lit the first day, two the second, and so on. , a statue of Buddha and other figurines. Remo Inc. recently started working on a study with UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX and the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. on the benefits of group drumming, Belli said. And for more than two years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time company has provided drums and percussion instruments This is a list of percussion instruments. Tuned percussion
The program meets one Saturday a month from April through September, center spokeswoman Leticia Buckley said. "People just have a wonderful time, and we've got so many repeat customers, so to speak," she said. "It's on their calendar, they know it's coming. They bring friends, and it continues to grow every year." Belli started with a drum store in Hollywood that he ran even as he worked as a freelance drummer. As a jazz drummer, Belli did studio dates and live shows. One of his last performances was as a band member for Mae West when the classic film icon was performing there. But Belli quit drumming about the time his company started making drums. He saw the musical potential in Mylar, which the DuPont company had suggested would be good for drumheads. Unlike leather, which could sound bad in humid hu·mid adj. Containing or characterized by a high amount of water or water vapor: humid air; a humid evening. See Synonyms at wet. conditions, Mylar always delivered a good sound. He started making drumheads in the back of the store, enlisting the help of a carpenter who worked next door and a machinist. After outgrowing that facility, he moved the company to North Hollywood and eventually grew to a 170,000-square-foot operation. The company moved to Valencia more than 10 years ago and has an even bigger facility. Belli also leased a small space at his former manufacturing site in North Hollywood, where he houses his Recreational Music Center. The center has two full-time employees. Drumming in a circle can unite people and reduce stress, Belli said. "With (drumming), you can't make a mistake, so it allows an expression that a lot of other activities don't," Belli said. "See, I can get you involved with a group immediately, and I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. of any other activity that I can do that with." alex.dobuzinskis@dailynews.com (661) 257-5253 CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- 3) Remo Belli's drum company, Remo Inc. in Valencia, has been making drumheads for 50 years, with the help of employees such as Janeth Gutierrez, working below. Hans Gutknecht/ Staff Photographer |
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