My parents bought me my first drum set when I was three years old.
Early Training
At age six, I started piano lessons from Netta Chenowith in Xenia and drum lessons with my father, Ian Polster.
At ten, I started lessons with drummer, Jimmy Green, in Dayton, OH.
I played trumpet through junior high school.
First Public Performance
My first public performance on drums was age 12, at the Roosevelt Junior High Talent Show, playing Chicago’s “Colour My World” with my sister on flute and friend, Natalie on piano.
Becoming a good listener
As a kid, I’d accompany my father on his various music “gigs”–as a conductor, arranger, trombonist–and I’d sit quietly, watch, and listen to everything going on around me. To play jazz, one must be a consummate listener. The bandstand near my father was a familiar place for me.
Buddy Rich – early idol
Buddy Rich was a big influence on my drumming. Whenever Buddy Rich and his band were playing nearby, my father would take me to his concert. At one concert, I got him to sign my plate:
First professional gig
My professional drumming career started at age 15 with a gig with “Mike Mingo and Grovor” at a Springfield, OH bar. I wasn’t old enough to enter the bar, but it was OK to be on stage there.
Many various gigs followed throughout high school and college.
Card carrying union guy
To be a professional musician, one had to join the Musician’s Union.
My High School Band
In high school, I played with a band called Azure.
Cutting an album – discovering engineering passion
Later, Azure morphed into Morningstar, and we cut an LP album of original music the summer after my high school graduation.
The recording studio experience turned out to be transformational. I left that experience wanting to engineer and produce music.
That experience later drove me to select physics and music as my majors in college. This was the best curriculum available at my college for what I wanted to do.
On the Road with Johnny Myers & Company
The last half of my senior high school year, I played rock drums “on the road” with a quartet known as “Johnny Myers & Company.” We played mostly Top-40 hits and older classic songs.
In addition to me on the drums, the “company” was Mike, who played keyboards, and Suzanne, who sang, often in duet with Johnny.
We played one night stands in various musty beer haunts throughout the midwest before landing a monthlong stand at the famous Radisson Muehlenbach hotel in Kansas City.
In Kansas City, I shopped for records during the day and played left handed on a revolving stage in the hotel’s chrome and mirror night club from 9pm to 1am nightly.
We played a two week stand at another Radisson in Alexandria, MN and, when another gig in Minneapolis fell through, I found myself back home with nothing to do.
The gig vanished – may as well go to college
With not much to do, my father suggested that I go to college. So, I went to college in my hometown where he taught, Wittenberg University.
The first half of my senior HS year, I took three calculus classes at Wittenberg and played in all the musical ensembles, so it was not a hard transition.
In college, I majored in music and physics, with a math minor, played in the various college musical ensembles, accompanied fellow music majors in recitals, theater, and other performances.
Professional musician and music major
Throughout my college years, I maintained a professional music career nights and weekends, performing with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and various freelance jazz and theater gigs.
I played gigs with:
My father
Roger Williams
The Springfield Symphony Big Band
The Ian Polster Orchestra
Pete Barbutti
Tiny Tim
I played musicals in the park
Big time decision point: a career in music vs something else
A pivotal decision point occurred my Sophomore year in college when local Springfield, OH drummer and vibraphone (vibes) player turned jazz music great, Johnny Lytle, asked me to join his band on the road in Europe.
I passed on that opportunity so that I could complete college and get a good job. Why?
Mixing music with my real job
When I started my professional career with Booz-Allen & Hamilton in the Washington, DC area, I kept my music chops going by playing timpani with the American University Symphony Orchestra and playing various freelance jazz gigs when visiting family in Ohio.
After transferring to Columbus, OH with Bell Labs, I began performing again as tenured percussionist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, playing various freelance jazz gigs, and one or two musicals per year.
Music has a new purpose: entertaining my kids
When my first daughter, Leah, was born, my musical career took a back seat to my new passion: being a Dad.
After that point, I played just a few gigs per year–and only with my father–usually including pit drumming for at least one musical. I played piano and drums for my wife, kids, and myself and my kids grew up going with me to gigs and playing my instruments and theirs.
Bell Labs Orchestra
One of my favorite work projects was a gig with the Bell Labs Orchestra to provide a segment on PBS’ program “Live From Bell Labs.”
I spent a week in Manhattan, rehearsing David Diamond’s Symphony with the orchestra.
We then taped the TV segment in the Sony Studios, the same studio producing Michael Jackson’s music. A handful of musicians were selected for special vignette interviews, among them, me.
At present, I rarely play professionally. Instead, I play piano for myself, play my electronic drums with various CDs (mostly rock), and jam with friends and their bands.