| July 23, 2003
By JIM DALY QUINCY - The most impressive thing about 10-year-old drummer Daniel Banks of Pembroke is his lack of flash. That’s the opinion of Chris Rivelli, who began teaching Daniel to play the drums 4½ years ago at DiCenso’s Drum Shop in Quincy Center. ‘‘A drummer’s job is to keep time and provide a good feel,’’ Rivelli said yesterday before Daniel’s weekly lesson in one of the shop’s small classrooms. ‘‘A lot of it is playing the same thing again and again. That’s what his strength is. That’s what impresses.’’ One night this past spring, Daniel impressed blues singer Shirley King when he played at the Chicken Bone Saloon in Framingham. King, the daughter of famed blues guitarist B.B. King, was so taken with Daniel’s playing that she invited him to Chicago so they could make an album together. Today, Daniel, an only child, and his parents, Douglas and Christine Banks, are traveling to the Windy City, where they plan on hooking up with Shirley King and possibly her dad, if he’s in town, Christine Banks said. Daniel and Shirley King are scheduled to play at the Blues Heaven Club tomorrow. Christine Banks said she expects them to begin recording the album sometime after that. When King saw Daniel playing in Framingham, she immediately looked for his parents, Christine Banks said. ‘‘Who does this child belong to? I want to sing with this child,’’ she remembered King saying. The two then played a set together on the Chicken Bone stage. Daniel looks like an ordinary 10-year-old, with a wide face, close-cropped hair and a quiet manner. He’s a little tall for his age, his mother said. Next year he’ll be in fifth grade at Hobomock Elementary School in Pembroke. Originally from England, Douglas and Christine Banks run the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Hanover. Christine Banks said Daniel became interested in music early by hanging around the studio. She said his favorite music is the blues. Daniel takes drum lessons in Quincy once a week. He also ballroom dances competitively and plays basketball and soccer. Christine Banks said Daniel practices the drums every day. Sometimes he’ll play for 10 minutes, sometimes over an hour, she said. Daniel regularly plays with adult blues and jazz bands and more than holds his own, Rivelli said. He said Daniel plays a few times a month for The Christ Fitz Band of Boston, for which Rivelli is the regular drummer. ‘‘He plays more like an older guy,’’ Rivelli said. Except he’s always accompanied by a parent, his mother added. Christine Banks said Daniel isn’t shy about asking a band if he can sit in on a set. She said he was 6 when he first asked to sit in with a band playing at Justin’s Hearthside in Hanover. ‘‘You couldn’t see him at all up on the stage,’’ she said. ‘‘All you could see were the sticks moving.’’ Rivelli said musicians who don’t know Daniel often assume he hasn’t the strength to beat the drums hard enough to be heard over the band’s music. But they soon learn that’s not the case, he said. On his web site, www.danielbanks.net, Daniel said his influences include ‘‘B.B.King, Sandy Nelson, Buddy Rich, Ringo Star, Phil Collins, and of course, my teacher, Chris Rivelli.’’ Daniel said he has progressed from his first drum, a snare drum bought for $20 at a yard sale, to Yamaha Stage Custom drums and Zildjian cymbals. ‘‘My goal is to one day to have a recording contract,’’ he said.
Jim Daly may be reached at jdaly@ledger.com. Copyright 2003 The Patriot Ledger
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