Catagory: history
Champion Bass Drummer, Jazz musician, Engineer
“The World of drumming has so much to offer that there is no possible way that anybody could ever consider themselves to know it all” – the Jim Blackley Perpetual Student Theory. This is how Colquhoun views the world of drumming.
His percussion adventure began at the age of 10. He joined the Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band of Kincardine, Ontario, Canada.
Craig went on to play with the Bruce County Pipe Band, MacNish Distillery Band, ScotsAire, Toronto Transit Pipe Band and finally the 78th Fraser Highlanders.
The World of drumming has so much to offer that there is no possible way that anybody could ever consider themselves to know it all.
While studying Mechanical Engineering at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario, Craig “Hoss” Colquhoun regularly traveled to Hamilton in order to study drumming at Mohawk College. It was there that he studied jazz performance with renowned Canadian drummer David James.
Pipe bands are his real passion. For more than three decades, Craig “Hoss” Colquhoun has found been at the top of his calling. He is a 3 times Canadian, 3 times United States, 6 times North American and 3 times World Champion bass drummer. Even more amazing, all of these awards were accomplished by Craig while using an instrument he crafted himself.
Craig’s drive to create his own drums came from a strong desire for a “special” sound. A sound that couldn’t be abtained by even the most expensive of marching bass drums available on the market.
“I always had this idea that a bass drum could sound like an upright bass in a jazz band. I knew that the sound I wanted could only come from a free floating shell like the old rope drums, but rope drums are very difficult to maintain tension on. So I came up with the idea to use a turnbuckle to draw the counter hoops together evenly without a drum key.”
It has been said that the evolution of rope tension drums has come to the present by the Hosbilt tensioning system.
Many other bands liked what they heard out of Craig’s drum and very soon they began to ask if he would make some for them too. From there, the demand exploded rapidly and soon Craig realized that there was a real demand for these instruments in the market.
When the manufacturing demands reached a point where it was too much for one person to handle, Colquhoun began a dialog with Premier. And so the unique line of Hosbilt drums were born. The merger of Hosbilt with Premier percussion allowed Colquhoun’s design of drums to reach the World market.
Today, Craig Colquhoun is much sought after instructor of Bass Drumming for Pipe band Clinics and workshops worldwide. He is also a training technician for the Bruce Power Company of Canada where he teaches Fuel Handling to Nuclear Operators.