Checking in with Mystic Chords now and then to play his latest jazz video, gradually got me to thinking about our family legend, my uncle by marriage, the late big band and jazz drummer Don Lamond. He played with Woody Herman’s big bands in the 1940s, then in the 1950s with be-bop artists like Charlie Parker.
"Lamond developed a reputation as an innovative, bebop-oriented drummer, and he can be heard on several classic bebop recordings, including Charlie Parker’s ‘Relaxin’ at Camarillo,’ Serge Chaloff’s ‘Blue Serge," and guitarist Johnny Smith’s ‘Moonlight in Vermont.’"
Later, he played with the studio band of the Tonight Show when Steve Allen was the host. Here’s a YouTube clip from the Tonight Show of Uncle Don in a drum-off with Louis Bellson and Lionel Hampton.
He was married to my mother’s sister for many years. They divorced in the late 1950s, and even word of him dropped out of my life after that. He remarried and moved to Florida in the 1970s, playing with a band at Disney World when it opened. He was still playing there shortly before he died in 2003, at age 82. I was too young to have known him, but he was a family legend–like some musicians, a vaguely disreputable one, and therefore always intriguing.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Hi Dick-I knew your uncle Don Lamond as well as his wife Martha and their two children Don and [deleted by host]. They were my neighbors on Ocean Ave.in Massapequa LI for about 6 years in the 1950s. Did you know that Ed Shaughnessy, the Tonoght Show drummer, lived 2 doors away from The Lamonds? Your aunt and uncle were very nice people and I was a friend of Don Jr. and my younger sister was [deleted by host]’s friend. I was sorry to learn that he passed away.
Gene, thanks for the comment. I almost deleted it, because you mentioned one person who may not wish to be named on this blog or anywhere else on the Web. Instead, I deleted the name (you’ll know which one). All of the others have died, including Don Jr. who passed away last year of pnuemonia, which came on rather suddenly. His mother had died in 1984.