From the humble dwellings of Lancaster has emerged a great jazz musician. Drummer/author/instrument innovator/ teacher Clyde Lucas began playing the drums in 1965 out at local clubs and today is known worldwide. He's kept the beat with groups as large as a 60-piece orchestra, and as intimate as a duo - traveling to festivals and concerts in such ports of call as Japan, Italy, Switzerland, an SS Norway Jazz Cruise, and Carnegie Hall. "That was always my desire, to be versatile enough to play with a big band, quartet, or trio, sometimes even a duo with an organ player," relates Lucas, who just returned from a New York gig with a 16-piece jazz band. "The job with a bigger band, is the more simplified you play ... and as a band gets smaller, than you have more freedom. That's where most of my creative playing comes from because I'm not locked into playing time." He says he will be playing a jazz cruise in October that embarks from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to the Caribbean.

Here on the home front, Lucas has played jazz standards with James Trostle (keyboards, Fender bass) and Mark Ryan (guitar) regularly at Strawberry Hill, Lancaster. He also crosses the Susquehanna to join Steve Rudolph (piano) at the Hilton, Harrisburg, and is part of the Mystery Jazz Trio, for a full show schedule totaling three to four times a week. "I'm having fun growing musically because of the consistency of playing together every week. Real fun things are happening there," says Lucas of the Strawberry Hill trio. "... I really like to have interplay with the audience. ... Just having the sheer joy of sending that love out to folks."

The Lancaster native introduced the batom, a unique instrument combining bass drum and floor tom, to mainstream jazz drummers. "I picked it up off of an old idea," explains Lucas. "The original drum like this was called a cocktail drum, like back in the '50s." Lucas penned a book on his invention, "My Amazing Batom," 10 years ago and surprised most drummers with the concept.

Lucas says one of the main things he's been concentrating on over the past 15 years is exposing youngsters to quality music at his in-home drumming school. Notable drummers such as Omar Hakim are products of his superb training.

His most recent album, 150th Psalms, is a Christian recording that he says "really features a lot of my drumming skills" through jazz-oriented Christian standards. Lucas has also recorded with a lengthy list of star musicians, such as Monty Alexander and Mary Starling.