“I don’t want to work. I want to bang on the drum all day.”

Not really knowing any other lyrics of the famous Todd Rundgren song, those few words looped in my head all the way from Norwich to Afton, where I had the opportunity to work in the shadow of local drum maker and craftsman Jay Bereck, whose self-made business Skin on Skin Percussion has produced handmade Afro Cuban percussion instruments including congas, bongos, batas and other related instruments for over 40 years. In that time, Bereck’s work has garnered acclaim from percussionists worldwide, and been featured in the national spotlight through publications of The New York Times, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Public Broadcasting Company (PBS).

While drum making wasn’t always the career path followed by Bereck, he said it’s always been the career of choice as a percussionist himself. Once a former metal construction worker in New York City, Bereck began making percussion instruments near his city residence when the demand for metal construction workers subsided after the completion of the World Trade Center in the mid 1970s.

As a percussionist himself, it was a logical move to make drums, he recalled. “They’re something that I always wanted to make,” he said. His resume grew in the following years, earning respect from notable musicians all over New York. Thirty years later, he took up a permanent residence in Afton, far outside the city, and opened a new workshop just outside his home in 2001.

The smell of saw dust is almost overwhelming walking into Bereck’s workshop. Lined on the side wall are the congas and bongos that have cracked, split, or simply don’t meet the standard for him to sign his name to and now wait to be burned; and in a side room are near-finished drums awaiting shipment to places as far off as Japan and Switzerland. Wood scraps and drum assembly pieces clutter the floor near the entrance, where it’s easily noticeable that someone could spell their name in the sawdust that’s collected on the walls – the sign of a true craftsman. Bereck gave me useful advice: “Don’t walk backwards.”

For the last seven years, Bereck, soon to celebrate his 75th birthday, has gotten help from his apprentice, Norwich resident Josh Scott. Bereck plans to make his last drum in the coming days before he retires. “He (Scott) was going to take over for me,” Bereck said, but like Bereck at a younger age, Scott’s taking a new direction instead and won’t be taking over the business, at least not any time soon.