Help Local Musician Find His Missing ‘One-Of-A-Kind’ Drums

PARK SLOPE – Musician Harris Eisenstadt is asking neighbors for help in locating three unique drums he lost after a gig on Sunday.

After a performance at 440 Gallery (440 6th Avenue) on June 16, Eisenstadt said he accidentally left the trio of “one-of-a-kind” batá drums on the sidewalk as he packed up his car with various other drum sets and equipment.

It began to rain as he drove home, and he decided to unpack his car after the rain subsided. When he went out around 8:30pm to unload his gear he realized that the three drums were not in his car. He immediately returned to 6th Avenue where he had parked earlier only to find that the drums were no longer on the sidewalk. “I drove over to 6th and 10th Street and they were gone,” he said.

The three instruments were “made in Cuba and are irreplaceable,” Eisenstadt explains. When he last saw them, they were in two black gig bags, each three feet wide. The two-sided drums are 23-, 21-, and 16-inches wide with a natural, medium dark wood color and black/white rope.

The Ditmas Park resident has been performing jazz and improvised music for 20 years and has been playing Afro-Cuban folkloric music—and studying batá drums—for approximately eight years. He acquired the three beloved drums three summers ago from Matanzas, Cuba.

“I’m hoping that somebody picked up the gig bags with the drums inside on the sidewalk that evening—Father’s Day—and brought them inside somewhere,” he told Bklyner via email. “They weren’t heavy but they were cumbersome.”

“I’m hoping that person—whoever/wherever they are—is waiting to hear from the person who lost them and is looking for them,” he continues. “I’m hopeful that by looking, and by friends [and] extended community sharing word, this will happen somehow. The instruments are precious and one-of-a-kind.”

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the three drums can contact Eisenstadt at the phone number or email address above.