Long-time Racine music educator and performer Joseph F. Pulice Sr. was known as an outstanding drummer. He not only played with and managed the John Bunic Big Band for more than forty years, but played with other bands on stages from Chicago to Memphis and New Orleans.



Joseph F. Pulice Sr died on Sunday, August 18, 2013, at age 85.



Until about a week before he fell ill, Joseph F. Pulice Sr. taught music. In the 1970s to ’80s, the drummer ran the Pulice Music Unlimited studio in his hometown Racine's north side. The staff of about 20 teachers had up to 500 students coming through each week for lessons. And even after the school closed, Joseph had a waiting list of kids wanting to study with him.



One of them was drummer and actor Victor DeLorenzo, who described Pulice as "an incredible man who meant a lot to me." Perhaps best known as a drummer for the folk/punk band the Violent Femmes, DeLorenzo studied with Pulice as a teenager growing up in Racine. Pulice taught him how to love jazz drumming, which DeLorenzo said is "the ultimate experience on drums."