Street Drummer Given a Hand, but Still Marches to Undisciplined Beat : New York: Larry Wright, 16, grabbed media attention by playing buckets on sidewalk. Fans bought him drums and gave him financial aid, but his troubles aren’t over.

Suddenly, the world is reaching out to street drummer Larry Wright.

Larry has been given a $3,000 set of drums, a $5,000 scholarship and offers of free instruction. But it may take more than material goods and good intentions to touch the life of the 16-year-old, already scarred by his mother’s death and threatened by Harlem’s streets.

For about two years, the powerful teen-ager has been a fixture in Times Square, dazzling sidewalk crowds with virtuoso drumming on the bottoms of five-gallon plastic buckets and collecting hundreds of dollars a day from admiring passersby.

But most of Larry’s money went to his mother, who spent it on drugs before she was shot to death in August in the building where they lived.

Since then, the youth’s story has received wide exposure in newspapers and on television; he has been featured in a Levi’s jeans ad and made cameo appearances in several music videos and the new film “Green Card.”

Imitators inspired by Larry’s success but lacking his talent have started showing up on mid-town streets. They pound on their buckets, but collect no more than subway beggars.

Larry has attracted the interest of professional drummers, who credit him with an undeniable, if undeveloped, talent.

Paul Mason, a Vancouver businessman, read about Larry and promised him a $3,000 drum set. Without even bothering to hold the usual competition, the wife and daughter of the late jazz drummer Buddy Rich chose Larry as this year’s recipient of the Rich memorial scholarship, worth about $5,000. A Manhattan percussion school offered $1,000 in lessons.

Several weeks ago, Larry was to receive some of these gifts at Manny’s Music store in Manhattan. But at the appointed hour, he was nowhere to be found.

“It would be kind of awkward if he didn’t show,” said Mason, who’d flown in for the occasion.

Assembled reporters, photographers and several professional drummers waited in growing dismay. Four hours later, Larry arrived. He said he thought a car was to have been sent to pick him up.

While they waited, his would-be benefactors pondered the future of the muscular teen-ager who says he wants nothing less than stardom.

Cathy Rich, the great drummer’s daughter, said she cried when she watched a television news feature about Larry’s life. But she said it was not until she and her husband, Steve, visited Larry’s street and watched drug deals conducted openly that she realized how hard the boy’s life had been, and how far he has to go.

“Unless you see stuff like that firsthand, you can’t get the impact. You have to be constantly aware of what’s going on around you,” Cathy Rich said. “I said, ‘Steve, if I ever complain again, shoot me in the head.’ ”

Although Larry so far has avoided drugs, the street has other, more insidious traps: the hangers-on, the temptation to get rich quick, the lack of discipline.

Since his mother’s death, Larry has lived with his grandmother and several other unemployed relatives who have relied upon him for money.

An uncle, Bernard Mercer, said he does his best to help Larry, but adds, “Lord knows, I’ve got my problems.”

Larry has stopped going to school, despite a promise to friends in September that he would end two years of truancy.

Monte DePioger, who has handled many of the arrangements for Larry’s interviews and video appearances, said Larry kept skipping drum lessons that were arranged for him.

Larry lived briefly with an uncle in the Bronx, DePioger said, but disliked the disciplined lifestyle and moved back with his grandmother in Harlem.

DePioger said he found that the only way to be sure that Larry showed up for an engagement was to meet him at home and escort him. Larry’s grandmother’s apartment has no telephone.

On the day Larry was to receive his scholarship and new drum set, DePioger was in Europe.

As drummer Robert L. Gottfried waited for Larry to show up at Manny’s Music, he said Larry’s future no longer depended on what other people did for him.

“Giving an object is real nice, but what the kid needs is some reprogramming,” said Gottfried, known as “Rob the Drummer” when he delivers anti-drug messages on children’s television.

Gottfried said a good role model could help develop Larry’s character as well as his drumming skills.

“If he doesn’t have something to latch on to,” Gottfried said, gesturing toward the drum set, “this will all be meaningless.”