Results for "Drums"

Charlie Persip

Born: July 26, 1929

An excellent drummer both in big bands and combos, Charli Persip changed his name from Charlie in the early '80s. He had early experience playing locally in New Jersey and with Tadd Dameron (1953), but gained his initial recognition for his work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band and quintet (1953-1958). In 1959, he formed his own group, the Jazz Statesmen, which featured a young Freddie Hubbard. Persip appeared on many record sessions in the 1950s and '60s with such players as Lee Morgan, Dinah Washington, Red Garland, Gil Evans, Don Ellis, Eric Dolphy, Roland Kirk, Gene Ammons, and Archie Shepp, among others

Ben Perowsky

Born: May 12, 1966

Perowsky’s notable career has placed him among a small vanguard of players able to move between jazz, experimental music and cutting edge pop and rock. As a teen in NYC, he appeared with Dizzy Gillespie as well as Cecil Taylor and was soon playing with artists such as Rickie Lee Jones, John Cale (Velvet Underground), Roy Ayers, James Moody, Bob Berg, Mike Stern and Michael Brecker. Later he played in NY bands Elysian Fields and Joan as Policewoman as well as John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards. He Co-founded the electric jazz group Lost Tribe and has continued to record and perform with Rock, Pop and Jazz legends such as John Scofield, Belle and Sebastian, John Zorn, Darryl Jenifer (Bad Brains), John Medeski (MMW), Dave Douglas, Lou Reed, Mike Stern, Tegan and Sara, Uri Caine, Steven Bernstein, Lizz Wright, Walter Becker (Steely Dan), Vernon Reid, Salif Keita, Loudon, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, and Trixie Whitley

Leon Parker

Born: August 21, 1965

Leon Parker consistently shows that less is more by making a great deal of music on a greatly reduced drum set sometimes consisting only of a snare drum, bass drum and a cymbal. Parker started playing drums when he was three and became serious when he was around 11. At 15 he playing in a local youth jazz band, and two years later, he started studying classical percussion. After graduating from high school, Parker moved to New York City, taking lessons with Barry Harris and freelancing. During a regular gig as a leader at Augie's, he began minimizing his drum set, learning to play entire sets using just a cymbal

Earl Palmer

Born: October 25, 1924

Earl Palmer was the New Orleans drummer who largely defined the beat of rock 'n roll on thousands of recordings from the late 1940s on. Dapper and outspoken, Earl Palmer may well have been the most recorded drummer in the history of popular music. He stamped his sound on everything from early Fats Domino and Little Richard hits to classic movie soundtracks to music for "The Flintstones" cartoon. Palmer recorded with Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Sam Cooke, Glen Campbell, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, the Everly Brothers, the Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, Sonny & Cher, the Supremes and the Monkees, among many others

Tony Oxley

Born: June 15, 1938

Tony Oxley, with Derek Bailey and Gavin Bryars, created one of the foundations of free improvisation in the UK through their explorations in the group Joseph Holbrooke. A detailed retrospective view of Joseph Holbrooke can be found in Bailey (1992, pp. 86-93) but, briefly, the group existed in Sheffield from 1963 to 1966, initially playing conventional jazz though by 1965 playing totally improvised pieces. The fact that the three were 'isolated' in Sheffield from developments elsewhere (John Stevens and the SME) provided an ideal environment for experimentation and development. After that the participants moved to London, Oxley becoming the house drummer at Ronnie Scott's while all the while continuing with experimental music. He was in at the beginning of the Incus label with Bailey and Evan Parker and some of his work for that label is recognised as landmarks in the development of free music. He also appeared in various (early) versions of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra

Babatunde Olatunji

Born: 1927

Babatunde Olatunji - African Drums (1927-2003) Before there was world beat music, before there was Afropop or any of the other genres of African music marketed to Western audiences, there was Babatunde Olatunji. Olatunji's 1959 “Drums of Passion” album may have been the first African music release recorded in a modern U.S. studio. That album and its successor “Zungo!” proved extremely influential in the world of progressive 1960s jazz, helping to introduce saxophonist John Coltrane and other jazz players to African music. Olatunji himself made the United States his home and became a durable and enthusiastic ambassador of West African culture A member of the Yoruba ethnic group, Olatunji was born in 1927 in the Nigerian village of Ajido, about forty miles from the capital of Lagos

Adam Nussbaum

Born: November 29, 1955

Adam Nussbaum moved to New York City in 1975 to attend The Davis Center for Performing Arts at City College. While there he began working with Albert Dailey, Monty Waters, Joe Lee Wilson, Sheila Jordan and he played with Sonny Rollins in 1977 in Milwaukee. In 1978 he joined Dave Liebman's quintet and did his first European tour with John Scofield. During the early eighties he continued working with John Scofield in a celebrated trio with Steve Swallow. In 1983 he become a member of Gil Evans Orchestra and played with Stan Getz as well. He later joined Eliane Elias/Randy Brecker Quartet, Gary Burton, and Toots Thielemans

Lewis Nash

Born: December 30, 1958

Rhythm Is My Business" is the title of his debut recording as a leader, and rhythm is a booming business as far as Lewis Nash is concerned. He is the drummer of choice for an incredible array of artists - from the masters of the music to the hottest young players of today - and is equally in demand as a clinician and educator. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Lewis developed an early interest in music and began playing drums at age 10. By age 18, he was performing with local jazz groups. By the time he was 21, Nash had become the "first call" jazz drummer in Phoenix, working with Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, Red Garland, Lee Konitz, Barney Kessell and Slide Hampton during their engagements in the city. In 1981, Nash moved to New York City and joined the trio of the great jazz vocalist Betty Carter

Sunny Murray

Born: September 21, 1937

James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (born Idabel, Oklahoma in 1936) is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming. Murray spent his youth in Philadelphia before moving to New York City where he began playing with Cecil Taylor: "We played for about a year, just practicing, studying - we went to workshops with Varèse, did a lot of creative things, just experimenting, without a job" He featured on the influential 1962 concerts in Denmark released as Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come. He was among the first to forgo the drummer's traditional role as timekeeper in favor of purely textural playing. "Murray's aim was to free the soloist completely from the restrictions of time, and to do this he set up a continual hailstorm of percussion ..

Paul Murphy

Born: January 25, 1949

Truly a master improviser, Paul was a child prodigy drummer by the age of 7. He studied with Joseph Leavitt, the director of percussion at the Peabody Conservatory of music.

By the age of 11, his musical training was further enhanced by attending seminars conducted by the legendary Louie Bellson, soon becoming a student and protégé of Gene Krupa. By the age of 16 he was working with Duke Ellington’s Bassist Billy Taylor. Paul played on the jazz/blues circuit for years before he moved to the west coast and became one of the original innovators of Avant-Garde Jazz in California’s San Francisco Bay area.

In 1974 the legendary Jimmy Lyons heard Paul playing at a club in San Francisco and asked him to come to New York and play the jazz scene there. For the next 12 years he played, recorded, and toured the USA & Europe with Mr