Lowell ‘Sly’ Fillmore Dunbar was born on 10 May 1952 in Kingston, Jamaica and unless I’m missing something remains the world’s quintessential reggae drummer, His name is invariably linked with bass player Robbie Shakespeare, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie - aka ‘The
In a previous life I was fortunate enough to be friendly with Herb Brochstein who among other things founded the Pro-Mark drumstick empire. Like a great many American drummers of his generation he was something of an Anglophile and at any overseas trade show I’d head for his stand to renew my acquaintance. We’d sit
Michael Shrieve was born in San Francisco on the sixth of July, 1949. He’s an American drummer, percussionist, and composer with Irish, German and French ancestry. Like Gene Krupa he wanted to be a priest but he took a somewhat different path. Of course my generation know him rather well as the drummer of the
Alphonse Lee Mouzon will go down in history as being one of the inventors of fusion drumming. He was born on November 21, 1948 and besides being an American jazz-fusion drummer was the owner of a record company, Tenacious Records, which he cleverly set up (mostly) to release his own recordings. Alphonse was a composer,
Ronald Thomas Verrell was born in Rochester on 21st February 1926 and the internet simplistically describes him as an 'English jazz drummer' but that title doesn’t really do him any justice at all - he could actually play anything. Slightly better is The Telegraph's "Britain's best-known Big-Band drummer for half a century". But even so... In
I didn’t really know Elvin Jones although we said hello to one another as we stood together as Frank Ippolito introduced us in his ‘Professional Percussion’ drum shop during my first trip to New York in 1970. At that time there was no talk about his drum battle with Ginger Baker which was mooted and
Raye Du-Val was born on August 7th, 1932 of Anglo-French parents and brought up in what was once known as The Latin Quarter of London’s Soho. He began his drumming career in 1954 as a Talent Show “Discovery” on the Carol Levis Show which was a popular radio programme which ran from 1950 to 1961.
I’ve always wanted to write about ‘Panama’ Francis, not only because I’ve always been fascinated by his evocative name, but also because he was one of Bernard Purdie’s heroes. His nickname was acquired from the trumpeter Roy Eldridge whom he played with. Eldridge forgot his real name and since he was wearing a Panama hat
As it happens I owe a great deal to this month’s subject, Dougie Wright, as it was he who inadvertently got me my start in big time music. He had been playing drums for 'The John Barry 7' who backed a very popular ‘pop star’ and I received the call to play with him. This
Donald Hugh Henley was born on July 22, 1947 and is described on the internet as an 'American musician, singer, songwriter, record-producer and founding member of the Eagles'. It’s difficult to find reference to him being a drummer which of course he was, and a very effective one at that - all the more so because
