‘Rockie’ Blunt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on July 29th, 1925 and even though he’s certainly not the most famous drummer we’ve investigated in this series, he has an exceedingly interesting and unique story which I thought it pertinent to share with you. Roscoe ‘Rockie’ Blunt played jazz and grew up as a Methodist in
Born Sander L. Nelson in Santa Monica, California on December 1st, 1938, Sandy was the first of the rock and roll generation to explore the possibilities of drums as solo instruments on record in the new music. His first attempt was ‘Teenbeat’ in September 1959 and features a rhythm he borrowed from another drummer he
Ok we got there at last. I give you the subject of this month’s Groovers & Shakers - Buddy Rich. We could just say: “Bernard ‘Buddy’ Rich, born September 30th, 1917 - the world’s greatest drummer, ever” and leave it at that because it’s the truth and nobody who knows anything at all about drums
In the same way Bert Weedon, or at least his ‘Play In A Day’ tutor book, turned on ‘British Baby Boomers’ like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck et al to the possibilities offered by the guitar, Tony Meehan did the same thing to the drummers of my generation. Unlike Jerry Allison, who
If there’s one piece of music which defines America at a certain time it’s ‘Green Onions’ – certainly as far as those of us living in the UK are concerned. Even now more than fifty years after the record came out it’s still being used to pinpoint a time and place. If a film or
Louie Bellson was born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Belassoni and with Christian names like that it’s no surprise he was deeply religious. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him several times at various music trade shows and he always came across as being an absolute gentleman. I even remember visiting Remo’s Los Angeles factory in
Edmund Leonard Thigpen was born in Chicago on December 28th, 1930 but moved to Los Angeles with his mother when his parents split up. His father Ben was a professional drummer and played in Kansas with a swing outfit called ‘Andy Kirks Clouds Of Joy’. These guys epitomised what became the Kansas City Sound
Jerry Ivan Allison was born on 31st August 1939, is known to his friends as JI and in my opinion Rock and Roll drummers owe a bigger debt to him than they probably know. Because of his involvement with Buddy Holly and The Crickets his was the voice of ‘pop’ drumming before we had
Photo by William P. Gottlieb, courtesy of, and thanks to, www.jazzphotos.com Dave Tough was born of Scottish parents in Oak Park, Illinois on the April 26th, 1907. At the time Oak Park was a town just outside of Chicago so unsurprisingly he was ideally placed to become a leading light in the Chicago
Joseph Albert Morello was born in Springfield, Mass. on July 17th 1928 and first came to the world’s attention in 1959 with Dave Brubeck on the album ‘Time Out’. However, he’d certainly paid his drumming dues long before he was thrust into the drumming spotlight at the end of the fifties and had already become
