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one of the strongest drummers of his generation, was born in Philadelphia in 1925. As a
youngster, he showed promise as a boxer, and considered it briefly as a career, but music
won out. He played in Philly with Dizzy Gillespie's group in 1942, at the tender age of
17. Soon after, he went to New York, where he and Dizzy worked on 52nd Street with Charlie
Parker and Oscar Pettiford. He went on to play on over 1400 recordings and work with most
of the big names in the music business at that time. For example: (this is the short list)
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Instrumentalists:
Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon,
Errol Garner, Miles Davis, George Shearing, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Zoot Simms, Stan
Getz, John Lewis, Ray Brown, Sonny Stitt, Barney Bigard, Gerry Mulligan, Vince Guaraldi,
Lee Konitz, Bud Shank, Charlie Ventura, Scott LaFaro, Victor Feldman, Art Pepper, Charlie
Barnett Big Bands:
Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Quincy Jones, Georgie Auld, Charlie Ventura,
Boyd Reaburn, Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Skitch Henderson "The Tonight Show Band"
Singers:
Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Gary Crosby, Pat Boone, Barbara Streisand, The
Supremes, Vic Damone, Nancy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughn, etc. etc.
Over 300 Motion Pictures under: Lalo Schiffren, Henry Mancini, Nelson
Riddle, Andre Previn, and many others.
T.V. Shows: Over 3000 TV shows, weekly episodes: Bat Man, Mission
Impossible, Mannix, Munsters, Addams Family, etc.
He also made several albums with his own quintet, and an Album with good
friend Max Roach entitled "Drumming the Blues". |
