Louie Bellson

Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni (July 6, 1924 - February 14, 2009), better known by the stage name Louie Bellson (his own preferred spelling, although he is often seen in sources as Louis Bellson), was an Italian-American jazz drummer. He was a composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator, and is credited with pioneering the use of two bass drums.

Bellson was an internationally acclaimed artist who performed in most of the major capitals around the world. Bellson and his first wife, the late actress and singer Pearl Bailey (married 1952-1990), had the second highest number of appearances at the White House (only Bob Hope had more). He was a vice president at Remo, a drum company. Louie Bellson was born in Rock Falls, Illinois, in 1924 and started playing drums at three years of age. At age 15, he pioneered the double-bass drum set-up. His detailed sketch earned him an ‘A’ in his high school art class. At age 17, he triumphed over 40,000 drummers to win the Slingerland National Gene Krupa contest.

In 1943, he performed with the Benny Goodman band and Peggy Lee in The Powers Girl, the first of his many film appearances. He also appeared in 20th Century Fox’s classic The Gang’s All Here (1943) in the orchestra while Carmen Miranda sang “Paducah”. Bellson was 24 and a veteran of a U.S. Army band when he joined Danny Kaye, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Benny Carter, Mel Powell, Kenny Dorharn, Harry Babasin, Al Hendrickson, Buck Washington, and Goodman for the Howard Hawks film A Song Is Born (1948).

Between 1943 and 1952, Bellson performed with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, and Duke Ellington (for whom he wrote “Skin Deep” and “The Hawk Talks”). In 1952 he married Pearl Bailey, and he left Ellington to be her musical director. They adopted a little boy, Tony, in the mid-1950s. And the couple adopted a little girl, Dee Dee J. Bellson, born April 20, 1960. Sadly, son Tony Bellson died in 2004, and DeeDee Bellson at age 49, died July 4, 2009, just 5 short months after her father, Louis Bellson, who died on Valentine’s Day 2009.

Shelley Manne

Shelly Manne (June 11, 1920 - September 26, 1984), born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing to the musical background of hundreds of Hollywood films and television programs. From the 78-rpm recordings of the 1940s to the LPs of the 1950s and later, to the hundreds of film soundtracks he appeared on, Manne’s recorded output was enormous and often hard to pin down. According to the jazz writer Leonard Feather, Manne’s drumming had been heard on well “over a thousand LPs” - a statement that Feather made in 1960, when Manne had not reached even the midpoint of his 45-year-long career.

An extremely selective list of those with whom Manne performed includes Benny Carter, Earl Hines, Clifford Brown, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster, Maynard Ferguson, Wardell Gray, Lionel Hampton, Junior Mance, Jimmy Giuffre, and Stan Getz. In the 1950s, he recorded two solid albums with Sonny Rollins-Way Out West (Contemporary, 1957) received particular acclaim and helped dispel the notion that West Coast jazz was always different from jazz made on the East Coast, and in the 1960s with Bill Evans. Around the same time in 1959, Manne recorded with the traditional Benny Goodman and the iconoclastic Ornette Coleman, a striking example of his versatility. One of Manne’s most adventurous 1960s collaborations was with Jack Marshall, the guitarist and arranger celebrated for composing the theme and incidental music for The Munsters TV show in that period. Two duet albums (Sounds Unheard Of!, 1962, and Sounds!, 1966) feature Marshall on guitar, accompanied by Manne playing drums and a wide variety of percussion instruments unusual in jazz, from “Hawaiian slit bamboo sticks”, to a Chinese gong, to castanets, to piccolo Boo-Bam.

Neal Peart

Neil Peart, (born September 12, 1952) is a Canadian musician and author. He is the drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush. Peart grew up in Port Dalhousie, Ontario (now part of St. Catharines) working the occasional odd job. However, his true ambition was to become a professional musician. During adolescence, he floated from regional band to regional band in pursuit of a career as a full-time drummer. After a discouraging stint in England to concentrate on his music, Peart returned home, where he joined a local Toronto band, Rush, in the summer of 1974.

Early in his career, Peart’s performance style was deeply rooted in hard rock. He drew most of his inspiration from drummers such as Keith Moon and John Bonham, players who were at the forefront of the British hard rock scene. As time progressed, however, he began to emulate jazz and big band musicians Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. In 1994, Peart became a friend and pupil of jazz instructor Freddie Gruber. It was during this time that Peart decided to revamp and reinvent his playing style by incorporating jazz and swing components. Gruber was also responsible for introducing him to the products of Drum Workshop, the company whose products Peart currently endorses. Peart has received many awards for his musical performances and is known for his technical proficiency and stamina.

In addition to being a musician, Peart is also a prolific writer, having published several memoirs about his travels. Peart is also Rush’s primary lyricist. In writing lyrics for Rush, Peart addresses universal themes and diverse subject matter including science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy, as well as secular, humanitarian and libertarian themes. All four of his books are travel-based non-fiction, though they diverge into his life and these subjects as well.

Peart currently resides in Santa Monica, California with his wife, photographer Carrie Nuttall, and newborn daughter, Olivia Louise, but also has a home in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec and spends time in Toronto for recording purposes.

Ginger Baker

Peter Edward “Ginger” Baker (born 19 August 1939, Lewisham, South London) is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with New World music and the use of African influences. He has also had other collaborations such as with Gary Moore, Hawkwind and Public Image. Baker was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as the third greatest drummer of all time.

Baker’s drumming attracted attention for its flamboyance, showmanship and pioneering use of two bass drums instead of the conventional single bass kick drum. As a firmly established rock drummer, he prefers being referred to as a jazz drummer. While at times performing in a similar way to Keith Moon from The Who, Baker also employs a more restrained style influenced by the British jazz groups he heard during the late 1950s and early 1960s. In his early days as a drummer, he performed lengthy drum solos, the best known being the thirteen-minute drum solo “Toad” from Cream’s double album Wheels of Fire (1968). He is also noted for using a variety of other percussion instruments and for his application of African rhythms. He would often emphasize the flam, a drum rudiment where both sticks would attack the drums at almost the same time to give a heavy thunderous sound. Baker gained fame as a member of the Graham Bond Organisation and then as a member of the rock band Cream from 1966 until they disbanded in 1968. He later joined the group Blind Faith. In 1970 Baker formed, toured and recorded with fusion rock group Ginger Baker’s Air Force.

Baker formed and recorded with Ginger Baker’s Energy and was involved in collaborations with Bill Laswell, jazz bassist Charlie Haden and jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. He was also member of Hawkwind, Atomic Rooster and Public Image Ltd.. In 1994 he formed The Ginger Baker Trio and joined the bassist known as Googe in Masters of Reality formed by producer, singer and guitarist Chris Goss.

Baker sat in for Fela Ransome-Kuti, during recording sessions in 1971 and these were released by Regal Zonophone as Live ! (with Ginger Baker 1971). Fela also appeared with Ginger Baker on Stratavarious (1972) alongside Bobby Gass, a pseudonym for Bobby Tench from The Jeff Beck Group. Stratavarious was later re-issued as part of the compilation Do What You Like. Baker formed Baker Gurvitz Army in 1974 and recorded three albums with them before the band broke up in 1976.

In 1994 Baker joined BBM, a short-lived power trio with the lineup of Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Irish rock blues guitarist Gary Moore. On 3 May 2005, Baker was reunited with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, for a series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Madison Square Garden New York. The London concerts were recorded and released as Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 2005 (2005). In a Rolling Stone article written in 2009, Bruce is quoted as saying: “It’s a knife-edge thing between me and Ginger. Nowadays, we’re happily co-existing in different continents [Bruce lives in Britain, Baker in South Africa]…although I was thinking of asking him to move. He’s still a bit too close.”