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Dave Black -- drummer with Duke Ellington - R.I.P.
Dave Black -- drummer with Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker
- Jesse Hamlin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Dave Black, a brilliant jazz drummer who swung Duke
Ellington's orchestra in the mid-1950s and was equally at
home playing with Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday and Earl
"Fatha'' Hines, died at home in Alameda on Monday of
complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 78.
A creative percussionist who played with exemplary fire and
elan, Mr. Black was a drummer's drummer whose inventive
solos inspired many younger players. They consider his
dazzling solo on "Gonna Tan Your Hide'' -- a tune written
for him by Ellington's close associate Billy Strayhorn -- a
classic.
"That solo is really ahead of its time,'' Steve Smith, the
jazz-mad drummer who made his name with Journey, told The
Chronicle two years ago. That was when Mr. Black was playing
like a demon every weekend at Uva in Napa with Philip
Smith's Gentlemen of Jazz.
"There's an incredibly fast (double) bass drum roll, and
then he slowly starts with his hands on top of that and
speeds his hands up, which takes a lot of coordination. I
don't know of anybody else who was doing anything like it in
those days. And there's some really swinging poly-rhythms,
too,'' added Smith, who, like other drummers, used to visit
Mr. Black in his little Alameda house and picked up tricks
from the master.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Black began drumming at age 3,
banging on cups and cans and a toy drum sent by a Scottish
aunt. He was crazy for Gene Krupa's drumming. He played
Krupa's records over and over, memorizing the solos. Mr.
Black was 13 when he first saw his idol perform live, and
his fate was sealed.
"I could hardly walk out. My knees were shaking,'' Mr. Black
recalled in 2004. "He had so much stuff, and he was such a
showman. When I saw him in that black tuxedo in that white
light -- Whoa! Then Buddy Rich came on the scene, and that
was the end of the barrier for drummers, man. There was
nobody like him in terms of what he could do. Like somebody
from another planet.''
Mr. Black studied with vaudeville percussionist Jess
Altmiller and in 1948 won a drum contest sponsored by Krupa.
He worked around Philadelphia with various groups and jammed
with tap dancers, who fed his sense of rhythm.
"When I came up in Philadelphia, drummers and tap dancers
were one of the same. We all used to hang out together,''
said Mr. Black, who made a name for himself playing with the
Aristocrats, an early '50s rock band. A friend brought the
great drummer Louie Bellson, then with Ellington, to hear
Mr. Black. They became good friends. In 1953, Bellson left
the Ellington band and recommended Mr. Black as his
replacement.
The young drummer auditioned in New York and met with
Ellington's approval, but he wasn't hired until he joined
the band several months later at New York's Paramount
Theater. In the interim, Mr. Black played in the house band
at the Blue Note in Philadelphia, working with bebop stars
like Parker, the genius alto saxophonist, and clarinetist
Buddy De Franco.
"I was young and fiery then, man,'' recalled Mr. Black, who
toured and recorded with Ellington for two years until he
fell ill with polio and spent months in a Portland, Ore.,
hospital. When he recovered, he settled in the Bay Area with
his wife, Olga, a waitress at San Francisco's Downbeat Club.
He became an indispensable player on the local scene.
Mr. Black toured with the famed "Frisco'' jazz trumpeter Bob
Scobey for eight years, worked with the great pianist Hines
and performed in all kinds of settings with the best swing
musicians in the area. His ears were always open to new
sounds.
"I try to listen to everybody,'' Mr. Black said. "I don't
put anything down. If you don't understand it, don't say
nothin'. You can get something from everybody, man.''
Mr. Black's wife died several years ago, and his son, heavy
metal drummer Lawrence "Brintley'' Black, died in 2004. He
is survived by his other son, Brian Black, of Springtown,
Texas; two sisters, Christine Billings and Doreen Johnson,
of San Marcos (San Diego County); and two grandchildren.
A musical memorial will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 17 at
Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1420 Lafayette St., Alameda.
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