Drummers

Drummer Paul Motian has spent more than 50 years in music, working with jazz luminaries like Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. At 75, he has a new CD of bebop jazz: Garden of Eden, featuring his own band.

Jones was considered one of the most influential drummers in jazz history. He died Tuesday at the age of 76. He was best known for his work with John Coltrane. He also toured with bassist Charles Mingus and pianist Bud Powell. Jones had been a bandleader for over 30 years. His brother Hank Jones is a respected jazz pianist and his brother Thad Jones was a composer, arranger and bandleader who died in 1986. (Originally broadcast on Jan. 7, 1998.)

Pete Best was the drummer for The Beatles in their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg. His mother, Mona Best, was the owner of The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool. The various early incarnations of The Beatles played The Casbah more than 90 times. Best has just co-written a large-format book, The Beatles: The True Beginnings. Today he writes, records and tours with his own group, The Pete Best Band.

He is also known as "Questlove" of the hip-hop group The Roots. The Grammy award-winning sextet has six albums to its credit. Their latest CD is Phrenology. Their first single from the album is "Break You Off." One reviewer writes, "To fully savor the sound, you've got to commit to spending time with The Roots, to wallow in both the music and the message.

Hal Blaine's distinctive sound could be heard on thousands of recordings from the late 1950s and on for 25 years. He played on the hit records, Be My Baby by The Ronettes, Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys, I Got You Babe, by Sony & Cher, Mr Tambourine Man, by The Byrds, Monday, Monday by the Mamas and the Papas, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra, and many many more. Last year Blaine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We remember jazz drummer Tony Williams, who died of a heart attach Sunday at the age of 51. As a teen prodigy, Williams played with the Miles Davis Quintet, and later drummed with Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane. (REBROADCAST from 5/25/90)

Taylor died Monday at age 65. He played with Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. His recent book "Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews" features conversations with fellow musicians. It was one of the few books about black jazz musicians by a black man. We replay our 1994 interview with Taylor.

Drummer Arthur Taylor. He's played with Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk and he's put together a new expanded collection of interviews he's done with fellow musicians: "Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews," (Da Capo Press). It's one of the few books about black jazz musicians by a black man, and because of that Taylor's subjects were able to talk freely about the role of black artists in white society.

Drummer and drum historian Max Weinberg. For over a decade, Weinberg was the drummer for Bruce Springstein's E Street Band. Now he leads the 7-piece band on Late Night With Conan O'Brien on NBC. Weinberg co-authored The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1984). Now, he has produced and annotated a three-volume compilation of music performed by his favorite rock 'n roll drummers of the 50's, 60's and 70's. (Max Weinberg Presents: Let There Be Drums, Vols. 1-3. on the Rhino label.

Drummer Charlie Watts. For a quarter century, Watts has been the drummer for the rock band The Rolling Stones. Watts has also had a life-long love for jazz, particularly the jazz of Charlie Parker. Watts has put together a jazz combo that pays homage to Parker, called "From One Charlie," and he's written a kid's book about Parker, called "Ode to a Highflying Bird." (Both are published by UFO Records in England). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Fresh Air producer Amy Salit talks with Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart. Hart's also long been involved with the drumming traditions of other cultures. Hart has a new book called "Drumming At the Edge," and a CD called "At the Edge."

Fresh Air remembers hard bop drummer Art Blakey with an interview excerpt from 1979. Blakey passed away yesterday at the age of 71.

The Fleetwood Mac founder and drummer has a new memoir about the romantic entanglements that tore apart the band. Despite their troubled history, they're on tour in support of a new album, Behind the Mask.

Jim Morrison's out-of-control, self-destructive behavior nearly drove Densmore out of the band. Morrison died at 27; it took Densmore ten years to come to terms with his death. His new memoir is called Riders on the Storm.

Mickey Hart says his travels around the globe with the Grateful Dead have given him the chance to meet several accomplished musicians from non-Western cultures. He's produced several recordings of their performance, many of which have been released on the Rykodisc label.

Drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth are a married couple who comprise the Talking Heads' rhythm section. Despite the band's success, they found it hard to support their two children. To make ends meet, Frantz and Weymouth started a new band called Tom-Tom Club. Their new album is called Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom.

Aimee Mann fronts the rock group 'Til Tuesday. She wrote several of the songs on their record, Everything's Different Now, with her former partner Jules Shear. The band's drummer, Michael Hausman, joins the conversation.

Drummer and composer Bobby Previte. His music has been described as "... a blend of Charles Mingus' bluesy hoedowns and Steve Reich's trancelike minimalism." Previte began as a rock drummer and now composes in a wide variety of genres, from choral works and string quartets to film score and jazz. His new album is titled "Pushing the Envelope."

Novelist and professor John Barth tried to make his mark as a jazz drummer; instead, he became a maximalist writer known for his sprawling, metafictional books. He joins Fresh Air to discuss his early career, the nature of storytelling, and his experiences at John Hopkins University as both a student and instructor.