Louie Bellson, Jazz Drummer Gone At 84Yrs

Italian-American Jazz drummer, Louie Bellson (actual name: Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni), once married to Pearl Bailey, passed away on Saturday February 14th, 2009 at the age of 84 years.

One of the great drummers of all time (and one of the few whose name can be said in the same sentence with Buddy Rich), Louie Bellson has the rare ability to continually hold one's interest throughout a 15-minute solo. He became famous in the 1950s for using two bass drums simultaneously, but Bellson was never a gimmicky or overly bombastic player. In addition to being able to drive a big band to exciting effect, Bellson can play very quietly with a trio and sound quite satisfied.

At age 15, Bellson pioneered the double-bass drum set-up. Winner of the Slingerland Gene Krupa talent contest at age 17, he won out over 40,000 contestants in that drum competition. Bellson was with the big bands of Benny Goodman (1943 and 1946), Tommy Dorsey (1947-49) and Harry James (1950-51) before replacing Sonny Greer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. A talented writer, Bellson contributed "Skin Deep" and "The Hawk Talks" to Duke's permanent repertoire. He married Pearl Bailey in 1952 and the following year left Ellington to be her musical director. Bellson toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic (1954-55), recorded many dates in the 1950s for Verve and was with the Dorsey Brothers (1955-56), Count Basie (1962), Duke Ellington (1965-66) and Harry James (1966). He has been continually active up to his death, leading big bands (different ones on the East and West Coasts), putting together combos for record dates, giving clinics for younger drummers and writing new music. Bellson has recorded extensively for Roulette (early '60s), Concord, Pablo and most recently Music Masters. Bellson led his own orchestra almost steadily for more than forty years. His last band was called the Big Band Explosion.
A Louie Bellson Drum Solo From 1957: