James Black (drummer)

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James N. Black (born February 1, 1940 ; † August 30, 1988 ) was an American rhythm & blues and jazz musician ( drums , composition , also vocals ). The drummer Herlin Riley is influenced by his playing; his colleague Ernie Elly praised his game: Black "had the fire ... he had the New Orleans feeling, as well as different polyrhythms , cross rhythms, everything, he was phenomenal".

Live and act

Black attended Southern University in Baton Rouge . He began his music career in New Orleans , where he around 1960 a. a. played with Ellis Marsalis , Fats Domino and Johnny Adams . Black moved to New York in 1961 to work with singer Tammi Lynn . In the following six years he also played there with Lionel Hampton , Horace Silver , Yusef Lateef and Eric Gale ; he also toured with Dr. John , Freddie Hubbard and the Dukes of Dixieland . Recordings were made in his hometown with Cannonball and Nat Adderley ( In New Orleans , In the Bag , 1962) and Ellis Marsalis, on whose album Monkey Puzzle (1963) Black contributed several compositions. He had a career break in the middle of the decade when he was serving a drug- related sentence at the Angola State Penitentiary ; in prison he played in a band with blues pianist James Booker and saxophonist Charles Neville .

In the late 1960s, Black played in the R&B environment in the New Orleans area; from 1968 as a session musician for the Scram Records label . He worked u. a. with Eddie Bo's hit single "Hook and Sling"; He also worked in the field of jazz with Ellis Marsalis' band ELM Music Company , which from 1972 had an engagement in Club Lu and Charlie's . In the following years Black also worked with his own formation, the James Black Ensemble , in which Sister Mary Bonette was a singer. In the 1980s he also worked with Frank Tapani , Cassandra Wilson , Wynton Marsalis ( Fathers & Sons , 1982), Germaine Bazzle and most recently in London in July 1988 with Vaughan Hawthorne . In the field of jazz he was involved in 17 recording sessions between 1961 and 1988. Black died in 1988 at the age of 48 of complications from substance abuse .

In 2002, the Night Train label collected recordings by Black under the title I Need Altitude: Rare and Unreleased New Orleans Jazz and Funk, 1968-1978 . In 2003 Ellis and Wynton Marsalis presented a concert of compositions by Black at Jazz at Lincoln Center .

literature

  • Val Wilmer James Black and Freddie Kohlman Coda August 1975 (reprinted in H. Riley, J. Vidacovich, Dan Thress (Eds.): New Orleans Jazz and Second Line Drumming. Alfred Music Publishing, 1995, pp. 62–65)
  • Dan Thress In Search of James Black . In: H. Riley, J. Vidacovich (Eds.) New Orleans Jazz and Second Line Drumming. Alfred Music Publishing, 1995, pp. 66-67

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cit. after Herlin Riley, Johnny Vidacovich , (Eds.); Interviews Dan Thress; New Orleans Jazz and Second Line Drumming. Alfred Music Publishing, 1995, p. 67
  2. ^ Obituary New York Times
  3. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed September 25, 2015)
personal data
SURNAME Black, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Black, James N.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American R&B and jazz musician (drums, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1940
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 1988