Jimmy Van Eaton

Jimmy Van Eaton (* 23. December 1937 in Memphis , Tennessee , when James M. Van Eaton ) is an American drummer . Van Eaton was a studio musician with Sam Phillips ' label Sun Records during the 1950s and thus contributed to the creation of the "Sun Sound". His best known works are the works with Jerry Lee Lewis .

Life

Childhood and youth

Jimmy Van Eaton grew up in his hometown of Memphis. As a child, he saved his pocket money to buy a drum kit and began playing in the ninth grade. He was mainly influenced by the drummers of the big big bands, but also by black gospel , as Van Eaton later recalled: “It had a feel like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. I was in awe of this all [...]. "

Studio musician at Sun

There are several stories of Van Eaton's arrival at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio at 706 Union Avenue. While Colin Escott states that Van Eaton started playing in Billy Lee Riley's band when he was 16/17 , Shaun Mathers names the Echoes, a small rockabilly band, as a point of contact. Van Eaton would have played in this band and made some demo recordings in the Sun Studio when sound engineer Jack Clement heard this and hired him for Riley's second session. Marvin Pepper , also later a studio musician for Sun, is said to have played in this band .

What is clear, however, is that Van Eaton was first used as a studio musician in late 1956. Together with the guitarist Roland Janes he became a member of the Little Green Men , the backing band Billy Lee Rileys and at the same time the house band of the label. From this first session, the classic Flyin 'Saucer Rock and Roll emerged . Also at the end of 1956, the young pianist Jerry Lee Lewis came to Sun, whom Roland Janes and Van Eaton accompanied on studio recordings and on tours from then on. Most of Lewis' songs were recorded the first time, there were no arrangements or the like: “With Jerry, you just hung after him, man. "Crazy Arms," ​​his first record - we only did that one time, just the drum and the piano. We didn't even have any other instruments on there. ”Van Eaton and Lewis knew exactly what each other was playing and were perfectly tuned to it. Most of the recordings were handled the same way: Lewis picked a song, started playing and then Roland Janes tried to get a "feel" for the piece and finally Van Eaton joined in.

Between 1956 and 1959 Van Eaton was used by Sam Phillips for countless studio sessions. In addition to Lewis and Riley, other artists he accompanied include Johnny Cash , Roy Orbison , Luke McDaniel , Jimmy Pritchett , Jimmy Wages , Ray Smith , Cliff Thomas, Hayden Thompson , Bill Justis , Ed Bruce , Ray Scott , Dickey Lee , Tommy Blake and many more. But since hardly any of Sun's musicians could live on the income from the sessions, Van Eaton also appeared as an accompanist on tours by Billy Lee Riley, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty .

Departure of Sun

In 1959, after Jack Clement and Bill Justis had already left Sun, Van Eaton's dissatisfaction grew and he ended the collaboration. In 1960 he recorded the two instrumentals Foggy / Beat-Nik for Riley's label Rita Records and worked as a musician for Fernwood Records , Hi Records , Rita and Pepper Records (among others he can be heard on Harold Dorman's hit Mountain of Love ).

After that, Van Eaton turned his back on the music business more and more and then worked in the machine shop. It was not until the 1970s that he founded a small gospel group and then reunited with some of his old companions in the 1980s. He was a founding member of the Sun Rhythm Section , played with Billy Lee Riley and Roland Janes on the 706 Reunion album , Charlie Feathers Elektra album and Riley's Hightone album. He then largely retired. He made his last studio work in 1998 on the album The Beat Goes On .

Discography

year	title	Label #
1960	Foggy / Beat-Nik	Rita 1004
	Midnite Blues / Bo Diddley	Nita 127
Unpublished titles
	Bo Diddley (old version) Jump back Something Else

Web links

• Entry into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
• Discography with audio samples

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Colin Escott, Martin Hawkins: Good Rockin 'Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock'n'Roll . 1991, p. 161
2. ↑ rockabilly.nl