Peter Littman

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Peter Littman (born May 8, 1935 in Medford (Massachusetts) ) was an American jazz drummer, best known as the sideman of Chet Baker in the 1950s.

Before joining Chet Baker, he played with Charlie Mariano , Boots Mussulli and Herb Pomeroy in the Boston area.

Littman was part of the quartet with which Chet Baker was in Europe in 1955 (also Dick Twardzik , piano, Jimmy Bond , bass) and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955. He also played in 1956 on Chet Baker & Crew and Chet Baker Sings . During this time Littman had a relationship of trust with Baker in the band, which not everyone liked, especially since he was openly acting out his heroin addiction, because of which he had been at the US Public Health Service Hospital in Kentucky for some time. He only had one lung left, which he also clogged as a heavy smoker, knew that he didn't have much longer to live and was very careful. Russ Freeman thought he was a flatterer, a young punk, a little disreputable. Littman admired the hardbopper art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones and tried to imitate them, which actually did not fit the style of Baker. Even so, he also had admirers like Daniel Humair , who saw him as a pioneer of modern drumming. Through Littman, pianist Dick Twardzik (a friend of Littman) came into contact with Baker for the European tour. Like Littman and Baker, he was addicted to heroin (only Bond on the 1955 European tour was not a drug addict). After Twardzik died of an overdose in Paris, there were violent arguments between Baker and Littman and they parted ways (they briefly played together again in 1956). In Boston, some musicians like Serge Chaloff Littman blamed the death of Twardzik, who was a promising talent as a jazz musician, and slapped him in the face during an argument. Littman, however, spread a different version in Boston (that Baker had taken heroin with Twardzik and left after the overdose), which many believed because it was known that Littman and Twardzik were very close and it was not believed that he was him after an overdose Let down.

Tom Lord recorded 22 sessions between 1950 and 1956.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Gordon, Jazz West Coast, Chapter 8 , Jazz Profiles
  2. ↑ Freeman: a sycophant, a young punk, sort of creepy zit. n. James Gavin, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker , 2002, p. 109
  3. ^ Gavin, Deep in a dream, p. 109
  4. ^ Gavin, Deep in a dream, p. 123
  5. ↑ Tom Lord Jazz Discography
personal data
SURNAME Littman, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Medford, Massachusetts