Sam Woodyard
Samuel "Sam" Woodyard (* 7. January 1925 in Elizabeth (New Jersey) ; † 20th September 1988 in Paris ) was an American jazz - drummer who made the game on two bass drums popular.
Live and act
Sam Woodyard began his musical career in a local rhythm and blues group led by Paul Gayton around 1950. He then played with Joe Holiday in 1951 , with Roy Eldridge in 1952 and with Milt Buckner from 1953 to 1955 , before joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1955 to which he belonged (with interruptions) until 1968. He also formed a duo with Jimmy Johnson and performed with Mercer Ellington . After leaving Ellington, he moved to Los Angeles and was a. a. Backing musician for Ella Fitzgerald . In the 1970s, for health reasons, he appeared only rarely and then mainly as a percussionist, as in Buddy Rich's Big Band in 1974.
In 1975 Woodyard moved to Paris, where he played with the Paris Reunion Band of Nat Adderley , touring in Germany. In the late 1970s he toured with Claude Bolling's band . His last musical activity was on the album The Door by Steve Lacy ; a month later he died in Paris from cancer.
Duke Ellington hailed the energetic rhythm maker Woodyard as his best drummer since Louie Bellson . In his autobiography he wrote: He is not out to push himself to the fore and others in the shadows. He just wants to be there and play with his body, soul, head and pulse on his instrument, his drums. No boom, no unnecessary volume, full volume only where it is appropriate. When he plays, he always seems to be on the verge of engaging in an erotic relationship with his drums, which is what inspired the title "A Drum Is A Woman" .
Choice discography
Important albums with Duke Ellington
- Ellington at Newport (1956)
- Such Sweet Thunder (1956/57)
- Black, Brown And Beige (1958)
- Live At Newport (1958, all Columbia Records)
- The Cosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Spacemen (1958)
- Live at the Newport Jazz Festival '59 (Emarcy, 1959), Blues In Orbit (Columbia, 1955/59),
- Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins ( Impulse! Records , 1962)
- Duke Ellington And John Coltrane (Impulse !, 1962), Harlem (Pablo, 1964)
- The Great Paris Concert (1963)
- ... And His Mother Called Him Bill (RCA, 1967)
More shots as a sideman
- Harold Ashby : Scufflin ' (Black & Blue, 1978)
- Jimmy Hamilton & His Orchestra: Swing Low Sweet Clarinet (Fresh Sound, 1960)
- Johnny Hodges: At Sports Palace ; Berlin (Pablo, 1961)
- With Billy Strayhorn And The Orchestra (Verve, 1961)
- Lionel Hampton : Ring Dem Vibes (Emarcy, 1976)
- Quincy Jones : The Birth Of A Band (Mercury, 1959)
- Clark Terry And His All Stars: Duke With A Difference (Riverside / OJC, 1957)
- Ben Webster : The Soul of Ben Webster (Verve, 1957-1958)
- Marcel Zanini : Lotus (Black & Blue, 1976, 1985)
literature
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1988.
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide of Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
- Bielefeld catalog 1988 & 2002
- Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 4th, revised and supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .
Web links
annotation
- ↑ Before that, director Bertrand Tavernier and others founded an "Association of Friends of Woodyards" to support him. After: obituary
- ↑ cit. according to Kunzler, p. 1308
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Woodyard, Sam |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Woodyard, Samuel (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz drummer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 7, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Elizabeth (New Jersey) |
| DATE OF DEATH | 20th September 1988 |
| Place of death | Paris |