Jazzwise Magazine
Banner
The UK's Biggest Selling Jazz Magazine RSS
daily news features reviews current issue shop instrument reviews
gig guide video the player write stuff subscribe contact us
Big Band Drum Legend Louis Bellson Dies
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 11:49
Charismatic big band drum veteran and band leader Louis Bellson has died in Los Angeles on Saturday 14 February aged 84. He had contracted Parkinson’s disease and had recently broken his hip, which caused complications with his illness.

Bellson – an Italian-American, born in Rock Falls, Illinois – began playing drums at the tender age of three. His prodigious abilities on the drums included his pioneering use of the double bass drum (now favoured by many rock and heavy metal drummers), which he first used at the age of 15. At age 17 he beat 40,000 other drummers to win a national drum contest, which then catapulted him into a career playing for some of the biggest names in jazz including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong. He also forged a successful career leading his own bands, in a career spanning six decades of music making.

Through the course of his career he recorded of 200 albums and wrote more than 100 compositions and arrangements in both classical and jazz as well as popular songs. Bellson also published many books on drums and drum technique, as well as winning many music awards including the American Jazz Masters Award in 1994. Bellson was also a six-time Grammy nominee. He is survived by his second wife, two daughters and two grandchildren.     
Comments
Only registered users can write comments!

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 February 2009 11:53
 
news
features
features
features
reviews
UK Jazz Venues
UK Jazz Venues
Pizza Express Jazz Club London (1871)
Vortex Jazz Club London (1664)
606 Club London (1609)
Ronnie Scotts London (1597)
Hideaway Streatham (350)
Swansea Jazzland Swansea (316)
Matt & Phred's Jazz Club Manchester (242)
Pizza on the Park London (237)
St Ives Jazz Club St Ives (219)
Wakefield Sports Club Wakefield (188)
Barbican Hall London (171)
Komedia Studio Bar Brighton (165)
Friends Life Social Club Dorking (151)
The Spin Oxford (125)
Seven Arts Leeds Leeds (115)
Octave Bar London (107)
Charlie Wright's London (105)
The Stables Theatre Wavendon (101)
Symphony Hall Foyer Birmingham (100)
The Sage Gateshead (95)
Cafe Oto London (93)
Purcell Room London (90)
Watermill Jazz Dorking (86)
Matt & Phred's Manchester (83)
The Dysart Arms Surrey (74)
The Oxford Pub London (74)
The Sands Venue Gainsborough (72)
The Bell Hotel Clare (67)
Cheltenham Town Hall Cheltenham (66)
Boisdale's Canary Wharf (64)
Millennium Hall Sheffield (62)
National Theatre Foyer South Bank SE1 (61)
The Forge London (55)
Band on the Wall Manchester (54)
The Jazz Bar Edinburgh (54)
Spice Of Life London (53)
Jagz Ascot (51)
Orange Street Music Club Canterbury (51)
Joogleberry Playhouse Brighton (50)
Turner Sims Hall Southampton (49)
The Beaver Inn Appledore (48)
Royal Festival Hall London (47)
Queen Elizabeth Hall (47)
Queen Elizabeth Hall London (46)
Lauderdale House Waterlow Park London (45)
Villandry Bar London (44)
Kings Place London (44)
Leeds College of Music Leeds (44)
Bonington Theatre Nottingham (44)
Jazz Café London (42)
Jazzwise magazine - digital edition
Jazzwise Branded App

Live Twitter Feed

2012 Parliamentary Jazz Awards
Jazzwise E-newsletter

Jazzwise E-News
Be the first on your block to know what's in the next issue of Jazzwise by signing up to the Online Magazine Newsletter

 
instrument guide