World-renowned jazz drummer, composer and educator Louie Bellson was born in Rock Falls and grew up in the Quad Cities area.

All About Jazz: Is the music of Duke Ellington, in the future ... Until Bellson came along, we didn't know what a difference a drummer could make. After trying several replacements, Woodyard arrived ...

both recorded for Duke Ellington’s Mercer record label in November of 1950. Our next set of Mercer Records selections features “She,” a tune written by drummer Louis Bellson and trombonist ...

It was actually Flea who turned me onto Duke Ellington, bizarrely. And there’s this Live at Newport record, and there’s this one tune, ‘Skin Deep’, which is a classic, but he gives the drummer some.” ...

When I reached Marcus Shelby on the phone at his home in San Francisco he was immersed in the music of Duke Ellington ... the granddaughter of Les McCann drummer Donald Dean Sr., ...

Roy Haynes, the pioneering jazz drummer who performed with legends like Charlie Parker ... Danilo Perez. What about Duke Ellington? Ellington offered Haynes a job in 1952, while Haynes was working ...

The drummer was part of the band that recorded ... Basel and Club Africana in Zurich where John Coltrane and Duke Ellington came to see them perform. ALSO READ: ‘I never plan my concert setlist ...

Duke enjoys telling how he recruited Sonny, who was greatly admired by Ellington and the other young men in the band because he came from New York. “Sonny was a very fly drummer,” Duke says ...

This year marks 125 years since the birth of jazz legend Duke Ellington. The bandleader, composer and pianist died 50 years ago. In the new book “The Jazzmen,” biographer Larry Tye sets out to ...

Knowing Duke Ellington means understanding his band — although few can name its other members today. The defining sound of his charter band came from drummer Sonny Greer. Before drum sets were ...