Sunday, May 26, 2013

RIP: Ed Shaughnessy

From the LA Times:

Ed Shaughnessy, whose mutton-chop whiskers and swinging rhythms made him one of the most famous drummers in jazz during his nearly three decades with Doc Severinsen's "Tonight Show" band, has died. He was 84.

Shaughnessy had a heart attack Friday at his Calabasas home, said William Selditz, a close family friend.

While his nightly gig on "The Tonight Show" brought him the kind of drumming fame previously bestowed on giants such as Gene Krupa, Shaughnessy also delved into more far-reaching musical realms. He studied for three years with legendary Indian tabla player Alla Rakha and played with such cutting-edge artists as bassist/composer Charles Mingus and trumpeter-bandleader Don Ellis.
"Ed's one of the only guys I know from his generation who's open-minded enough to try something new," Ellis once told an interviewer.

Buddy Rich called Shaughnessy "one of my all-time favorite drummers" — high praise from a musician whose dynamic, virtuosic style contrasted with Shaughnessy's profound belief in the drummer as a vital member of a band's rhythm section.

Times critic Leonard Feather agreed, writing in 1992 that Shaughnessy "does what jazz drummers were originally called on to do: Keep a firm swinging beat and play a supportive role."
An early advocate of bebop, Shaughnessy performed with Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, and George Balanchine and the New York City Ballet.

For decades, he taught privately as well as conducting more than 600 clinics at high schools and universities.

Edwin Thomas Shaughnessy was born Jan. 29, 1929, in Jersey City, N.J. His father was a longshoreman and his mother sewed in a garment factory.

At 12, Shaughnessy started taking piano lessons and continued until his father brought home a drum set two years later.

Still in his teens when he became a regular participant in New York City's thriving jazz scene, he worked with Jack Teagarden and the popular bands led by George Shearing and Charlie Ventura before he turned 20.

He also played in numerous small jazz groups with such big names as Billie Holiday, Horace Silver and Gene Ammons. His big band career began in the 1950s with the Benny Goodman and Count Basie bands. He replaced Buddy Rich in Tommy Dorsey's band.

In the mid-1950s, he was a staff musician at CBS, performing on the Steve Allen and Garry Moore shows.

From 1963 to 1992, Shaughnessy was the drummer with Severinsen's band on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." In Shaughnessy's 2010 memoir "Lucky Drummer," Severinsen called him "the superb engine that drove our Tonight Show Band for thirty years … with spirit and immense skill."

In the early 1970s, Shaughnessy helped a young singer named Dianne Schuur, who had been blind since birth, arranging for her to appear at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival. Her career soon took off.

He was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2004.

Here's an interview with Shaughnessy conducted by his granddaughter and a great clip of Shaughnessy and Buddy Rich from the old Tonight Show:


3 comments:

  1. Back in 1968 I went to Barney Googles to hear the Buddy Rich big band and Mr. Shaughnessy and Johnny Carson were sitting right up front. After the first set Buddy Rich joined them at their table. Buddy was great and Ed and Johnny Carson gave him a standing ovation the band played the West Side Story piece early that night. What a great show and the greatest drumming ever. Ed Shaughnessy was the lead instrument every evening he performed with the Tonight show band his perfect drum roll led into the opening 1bar drum fill that was his signature riff that led the famous introduction to the show. Todays great drummers Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, Omar Hakim, Vinnie Coliauta, all borrow chops from the all time jazz greats Rich and Shaughnessy. The beat goes on now in heaven and earth. RIP big Ed.

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    1. Thanks for that story. What a night - Ed Shaughnessy, Johnny Carson and Buddy Rich.

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  2. I forgot to mention that I was 19 at the time and my drum teacher had been Carmine Appice of the Vanilla Fudge. He and I and a few musician friends went to the show. Buddy took his unbelievable drum solo during the West Side number but, what floored me was his brush work on a ballad, the band opened with sister Sadie. Carson was tapping at the table with the stirrers from his drinks.

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