Joe Morello, R.I.P.

[Chris Newman]

JOE MORELLO
July 17, 1928—March 12, 2011

Sadly, Joe Morello passed away on Saturday.

For many years he was drummer with Dave Brubeck.

As a child he played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Then he heard Jascha Heifetz play it and decided he was playing the wrong instrument.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

..well he made a good choice then, he was an utterly compelling and brilliant drummer .... and brought great pleasure to very many ... alas we all drop off the plot eventually, but a great life to be thankful for ...

[charles t]

I met a former pupil of Joe's, while taking an Alaskan cruise on Holland America. This cruise line musician was no jazz-non-entity by any means (right now, Google is not cooperating with the name).

He came out of Kenton's famed band camp and succeeded Peter Erskine in the Kenton Orch.

I recall that he said that traveling on that Kenton band bus could get VERY loud.

And of course this (unnamed-for-the-time-being) drummer said that Joe Morello was definitely: The Man.

[Alyn_Shipton]

My obit of Joe in this morning's Times - can't post link here owing to pay-to-read firewall, but it's there....