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Ed Thigpen

Receipient of the 2002 IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education) HUMANITARIAN AWARD, the IFPI (International Federation of Phonagraph Industry) 2002 Danish Jazz Awards and also Inducted into The PAS (Percussive Arts Society) HALL OF FAME. World-renown for his exemplary musicianship, his artistry with wire brushes, and his highly effective teaching methods, Ed Thigpen is admired by musicians and critics alike as one of the finest performer/educators in jazz. Born in Chicago December 28, 1930, Edmund Thigpen grew up in Los Angeles where he atteneded Thomas Jefferson High School, whose alumni include artists such as Dexter Gorden, Chico Hamilton and Art Farmer, There he got his practical experience in the schools swing band under the guidance of the revered teacher Samuel Browne. After graduating from high school in 1949, he entered Los Angeles City college as a sociology major but left after a year to pursue a career in music. He then moved to St. Louis, Mo. to live with his father, drummer Ben Thigpen, well-known for his work with the Andy Kirk band in the1930s. In 1951 Ed moved to New York where he joined the Cootie Williams bad at the Savoy Ballroom. He traveled throughout America with this band and many of the wellknown rhythm and blues groups of the period. Between 1954 and `58 he worked with Dinah Washington, the Johnny Hodges band and the trios of Bud Powell, Jutta Hipp, and Billy Taylor. During this period he began to gain recognition though his performances in concerts, nightclubs, recording studios and on the television series The Subject is Jazz, He also became a clinician for the Ludwig drum company. In 1959 he joined the Oscar Peterson Trio and also was an instructor at The Advanced School of Conteporary Music, founded by Oscar Peterson, bassist Ray Brown and composer Phil Nimmons in Toronto, Canada. That same year Ed and Elvin Jones were tied for the New Star on Drums in the Down Beat jazz critics poll. The Trio still considered by many musicians and public to be the greatest piano-bass-drums trio in the history of jazz traveled the world with Jazz at the Philharmonic. Ed recorded more than 50 albums with Peterson before he left the group in 1965 and toured with Ella Fitzgerald. In 1967, do settled in Los Angeles to do freelance work. Among the artists he performed with were Johnny Mathis, Pat Boone, Andy Williams, Peggy Lee, Oliver Nelson and Gerald Wilson.

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Album Review

Oscar Peterson: Con Alma

Read "Con Alma" reviewed by Chris May


To borrow Duke Ellington's description of Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson was born poor, died rich and never hurt anyone along the way. He also brought joy to untold numbers of people. But, truth to tell, his style was the twentieth-century equivalent of modern day AI-produced generative music. Sit Peterson down at a piano, progamme him (as in give him a tune to play), and press Go: a torrent of technique poured out. Trouble is, Peterson's pianism was ...

11
Album Review

The Oscar Peterson Trio: Con Alma: The Oscar Peterson Trio Live in Lugano, 1964

Read "Con Alma: The Oscar Peterson Trio Live in Lugano, 1964" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Was there ever a more generous player than Oscar Peterson? A man who, by simply doing the thing he most loved and thrilled to do, which was make people feel better way down deep in their bones, sat at his piano and made the world grateful? Rekindled that spark--of imagination, of potential, of better--just by running his hands along the eighty-eights and instigating his soul mates, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen to do the same. That ...

10
Album Review

Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached, 1957-1965

Read "With Strings Attached, 1957-1965" reviewed by John Chacona


Imagine if Sidney Bechet, Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith were barely remembered and recordings of their music were long unavailable and known only on the geekiest corners of Discogs. That is essentially the status of harpist Dorothy Ashby. Like the three figures cited above, Ashby essentially created a language for her chosen instrument, the harp, where virtually none has existed before and established it as a legitimate and expressive vehicle for jazz improvisation at the highest level. Just how brilliantly ...

9
Album Review

Oscar Peterson: Exclusively For My Friends

Read "Exclusively For My Friends" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


An 8-CD set of recordings from the great Oscar Peterson, beautifully recorded, sumptuously packaged and accompanied by a 60-page booklet full of informative writing: Exclusively For My Friends is a treat for ears and eyes. All of the recordings on this set were made between 1963 and 1971. The sessions took place in the home of producer and MPS Records owner Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in Germany's Black Forest--Peterson and Brunner-Schwer were friends and the pianist often visited the label owner's ...

416
Album Review

Oscar Peterson: A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra

Read "A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra" reviewed by Ollie Bivens


Recorded in '59 and just reissued on CD, this homage is described by pianist Oscar Peterson as “not only a tribute to Frank Sinatra but also my emotional interpretation of the feeling I get when I hear him." The album was part of a popular five album songbook set of the music of various songwriters and singers, all recorded in the same year.Smartly and very concisely arranged by Peterson, all the tunes on A Jazz Portrait of Frank ...

151
Album Review

Ed Thigpen Rhythm Features: The Element of Swing

Read "The Element of Swing" reviewed by Jack Bowers


I needn’t tell you what a great drummer Ed Thigpen is; others more eloquent than I have done so on many occasions, and your own ears can validate their appraisal simply by listening to the master at work, as he is on The Element of Swing, recorded in concert by Thigpen’s excellent trio, Rhythm Features, with guest Joe Lovano, one of America’s most honored contemporary saxophonists. Unlike some drummers who shall be nameless, Thigpen doesn’t equate volume with proficiency; “understated” ...

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231

Obituary

Ed Thigpen 1930 - 2010

Ed Thigpen 1930 - 2010

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

The esteemed drummer Ed Thigpen, known for his elegant bearing and tasteful timekeeping in support of jazz luminaries such as Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald, died Wednesday in Copenhagen, Denmark at age 79.Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Thigpen also had a couple of connections to St. Louis. Between college and his move to New York, he lived here for about a year circa 1950 with his father, the drummer Ben Thigpen; and his brother Bensid ...

219

Obituary

Ed Thigpen, RIP

Ed Thigpen, RIP

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

An American jazz master who relocated to Europe nearly four decades ago died yesterday in Denmark hours after eight of his peers were honored in New York. Drummer Ed Thigpen succumbed to heart and lung problems in a hospital in Copenhagen, his home since 1972. He was 79. Thigpen was universally admired for his technique, which he applied with taste and musicianship that made him one of the best known drummers in the world during his long run as a ...

319

Obituary

Ed Thigpen Jazz Drummer Legend Dies Aged 79

Ed Thigpen Jazz Drummer Legend Dies Aged 79

Source: JAZZzology by Richard Watters

Ed Thigpen, Chicago-born drummer with the Oscar Peterson Trio during the famed jazz pianist's popular early-'60s period, died on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at the age of seventy-nine in Kingdom Hospital in Copenhagen after being ill for a long period of time.Besides appearing on dozens of albums with Oscar Peterson, Thigpen recorded and performed with many other jazz greats, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Drew, Johnny Hodges, John Coltrane, and Dinah Washington, as well as pop artists including ...

135

Obituary

Ed Thigpen, 1930-2010: "Mr. Taste" Drummed for Pianist Oscar Peterson's Trio in the Late 1950s And '60s

Ed Thigpen, 1930-2010: "Mr. Taste" Drummed for Pianist Oscar Peterson's Trio in the Late 1950s And '60s

Source: Michael Ricci

Jazz lovers called him “Mr. Taste," and the nickname couldn't have been more fitting. Always fashionably dressed -- and sounding as impeccable as he looked--Ed Thigpen conveyed elegance in every aspect of his life and art. At the same time, his ability to generate propulsive, hard-hitting swing rhythm made him a driving force in pianist Oscar Peterson's great trio of the late 1950s and '60s, which also included bassist Ray Brown. This high-profile spot established Mr. Thigpen, born in Chicago ...

165

Obituary

Ed Thigpen Jazz Drummer Dies

Ed Thigpen Jazz Drummer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci

Jazz drummer Ed Thigpen, who often was described as “Mr. Taste" for his sensitive accompaniment of instrumentalists and singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell and Billy Taylor, died Wednesday at Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen. He was 79. Thigpen, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, was hospitalized before Christmas with heart and lung problems. His son, Michel, noted on Thigpens website that his father “passed away very peacefully . . . in the company of his friends and family." ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

With Strings...

New Land Records
2023

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Con Alma

Mack Avenue Records
2023

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#1

Stunt Records/Sundance Music
2004

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A Jazz Portrait of...

Verve Music Group
2004

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