Ed Thigpen

Edmund Leonard "Ed" Thigpen ( born December 28, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, † 13 January 2010 in Copenhagen, Denmark ) was an American jazz drummer.

Life and work

Ed Thigpen was the son of drummer Ben Thigpen, who played in the Andy Kirk Orchestra. In the 1950s, Ed Thigpen played in the Cootie Williams band and in the military in Korea by 1952 until 1954. Subsequently, he worked with Jutta Hipp.

Through his father he already knew Ben Webster and Ray Brown; in Japan he met Oscar Peterson. From 1959 he was a member of the Oscar Peterson Trio with Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass and himself on drums. A classic recording of this period is We Get Requests ( Verve, 1965). Also at Verve published in 1966 his album Out Of The Storm with Herbie Hancock on piano.

Thigpen left in 1965 and the trio went to Los Angeles in 1972 then to Copenhagen. There, he worked with Kenny Drew, Ernie Wilkins, Thad Jones, Svend Asmussen and Mads Vinding. Later he also appeared with Eric Watson, John Lindberg, Albert Mangelsdorff, Horace Parlan with Nnenna Freelon as well as with and with Katrine Madsen. Also, he published under his own name more albums with his trio and other ensembles combo. Tom Lord lists 355 recordings of Thigpen in the field of jazz.

Thigpen was the author of several textbooks for the drums.

Instruments

Ed Thigpen preferred a drum from Remo in the configuration: Bass Drum 18 " hanging tom 12 " floor tom 14 " floor tom 16 " snare, hi -hat, and three pools.

Works

• Rhythm Analysis and Coordination basis, Advance Music, Rottenburg, 1979
• The Sounds of Brushes, Action - Reaction, Copenhagen, 1981, ISBN 0-7692-3363-5

Lexical entries

• Carlo Bohländer et al: Reclams jazz leader. Stuttgart, Reclam, 1977
• Ian Carr, Brian Priestley, Digby Fairweather (eds.): Rough Guide to Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584- X