Freddie Gruber
Freddie Gruber ( born May 27, 1927 in the Bronx, New York City; † October 11, 2011 in Los Angeles ) was an American jazz drummer and music educator.
Life and work
Gruber's father was a ballroom dancer; inter alia, by years of study with Henry Adler (1941 /42), he worked with Morey Field, Mickey Scrima and Cozy Cole. From 1943 he worked as a professional musician, as he had in the 1940s, a trio with Ram Ramirez, which occurred in New York's Greenwich Village; He also played with Benny Ventura. In a Metronome article ( The Shape of Jazz to Come ) Barry Ulanov praised his polyrhythmic concept. Throughout his life, was a friend of Buddy Rich, with whom he lived at times together. In the late 1940s he played with Tony Scott, Jackie Paris, Rudy Vallee, at the Three Deuces with Harry " The Hipster " Gibson, Dave Schildkraut, Tony and Buddy DeFranco Fruscella; He also belonged to the General Roland sample tape and played it, inter alia, with musicians such as Charlie Parker, Al Cohn / Zoot Sims, Red Rodney and early 1950s with Oscar Pettiford.
In 1955 he moved to California, worked briefly in Las Vegas and worked in the second half of the 1950s in Los Angeles on sessions with Scott LaFaro, Gary Peacock, Charlie Haden, Hampton Hawes, Dexter Gordon, Bobby Hutcherson, Walter Norris and Dave Pike; The mid-1960s he played with Art Pepper. During this time, he began increasingly to teach, first in clubs and in Terry Gibbs' music business ( 1965-67 ), then in his own house; were among his pupils, inter alia, John Guerin and Don Ellis, later Neil Peart, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Smith, Dave Weckl, Peter Erskine, Adam Nussbaum, Anton Fig, Jim Keltner or Mitch Mitchell; He also held regular workshops and courses in Europe.
The drummer Elvin Jones was one of his main influences Gruber.
Disco Graphical Notes
- Gene Roland Band: The Band That Never Was ( Spotlite, 1948)
Sources / Links
- Freddie Gruber at Drummer World
- Feature about Freddie Gruber in Jazz Times
- Portrait at Yamaha.com