Sonny Greer

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Sonny Greer

Sonny Greer (13 December 1895–23 March 1982) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
jazz drummer

Jazz drumming

Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz-rock fusion and 1980s-era latin jazz....
, best known for his work with Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
.

Greer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey

Long Branch, New Jersey

Long Branch is a City in Monmouth County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 31,340....
, and played with Elmer Snowden

Elmer Snowden

Although Elmer Snowden, born in Baltimore October 9, 1900, was one of the most talented banjo players of the jazz age, he also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments....
's band and the Howard Theatre

Howard Theatre

The Howard Theatre is a historic theatre in Washington, D.C.. Opened in 1910, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974....
's orchestra in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
before joining Ellington, who he met in 1919. He was Ellington's first drummer, playing with his quintet, the Washingtonians, and moving with Ellington into the Cotton Club

Cotton Club

The Cotton Club was a famous night club in New York City that operated during Prohibition. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ethel Wat...
. As a result of his job as a designer with the Leedy Drum Company of Indiana

Indiana

The State of Indiana was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America....
, Greer was able to build up a huge drum kit

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
worth over $3,000, as well as chimes

Tubular bell

Tubular bells are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument family. Each bell is a metal tube, 30–38 mm in diameter, tuned by altering its length....
, a gong

Gong

A gong is an East Asia and South East Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet.Gongs are broadly of three types....
, timpani

Timpani

Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion instrument family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a drumhead stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass....
, and vibes.

Greer was a heavy drinker, as well as a pool-hall hustler (when he needed to retrieve his drums from the pawnbroker

Pawnbroker

A pawnbroker is an individual or business that offers monetary loans in exchange for an item of value that is given to the pawn broker. The word pawn is derived from the Latin pignus, for Pledge , and the items having been pawned to the broker are themselves called pledges or pawns, or simply the collateral ....
), and in 1950 Ellington responded to his drinking and occasional unreliability by taking a second drummer, Butch Ballard

Butch Ballard

George Edward "Butch" Ballard is an United States jazz drumming who during his long career has played with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington....
, with them on a tour of Scandinavia

Scandinavia

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Encyclopedia

Sonny Greer (13 December 1895–23 March 1982) was an American

United States

Jazz drumming

Duke Ellington

Long Branch, New Jersey

Long Branch is a City in Monmouth County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 31,340....
, and played with Elmer Snowden

Elmer Snowden

Howard Theatre

The Howard Theatre is a historic theatre in Washington, D.C.. Opened in 1910, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974....
's orchestra in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Cotton Club

Indiana

Drum kit

Tubular bell

Tubular bells are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument family. Each bell is a metal tube, 30–38 mm in diameter, tuned by altering its length....
, a gong

Gong

A gong is an East Asia and South East Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet.Gongs are broadly of three types....
, timpani

Timpani

Pawnbroker

Butch Ballard

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical subregion in northern Europe that includes the Scandinavian Peninsula. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; some authorities also include Finland and some might even include Iceland....
. This enraged Greer, and the consequent argument led to their permanent estrangement.

Greer continued to play, mainly as a free-lance drummer, working with musicians such as Johnny Hodges

Johnny Hodges

John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges was an American alto saxophone and lead player of Duke Ellington's saxophone section. He spent 38 years with Ellington, leaving to lead his own band from 1951 to 1955, returning to the fold shortly before Ellington's triumphant return to prominence via the orchestra's performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz F...
, Red Allen

Red Allen

Henry "Red" Allen was a jazz trumpeter whose style has been claimed to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong....
, J. C. Higginbotham

J. C. Higginbotham

J. C. Higginbotham was an American jazz trombonist. His playing was robust and Swung note.In the 1930s and 1940s he played with some of the premier swing bands, including Luis Russell's, Benny Carter's, Red Allen's, and Fletcher Henderson's....
, Tyree Glenn

Tyree Glenn

Evan Tyree Glenn was an American trombone player.Tyree played trombone and vibraphone with local Texas bands before moving in the early 1930s to Washington, D.C., where he performed with several prominent bands of the Swing Era....
, and Brooks Kerr

Brooks Kerr

Brooks Kerr is an United States jazz jazz piano born in New Haven, Connecticut, perhaps best-known for being bandleader of a small group featuring Sonny Greer and Russell Procope....
, as well as appearing in film

Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s, and briefly leading his own band. He was part of a tribute to Ellington in 1974, which achieved great success throughout the United States.

Sources and external links

Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, & Brian Priestley. Jazz: The Rough Guide. ISBN 1-85828-528-3
— brief biography by Scott Yanow, for Allmusic (also contains a )