[Dixielandjazz] Newspaper article about Louie Bellson today

[David Richoux]

Hi all,

This was in the San Jose Mercury News today (with some sound clips):
Louie Bellson: Dean of drummers earns tribute
By Andrew Gilbert
Special to the Mercury News

Louie Bellson didn't just change how people play the drum set; he  
transformed the way people think about drummers.
In the BB age (Before Bellson), drummers often were caricatured as  
musically illiterate bashers who could thrill audiences with flashy  
solos, but whose musicianship was suspect. Then Bellson emerged, not  
only as a trap set innovator but as a formidable writer and arranger  
whose music was sought out eagerly by Duke Ellington, jazz's greatest  
composer.
"Supporting or solo, he is the epitome of perfection," Ellington  
wrote in "Music is My Mistress," his epigrammatic collection of  
profiles and scenes from a jazz life. "We are proud indeed to have  
been the first to present him as a musician extraordinaire in an  
entire fifteen-minute feature. Then too, he keeps coming back with  
great big bands, for which he writes the orchestrations."
A part-time San Jose resident since the early 1990s, the 82-year-old  
Bellson will be the subject of a tribute Friday and Saturday at  
Savanna Jazz, a club in San Francisco's Mission District. The band  
will feature pianist Alan Steiger, bassist Mark Williams, alto  
saxophonist Pete Yellin, Senegalese guitarist Pascal Bokar and Bay  
Area drum master Eddie Marshall, who will share percussion duties  
with Bellson.

the rest at http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_5745263

Dave Richoux