[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Session Drummer?

[Stephen G Barbone]

In previous threads we discussed the bastardization of the word jazz.  
Below is a perfect example. Or did the writers just cut a lot out of  
Earl Palmer's obit bio  while forgetting to change the headline?
He was a jazz session drummer in addition to the Rock & Roll credits  
listed in the obit below. He was on recording sessions with Count  
Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, et al.
He also was on a lot of movie sound tracks, including Judgement at  
Nuremberg, Hud, Robin and the Seven Hoods, etc.
And he was the session drummer on a lot of TV show theme songs  
including; The Flintstones. M.A.S.H., Hawaiian Eye,The Brady Bunch,  
Ironside, etc.
Amazing how much the man was loved and admired by those with whom he  
worked, and how little the rest of the world knows about him.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

September 22, 2008 - NY Times - by Associated Press
Earl Palmer, 84, a Jazz Session Drummer, Dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Earl Palmer, a session drummer whose pioneering  
backbeats were recorded on classics like Little Richard’s “Tutti  
Frutti” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,”  
died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.

His death was confirmed by his spokesman, Kevin Sasaki.

Mr. Palmer was born in New Orleans in 1924 and worked extensively both  
there and in Los Angeles, where he later moved.

He recorded on thousands of tracks, and his session credits include  
artists as diverse as the Monkees, Neil Young and Frank Sinatra. His  
beats form the backdrop on Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain  
High,” “The Fat Man” by Fats Domino and “I Hear You Knockin”‘ by  
Smiley Lewis. He also played for Phil Spector and Motown.

Ed Vodika, the pianist in the Earl Palmer Trio, recalled that the  
group’s weekly gigs in Los Angeles attracted a host of big-name  
musicians, from Bonnie Raitt to Ringo Starr. “He worked with so many  
people in his career, you never knew who would be in the audience,” he  
said.

Mr. Palmer was inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.  
According to the institution’s Web site, rockhall.com, Little Richard  
wrote in his autobiography that Mr. Palmer “was probably the greatest  
session drummer of all time.”

Mr. Palmer was married four times and is survived by seven children.

His biography by Tony Scherman, “Backbeat: Earl Palmer’s Story,” was  
published in 1999.