[Dixielandjazz] Drummer Ed Shaughnessy

[Stephen G Barbone]

There is a neat article from Jazz Times - January/February 2010 about  
Drummer Ed Shaughnessy, soon to be 81 years old. He was the "Tonight  
Show"(Johnny Carson) drummer for 30 years or so, taking the gig after  
the jazz club work in NYC dried up. It is long, but here is a snip  
from it. To see more, go to:

http://jazztimes.com/articles/25456-ed-shaughnessy-one-more-thing-to-get-right

“When I made the first album with Basie,” says Shaughnessy, “we ran  
the first tune down, sort of a medium-hard swinger. I’m playing what I  
think I should play for the Basie band, because with that band, if you  
don’t play with heart and soul, it’s not going to happen. But when we  
stop, the guy who was in the control room says, ‘Well, that was very  
good, but we think maybe we could take a lot less drums.’ And Basie,  
who’s sitting at the piano, wearing his yachting cap, takes his fist  
and hits it on the piano and roars like a lion. Like this:  
Rrroarrroow! And everybody just froze. I asked [Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis]  
later, ‘Does he do that often?’ And he says, ‘No, maybe once a year.’  
Anyhow, Basie picks up a mic and says, very quietly, ‘I have Mr.  
Shaughnessy here to play with my band because he knows how to play  
with my band. Your job is to get it. Do you get it?’ And the answer  
was, ‘Yes, sir.’”

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband