[Dixielandjazz] Drummer Reed Vaughan, RIP--Charlie Suhor

[Norman Vickers]

To: DJML;  Musicians & Jazzfans lists

From: Norman Vickers

 


Percussionist, teacher, jazz historian Charlie Suhor, a New Orleans native
now living in Montgomery, AL sends this personal recollection of drummer
Reed Vaughn.   Charlie wrote:  Jazz in New Orleans: The Postwar Years
Through 1970, published 2001. 


 

 

From: Charles Suhor [mailto:csuhor at zebra.net] 
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 2:23 PM
To: Norman Vickers
Subject: Re: Drummer Reed Vaughan, RIP

 

Hello, Norm-- Would you post this on your jazz list and on djml? Reed's
contributions in his early years are sadly under-recognized. I gave him
attention in my book, but few who knew him at his best are still around.
Incidentally, Reed and I were the friendliest of rivals as teenagers. We had
the same teacher, would exchange ideas regularly, 





and hear each other at gigs or jams. He soon quantum-leaped beyond me, and
it was a joy to hear the soul and invention of his art.-- Charlie 

 
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Drummer Reed Vaughan, 75, died in New Orleans on December 29, 2010. Vaughan
attended Holy Cross High School and played during his early teens in a
Dixieland group with trumpeter Murphy Campo and clarinetist Pee Wee
Spitilera. At age 16 he studied with drummer Lou Dillon, the versatile
leader of the pit band at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street, and gained skills
in reading and coordinated hand/foot independence. He rapidly became a
premier modern jazz artist, jamming frequently with young modernists like
bassist/guitarist Bill Huntington, pianist Buddy Prima, and trombonist Al
Hermann. Huntington called him "a child prodigy." 

Modern jazz lacked an audience in the city in the mid-fifties, so Vaughan
became part of the brilliant underground of be-boppers at after-hours
sessions in the French Quarter. His sense of time combined relaxation with
intensity, producing an effortless swing that exploded into inventive solos.
In an environment where Earl Palmer and Ed Blackwell were the pacesetters,
Vaughan was an original voice. 

Vaughan's first year of studies at LSU ended abruptly when he joined the
Stan Kenton band. He worked in Chicago and Los Angeles with artists like
Hampton Hawes, Art Pepper, Dave Pike, and Ira Sullivan. Wearied by the pace
of life on the road, he returned to New Orleans and remained for the rest of
his career. The groundbreaking years were behind him, but modern jazz
engagements included work at pianist Joe Burton's club and a late 1960s
engagement at the Bistro with pianist Ronnie Dupont's quartet and vocalist
Betty Farmer. He played for fourteen years with Dick Stabile's big band at
the Blue Room of the Roosevelt Hotel. In his later years Vaughan was active
with bands in a variety of jazz styles at local clubs. 

 

 
--End--