[Dixielandjazz] R.I.P. Ed Shaughnessy

[Robert Ringwald]

Ed Shaughnessy Dies at 84; Renowned Jazz Drummer

by Don Heckman

Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2013

Ed Shaughnessy, whose mutton-chop whiskers and swinging rhythms made him one of the

most famous drummers in jazz during his nearly three decades with Doc Severinsen's

"Tonight Show" band, has died. He was 84.

Shaughnessy had a heart attack Friday at his Calabasas home, said William Selditz,

a close family friend.

While his nightly gig on "The Tonight Show" brought him the kind of drumming fame

previously bestowed on giants such as Gene Krupa, Shaughnessy also delved into more

far-reaching musical realms. He studied for three years with legendary Indian tabla

player Alla Rakha and played with such cutting-edge artists as bassist/composer Charles

Mingus and trumpeter-bandleader Don Ellis.

"Ed's one of the only guys I know from his generation who's open-minded enough to

try something new," Ellis once told an interviewer.

Buddy Rich called Shaughnessy "one of my all-time favorite drummers" -- high praise

from a musician whose dynamic, virtuosic style contrasted with Shaughnessy's profound

belief in the drummer as a vital member of a band's rhythm section.

Times critic Leonard Feather agreed, writing in 1992 that Shaughnessy "does what

jazz drummers were originally called on to do: Keep a firm swinging beat and play

a supportive role."

An early advocate of bebop, Shaughnessy performed with Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix,

John McLaughlin, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, and George Balanchine

and the New York City Ballet.

For decades, he taught privately as well as conducting more than 600 clinics at high

schools and universities.

Edwin Thomas Shaughnessy was born Jan. 29, 1929, in Jersey City, N.J. His father

was a longshoreman and his mother sewed in a garment factory.

At 12, Shaughnessy started taking piano lessons and continued until his father brought

home a drum set two years later.

Still in his teens when he became a regular participant in New York City's thriving

jazz scene, he worked with Jack Teagarden and the popular bands led by George Shearing

and Charlie Ventura before he turned 20.

He also played in numerous small jazz groups with such big names as Billie Holiday,

Horace Silver and Gene Ammons. His big band career began in the 1950s with the Benny

Goodman and Count Basie bands. He replaced Buddy Rich in Tommy Dorsey's band.

In the mid-1950s, he was a staff musician at CBS, performing on the Steve Allen and

Garry Moore shows.

>From 1963 to 1992, Shaughnessy was the drummer with Severinsen's band on Johnny Carson's

"Tonight Show." In Shaughnessy's 2010 memoir "Lucky Drummer," Severinsen called him

"the superb engine that drove our Tonight Show Band for thirty years... with spirit

and immense skill."

In the early 1970s, Shaughnessy helped a young singer named Dianne Schuur, who had

been blind since birth, arranging for her to appear at the prestigious Monterey Jazz

Festival. Her career soon took off.

He was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2004.

Shaughnessy married Ilene Woods in 1963. A singer, she was the voice of Disney's

Cinderella in 1950. She died in 2010.

He is survived by his son Daniel Shaughnessy, his daughter-in-law Nicah Shaughnessy

and three grandchildren. Another son, Jimmy, died in a 1984 traffic accident.



-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

I hate rap music, which to me sounds like a bunch of angry men shouting,
possibly because the person who was supposed to supply them with a
melody never showed up. -Dave Berry.











Ed Shaughnessy, 'Tonight' Drummer, Dead at 84

by Peter Keepnews

New York Times, May 27, 2013

Ed Shaughnessy, whose deft drumming anchored the "Tonight Show" orchestra for 29

years, died on Friday at his home in Calabasas, Calif. He was 84.

The cause was a heart attack, said his son Dan.

Mr. Shaughnessy was a well-traveled and highly regarded jazz drummer when he was

offered the "Tonight" job in 1963, shortly after Johnny Carson had taken over as

the show's host. He had performed or recorded with Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke

Ellington, Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday and numerous others. He had also worked

for four years as a staff musician at CBS Television, and, remembering the tedium

of that studio job, he was not sure he wanted another.

He agreed to take the "Tonight" gig for two weeks and see how he liked it. "When

I got up there," he recalled in a 2004 interview for the Percussive Arts Society,

"and Doc Severinsen was the lead trumpet player, Clark Terry was sitting next to

me in the jazz trumpet chair, and there were all these great players, I said, 'My

God, this is not your ordinary studio situation.'"

Mr. Shaughnessy took the job and never left. He remained when Mr. Severinsen replaced

Skitch Henderson as the bandleader in 1967 and when "The Tonight Show" moved from

New York City to Burbank, Calif., in 1972. When Jay Leno became the host in 1992

and brought in his own band, Mr. Severinsen kept his ensemble together for concert

appearances, with Mr. Shaughnessy still in the drum chair.

Being the house drummer for "Tonight" meant being flexible enough to support all

manner of performers -- rock stars, opera singers, even comedians. It also meant

mostly staying in the background. But among Mr. Shaughnessy's fondest memories of

his years on the show were two moments in the spotlight: accompanying Jimi Hendrix

in 1969 and engaging in a high-energy "drum battle" with Buddy Rich in 1978.

Edwin Thomas Shaughnessy was born in Jersey City on Jan. 29, 1929, the only child

of Tom Shaughnessy, a longshoreman, and the former Theresa Geetlein, a garment worker.

He took piano lessons for two years without much enthusiasm, then switched his focus

at age 14 when his father gave him a rudimentary drum kit.

"My dad brought me home those drums, and my attention could not stay on the piano,"

Mr. Shaughnessy wrote in his autobiography, "Lucky Drummer," published last year.

"As soon as the drums came into the house, I got fired up."

He practiced fervently, participated in Manhattan jam sessions as a teenager and

was a full-time professional by the time he graduated from high school. Throughout

the 1950s and 1960s he recorded prolifically as a sideman.

Shortly after moving to the West Coast, Mr. Shaughnessy formed his own big band,

Energy Force, which performed locally in the late '70s and early '80s. His first

and only recording as a leader, the quintet album "Jazz in the Pocket," was released

in 1990.

In addition to his son Dan, Mr. Shaughnessy is survived by three grandchildren. Another

son, Jim, died in 1984. His wife of 47 years, the singer Ilene Woods, who was the

voice of the title character in the Walt Disney animated film "Cinderella," died

in 2010.

-30-







www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

I hate rap music, which to me sounds like a bunch of angry men shouting,
possibly because the person who was supposed to supply them with a
melody never showed up. -Dave Berry.