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Lester William DeMerle (born November 4, 1946, Brooklyn) [1] is an American jazz drummer, vocalist, and bandleader.
DeMerle first picked up drums at age ten. He studied drums and percussion with Bob Livingstone in New York from 1960 to 1965, jammed with Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa when he was 15, [1] and played at the 1964 New York World's Fair. He subsequently studied harmony and music theory from Alf Clausen via mail correspondence, and did freelance work in the late 1960s with Alan Dawson, Lee Castle, and the Jimmy Dorsey Band. In 1967 he formed his own group, Sound 67, with Randy Brecker, Arnie Lawrence, Bill Takus, and Norman Simmons. [2] Near the end of the decade he worked with Joe Farrell and Lee Konitz. DeMerle released an album, Spectrum, on United Artists Records in 1969, which featured Lawrence and Simmons, as well as Marvin Stamm, Frank Foster, and Lew Tabackin as sidemen. He toured with a twelve-piece ensemble in 1970. [3]
He became a member of the Harry James Big Band in 1970 and worked with James until 1982, including at the 1974 Newport Jazz Festival and on his Grammy Award-winning King James Version. [4] In 1971, he moved to Los Angeles, where he played regularly in the late 1970s at the Cellar Theater with his group Transfusion (which included Don Menza on saxophone). Other associations in the 1970s included Michael Brecker, David Benoit, Eric Marienthal, Raul De Souza, the Heath Brothers, and Bunk Gardner. He released Concerts by the Sea album (Bar T) in 1978.
He worked with his wife, singer Bonnie Eisele, in a big band from 1986. They moved to Fernandina Beach, Florida, where DeMerle established the Amelia Island Jazz Festival and played frequently in hotels and on cruise ships. [5] In the 2000s he released a series of albums on Origin Records, the first two of which paid tribute to Blue Note Records.
DeMerle has been noted as a vocalist and is able to sing and play drums at the same time, a rarity among jazz drummers. [1] He has also accompanied many pop and jazz vocalists on drums, including Sammy Davis, Jr., Tony Bennett, Eddie Jefferson, Wayne Newton, Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, and Sarah Vaughan. [1]
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John Scofield is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in the band of Miles Davis, and has toured and recorded with many prominent jazz artists, including saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano; keyboardists George Duke, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Larry Goldings and Robert Glasper; fellow guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Pat Martino and Bill Frisell; bassists Marc Johnson and Jaco Pastorius; and drummer Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers. Outside the world of jazz, he has collaborated with Phil Lesh, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Gov’t Mule.
Jymie Merritt was an American jazz double-bassist, electric-bass pioneer, band leader and composer. Merritt was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers group from 1957 until 1962. The same year he left Blakey's band, Merritt formed his own group, The Forerunners, which he led sporadically until his death in 2020. Merritt also worked as a sideman for blues and jazz musicians such as Bull Moose Jackson, B.B. King, Chet Baker, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, and Lee Morgan.
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost jazz pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.
Elvin Ray Jones was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era.
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer, received an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2004, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Eric Alexander is an American jazz saxophonist.
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums.
John Laird Abercrombie was an American jazz guitarist. His work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his understated style and his work with organ trios.
Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie Shuffle." He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.
Gary Husband is an award-winning English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, keyboard player and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger and producer.
The Tony Williams Lifetime was a jazz fusion group led by drummer Tony Williams. The band was pivotal in the development of fusion and featured various noteworthy jazz and rock musicians throughout its history, including guitarists John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth, keyboardists Larry Young and Alan Pasqua, and bassists Jack Bruce and Ron Carter.
Christian Escoudé is a French Gypsy jazz guitarist.
Steve Khan is an American jazz guitarist.
Charles Kynard was an American soul jazz/acid jazz organist born in St. Louis, Missouri.
James Wesley "Red" Holloway was an American jazz saxophonist.
Paul Nelson Humphrey was an American jazz and R&B drummer.
Rendezvous in New York is an album by American pianist Chick Corea that was released on April 22, 2003 by Corea's label, Stretch Records. The recording took place at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City over the course of three weeks. Corea reunited with members from nine bands that he played with in the past. Musicians included Terence Blanchard, Gary Burton, Roy Haynes, Bobby McFerrin, Joshua Redman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Miroslav Vitous.
Sam Woodyard was an American jazz drummer.
The discography of jazz/jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham includes solo, collaborative, and work playing on other artists' albums.
