Sunday, October 9, 2011

Butch Ballard (1918–2011)

“I was asleep, and my wife said, ‘Daddy, you have a call from a Mister Duke Ellington.’ I said, ‘Who?’”
The drummer Butch Ballard has died at the age of ninety-two. He was one of the few musicians to have played with both the Count Basie and Ellington bands. Ballard can be heard to advantage on the Ellington trio recording Piano Reflections (Capitol).

The above quotation is from a 2006 interview with Victor Schermer: Butch Ballard: Legendary Philadelphia Drummer (All About Jazz).

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