What a year.

September the 19th saw the passing of 84 year old Earl Palmer. Earl Palmer was an amazing session drummer who produced some of the fattest backbeats you will ever hear on record. He played on Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti and The Righteous Brothers' classic You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.
Yesterday Mitch Mitchell, drummer in The Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead in a hotel room. He was 61 years young. Of course, he didn’t just play with Jimi Hendrix, he also hit the skins for John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Jack Bruce among many others. He brought his jazz background to Hendrix’s sound making his brand of rock ‘n’ roll truly unique.

In recent years the drumming community has suffered from the deaths of some of the greats. Elvin Jones, Ola Brunkert and Max Roach are just some of those to have left us with great memories and fantastic music. And that doesn’t include the Great Grandaddies. I talk of course of Buddy Rich, John Bonham, Gene Krupa, Keith Moon and Tony Williams.

That’s not to say that we don’t still have amazing guys breaking musical boundaries. As long as we have Colaiuta, Sharrock, Chambers, Smith, Purdie, Howard, Gadd and Weckl life will be ok.

So rest in peace Mr. Mitchell. And good work keeping Jimi in time.