December 28, 2007

Louie Bellson: The beat goes on

By Bill Highlander
Editor

The legendary drummer Louie Bellson, 83, says he puts the sticks in his hands every day. Plus, he plays with a group at the Musicians Warehouse near Eastridge Mall twice a month. It “keeps my chops up,” he says. His performance schedule has slowed from the days in 1947 when the band played every night for six months, traveling by bus from gig to gig, to about once a month now.

Louie Bellson

Bellson grew up in Rock Falls, Il. near the quad cities, and learned to play every instrument in his dad’s music store. He taught as a teenager, showing even adults how to get music from the instruments. His foray into musical innovation was a design of a double bass drum set when he was 15. An incomparable style that would become his trademark started with winning the Slingerland National Gene Krupa drumming contest at 17, beating 40,000 other drummers.

The awards haven’t stopped. He entered the Halls of Fame for Modern Drummer magazine and the Percussive Arts Society in 1977. Of his many awards, Bellson regards the American Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment of Arts in 1994 as the most memorable. He says the prestigious award recognizes those “who have paid their dues, giving audiences great music.”

He has been named a “Living Legend of Music,” “Big Band Drummer of the Year” (2001) and in March 2007, he received the “Living Jazz Legends” award from the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Bellson played for years with Duke Ellington who called Bellson “not only the world’s greatest drummer…he is the world’s greatest musician.” It was while with Ellington that he met Pearl Bailey. After seeing her perform, he sent her flowers and arranged to meet her four days in a row. He then said to Bailey “I have question to ask you.” She replied, “The answer is yes.” They were married for 39 years.

Bailey and Bellson performed together on numerous tours and he was the music director for her television show. He played with all the greats of the Big Band era: Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Louie Armstrong and many others. Oscar Peterson called him “one of the musical giants of our age.”

Each year in July, his hometown of Rock Falls holds a four-day celebration of Bellson and his music. An historical marker has been placed at his boyhood home. The festivities include a drum contest for youth, much like the one he won in 1941.

Bellson says he is fortunate to have had two good women in his life. After Pearl Bailey died in 1990, Bellson was playing with a band on a cruise liner headed for Europe when he noticed a Silicon Valley engineer who decided a Duke Ellington tribute was a good reason for her to sign up for a cruise. By the end of the cruise, he had her telephone number and called every day from Europe. Bellson recalls that the telephone bill that week was $2500.

The conversations and later courting led them to the altar at Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Jose in 1992. When not traveling or on a musical tour, Bellson and Francine live at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club.

Bellson is a prolific composer and writer as well as great drummer. He has been awarded four honorary doctorate degrees, written or arranged more than 1000 compositions and published more than a dozen books on drums and percussion.

Last June, he was inducted as a Living Legend in the Wall of Fame ceremony at Lincoln Center by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. And the beat goes on.

In January, a new CD, Louie and Clark Expedition 2, will be released. The music, all written by Bellson, features himself, Clark Terry and a 17-piece big band. For more about this legend of music, visit his web site at www.louiebellson.net.

Bellson is truly a beacon of our community.

BEACON

A country song says “you can’t be a beacon if your light don’t shine.”

The Evergreen Times would like for the lights of interesting Evergreen residents to shine through a profile on such persons. Our community has educators, activists, business people, inventors, sportsmen, hobbyists, public safety persons – a plethora of fascinating people who should be recognized by their neighbors as a beacon for community involvement. If you know a person who should be recognized as a BEACON, contact highlander@timesmediainc.com and they will be considered for future issues.