Drummer

Rashied Ali, a free-jazz drummer who backed John Coltrane and accompanied him in a ground-breaking duet album in the final months of the jazz master's life, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 76. His wife, Patricia Ali, said he died at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital of a blood clot in his lung. Ali joined Coltrane's group in the mid-1960s during the saxophonist's period of avant-garde jazz experimentation. When Coltrane decided to use two drummers in a concert at the Village Gate in November 1965, he chose Ali to back up drummer Elvin Jones.

Cuban-born drummer Armando Peraza, a self-taught musician who transformed himself from a homeless orphan in Havana to a world-recognized bongo and conga expert who performed with Carlos Santana for nearly two decades, died Monday in a South San Francisco hospital. The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Josephine Peraza. Peraza had also battled diabetes for many years. Officially, Peraza was 89, but he admitted that he made up a birth date to give to authorities when he came to the United States in the late 1940s and was never sure of his exact age. Peraza, who also played with George Shearing and other jazz greats, was known for combining a blindingly fast drumming technique with a flamboyant style that audiences loved.

Kristen Wiig and beau Fabrizio Moretti have reportedly called it quits. The "Saturday Night Live" alum and Moretti, the drummer for the Strokes, have ended their 18-month relationship, according to Us Weekly and People . "It was very amicable and they will remain friends," a source told Us. PHOTOS: Celebrity splits of 2013 Wiig, 39, and Moretti, 33, were first spotted together in December 2011. The "Bridesmaids" writer and star wasn't super open about her relationship, but she did divulge a few details in Marie Claire's  August 2012 issue , crediting her beau with helping her reach a happy place.

Tony Benn Renounced title to stay in House of Commons Tony Benn, 88, a committed British socialist who irritated and fascinated Britons through a political career spanning more than five decades and who renounced his aristocratic title rather than leave the House of Commons, died March 14 at his home in west London, his family said in a statement. No cause was given. Benn held cabinet posts in Labour Party governments in the 1970s and clung unswervingly to his leftist beliefs while his party, in opposition, moved to the center and reemerged to take power again as New Labour.

Clive Burr, former drummer for Iron Maiden, has died at age 56. Burr, who played on the heavy metal band's first three albums -- "Iron Maiden," "Killers" and "The Number of the Beast" -- had  been suffering from multiple sclerosis. "He was a wonderful person and an amazing drummer who made a valuable contribution to Maiden in the early days," Steve Harris, the group's founder and bass player, wrote. PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2013 Burr joined the band in 1979 and left it in 1982, as they were rising to world prominence.

Jefferson Airplane drummer Joey Covington was killed in a single-car crash in Palm Springs on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Covington, 67, a Palm Springs resident, was driving alone when his coupe left the road at a curve in South Belardo Road and crashed head-on into a retaining wall. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the Riverside County coroner. The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs reported that a guest at a nearby motel tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate Covington.

Rocker Ted Nugent has made it perfectly clear over the years that he won't tolerate the government trampling on his liberty or that of his bandmates. This time, however, the famously right-wing singer-guitarist might have to concede that Johnny Law had a point. According to police in Bangor, Maine , Nugent's drummer, 55-year-old Mick Brown, was arrested Sunday after allegedly stealing a golf cart from Bangor's waterfront pavilion, where Nugent had just performed with Styx and REO Speedwagon.

Ed Cassidy, the drummer whose musical background influenced the jazz-tinged sound of the band Spirit, which emerged in the late 1960s as one of the West Coast's premier rock groups, has died. He was 89. Cassidy died Thursday of cancer at an assisted living home in San Jose, said Beverley Cassidy, his ex-wife. He had already jammed with such jazz greats as Dexter Gordon and Chet Baker before teaming with Randy California, his guitar-playing stepson from another marriage, to form what became Spirit.

Members of the category-defying band NRBQ knew from the outset that their prospects of mainstream success were slim to none. With a sound and attitude that embraced the seminal rock of Chuck Berry and no-borders expanse of free-form jazz experimentalist Sun Ra, the invigorating dance rhythms of zydeco kingpin Boozoo Chavis and dreamy multilayered pop of Brian Wilson, the quartet spent the '70s, '80s and '90s recording and touring chiefly for the...

Stuart Nevitt, 55, composer, drummer/percussionist and one of the early members of the Grammy-winning world beat band Shadowfax, died March 15 of complications from diabetes and heart disease at his home in Rio Rancho, N.M. Born in Elizabeth, N.J., Nevitt learned the rudiments of drumming at age 4 from his father, who was also a drummer. Nevitt played in rock bands and orchestras throughout high school before going off to the University of Miami to study music. He moved to Chicago in the early 1970s and met woodwind player Chuck Greenberg, bassist Phil Maggini and guitarist G.E. Stinson.

Scott Asheton, the rhythmic anchor of the Stooges and a godfather of punk rock, died Saturday of unspecified causes. He was 64. Asheton's death was made public by Iggy Pop , now the sole surviving founding member of the Stooges, a group whose aggressiveness and divisiveness would in the late '60s and early '70s lay the foundation for punk and alternative rock. The Stooges' most recent publicity firm, Nasty Little Man, also acknowledged Asheton's death. “Scott was a great artist.

This post has been updated. See below for details. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of the rock band KISS have long cherished living in aggrieved opposition to critics who they have felt failed to respect Kiss' heavy metal oeuvre , and the band's impending induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn't changing their tune. Stanley recently complained to the Associated Press that KISS was being given short shrift by the rock hall because two members of the current four-man lineup, drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer, aren't going to be hall of famers, even though they “have been in the band for decades and played on multiplatinum albums and toured the world.”  Instead, original drummer Peter Criss and original lead guitarist Ace Frehley, who were part of KISS' 1970s ascension to stardom but exited in the early 1980s, will be inducted along with perennial frontmen Simmons and Stanley.

PARK CITY, Utah -- How far will a musician go to become a virtuoso? Can a despotic jazz band conductor actually bring out the best in his students through fear and intimidation? And why was “Whiplash” the hardest movie Miles Teller ever made? Damien Chazelle, the writer-director of the Sundance Film Festival drama, dropped by the Los Angeles Times Studio in Park City, Utah, to discuss how these issues touch on his film, which opened the festival Thursday night. PHOTOS: Sundance Film Festival 2014 | The Scene Chazelle, who was a drummer in a high school band run by a heartless teacher, first came to the festival last year with an 17-minute version of “Whiplash,” which focused on the relationship between an ambitious drummer named Andrew Neiman and his cruel conservatory instructor, Terence Fletcher.

Hours before writer-director Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Sony Pictures Worldwide bought international rights to the drama about a jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and his ruthless music teacher (J.K. Simmons). The deal, according to a source close to the transaction and one of the first of the festival, does not include rights to distribute the film in North America. The movie is expected to be one of the hottest acquisition titles for U.S. markets at this year's festival, which runs from Thursday to Jan. 26. The exact terms and territories of the Sony deal were not immediately available.

Drummer Ricky Lawson, 59, who performed and recorded with many of the biggest names in popular music in the 1980s, died Monday at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center of a brain hemorrhage. The death was confirmed by hospital spokeswoman Wendy Dow. Lawson became disoriented during a performance Dec. 13 and was hospitalized, according to an Associated Press report. He died after being removed from life support, said his uncle, Paul Riser of Detroit. Lawson performed with Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Bette Midler and many others.

Vevet Underground drummer Maureen "Moe" Tucker reflected on friend and former bandmate Lou Reed in an appreciation published this weekend by British newspaper the Observer .  Reed, 71, died in October of complications from a May liver transplant. "It's just dawning on me that he's not out there anymore," Tucker wrote in the piece, which chronicles her first meeting with Reed as well as how the Velvets transformed her from a simple pop drummer into one trafficking in the avant-garde.

Cuban-born drummer Armando Peraza, a self-taught musician who transformed himself from a homeless orphan in Havana to a world-recognized bongo and conga expert who performed with Carlos Santana for nearly two decades, died Monday in a South San Francisco hospital. The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Josephine Peraza. Peraza had also battled diabetes for many years. Officially, Peraza was 89, but he admitted that he made up a birth date to give to authorities when he came to the United States in the late 1940s and was never sure of his exact age. Peraza, who also played with George Shearing and other jazz greats, was known for combining a blindingly fast drumming technique with a flamboyant style that audiences loved.

Jazz drummer Ed Thigpen, who often was described as "Mr. Taste" for his sensitive accompaniment of instrumentalists and singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell and Billy Taylor, died Wednesday at Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen. He was 79. Thigpen, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, was hospitalized before Christmas with heart and lung problems. His son, Michel, noted on Thigpen's website that his father "passed away very peacefully . . . in the company of his friends and family."

A musical partnership that reaches back 20 years, the meeting of drummer Scott Amendola with seven-string guitarist Charlie Hunter has yielded a wealth of memorable recordings, including Hunter's album-length cover of Bob Marley's "Natty Dread" and 2012's sparkling duet, "Not Getting Behind Is the New Getting Ahead. " Here the two reconvene in support of the groove-heavy "Pucker," a new duet album featuring Amendola as lead songwriter. The Blue Whale, 123 Astronaut E S Onizuka Suite 301, Los Angeles.

Anyone familiar with the sound of West Coast jazz from the 1950s knows the sound of Los Angeles-born drummer Chico Hamilton. A musician who often emphasized a subtle musical grace in his playing over snare-rattling runs, Hamilton helped forge the California sound dubbed "cool jazz" in the 1950s and launched the careers of a wealth of jazz artists both as a bandleader and an educator. Hamilton, 92, died at his New York City home Tuesday morning. The cause has not been determined, but Hamilton was diagnosed with emphysema late in life, according to his nephew Raoul Hamilton, who confirmed his death.