James Ross Lovelace (February 6, 1940 – October 29, 2004) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

drummer.

Biography

He was born in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

. By the early 1960s, he had begun performing in

jazz club A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music, although some jazz clubs primarily focus on the study and/or promotion of jazz-music. Jazz clubs are usually a type of nightclub or bar, which is licens ...

s in New York City. From the mid-1960s to the 1980s, he was a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

on albums by performers such as

Junior Mance Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. (October 10, 1928 – January 17, 2021), known as Junior Mance, was an American jazz pianist and composer. Biography Early life (1928–1947) Mance was born in Evanston, Illinois. When he was five years old, Mance st ...

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, and

Wes Montgomery John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a ...

, with whom he also played regularly. In 1967 he played on the debut album by singer-songwriter

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

. Biography by Jason Ankeny, ''Allmusic''
Retrieved October 16, 2022
Retrieved October 16, 2022 In later years, he regularly played at

Smalls Jazz Club Smalls Jazz Club is a jazz club at 183 West 10th Street, Greenwich Village, New York City. Established in 1994, it earned a reputation in the 1990s as a "hotbed for New York's jazz talent" with a "well-deserved reputation as one of the best plac ...

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, with pianist

Frank Hewitt Frank Hewitt (October 23, 1935 – September 5, 2002) was an American hard bop jazz pianist. Life and career Born in Queens, New York, Hewitt lived most of his life in Harlem. His mother was a church pianist, and he initially studied classica ...

, and as a member of the band Across 7 Street, that also featured Sacha Perry (piano), Chris Byars (saxophone), and Ari Roland (bass). They released an album, ''The Eternal Pyramid'', in 2004. He died from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

in 2004, at the age of 64.

Playing style

Pianist

Brad Mehldau Bradford Alexander Mehldau (; born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Mehldau studied music at The New School, touring and recording while still a student. He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's quar ...

described playing with Lovelace: "He had a swing that was right down the middle — maybe comparable to

Art Taylor Arthur S. Taylor Jr. (April 6, 1929 – February 6, 1995) was an American jazz drummer, who "helped define the sound of modern jazz drumming".Watrous, Peter (February 7, 1995)"Art Taylor, 65, Jazz Drummer Who Inspired Young Musicians" ''The Ne ...

, but all his own. Whereas

Jimmy Cobb Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb (January 20, 1929May 24, 2020) was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2009. Early life Cobb was born in Washington, D.C., on J ...

and others had pulled me, Lovelace ''held'' me in place with his beat, gently but absolutely."

References

External links

* 1940 births 2004 deaths American jazz drummers Across 7 Street members American male drummers Drummers from Missouri {{US-jazz-drummer-stub