Mark Craney (August 26, 1952 – November 26, 2005) was an American rock and

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 A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Biography

Craney grew up in

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls ( ) is the List of cities in South Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the List of United States cities by population, 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha Coun ...

. His father had played the drums and was a big influence on his musical career. Craney initially played with local bands, beginning with the "Vandals" and later, while living in Vermillion, South Dakota, he played with "Zero Ted". He played on Tommy Bolin's last tour in 1976, Gino Vannelli's album '' Brother to Brother'', released in 1978 and the following tour, and with

Jean-Luc Ponty Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer. He is considered a pioneer of jazz-rock, particularly for his use of the electric violin starting in the 1970s. He rose to prominence for his colla ...

on the famous '' Imaginary Voyage'' in 1976 as well as the 1980 album '' Civilized Evil''. He also played with the band Jethro Tull from June 1980 to May 1981, on their album '' A'' (1980) and its following tour. Craney also appeared on several tracks from Ph.D. In the mid-1990s he was the drummer for Eric Burdon's I band. Though his resume was impressive, Craney's greatest commercial success was drumming for the Gino Vannelli single "I Just Wanna Stop" which soared to #4 in the US and #1 in Canada. Craney died of complications from diabetes and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in Sherman Oaks, California, at the age of 53.

References

External links

* * 1952 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Deaths from diabetes in California Deaths from pneumonia in California Jethro Tull (band) members 20th-century American male musicians {{US-drummer-stub Jazz musicians from South Dakota