School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

Shelly Manne

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Shelly Manne was an American jazz drummer, born in Manhattan in 1920. His father and uncles were drummers. He grew up taking the swing drummers Jo Jones and Dave Tough as his models and developed his style in the clubs of 52nd Street. In 1940 he landed his first job with a well-known big band, the orchestra of Bobby Byrne. He recorded with Coleman Hawkins and played with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker as bebop emerged. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he became a star with Woody Herman and Stan Kenton.

Music and breakthrough

In the early 1950s he settled in Los Angeles, on a ranch where he and his wife kept horses. There he became a leading figure of West Coast Jazz. He played with Shorty Rogers, Art Pepper, Chet Baker and Hampton Hawes, among others, and recorded extensively for Contemporary Records. In 1959 his quintet recorded live for three days at the Black Hawk in San Francisco, which yielded four LPs. His 1953 album The West Coast Sound, with specially commissioned compositions, shows the tightly arranged, cool style. He himself did not like being pigeonholed.

Influence

Manne was versatile. He played Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and later fusion, and performed on hundreds of Hollywood films and television programmes. Albums such as West Side Story from 1960 and Daktari from 1967 show his range. He died in 1984. Manne showed that a drummer can be a soloist and a colourful accompanist at the same time.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Shelly Manne's West Side Story and notice the drumming: how he supports Bernstein's melodies with colour and short accents instead of merely keeping time.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: ArtistsWest Coast jazz