Earl Palmer
Click for Earl Palmer Audio Interview, Courtesy "American Routes," Real Audio
The back beat of the Crescent City during the feverish fifties, Earl Palmer held down the groove at Cosimo's studio from l95O-'57 -- a period that yielded Little Richard's "Tutti-Frutti," Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," Fats Domino's "The Fat Man," and Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knockin,'" among countless other lease-breakin' party platters. Palmer moved to Los Angeles in the late '5Os, where he fulfilled his dream of becoming a first-rate jazz man--and then some! From Don & Dewey's "Ko Ko Joe" to Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else," Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" and Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba," and sessions spanning the entire history of rock and roll -- including the hillbilly jazz of steel guitar master Speedy West and his Telecaster-yielding partner in crime Jimmy Bryant, the surf scene of the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, the hard-hitting R&B of Charles Brown, Ray Charles, Earl Bostic and Lloyd Price, the blues of T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Roosevelt Sykes and Taj Mahal, to jazz sessions with Dizzy Gillespie, Monkees albums, Tim Buckley and Tim Hardin, Duane Eddie and the Everly Brothers, through Tom Waits and Elvis Costello, Earl Palmer has played on all of 'em.
The back beat of the Crescent City during the feverish fifties, Earl Palmer held down the groove at Cosimo's studio from l95O-'57 -- a period that yielded Little Richard's "Tutti-Frutti," Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," Fats Domino's "The Fat Man," and Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knockin,'" among countless other lease-breakin' party platters. Palmer moved to Los Angeles in the late '5Os, where he fulfilled his dream of becoming a first-rate jazz man--and then some! From Don & Dewey's "Ko Ko Joe" to Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else," Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" and Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba," and sessions spanning the entire history of rock and roll -- including the hillbilly jazz of steel guitar master Speedy West and his Telecaster-yielding partner in crime Jimmy Bryant, the surf scene of the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, the hard-hitting R&B of Charles Brown, Ray Charles, Earl Bostic and Lloyd Price, the blues of T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Roosevelt Sykes and Taj Mahal, to jazz sessions with Dizzy Gillespie, Monkees albums, Tim Buckley and Tim Hardin, Duane Eddie and the Everly Brothers, through Tom Waits and Elvis Costello, Earl Palmer has played on all of 'em.