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By Barry Kernfeld |
Jan 1, 2008
(27
Apr.
1943 -- 18
Nov.
1989),
jazz and soul music drummer, was born Frederick
Douglas
Waits in Jackson, Mississippi, the son of Lillie
B.
Weathers. His father's name is unknown. Waits played drums as a child and studied flute and drums at Lanier High School. At age sixteen, in the summer before his senior year, he toured with the Upsetters, accompanying the rhythm and blues musician Little
Willie
John. In this setting he first performed in New York City at Smalls' Paradise.At Jackson State College, Waits majored in music, with flute as his primary instrument. While in college he played in bands that accompanied the rhythm and blues musicians PercyMayfield, IvoryJoeHunter, and SamCooke on tour, and SonnyBoyWilliamson, JohnLeeHooker, and MemphisSlim in their visits to Jackson. From about 1962 -- 1963, traveling back and forth between Jackson and Detroit, where his stepmother lived, Waits worked as a house drummer for the emerging Motown label. He accompanied the Temptations, Martha
Reeves and the Vandellas, the Supremes, and Little
StevieWonder. Owing to the absence of detailed discographical research into Motown Records, it is impossible to determine on which of the seminal hit records Waits might be drumming; he is mentioned on only one such disk, Wonder's first hit from 1963, “Fingertips.”In Detroit, Waits doubled as a jazz drummer in a group with the bassist Cecil
McBee and the pianist Kirk Lightsey; the saxophonist Bennie
Maupin also played with the group at times. After a Motown tour with SmokeyRobinson, Reeves, MarvinGaye, and Wonder, Waits joined the saxophonist Paul Winter's group, twice touring Brazil. Waits then settled in New York, where initially he shared a loft with Maupin. At some point, probably during the Motown tour or after coming to New York, Waits performed with Choker Campbell's band at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He also studied informally with Charlie
Persip, then house drummer at the Apollo, and with Jo
Jones.Over the next decade Waits was extremely active, mainly in jazz. He worked with the trombonist Curtis Fuller, the trumpeter Donald
Byrd—with whom he recorded in 1966—the trumpeter Kenny
Dorham, the pianist Cedar
Walton, the trumpeter GeraldWilson's big band, and the singers Damita
Jo and BettyCarter. Waits was a member of SonnyRollins's trio in June
1966, and that same year he recorded with the pianist RayBryant, whose rather bland album, Lonesome Traveler, exemplifies the sort of rhythmic patterns that Waits might have used in Motown sessions.From 1966 -- 1967 Waits was a member of the pianist Sir
Roland
Hanna's New York Jazz Sextet. From 1967 -- 1970 Waits worked with the pianist McCoyTyner, with whom he made several recordings, including Expansions (1968). Around this time Waits married Haima (maiden name unknown); they had two sons. While with Tyner, who scuffled for work during these dark years of jazz, Waits also toured the United States and Europe—Europe in 1968 with the singer EllaFitzgerald. He worked on and off with the trumpeter Freddie Hubbard for three years. Fleeting associations during this period include work with the pianist Walter
Bishop, with the singer JoeWilliams, and with the saxophonist GaryBartz, as well as albums with the pianist Joe
Zawinul in 1967, with the saxophonist JohnnyHodges in 1968, with the pianist AndrewHill—with whom he recorded Grass Roots in 1968, and another session in 1969—with the guitarist KennyBurrell in 1969, and with the saxophonist PharoahSanders in 1969.By the 1970s Waits was sometimes known as Dahoud rather than as Freddie. Early in the decade Waits worked with the trumpeter LeeMorgan's band, recording in 1971. Around this time he also held brief jobs with the flutist Hubert
Laws; with the singers LenaHorne, Dee Dee Bridgewater, CarmenMcRae, and Nancy
Wilson; and with the saxophonist JimmyHeath. Most significantly, in 1971 he joined MaxRoach's ensemble M'Boom Re: Percussion. Waits also accompanied the pianist Billy
Taylor intermittently from 1971 -- 1975 in various engagements, including television appearances.In 1972 Waits was a member of the bassist Richard
Davis's quintet for the making of the free jazz album Epistrophy and Now's the Time, which begins with a substantial drum solo by Waits. In and around 1973 Waits accompanied Fitzgerald at the Newport Jazz Festival and made the first of several European tours with M'Boom Re: Percussion. He also served as musical director for the PBS television series Soul, accompanying, among others, the singers AlGreen and GladysKnight; and he was the drummer both for the saxophonist James
Moody's hard bop album Feelin' It Together and for Marvin
Gaye's huge soul hit “Let's Get It On.”In the following year, 1974, Waits's multifaceted activities included touring Europe and Africa with the Duke Ellington orchestra under Mercer
Ellington, contributing to Maupin's album The Jewel in the Lotus and to the reed player Bobby
Jones's album Hill Country Suite, and performing with the Dixieland trumpeter Bobby
Hackett at the Newport Jazz Festival. Waits also worked again with Nancy Wilson and embarked on a European tour with Hanna and the New York Jazz Quartet, which performed at the Laren International Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. In 1975, in addition to continuing work with Taylor, Waits rejoined Ellington, performing with the New York Jazz Repertory Company, with the saxophonists Jimmy
Heath and Stan
Getz and the drummer Grady Tate, at a time when Tate was presenting himself as a singer.From the mid-1960s Waits had participated in the activities of the Jazzmobile, which supported jazz performance and education in Harlem. Working at times in association with the Jazz Interactions workshop and the New School for Social Research, Waits also gave concerts and taught in prisons, schools, and colleges. By 1976 these activities had led Waits to a formal position as a member of the music faculty at the Livingston College music department at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey.Waits continued, however, to pursue an active performance career, recording again with Fuller in 1978. In 1979 he formed Colloquium III with the percussionists BillyHart and Horacee
Arnold, recording the album M'Boom Re: Percussion, on which Waits plays various orchestral, African, Latin, and jazz percussion instruments as a participant in the group's pan-stylistic manner. In 1980 he also recorded the album
Bill Dixon in Italy and another session with Hill, which produced Strange Serenade.Waits's wife died from heart problems in about 1984. He remained active with M'Boom Re: Percussion, with whom he recorded the album Collage that same year. Waits was a member of the drummer Jack
DeJohnette's trio when the leader worked as a pianist, recording The Jack DeJohnette Piano Album with the group in 1985. In 1987 Waits recorded again with Hanna's trio, in addition to performing in the pianist CecilTaylor's quintet. From 1987 -- 1989 he was a member, with the bassist Buster
Williams, of the pianist Stanley
Cowell's trio We Three, and he was also a member of Trio Transition with the pianist Mulgrew
Miller and the bassist Reggie
Workman. Both of these trios toured Japan and made recordings, including two CDs: We Three (1987) and Trio Transition with Special Guest Oliver Lake (1988). In 1989 Waits returned to Europe with M'Boom Re: Percussion and also with the vibraphonist Jay
Hoggard, with whom he recorded. Waits died of pneumonia and renal failure in New York City.For any listener familiar with their mid-1970s work, mentioning Richard
Davis and Marvin
Gaye, M'Boom Re: Percussion and Bobby
Hackett, or Gladys
Knight and Mercer
Ellington in the same breath may seem disconcerting. Yet Waits was comfortable, accomplished, and stylistically adaptable in working with all of them. Never an innovator, he was nonetheless quite possibly the most eclectically talented professional percussionist of his century.
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