Jim Keltner: His Time Is Tight

 

 His Time Is Tight

 

Jim Keltner has drummed for everybody from Bob Dylan to Steely Dan to Ry Cooder; he drives a lot of the better rock albums you own even when he goes unaccredited. His cunning discretion colors two of this year's better CDs: Lucinda Williams - Essence and Neil Young - Road Rock. 

  

Studio musicians pride themselves on anonymity. Hal Blaine, the great '60s drummer, played on sessions for the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Monkees, and many others. Yet solid as he was, you'd be hard pressed to figure out which tracks he did or didn't play on. His job was crucial: in a single session, reading sheet music for the first or second time, he laid down a rhythmic bedding against which the others defined themselves. A crack session ace like Blaine is the canvass to which producers add paint.


But there is a breed of session player that stands apart. These musicians cultivate a recognizable sound, and add nuance to projects that might otherwise sound flat. Jim Keltner, a top studio drummer for the past 30 years, has power, subtlety, and good taste. If his name appears on a recording, it's a good bet you'll want to hear it.

Keltner started out in the L.A. recording scene right as the Beatles were breaking up, and met up with his hero Ringo Starr at the Concert for Bangladesh, where they gleefully double-drummed (a terrifically difficult task). Since then he's drummed for everybody from Bob Dylan to Steely Dan to Ry Cooder; he drives a lot of the better rock albums you own even when he goes unaccredited.

Session players are in the service industry; they have to accommodate every imaginable style to suit every employer taste. Keltner does this while constantly refining his cunning, discrete sound. This past year he colored two such distinct sessions you'd never guess the same player was behind them both: Lucinda Williams's Essence, and Neil Young's Road Rock. (A partial list of the sides Keltner's played on in the past season include Jon Brion's Meaningless, Peter Case's Blue Guitar, The Charlatans UK's Wonderland, Cracker's Garage d'Or, Dion's Born to Be With You/Streetheart, Neil Finn's One Nil, and Rufus Wainwright's Poses.)

To begin with, Keltner's "time" is both fluid and firm. "Time" is that elusive steadiness all drummers seek, so elusive that many producers simply hook up a "click track" to a drummer's headphones and make them play along to a digital metronome. It's a big part of what makes today's slick contemporary sounds so stiff. "We never used a click track in the old days," Ringo Starr once said. "We did okay." Through the infinitely subtle way he controls the beat by pushing and pulling against it, Keltner can make a click track sound like a human pulse: steady, yet flexible. (The other great click track wizard is Rolling Stone Charlie Watts, with whom Keltner collaborated on an ambitious but ultimately out-of-reach project last year.)

Keltner's drumming is poetic; however simple, his patterns always send off more than one message at a time. On Williams's "Get Right With God," his patterns rise above the typical bass, snare, and hi-hat clich¿s; he gives you something to listen to beyond mere rhythm, without drawing undo attention to himself. This track would challenge any drummer to give the static rhythm a sense of shape, movement, and purpose. Keltner creates curves in the sound, gives the others a sense of where to land, and which accents can work as pivots. Half of the pleasure in listening to him lies in the sheer confidence he inspires from the others, including Williams's raspy vocal. The other half lies in the ongoing sense of anticipation he creates, the aura of the unexpected that hovers in the air even when nothing special is happening.

A show-off drummer would have enough trouble toning down for a Lucinda Williams session¿her songwriting calls for interior moods. But to hear the same Keltner bash his way through a thrilling set behind Neil Young makes you marvel at how much his ears embrace. Even when he starts soloing behind Neil Young's ravenous guitar in "Cowgirl in the Sand," a song you thought you were familiar with, he traces an intangible line between utter control and utter abandon. The challenge here is completely different: to make yet another live Neil Young effort sound fresh through songs that have become second nature. Keltner's choices here are uncanny: he's not pushing the music forward so much as pulling it more into itself, like the whirlpool at the center of a vortex. He can lope along with the song's lopsided verve, awash in its dismay, and then build to refrain-ending flourishes that have no right to fit into the small spaces he squeezes them in. As barbed and chaotic as Young's guitar playing is, you can get just as many thrills from Keltner's tidal control and release.

When Neil Young appeared on the Tribute to Heroes telethon on September 21st, he sang John Lennon's "Imagine" with a fearsome tenderness. That was Jim Keltner on drums, supporting the song's vast ambition with a decisive rhythmic spine, the same way he did on the original session. When singers want deeply felt definition, contour, and color from a stickman, they know who to call.


First published at publicbroadcasting.net, January 2002

The 13 Greatest Groove Drummers

Perhaps the best way to define “groove” is what it’s not. Groove is not controlled metric modulation blowing over the bar line (though that could groove). Nor is it the world’s most perfect drum machine beat carefully placed on the grid, no matter how acoustically resonant or rhythmically correct. Groove players often have tons of technique, but that’s not the main thing on their mind or what’s emanating from their gut. A groove is something you feel deep inside your being, which produces an irresistible demand to move!

The greatest grooves — think James Brown’s “Cold Sweat,” Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” The Meters’ “Cissy Strut” — address every possible permutation of tempo, meter, inflection, dynamics, and note content, but at their core they make the Earth move under your feet.

The greatest groove masters have come from all walks of the musical world, be it the swinging Philly Joe Jones, the wailing Gene Krupa, the delicate Manu Katché or the volcanic Alex Van Halen. But in choosing the drummers throughout recorded history who most consistently laid down fat foundations that made their bandmates sound even better, the final list was actually rather small. Who are these men of the sticking/drumming cloth who year after year made millions dance and move? What are the ingredients that made their sound so special? What’s their lasting impact and considerable worth?

Our advice to you is, read on.

Hal Blaine

Perhaps the original session drummer (after Earl Palmer), Hal Blaine invented the modern pop-drumming language. As a member of the L.A. session unit The Wrecking Crew, Blaine laid the foundation for some of the seminal songs of ’60s and ’70s AM radio, including tracks by Elvis Presley, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, The 5th Dimension, The Supremes, The Byrds, and many more. Blaine’s truly massive, resonant, and original beats seemed to draw their power from the Earth itself. His rhythms drove the radio rock of Phil Spector in the ’50s and ’60s, created atmospheric, textural drumming poetry with Simon & Garfunkel, performed big band craft with Frank Sinatra, and simple folk-pop beats with Neil Diamond, The Byrds, and The Mamas & The Papas. Blaine exemplifies the ability to create the perfect drum part, regardless of style, difficulty, or era. Quintessential Blaine moment: The deep tom fills of The Carpenters’ “Close To You.”

Matt Chamberlain

In an era when you’re just as likely to hear a drum machine program as a flesh and blood drummer, Matt Chamberlain has successfully navigated both worlds. By creating a singular groove that has no real sonic signature, Chamberlain became the first-call L.A. session drummer (sorry, Josh Freese). The diverse artists he has recorded with mirror his enormous ability to fit into any situation. Majorly pliable, Chamberlain’s skills (both physically delivered and occasionally programmed) have appeared on more than 200 albums, including those by Fiona Apple, The Wallflowers, Stevie Nicks, Dave Navarro, Master Musicians Of Jajouka, Garbage, David Bowie, Keith Urban, William Shatner, Shakira, Sean Lennon, Sarah McLaughlin, and Dido. And while pulling in the big superstar bucks, Chamberlain has also found time to play small-time projects, including his own solo album (which he described as “an imaginary soundtrack to an Asian-Western-sci-fi-horror movie”), as well as the bands Thruster, Critters Buggin’, and Weapon Of Choice. Tori Amos has called Chamberlain “the human loop.”

Steve Gadd

For drummers, there is B.G. and A.G.: Before Gadd and After Gadd. To hear this Rochester, New York–born drummer play in the mid-’70s was to have your drumming consciousness altered forever. Gadd played with such a deep level of orchestral detail while adhering exactly to the song form, and with such stunning creativity, that it shocked the senses. Of course, Gadd is a technical master, but on such epic groove tracks as “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover” (Paul Simon), “High Heeled Sneakers” (Chuck Mangione), “Lenore” (Chick Corea), and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” (Leo Sayer), he combined finesse, power, and remarkable originality into an undeniable groove. Gadd disguised one of his big-time weapons, the nine-stroke roll, by flipping it between hi-hat and snare drum while his bass drum nailed the 1. Trademark! A rudimental whiz influenced by Tony Williams and Elvin Jones, Gadd is grooving harder than ever these days, slapping his skins for Eric Clapton, Joss Stone, James Taylor, and others.

Jim Gordon

Before the unfortunate circumstances that led to his imprisonment in 1983, Jim Gordon was the busiest session drummer alive. His legacy in rock, folk, and even hip-hop remains unmatched. Apprenticing with his hero Hal Blaine on the L.A. session circuit, Gordon brought elements of big band, jazz, and pop drumming to bear on a wide range of artists, including Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Traffic, John Lennon, George Harrison, and the Incredible Bongo Band. The intro from the latter group’s “Apache” became one of the foundational samples of hip-hop. Gordon’s extremely musical approach had him often playing complementary melodies on his toms and cymbals while kicking a deep pocket. Streamlined groove was a trademark well expressed on Derek & The Dominoes’ Layla And Other Love Songs, and his lone solo LP, Hogfat (one side L.A. jazz, one side rock/pop stylings). Gordon could drive a band with intense sixteenth-notes on his ride cymbal, or punch flowing tom fills from his Camco kit, as on Layla’s “Keep On Growing.”

Roger Hawkins

As part of the storied Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section of Alabama, Roger Hawkins drummed on dozens of hits, including Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll,” and Eric Clapton’s “I’ve Got A Rock N’ Roll Heart.” Loose and funky, syncopated and behind the beat, Hawkins’ iconic groove sounds like the Old South. He’s never in a hurry, and his time feel is similarly relaxed, as are his clanging bell-centric ride patterns and slipping sliding bass-and-snare-drum communiqués. Hawkins can also impersonate other drummers with flair. Are those Pretty Purdie’s shuffling rim-clicks on The Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There?” Hawkins on the case. Hal Blaine tub thumping on Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1,000 Dances?” Hawkins again. A foursquare drummer who covers all the bases, Hawkins just feels good.

Al Jackson Jr.

Like Hal Blaine and Roger Hawkins, Al Jackson Jr. was part of a regional powerhouse recording scene — Stax Records in Memphis. Often called the “human timekeeper,” Jackson had a very measured, powerful backbeat that produced an extraordinary amount of rhythmic energy. Jackson’s drumming found perfect expression in the tight R&B of his main gig, Booker T. & The MGs on hits like “Green Onions.” With MGs’ Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper, Jackson recorded super soul Stax tracks for Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, and many more. But Jackson’s greatest recordings are the Willie Mitchell–produced hits of soul vocalist Al Green. On “Let’s Stay Together,” “Tired Of Being Alone,” and “I’m Still in Love With You” Jackson’s drumming is simply transcendent: rich, round, energetic, kinetic, grooving beyond belief. Almost anyone can play the notes of these historic singles, but only Jackson could fill them with such life and power.

Jim Keltner

Is Jim Keltner a jazz drummer? A rock drummer? A country rock-cum-big-band drummer? It’s hard to know as Keltner is impossible to categorize — he’s seemingly played it all. Perhaps the most resourceful drummer alive, Keltner typically finds the most unusual, and the most musical solution to any drumming question. His rustic grooves rattle, buzz, vibrate, and hum, often produced from a variety of sticks and stick-like instruments. Keltner’s mid-’70s work with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Harry Nilsson, Joe Cocker, and Steely Dan produced milestones like the Dan’s “Josie” and Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (during the recording of which Keltner cried). But his recent work is even more striking. The Traveling Wilburys, Los Lobos, and even Money Mark provided the perfect release for Keltner’s cool creativity, which includes never hitting the obvious beat when his innate, oversized talent could produce something infinitely better.

Zigaboo Modeliste

At first listen, Zigaboo Modeliste’s drumming with The Meters sounds wrong. Deranged. Damaged. Like some fool dropped a screwdriver in the tape machine. Modeliste’s second-line New Orleans rhythms herk and jerk, breathe and kick, addressing parts of the groove that no one knew existed until he found them. Whether leaning forward or back in his extremely deep and wily pocket, Modeliste, in conjunction with The Meters’ outrageous soul/funk, places the beat like no one before or since. “Cissy Strut” finds him slicing the hi-hat like it owes him money one second, splashing it silly the next, kicking the bass drum in jumbled-up bombs and popping his snare like a night sprite. Zigaboo’s beats simply dance and jump like crazy, and have been sampled by Run DMC, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, and many others. Quintessential Zigaboo: The broken-up, totally syncopated, practically hilarious groove machinations of The Meters’ “Look-Ka Py Py.”

Andy Newmark

Andy Newmark’s hard-hitting grooves fueled such ’70s hits as John Lennon’s “(Just Like) Starting Over,” Carly Simon’s “Anticipation,” and David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” as well as lesser known records from organist Neil Larsen (Jungle Fever), ABC (Beauty Stab), and Roxy Music (Avalon). Oh, and don’t forget the recording that branded Newmark as a new groove genius — “In Time,” from Sly & the Family Stone’s Fresh. The ingredients of Newmark’s innovative style: airy, delicate hi-hat accents; snare hits that drove the music with sweaty intent; subtle bass drum patterns; and a flowing groove conception that turned straight tracks into funk-fired rhythm magic. This was never more evident than on Neil Larsen’s Jungle Fever. Playing pungent Latin rhythms in a band that included bassist Willie Weeks and tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, Newmark smacked his kit with a beautiful, behind-the-beat gravitas that’s both deep as a volcano and light as a butterfly.

Jeff Porcaro

Jeff Porcaro was a team player first, a session drummer second. Making his name with L.A. rockers Toto, he was soon in demand for his ability to not only groove, but also to turn practically any session into a hit. Porcaro’s stellar creativity and amazing drumming personality can be heard all over Steely Dan’s Katy Lied and Gaucho, where (after Dan’s Becker and Fagen left the premises) he and engineer Roger Nichols spent an entire night recording and then perfecting the odd-metered title track. Like many of the greatest groove players, you could spot Porcaro’s big beat a mile away. There’s a certain indefinable lift in his best tracks, as though he gave every bit of strength and purpose to every take, song after song. The term “monster” suits him well. In an era when not many studio drummers were particularly hard hitting, Porcaro smacked his drums with a vengeance, particularly on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” Toto’s “Hold The Line,” Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown,” and Donald Fagen’s “The Goodbye Look.” He could as easily play popping timbale fills on Scaggs’ “Love Me Tomorrow” or skanky reggae riddims in Toto’s “Somewhere Tonight.” A perfect example of Porcaro’s creativity, deep groove, and serious skills? Toto’s 1982 hit “Rosanna.” The world lost one of its great musicians on August 5, 1992 when Porcaro prematurely passed away.

Bernard Purdie

Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen once said that when recording Aja, Royal Scam, and Gaucho, while the other musicians were still figuring out the charts, Bernard Purdie already had the drum part nailed and was telling them how to play their parts. Typically performing with an erect posture like a king surveying his domain, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie lent his dancing feel (the “Purdie Shuffle”) to dozens of hit recordings in the ’70s, including Aretha Franklin’s “Until You Come Back To Me,” Steely Dan’s “Home At Last,” James Brown’s “Say It Loud — I’m Black & I’m Proud,” and B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.” Though Purdie’s effortless groove is as dominant as his personality, it’s also light, popping, and practically Caribbean. Purdie’s work on Aretha’s “Rock Steady” was nothing less than a revolution, his eighth-note snare slaps augmented with Latin bell figures and a loping feel that set the standard for drum breaks for years to come.

Ringo Starr

If ever a drummer epitomized taste over technique, it’s Ringo Starr. During The Beatles’ six albums, Ringo kept pace with the ingenious songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, creating perfectly complementary grooves in songs that ran the gamut from blues, Broadway, jazz, metal, and pop to Latin and country. If anything, Ringo created the template for every session drummer that followed. A left-handed drummer playing a right-handed kit, Ringo’s style changed as The Beatles’ music progressed. He played swing triplets, twists, and bossa novas on early material, grounded avant-garde escapades on Magical Mystery Tour, punched hard rock, blues, and country on Meet The Beatles, and reached his creative zenith on Abbey Road’s “Come Together” and his lone drum solo track, “The End.” Post-Beatles, Ringo made his name as a session drummer extraordinaire before settling into his role as an avuncular superstar leading Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band.

Clyde Stubblefield/Jabo Starks

Without the dynamic duo of Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks there would be no David Garibaldi, no Dennis Chambers, no Gerald Heyward. As the inventive soul rhythmatists for James Brown’s legendary mid-’60s recordings, Stubblefield and Starks put the singer’s vocal gyrations in drumming motion, following his every tic and movement, then replicating it on the kit. Practically inventing linear grooves on the classics “Cold Sweat, “Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose,” “Licking Stick–Licking Stick,” and “Funky Drummer,” the pair’s intricate grooves meshed with the other musicians’ output to create a locomotion of unparalleled proportions. Playing both as a team and solo behind Brown, the drummers — most likely under the singer’s direction — created lockstep sixteenth-note patterns with the rhythm-section members, creating a tight, extremely fluid forward-motion groove. Stubblefield’s driving work on “Funky Drummer” resulted in one of the most sampled tracks of all time.

• By Sam Pryor
• Originally published in the April 2010 issue of DRUM! Magazine

Jim Keltner On Wikipedia

James Lee "Jim" Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is a session drummer who has contributed to the work of many well-known artists. He is originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Career

1970s

Keltner is best known for his session work on solo recordings by three of The Beatles, working often with George Harrison, John Lennon (including Lennon solo albums, as well as albums released both by the Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono), and Ringo Starr. He and Starr were the drummers on the Concert for Bangladesh, rock music's first charity benefit, initiated by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, in August 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York; he also performed at the Garden in 1972 for John Lennon's "One To One" benefit for the Willowbrook State School. Keltner later joined the 1974 George Harrison/Ravi Shankar tour, after many phone calls on the road from Harrison. His first gig on the tour was Memphis November 20, 1974.

Keltner's relationship with the former Beatles was such that his name was used to parody McCartney on albums released by Harrison and Starr in 1973. Early that year, Paul McCartney, the only Beatle not to have worked with Keltner, included a note on the back cover of his Red Rose Speedway album, encouraging fans to join the "Wings Fun Club" by sending a "stamped addressed envelope" to an address in London. Later that year, both Harrison's Living in the Material World and Starr's Ringo contained a similar note encouraging fans to join the "Jim Keltner Fun Club" by sending a "stamped undressed elephant" to an address in Hollywood. Keltner played the role of the judge in the video for George Harrison's 1976 Top 30 hit, "This Song".

Keltner started out in jazz, although his first session was recording "She's Just My Style" for the pop group Gary Lewis and the Playboys. In addition to his work with three of the Beatles, Keltner, as a free-lance drummer, has also worked with Leon Russell, Gabor Szabo, Delaney Bramlett, Roy Orbison, Harry Nilsson, Jerry Garcia, Eric Clapton, Guthrie Thomas, Steely Dan, Joe Cocker, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Brian Wilson, Roger McGuinn, Seals and Crofts, The Ramones, Bill Frisell, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Phil Keaggy, Steve Jones, Crowded House, Fiona Apple, Elvis Costello, The Bee Gees, Jackson Browne, The Manhattan Transfer, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Sam Phillips, Los Lobos, Pink Floyd, Warren Zevon, Rufus Wainwright, Tom Petty, Gillian Welch, the Steve Miller Band, Alice Cooper, Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams among many others. He is featured on Carly Simon's 1971 album, Anticipation. In 1973, Keltner was the session drummer on Bob Dylan's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, which includes the hit "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Keltner says that session "was a monumental session for me because it was such a touching song, it was the first time I actually cried when I was playing".[1]

1980s

In the late 1980s, Keltner toured with Starr's All-Starr Band. He also played drums on both albums released by the 1980s supergroup, the Traveling Wilburys, playing under the pseudonym Buster Sidebury.

He has specialized in R&B, and is said to have influenced Jeff Porcaro and Danny Seraphine of Chicago. His drumming style typically melds deceptively simple drum patterns and a casual, loose feel with extraordinary precision. Demonstrations of his style and range can be found from "Jealous Guy" on John Lennon's Imagine, the hit single "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright, "Josie" on Aja by Steely Dan, "Watching the River Flow" by Bob Dylan and The Thorns' debut, in which he sensitively accompanies Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins. Keltner performed on many classic recordings by J. J. Cale, and often worked with bassist Tim Drummond.

In 1987, Keltner, along with guitarist Ry Cooder, and bassist Nick Lowe played on John Hiatt's Bring the Family. Four years later the four musicians reunited as the band Little Village, recording an eponymously-named album.

He played on four Richard Thompson albums: Daring Adventures (1986), Amnesia (1988), Rumor and Sigh (1991) and you? me? us? (1996).

1990s to present

In the mid 1990s, Jim joined the London Metropolitan Orchestra on its recording of "An American Symphony", on the movie soundtrack for Mr Holland's Opus.

In 2000, he toured with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their "Tour of America".

In 2002, he briefly joined Bob Dylan's band during the European gigs while its main drummer, George Receli, recuperated from a hand injury. Later in the year, Keltner played in Concert For George, a tribute to Harrison a year following his death. Wearing the sweatshirt with a Bob Dylan logo, he reprised his role as the Wilburys' drummer, joining Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne for "Handle with Care."

In 2003, he toured with Simon & Garfunkel in their Old Friends tour.

In 2006, he toured with T-Bone Burnett in The True False Identity tour and was featured on Jerry Lee Lewis' album Last Man Standing.

In 2006, he also worked with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell on his self-titled solo debut album.

In 2007, Money Mark's, Brand New by Tomorrow, was released featuring Keltner and bassist Carol Kaye.

In 2008, Keltner appeared on Break up the Concrete by The Pretenders, on One Kind Favor by B. B. King and on Oasis' "The Boy with the Blues", a non album-track from Dig Out Your Soul. Also, Keltner participated in the production of the album Psalngs,[2] the debut release of Canadian musician John Lefebvre.

In 2010, Keltner produced Jerry Lee Lewis' Mean Old Man duets CD. He played drums on Fistful of Mercy's debut album, As I Call You Down, which one of the band's members, Dhani Harrison, described in an interview as the first project of his that he felt worthy to bring to Keltner, who was an old family friend (Dhani is the son of George Harrison). Keltner also played on The Union by Leon Russell and Elton John, produced by T-Bone Burnett and released on October 10, 2010. He also appeared on the eponymous Eric Clapton album, on 8 of the 14 tracks.

Joseph Arthur's latest album The Graduation Ceremony (released May 24, 2011) features Keltner on drums, reprising a partnership that began with the Fistful of Mercy project.

Jim Keltner Biography

Jim Keltner is one of a group of session musicians who achieved near super-stardom at the start of the 1970s, amid the explosion of recording work by the ex-members of the Beatles -- along with Leon Russell, Klaus Voorman, Billy Preston, Jim Gordon, and Bobby Whitlock, to name just a few, his name became closely associated with that first flash of post-Beatles creativity by John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. But he was already one of the busiest drummers working in Los Angeles, and his playing -- even discounting the records by the former Beatles at the time and since -- was heard on some of the most popular records of the era, by everyone from Eric Clapton to Carly Simon to Barbra Steisand. Keltner was born in Tulsa, OK in 1942, and was initially inspired to start playing because of an interest in jazz. But the popularity of jazz was in retreat when he came of age during the late '50s and early '60s, and it was the explosion of pop/rock in the mid-'60s that enabled him to break into recording work in Los Angeles. He first began to attract attention in the music world for his work on the records of Gary Lewis & the Playboys. As far as the public knew, Gary Lewis himself played the drums on his records, but the arranger and leader on the Gary Lewis recordings was Oklahoma-born multi-instrumentalist Leon Russell, who brought in session musicians to augment (and often supplant) the work of Lewis and his band on the records, especially the singles. Keltner's earliest recording session was on "She's Just My Style," and he was soon an integral part of the group's sound, along with another Oklahoma-born transplant to Los Angeles, bassist Carl Radle. Despite these recording sessions and other work associated with Lewis' group, Keltner's music career was hardly paying a living, and for several years at the outset he was supported by his wife. Toward the end of the '60s, he finally began getting regular session work, and eventually became one of the busier drummers in Los Angeles.

Between them, Keltner and Jim Gordon, and their older contemporary Hal Blaine, accounted for a huge portion of the best drumming heard in the city. His earliest credited performances on record were with Gabor Szabo on the album Bacchanal (1968), and over the next year he participated on a massive number of recordings, including albums by Szabo and Cal Tjader in jazz, singer/songwriter Barbara Keith's Verve debut, harmony duo Wendy & Bonnie's debut, and British pop/rocker Dave Mason's Alone Together. It was his work in association with Leon Russell that would have the biggest effect, directly and indirectly, on Keltner's name recognition, initially through his playing on Delaney & Bonnie's Accept No Substitute. That record attracted the attention of British soul shouter Joe Cocker, who recruited Russell and everyone else he could out of the Delaney & Bonnie band for his album Mad Dogs & Englishmen. And it was playing with Joe Cocker that led to an explosion of work for Keltner in 1970 and 1971, on records by Carly Simon (Anticipation), Barbra Streisand (Barbra Joan Streisand), Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & Priscilla), George Harrison (The Concert for Bangladesh), and John Lennon (Imagine). Keltner was actually the first choice as drummer for All Things Must Pass -- Delaney & Bonnie keyboard-player Bobby Whitlock, who helped Harrison put the band for that album together, wanted Keltner, but he was on tour with Gabor Szabo at the time, which was how Jim Gordon ended up sharing the drumming chores with Ringo Starr on the triple album and also ended up with Derek & the Dominos.

But playing on Imagine was enough to boost Keltner's profile. In those days, in the immediate wake of the Beatles' breakup, that album (like almost everything else issued by the ex-members) sold by the millions, and many of the listeners, curious about precisely what the former Beatles were doing and who they were working with, paid extremely close attention to the credits on those records. After the release of Imagine (and Yoko Ono's Fly) and The Concert for Bangladesh, he was a major name before the public -- and just in case anyone doubted just how good a player he was, when former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr recorded his first full-fledged pop album, Ringo, Keltner was on it; and it went on to become a number one album. He also played on Lennon's One to One benefit concert for the Willowbrook State School, which was later released commercially as a live album and video; and Harrison subsequently got him to join the band on his 1974 tour of the United States. By that time, Keltner was so ubiquitous on ex-Beatles recordings and performances, that he was perceived by some on-lookers as virtually the "fifth Beatle" as Billy Preston, Klaus Voorman, or any of the other late-era and post-era regular participants in their work. But in the months and years following those performances, he was also a very visible presence on records by the likes of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Randy Newman, Arlo Guthrie, Harry Nilsson, Rita Coolidge, Jesse Ed Davis, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Freddie King, the Bee Gees, Jack Bruce, Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, Bill Wyman, Steely Dan, and Gary Wright. Keltner played on many, many hundreds of records across the '70s, '80s, and beyond, solidifying his musical reputation. He was also one of the notable survivors of those decades -- where colleagues such as Carl Radle and Jim Gordon succumbed to illness, physical and otherwise, Keltner has gone right on making great music, decade after decade. Among the more curious appearances he's made on record and on-stage, he worked on Who drummer Keith Moon's Two Sides of the Moon solo album, and played with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, and -- (in the guise of "Buster Sidbury") -- was part of George Harrison's Traveling Wilburys. In the early '90s, in the wake of a series of sessions that he played for John Hiatt, Keltner became part of the supergroup Little Village, with Hiatt, Ry Cooder, and Nick Lowe. Keltner has remained busy into the 21st century, on tour with T Bone Burnett and on record with Jerry Lee Lewis (Last Man Standing), and he even gets the occasional chance to return to his original first love, jazz. He is admired by two generations of drummers following in his wake, and 40 years into his career is still regarded as one of the finest drummers in the world.