Session ace Jim Keltner has stepped in for a whole host of classic drummers over the years. As perhaps rock music’s most famous hired gun, Keltner has had to emulate everyone from Buddy Rich to Ringo Starr in a professional setting. When you play jazz and Beatles songs at the same gig, you must have some kind of wild versatility. That varied approach and flexibility made Keltner the first call for everyone from Harry Nilsson to Barbra Streisand.
“My first influence, like a lot of people, was Gene Krupa,” Keltner told Forbes in 2021. “Then I discovered Buddy Rich, and went nuts. I didn’t think what he did was possible. Buddy was kind of inhuman, whereas Gene was soulful swing, a beautiful sound. Buddy always pointed that out about Gene. There was no competition. There couldn’t be anyway, because nobody could compete with Buddy, not even today.”
“Later on, I would listen to records not having a clue as to who the drummers were. Eventually, I made a point of finding out,” he added. “That’s when I discovered that Hal Blaine, who we discussed earlier as part of The Wrecking Crew, had played on a bunch of those records – and Earl Palmer, too. The drums were the key to many of those. When I fell in love with jazz, I learned about Philly Joe Jones, and the records he played on with Miles [Davis], and then Elvin [Jones] with [John] Coltrane.”
Keltner continued: “If I had to pick who was most influential to me, I would say Elvin. His playing was a blueprint for all jazz players, which was key to my life. He played so wide. It all comes at you at the same time. You find yourself studying it, playing like it. His [cymbal] ride pattern was completely different from anyone else’s. Again, like Ginger, very African.”
Like a lot of drummers at the time, Keltner saw the transition from jazz to rock happen firsthand. As a session musician in Los Angeles throughout the 1960s, Keltner played on his fair share of pop hits, although he was usually usurped by more seasoned session players like Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer. It wouldn’t be until fellow session player Leon Russell got him to play on Delaney & Bonnie’s 1969 album Accept No Substitute that Keltner finally broke through.
Keltner’s association with Delaney & Bonnie helped him land a permanent gig playing with Joe Cocker on his Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Not long after, Keltner befriended George Harrison and was able to become the house drummer during the Concert For Bangladesh. Keltner was now officially a rock drummer, but he still looked to Baker for guidance.
“Ginger was a jazz guy. That’s one of the reasons he didn’t play terribly conventional rock stuff, and that’s what drew me to him,” Keltner said. “As far as playing on all fours on ‘Sunshine’ – by the way, he didn’t just do that on one song, he did it a lot – it’s African. They don’t necessarily clap on two and four like we do here in the U.S. and in other parts of the Western world.”
“Africa is a wonderful source, and Ginger grabbed onto as much of it as he could. ‘Sunshine’ is a perfect example,” he claimed. “But it was not only the way he played around the drums, but the way he tuned them, too. Everything about Ginger Baker was really frickin’ cool. It was Afro and jazz, not your normal rock thing. I once talked to Eric [Clapton] about Ginger. He loved him, too.”
bt Tyler Golsen
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