On this blog, we don’t usually post about people who’ve passed on, but this video of 91-year-old drummer Jerrie Thill (1917 – 2010) was irresistible.
“Thill began playing professionally at 18, working as a drummer, singer and bandleader in Chicago. She came into her own during the post-Prohibition era, playing in “juke joints” . . . . From 1935 to 1938 she was the leader of an eight-piece, all-girl touring swing band, and in 1945 she moved to L.A. to become the in-house drummer at Hollywood’s Flamingo night club. In 1974 she joined Peggy Gilbert’s Dixie Belles and toured with the group for two decades. Over the years she’s performed on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson’ and made guest appearances on shows like ‘The Golden Girls,’ and ‘Married With Children.'” At 91, she still had a regular monthly gig at the El Cid in Silver Lake (a neighborhood in L.A.).
When she connected with songwriter Allee Willis, who wrote the theme to “Friends,” the Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance,” and “The Color Purple” musical, among other hits, Allee knew she had to make a video. “The tempo of the recording is timed to the little bursts of oxygen that come out of [Jerrie’s oxygen tank],” Willis says. “I think it might be the first time that oxygen has been used as percussion.” Read more here and visit Jerri’s website here. (E-mail subscribers: click the post title to go to the blog and see the video.)
[UPDATE: By coincidence, last week as we were preparing this post, we discovered a video of a “drumming grandma” in La Crosse, WI, which was going viral. We posted it on Facebook, but want to add the updated version here for blog subscribers to enjoy. Turns out she’s not a grandma and she’s been a professional drummer!]
