Steve Ellington

Steve Ellington picked up the drums when he was four years old^[2] and played with Ray Charles when he was nine years old.^[1] In the latter half of the 1950s, he played with Charles Brown, George Adams, and Duke Pearson.^[2] He studied for one year at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1961–1962, where he played with Sam Rivers, and then worked with June Christy, Joe Castro, and Hampton Hawes.^[2] He began playing with Rahsaan Roland Kirk in 1964, with whom he would perform and record through 1970; aside from Kirk, he played as a sideman himself with Jackie McLean, Chet Baker, Stanley Turrentine, and Mose Allison.^[2] Concomitantly, he led his own band in 1965–1966, whose sidemen were Woody Shaw, Walter Davis Jr., Wilbur Ware, and C. Sharpe.^[2]

In the 1970s, Ellington worked with Billy Eckstine, Brick Jazz Funk Fusion,^{[clarification needed]} Hampton Hawes, Art Farmer, Freddy Cole, Freddie Hubbard, Ike Isaacs, Maxine Sullivan, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and Dan Wall.^[2] He returned to work with Rivers in 1980–1982, played with Sonny Stitt and Dave Holland, thereafter putting together a new ensemble of his own, which was active from 1985 to 1990.^[2] He was the drummer for Michel Petrucciani's trio from 1988 to 1990, and in the 1990s, worked with Hal Galper, Steve Grossman, James Moody, and Johnny Griffin.^[2]

Ellington died in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of 71. He had been dealing with cancer for about two years.^[1]

• Duke Ellington