Drummer Don Alias, who kept tempo for Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Lou Reed, has died in New York aged 66, his website said on Wednesday.
Alias died at home on March 29.
In a nearly 50-year career, Alias showed his versatility on drums and other percussion instruments, accompanying headliners Carlos Santana, Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell and Roberta Flack.
Alias was born in 1939 to parents from the Caribbean who settled in New York. He picked up his technique wherever he could find it, from Afro-Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other Caribbeans playing in New York City.
He played his first professional gig when Eartha Kitt took him to the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957 and he played with Dizzy Gillespie’s band.
His family pressed him to study biology, but he still played in clubs after class. Before long, he met Gene Perla, a student at the Berklee School of Music, and Nina Simone, who hired him.
In 1969, he joined forces with Miles Davis on the landmark Bitches Brew at the height of jazz-rock fusion.
He also formed his own group, Stone Alliance, with Perla. — AFP