Earl Palmer

Born
October 25, 1924
in New Orleans, LA 
Active Decades
19001020304050607080902000 
 
by Bill Dahl
Earl Palmer was a first-call drummer on the New Orleans R&B recording scene from 1950 to 1957. Talk about a supreme recommendation -- in a city renowned for its second-line rhythms and syncopated grooves, Palmer was the man, playing on countless sessions by all the immortals: Little Richard, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Dave Bartholomew, and too many more to list here.



Born to a mother who was a vaudevillian, little Earl was learning rhythmic patterns as a tap dancer at age four. Such contacts led him to be around drum kits on a regular basis, and it didn't take him long to master them. Bebop jazz was his first love, but R&B and blues paid the bills starting in 1947, when Palmer joined Bartholomew's band.



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