Les DeMerle

Native New Yorker Les DeMerle is a veteran jazz drummer who is also known for his talents as a vocalist. DeMerle, in fact, is one of the few jazz drummers who has been able to sing and play drums simultaneously. Some jazz drummers who have had vocal skills have opted to compartmentalize the two; Grady Tate, for example, is both a skillful drummer and a skillful singer (although he is better known for the former), but when he recorded his vocal-oriented session, TNT: Grady Tate Sings, for Milestone/Fantasy in 1991, Tate did not play the drums at all and asked Dennis Mackrel to ...