Ronnie Burrage

A versatile drummer who also plays vibes and marimba, Ronnie Burrage forged a style as much at home with the bristling pace of hard bop and bebop as with the heavy backbeats of funk, soul, and R&B. Burrage's mother was a classical pianist, and he sang in the St. Louis Cathedral boys' choir and played drums with various funk bands. In the early '80s, while working with the St. Louis Metropolitan Jazz Quintet, he accompanied Arthur Blythe, Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, and McCoy Tyner during their visits to St. Louis. Burrage played in the Woody Shaw quintet in the mid-'80s, then ...