Name James Blades | Role Percussionist | |
 | ||
Died May 19, 1999, Cheam, United Kingdom Books Percussion instruments and their history Similar People The Bach Choir, John Scott, David Corkhill, Curt Sachs, Evelyn Glennie | ||
My choice james blades roney tin wall cute animals
James "Jimmy" Blades OBE (9 September 1901 – 19 May 1999) was an English percussionist.
Contents
He was one of the most distinguished percussionists in Western music, with a long and varied career. His book Percussion Instruments and their History (1971) is a standard reference work on the subject.
Blades was born in Peterborough, England in 1901. He was a long-time associate of Benjamin Britten, with whom he conceived many of the composer's unusual percussion effects. In 1954, Blades was appointed Professor of Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music.
As a chamber musician he played with the Melos Ensemble and the English Chamber Orchestra.
Blades' pupils included the rock drummers Carl Palmer and Richard James Burgess as well as the percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
His most famous and widely heard performances were the sound of the kettle drum playing "V-for-Victory" in Morse code, the introduction to the BBC broadcasts made to the European Resistance during World War II, and providing the sound of the gong seen at the start of films produced by the Rank Organisation. Blades played this sound on a tam-tam. On screen Blades's sound was mimed to by the "Gongman".
His autobiography Drum Roll: A Professional Adventure from the Circus to the Concert Hall was published by Faber & Faber in 1977.