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Biography
Joe Morello (17 July 1928 – 12 March 2011) was a American Jazz drummer best known for his twelve and a half-year stint with The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was frequently noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by that group in such pieces as Take Five and Blue Rondo à la Turk.
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, Morello began studying violin at age six, and three years later was featured with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as soloist in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. By age 15 he had switched to drums, first studying with a show drummer named Joe Sefcik and then studying with the legendary George Lawrence Stone. "I'd work out of his book, Stick Control, and after I could play the sticking patterns I'd start throwing in accents in various places," Morello recalls. Stone was so impressed with Morello's ideas that he incorporated them into his next book, Accents & Rebounds, which is dedicated to Morello. Later, Morello studied with Radio City Music Hall percussionist Billy Gladstone, one of the most technically advanced drummers of all time.
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