Earl Palmer was born in New Orleans. His mother danced on Vaudeville and Earl from the age of five tap-danced there too. By the forties Earl had transformed his tap dancing to trap drumming and become the most sought after session drummer in New Orleans. These sessions are now the legendary beginnings of what we call rock ‘n roll. When you hear “Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard or “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” by Lloyd Price – that’s Earl.

By 1947 he left Louisiana and came to Los Angeles. Studio work became plentiful fast for Earl and his second-line sound has anchored literally thousands of soundtracks, albums and singles. Earl is reputedly the most recorded drummer of all time. Not too many people on the planet have played with Frank Sinatra and James Brown – Earl has.

Hip-hop fans venerate his work with David Axelrod – his trademark downbeats counterpoint the tense strings of the classics “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” (see RZA, Quasimoto, Kool G Rap). Earl lives in L.A. and began his collaboration with us as the Professor in DJ Shadow’s video for “Midnight In A Perfect World.”

DISCOGRAPHY

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