Doug Hammond -

Doug Hammond (born Dec. 26, 1942) is an American jazz-funk drummer, percussionist, vocalist, and composer from Tampa, Fla. He worked with Earl Hooker, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Donald Byrd, and Lonnie Liston Smith, then established a bandleader catalog with Reflections in the Sea of Nurnen, Folks, Spaces, and We People. Hammond later worked with Ornette Coleman, James “Blood” Ulmer, Arthur Blythe, and Steve Coleman while maintaining ensembles in Europe and teaching percussion and composition in Linz, Austria.

Background

Doug Hammond was born Douglas Hammond Jr. on Dec. 26, 1942, in Tampa, Fla. His parents were ballroom dancers who took him to performances by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Afro-Cuban bands at Florida ballrooms. At age nine, Hammond studied trombone for one year with an instrument rented by his mother. He shifted to drums at Howard W. Blake Junior/Senior High School, where Thomas J. Simpson taught him music and percussion.

Hammond joined the school marching and concert bands on snare drum in eighth grade. His godmother Minnie Wharton, a former third-grade teacher, gave him his first drum set for his sixteenth birthday. Hammond also studied classical percussion for four years with Don Templeton, chief percussionist of the Tampa Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Hammond wrote poetry for his school and the Florida Sentinel Bulletin. Templeton encouraged his early compositions for snare drum, timpani, and percussion ensembles. As a high-school student, Hammond traveled by bus from Tampa to Miami on weekends to jam with local musicians. He entered professional blues and R&B work by the early 1960s with Earl Hooker, the 5 Royales, Sam & Dave, and Little Willie John.

In Detroit

Hammond settled in Detroit in 1965 and entered the club circuit through an engagement at Odom’s Cave with saxophonist Malvin McCray, followed by work with pianist Harold McKinney and bassist James Hankins. He played local and road dates as a hired drummer for Motown acts, including a six-month stint with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Hammond worked with Kirk Lightsey at the London Chop House in a Bob Pierson group and at the opening of the Hotel Pontchartrain jazz series with bassist Gino Biondo. The 1966 Donald Byrd–Sonny Red quintet paired Hammond with Lightsey and Hankins, while another sustained job placed him in the Dorothy Ashby Trio.

Hammond organized Focus Novii in 1967 with Ulmer, trombonist Patrick LaNier, bassist John Dana, and saxophonist William T. Wiggins. Focus Novii continued through 1970 with staged productions that combined music, poetry, song, and dance across Detroit venues. He then established the Detroit Creative Musicians Association as a performance base with broadcaster Rosetta Hines, tenor saxophonist Hank Hence, drummer James Brown, and other local participants. The association opened in a 12th Street storefront, shifted its concert series to the Detroit Repertory Theatre on Woodrow Wilson, and occupied 285 East Ferry in 1968 for a twice-weekly program of independent ensembles.

Hammond left Detroit for New York around the turn of the decade and joined Ulmer and Dana in a 1971 residency at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. His New York work also included engagements with Kenny Dorham and O.C. Smith.

Hammond enrolled at Grove Junior College in Oakland in 1972 under pianist David Durrah. They developed a joint project with alto saxophonist Otis Harris, bassist Charles Metcalf, violinists Charles Burnham and Trevis Mickeel, and percussionists Frederick Boon and Thomas “Turk” Trayler. The musicians entered Different Fur Trading Co. in San Francisco for sessions that produced Reflections in the Sea of Nurnen. Hammond subsequently discussed the recording with Strata-East founders Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver in New York. Detroit trumpeter Marcus Belgrave directed Hammond back to the Tribe collective after the Strata-East plan stalled, and Tribe accepted the recording for release as Reflections in the Sea of Nurnen.

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