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 formed the avant-garde-meets-bop trio Third Kind of Blue with John Purcell and Anthony Cox in 1986; they recorded that same year. During the '90s, Burrage recorded with Courtney Pine, Sonny Fortune, Gunther Schuller, Hamiet Bluiett, the World Saxophone Quartet, and Billy Bang, among others; he also led a 1993 session released as Shuttle, with help from Bluiett, Cyrus Chestnut, and Charnett Moffett. During the 2000s, his work included two top-billed dates, 2001's Just Natural and 2004's In It. He stayed busy during the 2010s, releasing Blue Noise in 2010 and Spirit Guides in 2011.