John Dentz Passes This past May 9, Los Angeles–based drummer John Dentz passed away. “I loved the way John played,” says the iconic studio and stage drummer Jim Keltner, who was friends with Dentz since the mid-’60s, and who in 1969 passed the baton in Gábor Szabó’s band to the drummer. “John was from the Max Roach school, with a lot of Philly Joe Jones thrown in,” Keltner says. “He played with a lot of great artists, including Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, and Chick Corea. But I dug watching him play with Supersax—a fantastic big band that played in little clubs out in the Valley—or with Mose Allison, at a club down by the beach. I loaned him my 24″ Zildjian A ride with rivets when he played with Mose and Gábor.” Though Dentz made his mark on the West Coast, he was originally from New Jersey, an obvious fact […]

November 2017 Issue