James Blades

James "Jimmy" Blades OBE (9 September 190119 May 1999) was an English percussionist.
He was one of the most distinguished percussionists in Western music, with a long and varied career. His book "Percussion Instruments and their History" (1971) is a standard reference work on the subject.
Blades was born in [[Peterborough]] in 1901. He was a long-time associate of [[Benjamin Britten]], with whom he conceived many of the composer's unusual percussion effects. In 1954, Blades was appointed Professor of Percussion at the [[Royal Academy of Music]].
As a chamber musician he played with the [[Melos Ensemble]] and the [[English Chamber Orchestra]].
Blades' pupils included the rock [[drummer]]s [[Max Sedgley]], [[Carl Palmer]] and [[Richard James Burgess]] as well as the percussionist [[Evelyn Glennie]].
His most famous and widely heard performances were the sound of the drum playing "V-for-Victory" in [[Morse code]], the introduction to the [[BBC]] broadcasts made to the European Resistance during [[World War II]], and providing the sound of the gong seen at the start of films produced by the [[Rank Organisation]]. Blades played this sound on a [[tam-tam]]. On screen Blades's sound was mimed to by the "[[Gongman]]".
His autobiography "Drum Roll: A Professional Adventure from the Circus to the Concert Hall" was published by [[Faber & Faber]] in 1977.
References.
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[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music]]
[[Category:Bass drum players]]
[[Category:British classical percussionists]]
[[Category:Classical percussionists]]
[[Category:English classical musicians]]
[[Category:Glockenspiel players]]
[[Category:Gong players]]
[[Category:Snare drummers]]
[[Category:Timpanists]]
[[Category:Triangle players]]
[[Category:Tubular bells players]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:20th-century classical musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century English musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century drummers]]