Joe Morello set out to be a violinist. Born with impaired vision in Springfield, Mass., he took up the instrument at 6, and three years later was performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But at 15, after hearing his idol, Jascha Heifetz, perform live, he gave up the violin, realizing he could never match Heifetz’s tonal perfection.
Morello took up the drums instead, studying jazz percussion in Boston, said the London Telegraph. There he met “several future distinguished jazz musicians,” including saxophonist Phil Woods, guitarist Sal Salvador, and vibraphonist Teddy Charles. “They studied and played together and helped one another find work.”
After a stint touring with a big band, Morello moved to New York in 1950, gigging in a series of small bands and briefly joining Stan Kenton’s orchestra, said The New York Times. In 1953, the English pianist Marian McPartland hired him for her trio, which played regularly at the Hickory House nightclub in New York. That’s where pianist Dave Brubeck first heard him and offered him a temporary spot in his quartet. Replied Morello: “I’m interested in your group, but your drummer’s out to lunch. I want to be featured.” Brubeck agreed, and let Morello take a solo almost every night.
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Morello played his most famous solo on the recorded version of the Brubeck classic “Take Five,” said the Los Angeles Times. “His drum solo on ‘Take Five’ is still being heard around the world,” Brubeck said after learning of Morello’s death. The pianist composed the tune after hearing Morello backstage tapping out a tricky 5/4 rhythm. Brubeck went on to write several numbers that highlighted Morello’s light, fluid touch with exotic time signatures, including “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” in 9/8, and “Unsquare Dance,” in 7/4.
After Brubeck disbanded the quartet in 1967, Morello devoted himself primarily to teaching. Among his students was Max Weinberg, the drummer in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and former bandleader for Conan O’Brien.
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