Happy Birthday Charlie Persip

July 12, 2014

Simone

Drummer Charlie Persip was born on July 26, 1929 in Morristown, New Jersey.

He gained initial popularity drumming for Dizzy Gillespie from 1953 to 1958.

Persip played with some of the ‘50s’ and ‘60s’ most distinguished artists, including Lee Morgan, Eric Dolphy, and Freddie Hubbard.

Proficient in more than bebop, Persip toured with Billy Eckstine’s band for 13 years.

He also recorded as a side man with a number of prominent jazz musicians including Lee Morgan, Zoot Sims, Gil Evans, Don Ellis, Eric Dolphy, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and toured as drummer and conductor with Billy Eckstine from 1960 to 1973.

Interested in work as an educator, since 1974 Charlie Persip has been a drum instructor for Jazzmobile Inc., and later Associate Professor at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Persip performs with his band Supersound at Ginny’s.