Many will be saddened to hear of the death at 98 of the great percussionist
James Blades. Here is the Times obituary:
James Blades, OBE, percussion player and author, died on May 19 aged
97. He was born in Peterborough on September 9, 1901.
JIMMY BLADES was the master drummer of his time. He began playing
with his uncle at the age of six, but it was not until after the
First World War, during which he was apprenticed to the engineering
firm of Brotherhood's, that he had the opportunity to learn seriously.
His boyhood training as a turner and fitter stood him in good stead
throughout his career, for he was always able to improvise fittings
and instruments and to make all the gadgets necessary to replace the
third and fourth hands with which so many composers seem to think
all drummers are blessed.
His professional career began in a circus, where nobody works harder
than the drummer, and he progressed from there to a series of cinemas,
for in those days of silent pictures every cinema had an orchestra,
however small.
The music they played included much of the standard orchestral
repertoire and variety acts between the films involved much sightreading
and quick improvisation. This - combined with dance bands into the
small hours - provided an ever-widening pool of experience, as did
playing in seaside orchestras.
There were regular opportunities for solo spots on instruments such
as xylophone and vibraphone, which fostered a great virtuosity.
Blades moved to London to play the "halls", such as the Holborn
Empire, and the more serious theatrical shows such as Roger Quilter's
The Land where the Rainbow Ends. A move from the Empire to the Grill
Room at the Piccadilly Hotel coincided with the beginning of his
career in the film studios.
In 1935 Blades recorded what is probably still his most famous film
score, if that term can be used for a single note played thrice.
What became the J. Arthur Rank signature was recorded on a newly
acquired 30-inch Chinese tam-tam - three strokes synchronised with
film of the heavyweight boxing champion Bombadier Billy Wells miming
at a huge disc of gold-painted papier mache. That signature travelled
around the world and, along with his even more famous recording during
the Second World War of the V-signal, made James Blades the most
widely heard percussion player in the world.
During the war he toured with ENSA and began to work with the major
symphony orchestras, especially the LSO and LPO, as well as
strengthening his position in the film, broadcasting and recording
studios.
It was in broadcasts that might be picked up by listeners in Occupied
Europe that he and other drummers, as he recounts in his first
autobiography, Drum Roll, began to include the Morse code for V, the
symbol for ultimate victory. The BBC took this up and he was asked
to record the rhythm at Bush House, then the headquarters of the
World Service. Playing a Ugandan drum, he muted the first three
strokes with a cloth pad, lifting the cloth for the final longer
note. The sound was broadcast throughout the war as the World
Service's signature and was of inestimable value in encouraging
resistance. For the rest of his life it was the achievement of which
James Blades was the most proud.
His reputation as one capable of producing any sound was growing
throughout the musical profession, so he was an obvious choice for
a wartime performance of the Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
and for Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale, which he played first under Paul
Sacher and later under Stravinsky himself.
He played for many composers, in both concert halls and studios, and
the association for which he was best known was with Benjamin Britten
and the English Opera Group. It was here that his genius for the
invention of sounds, and the engineering skills that brought those
sounds to life, came fully into flower. Many of the effects, especially
in the chamber and parable operas, were the fruit of collaboration
between composer and drummer. Britten would describe the sort of
sound he wanted, and Blades experimented until both were content.
The most famous of these co-operations was the shot-filled tube for
the Prodigal Son's steps in the desert sand. "But could one foot be
heavier than the other?" asked Britten, and Blades produced a conical
tube with one end wider than the other.
While he was playing for Britten, Blades began to broaden his lecture
career, from illustrated talks on percussion instruments for schools
to full performances for music clubs and other adult gatherings.
Here he was assisted by his second wife, Joan Goossens, who accompanied
him on the piano and unobtrusively handed him instruments as required.
His first wife, Olive, whom he married in 1927, had died at the end
of the war and he married Joan in 1948.
He became Professor of Timpani and Percussion at the Royal Academy
of Music in the 1960s, and it was in great measure due to his work
there that modern standards of percussion playing are so much higher
than those of 30 years ago. As well as training would-be professionals,
he worked much with disabled children, giving unstinted time to help
them to realise their artistic potential through the creation of
sound and rhythm.
He was the most generous of teachers to anyone who needed his help.
He became the leading authority on the history of percussion
instruments, and he compiled his Percussion Instruments and their
History for Faber in 1970. It is unrivalled to this day.
He also wrote much for the New Grove Dictionaries and for many other
publications. He was appointed OBE in 1972. He is survived by his
wife Joan and by his son from his first marriage.
Tony Duggan
Staffordshire,
United Kingdom.
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