Greer, Sonny (William Alexander)
Greer, Sonny (William Alexander)
Greer, Sonny (William Alexander), jazz drummer who is famous for his long tenure with Duke Ellington; b. Long Branch, N.J., Dec. 13, 1902; d. N.Y., March 23, 1982. He played drums at high school, then worked with Wilbur Gardner, Mabel Ross, and in one of Harry Yerek’s many orchs. While visiting Washington, D.C., he took a job playing at the Howard Theatre with the Marie Lucas Orch. He met Ellington in 1919, and did his first gig with him the following year. He would remain with the band until 1951. At that time he briefly joined Johnny Hodges’s Small Band, then freelanced in N.Y., playing for various leaders, among them Louis Metcalf, Henry “Red” Allen (1952-53), Tyree Glenn (1959), Eddie Barefield, and J. C. Higginbotham. Other than a spell of inactivity because of a broken shoulder (1960), he continued to play throughout the 1960s. In 1967 he led a band at The Garden Cafe and took part in the filming of The Night They Raided Minsky’s. He worked regularly with Brooks Kerr’s trio during the 1970s.
Though some critics contend that Greer didn’t “swing,” Ellington’s “Cottontail” shows that his style developed over the years and that he was especially effective on the ride cymbal. He was an innovator in the expansion of the drum kit; photographs from the early 1930s show him using orchestral chimes, timpani, temple blocks, and other additions to the set.
—John Chilton/Lewis Porter