Sonny Greer
William Alexander “Sonny” Greer (December 13, c. 1895 – March 23, 1982) was an American jazz drummer and vocalist, best known for his work with Duke Ellington.
Greer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey. There has been long-standing confusion about his birth year since he tried to maintain a youthful image in the public eye, but his birth year ranges from 1895 to 1904.Greer lived in Asbury Park, New Jersey, as a child with his father, an electrician with the Pennsylvania Road, and mother, a modiste, and his younger brother and sister. As a child, he worked many side jobs as a caddy, fish peddler, and newspaper deliverer.
Greer started getting into music and taught himself how to sing and drum with the help of only one mentor, drummer Eugene “Peggy” Holland, who played with composer, J. Rosamond Johnson for two weeks. The vaudeville drummer gave him a few lessons but also advice not just with music, but also with life as a man and how one should carry himself.
Greer started his career in his mid-teens when he began playing at resort hotels along the Jersey Shorewith local orchestras. After a performance in the Plaza Hotel, he received an invitation to appear in Washington, D.C. with the Howard Theatre where he played for three years until he met Duke Ellington. Greer was balancing his commitments with Ellington and the Howard Theatre until the mid-1920s when he worked exclusively with Ellington.