Dannie Richmond Day

Charles Daniel Richmond (December 15, 1931 – March 15, 1988) was an American jazz drummer who is best known for his work with Charles Mingus. He also worked with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond.

Richmond was born in New York City and started playing tenor saxophone at the age of thirteen; he went on to play R&B with the Paul Williamsband in 1955. His career took off when he took up the drums, in his early twenties, through the formation of what was to be a 21-year association with Charles Mingus. Mingus biographer Brian Priestley writes that “Dannie became Mingus’s equivalent to Harry Carney in the Ellington band, an indispensable ingredient of ‘the Mingus sound’ and a close friend as well”.

That association continued after Mingus’ death when Richmond became the first musical director of the group Mingus Dynasty in 1980. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Dannie Richmond among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

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