Alphonse Mouzon

Several drummers helped shape jazz fusion during the 1970s, yet Alphonse Mouzon earned less recognition than Billy Cobham despite meaningful contributions of his own. Born November 21, 1948, in Charleston, South Carolina, Mouzon developed his drumming skills while still in high school under the guidance of both a saxophonist and a percussion instructor. After moving to New York City in the late 1960s to pursue college studies, he weighed careers in music, theater, or medicine before committing to music by the start of the new decade. During that period he worked as a session drummer on Tim Hardin’s Bird on a Wire, Gil Evans’s self-titled album, Weather Report’s debut, Norman Connors’s Dance of Magic, John Klemmer’s Magic and Movement, and Teruo Nakamura’s Unicorn.

Around the same time Mouzon launched his solo career with 1972’s The Essence of Mystery and 1973’s Funky Snakefoot. He soon paused freelance recording to join Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House full-time, appearing on Introducing the Eleventh House, At Montreux, Level One, and other releases spanning 1974 and 1975. He nevertheless maintained a steady flow of solo projects, the strongest of which, 1974’s Mind Transplant, received less notice partly because it followed closely on the heels of Cobham’s 1973 album Spectrum. Occasional partnerships included the live recording Trilogue Live! with Albert Mangelsdorff and Jaco Pastorius, plus renewed work with Coryell on 1977’s Back Together Again and a full Eleventh House reunion in the late 1990s.

Mouzon’s reach extended beyond fusion; he recorded or performed with Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Patrick Moraz, Tommy Bolin, and Chubby Checker. He also returned intermittently to acting, taking a role opposite Tom Hanks in the 1996 film That Thing You Do!, and served as chairman and CEO of his own imprint, Tenacious Records. He kept releasing albums and regularly toured Europe and the United States, leading his own trio, quartet, or quintet. After a neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis in September 2016, Mouzon battled the illness for several months with assistance from a crowdfunding campaign for treatment, yet he ultimately died of a heart attack on Christmas Day that year.