Biography
Sol Gubin stands out among musicians for sustaining an active studio career well into advanced age, while also earning recognition as an exemplar of what some have termed “a witty drummer.” Between 1954 and 1992, he participated in 109 jazz recording sessions tallied by discographer Tom Lord; Lord’s criteria, which require demonstrable swinging jazz content, exclude an equal or greater number of additional dates Gubin logged in rhythm and blues, pop, and standard vocal settings.
Although several of his associations register clearly on the jazz radar, his 1950s work alongside Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery highlights a capable jazz drummer who ultimately gravitated toward the broader studio-musician sphere rather than erecting the stylistic partitions common among peers. Gubin frequently appears on dates where jazz bandleaders supplement core small-group personnel with additional players. One of his earliest credits arrived on vocalist Tony Bennett’s album Jazz, signaling an early ease with material that crossed stylistic boundaries.
Subsequent sessions reveal an unusually wide range of associations, including the introspective songwriter Janis Ian and pop balladeer Michael Bolton, as well as Perry Como, Natalie Cole, and the lighter Latin textures of Cal Tjader and Walter Wanderley. During a 2002 round-robin conversation among Los Angeles studio drummers, participants cited Gubin among the senior players who remained active. In a contemporaneous interview, drummer Alan Schwartzberg remarked: “I always try to play with some wit. I consider Jim Keltner, Richie Hayward, B.J. Wilson and old timer Sol Gubin to be really witty drummers.” One might therefore imagine laugh tracks appended to certain Bolton recordings.
Although several of his associations register clearly on the jazz radar, his 1950s work alongside Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery highlights a capable jazz drummer who ultimately gravitated toward the broader studio-musician sphere rather than erecting the stylistic partitions common among peers. Gubin frequently appears on dates where jazz bandleaders supplement core small-group personnel with additional players. One of his earliest credits arrived on vocalist Tony Bennett’s album Jazz, signaling an early ease with material that crossed stylistic boundaries.
Subsequent sessions reveal an unusually wide range of associations, including the introspective songwriter Janis Ian and pop balladeer Michael Bolton, as well as Perry Como, Natalie Cole, and the lighter Latin textures of Cal Tjader and Walter Wanderley. During a 2002 round-robin conversation among Los Angeles studio drummers, participants cited Gubin among the senior players who remained active. In a contemporaneous interview, drummer Alan Schwartzberg remarked: “I always try to play with some wit. I consider Jim Keltner, Richie Hayward, B.J. Wilson and old timer Sol Gubin to be really witty drummers.” One might therefore imagine laugh tracks appended to certain Bolton recordings.