Wilson Driver

Wilson Driver

Wilson L. Driver, Jr (born February 29, 1904; died November 30, 2000) was a jazz drummer.

Driver was inspired to take up drumming when he saw George Earl "cakewalking" in a street parade. He made a drum out of a washtub and taught himself to beat out a rhythm while he sang. His parents disapproved of his playing, especially popular syncopated music. When he enrolled at Industrial High School in 1918 there were already too many drummers in Fess Whatley's band, so he took up trumpet and learned to read music. He kept to drums, however, and was invited to play in Whatley's Saxo‑Society Orchestra (later the Jazz Demons) which toured the region, mainly for for white audiences.

He later played on the Vaudeville circuit before settling in as the drummer for Birmingham's Famous Theater. Most of the films that played at the Famous were accompanied by piano and drum only, with the drummer singing when needed. For "event" films, other instruments might have been added. It was while there that Driver met a young Jo Jones and encouraged the assertive upstart drummer.

Driver's wife, Lena, died in childbirth and, at the insistence of Jones and Sid Catlett, Driver relocated to Harlem to raise his two daughters. He worked first as a schoolteacher, but soon found better pay as a manager for Chock Full O'Nuts coffee company. He kept his full time job and put aside touring as a musician, but performed in the evenings to supplement his salary. A well-paid regular gig at the Silver Slipper in Greenwich Village provided him with a enough money to put his daughter, Sonia through Hunter College.

Wilson retired from business after thirty years, but remained well known in Harlem as an "elder statesman" of music. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980 and died in 2000. Driver is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

References

• Stern, Chip (n.d.) "Wilson Driver: Driver Man: Reflections Of An Urban Griot". Radio Free Chip