Tom Ardolino, NRBQ Drummer, Has Died
source: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-tom-ardolino-20120111,0,4110477.story
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Tom Ardolino dies at 56; former NRBQ drummer
Tom Ardolino was a teenage amateur drummer when tapped by NRBQ. He spent the next few decades providing nimble, propulsive backbeats for the category-defying band.
PHOTO:
NRBQ is shown in 1990. Clockwise from left are Joey Spampinato, Tom Ardolino, Terry Adams and Al Anderson. (Waring Abbott)
By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times
January 11, 2012
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Members of the category-defying band NRBQ knew from the outset that their prospects of mainstream success were slim to none.
With a sound and attitude that embraced the seminal rock of Chuck Berry and no-borders expanse of free-form jazz experimentalist Sun Ra, the invigorating dance rhythms of zydeco kingpin Boozoo Chavis and dreamy multilayered pop of Brian Wilson, the quartet spent the '70s, '80s and '90s recording and touring chiefly for the reward of accolades from fellow musicians including Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, as well as from a coterie of devoted fans scattered across the planet.
The group's anything-goes-and-usually-does approach was what first caught the ear of 15-year-old drummer Tom Ardolino, who sent a fan letter to keyboardist Terry Adams after catching one of the group's shows in Springfield, Mass. In 1974, Adams invited him to join the group when drummer Tom Staley quit.
Ardolino spent the next few decades providing nimble, propulsive backbeats for bandmates Adams, guitarist Al Anderson and bassist Joey Spampinato until health issues forced him to quit touring. Those problems contributed to his death Friday at age 56 from alcoholism-related illness.
"Tommy deserves an entire wing in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," Raitt told the Boston Globe last year. "There's [Rolling Stones drummer] Charlie Watts, and there's Tom Ardolino. That's it."
During NRBQ's relentless touring schedule — they often logged 250 shows a year — Ardolino projected the image of the world's happiest bus driver. Under a mass of long, black curly hair and peering out from behind a grizzly beard and mustache, Ardolino bounced atop the stool of his drum kit as he pounded out sultry shuffles, effervescent swing beats, insistent rock and slinky R&B pulses, country two-steps or intricate jazz polyrhythms that anchored his fellow players' flights of musical fancy.
"Between 1974 and whenever I left that band, I can tell you that that was the baddest-ass rhythm section that ever lived," Anderson told the Boston Globe, referring to the Ardolino-Spampinato half of the group that Anderson left in 1994. "NRBQ was kind of destined not to make it big because critics and radio couldn't put a name on it. But we were so great because we were playing 250 nights a year, and we started thinking with one mind."
Ardolino was born Jan. 12, 1955, and was a teenage amateur drummer in Springfield when he got a call from Adams after Staley decided to bow out.
"I was ready," Ardolino told the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Advocate in 1999, when the band was on a 30th anniversary tour. "My problem was I had to learn to play for like a whole set long, and [to play] harder, because I was used to playing with records, which was soft."
Responding to the moment was NRBQ's calling card in concert, a trait that rarely translates into commercial success, which typically requires steady predictability.
NRBQ could never be easily pigeonholed, and therefore handily marketed, so only three of the group's albums ever charted, in the lower reaches of Billboard's Top 200 Albums rankings. Their 1969 debut "NRBQ," which originally stood for New Rhythm & Blues Quintet, and their 1990 album "Wild Weekend" are among the group's best-known recordings.
"We get disappointed sometimes, and we don't understand," Ardolino told The Times in 1992. "One of our old record labels sent us a statement once claiming the total sales of one of our albums was three cassettes. But it ain't gonna stop us. Besides, I think we have a great life. We get to play whatever we want, and we got to meet a lot of great people. I know all the good record stores in every town."
After the band went on hiatus about a decade ago, Ardolino released a solo album, "Unknown Brain." Adams resurrected NRBQ in recent years and has continued touring and recording, with himself as the only remaining original member.
Elvis Costello once told Rolling Stone, "I'd much rather any day go see NRBQ playing than any of our illustrious punk bands in England."
Ardolino's alcoholism progressed in recent years, according to the Boston Globe, and he was hospitalized in November. He died at Kindred Hospital in Springfield, Mass., the newspaper reported.
He was separated from his wife, Keiko, with whom he had a stepdaughter, Emiko, and a stepson, Liku. He is also survived by his brother, Richard.
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http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2012/01/longtime-nrbq-drummer-tom-ardolino-pas....Tw0duuRjFaw
Modern Drummer...
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Longtime NRBQ Drummer Tom Ardolino Passes
– January 9, 2012.
Tom Ardolino, former drummer of the legendary rock ’n’ roll group NRBQ, passed away on January 6, at the age of fifty-six. The band announced Ardolino’s death on its Facebook page, adding, “Tom will be missed but his spirit lives on through those who were touched by him.”
A still-teenage Ardolino joined NRBQ in 1974, after original drummer Tom Staley left, and played with the band until it went on hiatus in 2004. Ardolino released a solo album, Unknown Brain, that same year, which comprises recordings made in 1972.
The upcoming March 2012 issue of Modern Drummer magazine includes an Update on current “Q” drummer Conrad Choucroun, who recalls being anointed the future keeper of the throne by Ardolino back in 1994.
Photo by Anastasia Pantsios/Kaleyediscope
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Tom Ardolino
– January 15, 2005.
Check the CD collections of Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, or Paul McCartney, and chances are you’ll find copies of Tiddlywinks, Grooves In Orbit, and Peek-A-Boo by veteran popsters NRBQ. That kind of admiration would be understandable if the Q was itself a household name. But although they’ve shared stage and studio with all of the above, today NRBQ–formed in 1967 by pianist Terry Adams and bassist Joey Spampinato–remains one of the best-kept secrets in pop music.But whether it’s Tokyo or Toledo, NRBQ still performs like it’s day one–enthusiastic, full of surprises, and capable of converting the uninitiated on the spot. Much of that energy stems from the grooving, rock-steady rhythms of Tom Ardolino, the curly-haired dynamo who took over for drummer Tom Staley back in 1974 without any prior job experience–musical or otherwise–and never left. Yet even after twenty-eight years, the New England-based Ardolino is as upbeat as ever about the band’s prospects.
“We’ve got this upcoming VH1 live gig that features concerts by bands who’ve been around for thirty years or more–and they put us on first,” says Ardolino. He’s just back from a Vermont studio where the band (which also includes guitarist Johnny Spampinato, Joey’s younger brother) is working up new tracks for a forthcoming album. “That oughta help get our name out into the mainstream.”
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Tom Ardolino
NRBQ
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http://www.examiner.com/local-music-in-new-york/tom-ardolino-an-appreciation
Examiner...
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Tom Ardolino: An appreciation
Jim Bessman, Manhattan Local Music Examiner
January 9, 2012.
Among the flood of tributes to longtime NRBQ drummer Tom Ardolino that appeared on Facebook following his death after a long illness Friday, one stood out.
"It's a sad day when we lose a drummer who can groove like this!" posted Pete Thomas, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer for Elvis Costello's Attractions and Imposters. And indeed, Ardolino was as much a drummer's drummer as NRBQ was a band's band.
Ardolino, who was 56 and lived in Springfield, Mass., was a big fan of NRBQ when he replaced original drummer Tom Staley in 1974. He stayed with them the next 30 years as they built a loyal and fanatic cult following via constant touring--and an ever eclectic mix of originals and obscure covers in a set list vaguely approximating the New Rhytm & Blues Quartet acronym of the NRBQ name.
The band, then consisting of Ardolino, guitarist Johnny Spampinato, his bassist/vocalist brother Joey Spampinato and keyboardist/vocalist Terry Adams, came to a halt in 2004 when Adams, who co-founded the group with Joey Spampinato in 1967, was diagnosed with throat cancer. Adams has since recovered and formed a new NRBQ (Ardolino was too ill to join), with the Spampinato brothers continuing on as The Spampinato Brothers.
But for many fans, the lineup featuring guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Al Anderson, who also joined the group in 1974 (he left in 1993) was the best.
“He was a great drummer and a great guy,” Anderson told The Hartford Courant. "He had a totally unique style of drumming that nobody can ever duplicate." With bassist Spampinato, NRBQ fielded "one of the baddest rhythm sections in the world,” added Anderson.
But Ardolino, like his band mates, had a special warmth as a player and person.
"He was a drummer who made people happy!" noted Thomas, one of a legion of prominent admirers of NRBQ, also including Costello (among many big-name acts to enlist NRBQ as an opener), Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, and the creators of The Simpsons, who have used the band's music several times and animated them for the 1999 Take My Wife, Sleaze episode.
Then again, the band always had a sort of cartoon character quality about them; they even had awesome caricature puppets made up by a fan, that they would bring out with them as they took the stage. Ardolino's own sense of playfulness--and precision--is preserved in the many videos that can be found on YouTube, as well as the 15 studio albums he recorded with NRBQ.
"Tom will be missed but his spirit lives on through those who were touched by him,” said a post announcing his death on the band's Facebook page. It was an understatement.
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http://www.spinner.com/2012/01/07/tom-ardolino-nrbq-dead-dies/
Spinner...
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Tom Ardolino, Longtime NRBQ Drummer, Dead at 56
Posted on Jan 7th 2012 3:05PM by Kenneth Partridge
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Tom Ardolino, a longtime drummer for the critically loved, commercially underappreciated rock band NRBQ, died last night (Jan. 6) following a long illness, according to the Hartford Courant. He was 56.Ardolino joined NRBQ -- short for New Rhythm and Blues Quartet -- in 1974, taking over for original timekeeper Tom Staley. Over the next 30 years, Ardolino played on 15 studio albums, leaving his mark on songs that would earn the group a fervent cult following, if limited mainstream success.
NRBQ's fan base is said to include Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan, and their songs have been covered by everyone from Bonnie Raitt to She & Him, who recorded 'Ridin' in My Car' for 2010's 'Volume Two' and 'Christmas Wish' for their recent holiday album.
"He was a great drummer and a great guy," fellow NRBQ alum Al Anderson told the Courant. "He had a totally unique style of drumming that nobody can ever duplicate. That was one of the baddest rhythm sections in the world."
After NRBQ went on hiatus in 2004, Ardolino remained active in music and participated in various reunion shows. He also released a solo album, played on friends' recordings and even worked on the soundtrack to a film shown in driver's-ed classes around the country. According to Jim Chapdelaine, the producer behind the film project, Ardolino was hired to drum in a "nu-metal" style, but when he refused, opting for a more swinging beat, he inadvertently created a new sound: "happy metal."
"He was a beloved guy who didn't know how beloved he was," Chapedlaine said.
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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/nrbq-drummer-tom-ardolino-dies-at-56-2012...
Rolling Stone...
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NRBQ Drummer Tom Ardolino Dies at 56
Ardolino joined the band in 1974 after years as a fanBy Miriam Coleman
January 8, 2012 1:54 PM ETPHOTO:
Tom Ardolino of NRBQ backstage at the King King in Los Angeles.Phil Han/Getty Images
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Tom Ardolino, a longtime drummer of NRBQ, died on January 6 at the age of 56.
The band announced Ardolino’s death on their Facebook page on Friday: "Friends, We regret to inform you that Tom Ardolino passed away today. Tom will be missed but his spirit lives on through those who were touched by him."
Ardolino had joined NRBQ in 1974 after years as a fan and stayed with them for three decades, playing in thousands of the cult favorites’ legendary live shows and on 15 studio albums. In 2004, during NRBQ’s hiatus, he released a solo album, Unknown Brain.
Ardolino was living in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the time of his death.
"He was a great drummer and a great guy," former NRBQ guitarist and singer Al Anderson told the Hartford Courant. "He had a totally unique style of drumming that nobody can ever duplicate. That was one of the baddest rhythm sections in the world."
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Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/nrbq-drummer-tom-ardolino-dies-at-56-2012...
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