Known professionally as Tony Crombie, (Born : August 27, 1925 in Bishopsgate, London, England., Died : October 18, 1999 in North West London, England.) was an English jazz drummer, pianist, bandleader, and composer. He was regarded as one of the finest English jazz drummers and bandleaders, occasional but capable pianist and vibraphonist, and an energizing influence on the British jazz scene over six decades.
Crombie was a self-taught musician who began playing the drums at the age of fourteen. He was one of a group of young men from the East End of London who ultimately formed the co-operative Club Eleven, bringing modern jazz to Britain. Having gone to New York with his friend Ronnie Scott in 1947, witnessing the playing of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he and like-minded musicians such as Johnny Dankworth, Scott and Dennis Rose, brought be-bop to the UK. This group of musicians were the ones called upon if and when modern jazz gigs were available. In 1948 Crombie toured Britain and Europe with Duke Ellington, who had been unable to bring his own musicians with him, except for Ray Nance and Kay Davis. Picking up a rhythm section in London, he chose Crombie on the recommendation of Lena Horne, with whom Crombie had worked when she appeared at the Palladium.
In August 1956, Crombie set up a rock and roll band he called The Rockets, which included future Shadows bassist Jet Harris. The group was modelled after Bill Haley’s Comets and Freddie Bell & the Bellboys. Crombie and his Rockets released several singles for Decca and Columbia, including Teach You to Rock produced by Norrie Paramor, which made the Top 30 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1956.
He is credited with introducing rock and roll music to Iceland, performing there in May 1957. By 1958 the Rockets had become a jazz group with Scott and Tubby Hayes. During the following year Crombie started Jazz Inc. with pianist Stan Tracey. In 1960, he composed the score for the film The Tell-Tale Heart and established residency at a hotel in Monte Carlo. In May 1960 he toured the UK with Conway Twitty, Freddy Cannon, Johnny Preston, and Wee Willie Harris.
In the early sixties Crombie’s friend and contemporary, Victor Feldman, passed one of his compositions to Miles Davis, who recorded the piece on his album Seven Steps to Heaven. The song, So Near, So Far, has been recorded by a number of other players including Joe Henderson, who named a tribute album to Miles Davis using the title.
During the next thirty years Crombie appeared with many of the greatest American jazz musicians, including Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Joe Pass, Mark Murphy and Eddie Lockjaw Davis. In the mid-1990s, after breaking his arm in a fall, he stopped playing the drums but continued composing until his death in 1999.
Crombie was married twice. He had a son and daughter from his first marriage and another daughter from his second. One of his grandsons is the drummer, music producer and composer Dylan Freed.