Don Alias

Percussionist par excellence Don Alias remains best known for his work at the vanguard of the fusion movement, exploring both sides of the jazz-rock equation via contributions to landmark sessions headlined by Miles Davis and Joni Mitchell. Born Charles Donald Alias in New York City on Christmas Day 1939, he was the son of Caribbean immigrants and grew up in Harlem, where he absorbed the lessons of neighborhood Cuban and Puerto Rican hand drummers. While in high school, Alias played conga with the Eartha Kitt Dance Foundation, and in 1957 accompanied the singer at the Newport Jazz Festival. He nevertheless mothballed his musical career to study biology at Erie, PA's Cannon College, followed by a stint at Boston's Carnegie Institute for Biochemistry. While in Boston Alias regularly moonlighted at local clubs in the company of students of the nearby Berklee School of Music, among them conguero Bill Fitch and bassist Gene Perla; he also played bass in a short-lived trio featuring Chick Corea on guitar and Tony Williams on drums. When Perla landed a gig with Nina Simone, he convinced the singer to hire Alias to assume drumming duties; by the end of his three-year stint, Alias was serving as musical director, eventually capturing the attention of legendary trumpeter Miles Davis, with whom Simone regularly shared festival bills. Hired as an auxiliary percussionist for the 1969 sessions that yielded Davis' fusion masterpiece Bitches Brew, Alias ended up devising the loose, syncopated rhythm that drives "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," one of the record's most celebrated cuts. After completing the album, Alias spent a year supporting Davis on tour before reuniting with Tony Williams on his 1971 LP Ego; he spent the next several years as a hired gun, appearing on dates including...