James Blades

Not to be confused with Jay Blades.

James Blades OBE (9 September 1901 – 19 May 1999) was an English percussionist.[1][2]

He was one of the most distinguished percussionists in Western music, with a long and varied career. His book Percussion Instruments and their History (1971) is a standard reference work on the subject.[3][4]

Blades was born in Peterborough in 1901.[5] He was a long-time associate of Benjamin Britten, with whom he conceived many of the composer's unusual percussion effects.[6] In 1954, Blades was appointed Professor of Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music.

As a chamber musician he played with the Melos Ensemble and the English Chamber Orchestra.

Blades' pupils included the rock drummers Max Sedgley, Carl Palmer, and Richard James Burgess as well as percussionist Evelyn Glennie.

His most famous and widely heard performances were the sound of the drum playing "V-for-Victory" in Morse code, the introduction to the BBC broadcasts made to the European Resistance during World War II, and providing the sound of the gong seen at the start of films produced by the Rank Organisation. Blades played this sound on a tam-tam. On screen Blades's sound was interpreted by an actor miming a character called the "Gongman".

His autobiography Drum Roll: A Professional Adventure from the Circus to the Concert Hall was published by Faber & Faber in 1977.

  1. ^ Graham Melville-Mason (24 May 1999). "Obituary: James Blades". The Independent. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  2. ^ Goodwin, Noël (2004). "Blades, James". In Dickinson, Matthew (ed.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72246. Retrieved 15 March 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Michael Skinner, In Memoriam: James Blades OBE, Percussive Arts Society, 1999. Retrieved August 8, 2007. Archived May 13, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Fairchild, Frederick D. "James Blades". Percussive Arts Society. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  5. ^ Nick Ravo, "James Blades Is Dead at 97; a Percussionist for Victory" Archived 14 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times (May 25, 1999). Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  6. ^ Britten, Benjamin (1979). The Operas of Benjamin Britten. David Herbert. London: H. Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-10256-1. OCLC 6252767.