James Gadson, Prolific Funk and Disco Drummer, Dies at 86

James Gadson, a prolific session drummer who played on hit records by the likes of Diana Ross, the Jackson 5, and Bill Withers, has died. “He was a great husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and one hell of a drummer,” Gadson’s wife, Barbara, told Rolling Stone. She said that Gadson had recently undergone surgery and suffered a bad fall. He was 86.

Gadson was born in Kansas City, Misouri, in 1939. His father, also a drummer, bought James and his brother Thomas cornets so they could join the drum corps at their school. After serving in the Air Force, Gadson played keyboards and sang in his brother’s band, before eventually switching to the drums. He also backed up musicians who came through Kansas City on tour, including Otis Redding and Sam Cooke.

It was after he relocated to Los Angeles that Gadson crossed paths with Motown’s Hal Davis, who tapped him to sit in on the session for “Dancing Machine” by the Jackson 5. Gadson’s work behind the kit can also be heard on “Lean on Me” and “Use Me”—both by Withers—Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” and Thelma Houston’s cover of “Don’t Leave Me This Way.”

There are only a few songs released under Gadson’s own name: the 1976 disco single “Go By What’s in Your Heart” and two 7-inches—“Good Vibrations / Just to Love You Girl” and “Got to Find My Baby / Let the Feeling Belong”—that were later included on Hi Records’ Soul Searching compilation in 1995. Still, his later-career credits range from Beck’s Sea Change to Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds to, more recently, Harry Styles’ Fine Line. That’s also him slapping his legs on “Sugah Daddy” from D’Angelo and the Vanguard’s Black Messiah.

“Some drummers are soulful. Some drummers are funky. Some drummer are a rockin. Some drummers are swinging,” Questlove wrote in a tribute on Instagram, “but NO drummer, has impacted the art of breakbeat drummer (danceable drums) like James Gadson.”

Flea also remembered Gadson: “His legacy will live on through a zillion joyful dances humans will do to his beats, to heal and feel free.”