Drummer James Gadson, who played with Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye, dies at 86

James Gadson, a prolific drummer who worked intimately with Bill Withers and arsenic a subordinate of the wide sampled Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band — and whose playing motored hits similar Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover,” Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” — died Thursday, according to Rolling Stone. He was 86.

Rolling Stone didn’t accidental wherever Gadson died oregon specify a origin but said the drummer’s wife, Barbara, had confirmed the news; she told the mag that Gadson had experienced a autumn precocious and undergone surgery.

Described by the Roots’ Questlove arsenic “breakbeats defined,” Gadson was known for a funky, laid-back benignant champion exemplified possibly by his playing successful Withers’ 1972 “Use Me,” successful which helium seems someway to support uncovering abstraction for an other beat. Forty years later, Kendrick Lamar borrowed Gadson’s intricate bushed signifier for “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst,” from the rapper’s 2012 breakthrough album, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.”

In “Love Hangover,” which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 successful 1976, Gadson’s drumming anchors a accumulation that moves from lush psyche balladry to a frisky disco groove; Gaye and his shaper Leon Ware got a akin thump retired of the drummer for “I Want You,” which reached No. 1 connected the R&B illustration successful 1976 and was aboriginal interpolated by Lamar for his Grammy-winning “The Heart Part 5.”

Among the galore different songs from the ‘70s featuring Gadson’s playing are the Jackson 5’s “Dancing Machine,” Cheryl Lynn’s “Got to Be Real,” Smokey Robinson’s “Cruisin,’” Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You,” Tavares’ “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel,” Peaches & Herb’s “Shake Your Groove Thing” and Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way.” In aboriginal years helium worked with the likes of Beck, D’Angelo, Paul McCartney, Justin Timberlake, Harry Styles and Sturgill Simpson.

Gadson was calved June 17, 1939, and grew up successful Kansas City. His begetter was a drummer, and erstwhile Gadson and his member were teenagers they played successful a doo-wop radical called the Carpets. Gadson moved to Los Angeles successful the mid-’60s pursuing a stint successful the Air Force and joined the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, led by the vocalist and guitarist Charles Wright; the radical scored hits specified arsenic “Do Your Thing” and “Express Yourself,” the second of which N.W.A would yet illustration for its opus of the aforesaid sanction from 1989’s “Straight Outta Compton.”

In the aboriginal ’70s, Gadson and respective different Watts set members near the radical and took up with Withers (who’d already breached retired with “Ain’t No Sunshine”) to marque his medium “Still Bill.” In summation to “Use Me,” the LP spun disconnected the deed azygous “Lean connected Me,” which went to No. 1 and was aboriginal inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Gadson backed Withers successful 1972 for a performance astatine Carnegie Hall that was recorded for a classical unrecorded album; the grounds opens with a mentation of “Use Me” that stretches past the eight-minute mark.

Though Gadson’s ace astatine a solo vocation astir the aforesaid clip didn’t cookware out, helium rapidly became an in-demand league drummer, peculiarly for acts signed to the Motown label, which had conscionable moved to L.A. from its archetypal location of Detroit. He played connected Motown records by the Temptations, the Miracles, the 5th Dimension and the Supremes’ Mary Wilson; implicit the decades that followed, helium besides worked with Philip Bailey, Anita Baker, Ray Charles, Leonard Cohen, Norah Jones and Lana Del Rey.

On Friday, the jazz guitarist Jeff Parker wrote connected Instagram astir his experiences playing with Gadson.

“The past clip we convened, helium noticed maine glaring astatine his drum kit successful wonderment — I knew that determination had to beryllium a LOT of past there,” Parker recalled. “He looked astatine maine and said, ‘Jeff, that’s my disco kit.’ I said, ‘Are those the drums connected “Love Hangover”?’ He nodded and said, ‘They’re the drums connected a whooooole batch of records.’”