NRBQ DRUMMER TOM ARDOLINO PASSES AWAY AT 56
by: Joe Robinson


Phil Han, Getty Images

Tom Ardolino, a longtime drummer of the influential cult band NRBQ, died Friday (Jan. 6) after a lengthy battle with an unidentified illness. He was 56.

NRBQ announced Ardolino’s death with a note posted Friday on their Facebook page: ”Friends, We regret to inform you that Tom Ardolino passed away today. Tom will be missed but his spirit lives on through those who were touched by him.”

Ardolino joined NRBQ in 1974 after years as a dedicated fan and drummed with them for three decades, appearing on 15 studio albums and performing countless live shows over that span. “He had a totally unique style of drumming that nobody can ever duplicate,” former NRBQ member Al Anderson said of Ardolino to the Hartford Courant. “That was one of the baddest rhythm sections in the world.”

His drumming was an integral part of both the recorded and the legendary live NRBQ experience. Known as much for for its wildly eclectic blending of genres as for its overall consistent lack of commercial success, the band counts several legendary musicians among its rabid fan base, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Keith Richards.

NRBQ went on hiatus in 2004, and when the band regrouped in March 2011, Ardolino was too ill to take part. In December, the band announced via Facebook that the drummer was “dealing with a number of health issues” and was “expected to be int he hospital for some time.” He was living in Springfield, Mass., at the time of his death.

[ultimateclassicrock.com]

I didn't know this. I am devastated.


God bless Tommy.

At 7:58 the great Earl Palmer gives props to Tommy...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-01-09 05:15 by loog droog.

Listen to Tommy....

R.I.P.Tommy. I remember watching that clip when it aired and thinking, "sh^%, those guys know how to rock AND roll". Saw them four times over the years and it was always so much fun, and so much fun, especially, to watch Tommy play.

Damn damn damn. I first saw NRBQ open for BB King on their "Scraps" tour (first LP with Big Al) and was a fan from their very first ("Stomp" was played on the local AM radio in South Fla where they lived a while I think). Anyway, we adored the band and first drummer Tom "Time Bomb" Staley and his impeccable time. The band disappeared for a few years and when they reappeared with "All Hopped Up" we were like -- "what's with the new drummer?" And then I saw them in 1978 open with "Shake Rattle and Roll" and said "ah that's what's with the new drummer!" They swung so hard it stretched your grin to snapping. Saw them a number of times through the years -- never less than good and interesting and some gigs were all time top ten (or five). And Tommy -- with Joey -- was at the bottom of it.

He was also a collector I know and was a big Brian Wilson fan like me. And behind some interesting reissues like a record of those songs people sent their lyrics in to have someone record music behind -- strange stuff!

Damn. Trust you're at peace today, Tommy...

[courantblogs.com]

Tom Ardolino, the former drummer for cult favorites NRBQ, died Friday night after a long illness. He would have turned 57 Jan. 12.

After corresponding for years with keyboardist Terry Adams, Ardolino, a Springfield resident, joined the band in 1974 when original drummer Tom Staley departed. Ardolino remained behind the kit for the next 30 years, playing on 15 studio albums and countless live shows, until the group went on hiatus in 2004. Although he played at sporadic NRBQ reunion concerts in the intervening years, he wasn’t well enough to resume drum duties when keyboardist Terry Adams reconstituted the band with a new lineup in 2011.

“He was a great drummer and a great guy,” Al Anderson, who played with Ardolino in NRBQ from 1974-93, said Saturday morning. “He had a totally unique style of drumming that nobody can ever duplicate. That was one of the baddest rhythm sections in the world.”

When he wasn’t playing with NRBQ, Ardolino busied himself with other projects, including a solo album, session work on friends’ projects and playing on the Emmy-winning soundtrack to “Kids Behind the Wheel,” a documentary film. The latter gig didn’t go as planned, said Jim Chapdelaine, a West Hartford guitarist and producer who hired Ardolino for the job. Part of the music required Ardolino to drum to a “nu-metal type piece.” Chapdelaine said Ardolino declined at first to play it, explaining, “It would make me sad.” He ended up drumming on it anyway, swinging the part instead of playing a chugging heavy-metal rhythm.

“I left it in there and it’s shown in every driver’s ed course in the country,” Chapdelaine said. “When the producer of the film asked me about it, I told her we invented a new genre — Happy Metal. They loved it.”

Chapdelaine continued, “He was a beloved guy who didn’t know how beloved he was.”

NRBQ’s announcement of Ardolino’s death, on the band’s Facebook page, was met with an outpouring of condolences and remembrances from fans.

“One of the best, heartiest, beatiest drummers to ever sit behind a kit, an eternal cherub and the most wide-eyed child ever to play in a bigtime rock ‘n’ roll band,” wrote Fran Fried, a former music writer at the New Haven Register.

Rest in Peace Tom. You are sorely missed :-(

Oh my, this is terrible news. He was a great drummer. Tommy's input to the Q sound was distinctive and really helped that band swing. All done on a very spare kit. Happy to have seen play at many NRBQ gigs over the years. RIP Tom.

Been thinking about Tommy all day...

So many great years, so many great shows...


















and here is is playing alongside Conrad, drummer with TARRQ aka "the new" NRBQ...

The Music world just lost another fantastic musician and person.
Drummer for NRBQ. The driving backbeat behind the "Q". He will be sorely missed.

RIP Tom Ardolino


Stones connection>
As many folks here probably know, Joey Spampinato, bass player for NRBQ, was a strong candidate to replace Bill Wyman. Eventually Darryl landed the spot. Joey can be seen as the bass player, along with Keith and others on "Hail, Hail Rock 'n Roll". It's all on youtube.

Keith spoke highly of NRBQ, as did many other heavies in the biz. One of the most overlooked, and under appreciated bands ever!

Here's a short clip with Keith comments included...this is only part one, more of this, with more Keith comments can be found on the additional parts of this show>

video: [youtu.be]



Rest in Peace Tom.

Sorry. just Saw on 2nd page edith grove thread.

Great article about Tom in the Boston Globe, with a quote from Bonnie Raitt that exactly explains what many of his fans thought about him...



Tom Ardolino, 56; drummer kept mighty beat for NRBQ

By Mark Shanahan | GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 10, 2012


Tom Ardolino was 15 the first time he saw NRBQ. It was 1970, and Mr. Ardolino, a student at Springfield’s High School of Commerce, was struck by the band’s peculiar blend of rock, jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley.

The show at the Paramount Theater in Springfield was thrilling, and he went the next day to his local record shop and bought “Boppin’ the Blues,’’ an album that NRBQ - short for New Rhythm and Blues Quartet - made with rockabilly guitarist Carl Perkins.

Using an address on the back of the album, Mr. Ardolino dashed off a fan letter. NRBQ keyboardist Terry Adams read the note and responded, and Mr. Ardolino, a drummer and avid music collector, became friends with the band, trading reel-to-reel tapes through the mail and attending virtually every NRBQ show in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.


Four years later, at the end of an NRBQ show at the Rusty Nail in Sunderland, drummer Tom Staley was back on the tour bus when the crowd wanted another encore. Adams summoned Mr. Ardolino to the stage and, though he had never been in a band, Mr. Ardolino played “Do You Feel It’’ without missing a beat. A few months later, Adams told Mr. Ardolino that Staley was leaving NRBQ and asked the 19-year-old if he wanted to join.

“It was like being high on drugs all the time after that,’’ Mr. Ardolino told the Globe last summer.

‘Tommy deserves an entire wing in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.’


Mr. Ardolino, who went on to record and tour with NRBQ relentlessly over the next 30 years, becoming a favorite of many A-list artists, died Friday in Kindred Hospital in Springfield.

He was 56 and had lived in Springfield before being hospitalized two months ago with what close friends described as illnesses related to alcoholism. NRBQ announced his death on the band’s Facebook page.

“Tommy deserves an entire wing in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,’’ singer Bonnie Raitt told the Globe last summer. “There’s Charlie Watts, and there’s Tom Ardolino. That’s it.’’

Though sometimes overshadowed by NRBQ’s frontmen - Adams, bassist Joey Spampinato, and guitarist “Big’’ Al Anderson - Mr. Ardolino’s distinctive swinging style was an essential ingredient in NRBQ’s signature sound. He might have looked relaxed, lazy even beneath a mop of unruly curls, a toothy grin on his face, but Mr. Ardolino kept a mighty beat. He also recorded and performed with the likes of John Sebastian, Bob Dylan, and Brian Wilson.

“Between 1974 and whenever I left the band, I can tell you that that was the baddest-ass rhythm section that ever lived,’’ Anderson said.

“NRBQ was kind of destined not to make it big because critics and radio couldn’t put a name on it. But we were so great because we were playing 250 nights a year, and we started thinking with one mind.’’

NRBQ - whose classics include “Ridin’ in My Car,’’ “Howard Johnson’s Got His Ho-Jo Working,’’ and “Me and the Boys’’ - never sold many records. The closest the band came to a hit was 1974’s “Get That Gasoline Blues,’’ which reached number 70 on the Billboard chart, but their musicianship, sense of humor, and rollicking, unpredictable live shows won them legions of fans.

“I’d much rather any day go see NRBQ playing than any of our illustrious punk bands in England,’’ Elvis Costello once told Rolling Stone magazine.

Other famous admirers included Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, and REM’s Peter Buck. A cartoon likeness of Mr. Ardolino and the rest of NRBQ occasionally showed up on “SpongeBob SquarePants’’ and “The Simpsons,’’ whose executive producer Mike Scully, a Springfield native, made an hourlong documentary about the band.

Adams said he and Mr. Ardolino developed “something of a psychic connection’’ over 40 years. Mr. Ardolino was constantly listening and learning, Adams said, whether in the studio with the band or at home in Springfield, where he kept an encyclopedic collection of vinyl records.

“Tom had a real hunger for music and his feel - well, it was like he was giving you a big hug when he played,’’ said Adams. “A lot of guys play from the waist up. Tom played from waist down and the waist up. He was everyone’s favorite drummer.’’

Spampinato, the other half of NRBQ’s so-called “ravioli rhythm section,’’ said Mr. Ardolino was more than a drummer.

“Tommy was a musical genius,’’ Spampinato said. “I can say that he was the best musician I think I ever played with. He could sit at the piano and start playing the greatest made-up piece right on the spot. I lucked out. I had my own Ringo Starr. Tommy was absolutely the best.’’

NRBQ stopped touring and recording in 2004 after Adams was diagnosed with throat cancer. Joey Spampinato and his brother, Johnny, who replaced Anderson in 1994, briefly continued with Mr. Ardolino, performing as Baby Macaroni. Last year, NRBQ released a new CD, with Adams the lone original member in the band. Mr. Ardolino did the artwork on the cover.

“I tried to keep him on the road, but his body didn’t want to withstand that,’’ said Adams, whose final performance with Mr. Ardolino was at the Green River Festival in Greenfield last July. “Tom never lost sight of the value of NRBQ. He knew what it was before he was in the band, and he remained faithful to that concept. And I love him for that.’’

Mr. Ardolino was separated from his wife, Keiko, with whom he had a stepdaughter, Emiko, and a stepson, Liku, all of whom live in Springfield.

In recent years, close friends said, Mr. Ardolino’s alcoholism had progressed, and he was hospitalized in November, spending more than a month at the Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in Northampton before being moved to Kindred Hospital in Springfield.

He had a steady stream of visitors at the end, including friends, fans, and his former bandmates. During one of his visits to the hospital, Anderson brought Mr. Ardolino a boombox and the Beach Boys CDs “Smile’’ and “Pet Sounds.’’

“Tom had more friends than anybody I know,’’ said Adams, “And each one had the feeling they were his best friend.’’

In addition to his wife and stepchildren, Mr. Ardolino leaves a brother, Richard of the Feeding Hills section of Agawam.

A celebration of Mr. Ardolino’s life will be announced. Burial will be private.

Hey, loog! Did you know Ardolino?

If you did, and if you want to, how about sharing some stories?

Quote
Edith Grove
Hey, loog! Did you know Ardolino?

If you did, and if you want to, how about sharing some stories?

No, I didn't know Tom. He wasn't a friend, but his music certainly was. About a year ago I mentioned to my wife that while driving that day I was listening to "Macho Maria" and focusing on Tommy's playing. It was such a wonder and thing of beauty it made my eyes a little moist! How many drummers can do that??


I met Tom and chatted with him on a number of occasions, but it was on a fan-appreciation level.

At a 1985 TV taping for a show called Deja View where the Q were a backing band, we spoke during a break and I mentioned that I was getting married in two days, and he congratulated me and went back and told the other guys that a fan was in the house. Before the cameras started rolling again, they played "Scarlet Ribbons" and later all autographed my ticket.

Many years later when they played McCabes in Santa Monica I took my son to see them and (it was a rare show at a "dry" locale, so he could get in) and we ran into Tommy just walking down the street all by himself after the show. He couldn't have been nicer when I introduced him to my son, who was raised on NRBQ.

There were probably a half-dozen or so encounters on that level, each one a good, positive experience. In recent years when you looked at him it was clear that his health was a problem, but when he was on stage he played like Superman, or at least a superman with a swing and feel far beyond the powers of mortal men...

He used to step out from behind the drums and do those bits with the "Tommy Jr." marionette, but when you think about it in a way Tommy himself was "Terry Jr.". He was like the little brother who echoed and amplified Terry's whimsey. Someone suggested that he was perhaps the most beloved member, and that may be true. In a band that refused to grow up, he was the biggest kid of the bunch.

The fact that he would sometimes appear onstage with Terry's "new NRBQ" and play alongside Conrad, the new look-alike drummer felt like he was mentoring the guy and served as an endorsement of Terry's decision to carry on with the NRBQ name, and "Keep This Love Goin'." That was his final gift to his fans.


It just breaks my heart that he's gone.

Wow -- thanks for all those lovely posts. Listening to "Hear Comes Terry." Ain't nothing like it.

"Here comes Tom"....

damn alcoholism


going to see the new nrbq on sunday.. sure it will be a bit melancholic..

I'll take a little credit for this one.

Today I wrote an email to LA Times music writer Randy Lewis, to see if he could get an obit for Tom in the paper. It turned out he hadn't heard about his passing, and is also a huge fan of Tommy!

So he wrote a nice story that will appear in tomorrow's edition.


[www.latimes.com]

Tom Ardolino dies at 56; former NRBQ drummer
Tom Ardolino was a teenage amateur drummer when tapped by NRBQ. He spent the next few decades providing nimble, propulsive backbeats for the category-defying band.

By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times
January 11, 2012
Members of the category-defying band NRBQ knew from the outset that their prospects of mainstream success were slim to none.

With a sound and attitude that embraced the seminal rock of Chuck Berry and no-borders expanse of free-form jazz experimentalist Sun Ra, the invigorating dance rhythms of zydeco kingpin Boozoo Chavis and dreamy multilayered pop of Brian Wilson, the quartet spent the '70s, '80s and '90s recording and touring chiefly for the reward of accolades from fellow musicians including Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, as well as from a coterie of devoted fans scattered across the planet.

The group's anything-goes-and-usually-does approach was what first caught the ear of 15-year-old drummer Tom Ardolino, who sent a fan letter to keyboardist Terry Adams after catching one of the group's shows in Springfield, Mass. In 1974, Adams invited him to join the group when drummer Tom Staley quit.

Ardolino spent the next few decades providing nimble, propulsive backbeats for bandmates Adams, guitarist Al Anderson and bassist Joey Spampinato until health issues forced him to quit touring. Those problems contributed to his death Friday at age 56 from alcoholism-related illness.

"Tommy deserves an entire wing in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," Raitt told the Boston Globe last year. "There's [Rolling Stones drummer] Charlie Watts, and there's Tom Ardolino. That's it."

During NRBQ's relentless touring schedule — they often logged 250 shows a year — Ardolino projected the image of the world's happiest bus driver. Under a mass of long, black curly hair and peering out from behind a grizzly beard and mustache, Ardolino bounced atop the stool of his drum kit as he pounded out sultry shuffles, effervescent swing beats, insistent rock and slinky R&B pulses, country two-steps or intricate jazz polyrhythms that anchored his fellow players' flights of musical fancy.

"Between 1974 and whenever I left that band, I can tell you that that was the baddest-ass rhythm section that ever lived," Anderson told the Boston Globe, referring to the Ardolino-Spampinato half of the group that Anderson left in 1994. "NRBQ was kind of destined not to make it big because critics and radio couldn't put a name on it. But we were so great because we were playing 250 nights a year, and we started thinking with one mind."

Ardolino was born Jan. 12, 1955, and was a teenage amateur drummer in Springfield when he got a call from Adams after Staley decided to bow out.

"I was ready," Ardolino told the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Advocate in 1999, when the band was on a 30th anniversary tour. "My problem was I had to learn to play for like a whole set long, and [to play] harder, because I was used to playing with records, which was soft."

Responding to the moment was NRBQ's calling card in concert, a trait that rarely translates into commercial success, which typically requires steady predictability.

NRBQ could never be easily pigeonholed, and therefore handily marketed, so only three of the group's albums ever charted, in the lower reaches of Billboard's Top 200 Albums rankings. Their 1969 debut "NRBQ," which originally stood for New Rhythm & Blues Quintet, and their 1990 album "Wild Weekend" are among the group's best-known recordings.

"We get disappointed sometimes, and we don't understand," Ardolino told The Times in 1992. "One of our old record labels sent us a statement once claiming the total sales of one of our albums was three cassettes. But it ain't gonna stop us. Besides, I think we have a great life. We get to play whatever we want, and we got to meet a lot of great people. I know all the good record stores in every town."

After the band went on hiatus about a decade ago, Ardolino released a solo album, "Unknown Brain." Adams resurrected NRBQ in recent years and has continued touring and recording, with himself as the only remaining original member.

Elvis Costello once told Rolling Stone, "I'd much rather any day go see NRBQ playing than any of our illustrious punk bands in England."

Ardolino's alcoholism progressed in recent years, according to the Boston Globe, and he was hospitalized in November. He died at Kindred Hospital in Springfield, Mass., the newspaper reported.

He was separated from his wife, Keiko, with whom he had a stepdaughter, Emiko, and a stepson, Liku. He is also survived by his brother, Richard.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

Sad to hear. I am not familiar with these guys, but like what I have seen so far. Ok you fans, what album should I start with?

Lots of great stuff but I think I love Grooves in Orbit and At Yankee Stadium, from '83 and '78 respectively, the best. Favorite Q lyric: "Oh,I hate to see you with a girl like that/ She don't do nothing but complain/She hears all music the same".

Quote
whitem8
Sad to hear. I am not familiar with these guys, but like what I have seen so far. Ok you fans, what album should I start with?

Studio (I've ranked in order of my preference )

All Hopped Up w/Ardolino, features classic "Ridin' In My Car" )
At Yankee Stadium many fans call this the best
Tiddlywinks (features "Me and the Boys" )
Scraps great record, Al's intro/Steve's last.
Keep This Love Goin' (latest w/"new" NRBQ--as good as anything before)
Grooves In Orbit I just dig it.
NRBQ (1969 debut, not the 1994 one with the same name)

Live (Hard to pick a favorite here, these are listed in chronological order ):

Ludlow Garage 1970--original line-up w/Steve Ferguson on guitar. Hard to believe they were that awesome that early in their career.

God Bless Us All--
Diggin' Uncle Q--Two albums recorded at Lupos w/Al Anderson. Ultimate live Q--You'll throw away Leeds and Ya-Yas when you hear this pair!

Gotta Be Loose--rockin'and swingin' set w/Johnny Spampinato. Dave and Tyrone on horns: "Jump Man Jump" You will!

and I love You're Nice People You Are a "children's record" with some great material that includes "St. Patrick's Day" one of the best songs ever written about that day or any day.


There's lots of other good stuff too. This is just a road map of good places to start.


Enjoy.




P.S. She Sings They Play, the album where they backed (Joey's then-wife ) country legend Skeeter Davis deserves a mention, as does Louisville Sluggers a 2006 album by Terry Adams and Steve Ferguson that reunited the two (with Tommy on drums, so it's 3/4 of Q!) with a lot of great musicianship and friendship lurking within those grooves. It's a great bookend to the 1970 Ludlow Garage album.

Terry's great first solo album Terrible is a jazz record and proves he could have conquered that world if he wanted to. Holy Tweet contains "I'm Alone" a Terry composition that sounds like a Gershwin classic out of the Great American Songbook, sung by "new" NRBQ guitarist (who looks and sings and plays like he could be Al Anderson's son!) Scott Ligon in a performance that absolutely slays. The fact that material this great goes unheard by the general public is one of the most maddening things about being a Q-head.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-01-12 07:59 by loog droog.

Thanks folks! I will begin the journey tonight.

I also really love All Hopped Up and Yankee Stadium (the cover the LP always cracks me up!).

Quote
stoned in washington dc
damn alcoholism

I didn't want to be the one to say it, but yeah....

As for where to start...I pretty much agree with the LPs mentioned. "Yankee Stadium", "All Hopped Up", "Scraps" (probably my fave), "Grooves in Orbit" are high water. "Wild Weekend" is half a classic. All have at least a couple gems. Anyway, as a primer, I would recommend tracking down the comp "Peekaboo", which covers them up through "Wild Weekend".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-01-11 20:39 by Wry Cooter.