'King of the shuffle': Remembering longtime Roomful of Blues drummer John Rossi

“John was the perfect drummer for the way Roomful played,” said sax player Greg Piccolo, a former member of Roomful of Blues. “Every beat of the drum meant something, every note meant something.”

Piccolo was speaking of John Rossi, who played with Roomful of Blues for almost 30 years, from 1970 to 1998. Rossi died on April 9.

Piccolo said Rossi grew up with jump blues and early rock ‘n’ roll and was a master of the shuffle rhythm.

“Some drummers thought it was too simple,” Piccolo said. “But if they try to play it, it wouldn’t be the same. The guys who know, they know.”

Bob Bell, manager of Roomful from 1981 to 2002, said Rossi was behind the drum kit, with its massive cymbals, during Roomful’s heyday.

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A link between swing drummers and rock 'n' roll

“He really had a following around the country,” Bell said. “Up-and-coming blues bands seemed to idolize him. ‘King of the shuffle’ they used to call him. He was a link between the swing drummers and early, primal rock ‘n’ roll.”

Bell said he first met Rossi at a club in Atlanta, where he had gone to see Roomful.

“My first reaction was, “Whoa, I’m hearing a real drummer!” he said. The two bonded over a mutual love of Little Richard.

In an extended obituary, Bell wrote how Rossi saw tenor sax star Red Prysock at the Celebrity Club in Providence and became enamored of the huge sound of Prysock’s drummer.

Rossi played with early Rhode Island rock and R&B bands, including the Rockin' Savoys, led by sax player Louie Camp, and then the Hamilton-Bates Blue Flames in the late ‘60s, with sax player Scott Hamilton and guitarist Fred Bates.

“He loved blues and R&B, but it was rock ‘n’ roll that really spun his wheels,” Bell wrote. “He understood the relationship between ‘40s big-band blues to the beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Piccolo said Rossi grew up with the music Roomful loved to play, which made him a natural fit for the band.

13 albums, 3 Grammy nominations

With Roomful, Rossi performed on 13 albums, three of which were nominated for Grammys. He got to accompany an enormous roster of blues and rock masters, including Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, B.B. King, Jay McShann, Etta James, Big Joe Turner, Earl King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Los Lobos, Robert Cray and lots more. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2012.

Bell, who now lives in Oakland, California, said Rossi was proud of his Italian heritage and proud of being from Rhode Island. According to Bell, he spoke fluent “Rhode Island-ese.”

Linda Rossi, John’s widow, said he had grown weary of Roomful’s constant touring and wanted to spend more time with his family. And once he left the band, he had no desire to play the drums in public, feeling he wanted to leave performing on a high note.

“To us, he was just Johnny,” she said. “He was the best guy in the world. ... He was funny. He always had a story. He always said he should have written a book, and called it ‘Almost Famous.’”

Linda Rossi said John’s mother was a piano player who always told her son that he should take lessons and learn to read music. Otherwise, she told him, he would never get to play with the NBC Orchestra.

John took some lessons but never did learn to read music. And he proved his mother wrong. He and the Roomful horn section once backed pop star Pat Benatar on "The Tonight Show" with none other than the NBC Orchestra.

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