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Buddy Deppenschmidt, a drummer and teacher who made a significant contribution to jazz history by helping to spark the international bossa nova craze in the 1960s, passed away on Saturday, March 20, in a Doylestown, Pa., nursing facility. He was 85.
Despite his relative obscurity, Deppenschmidt had a big story to tell: he was instrumental, if uncredited, in launching the bossa nova craze in America during the early 1960s.
Self-taught, he started playing drums professionally while in his teens and then went on the road with Ronnie Bartley’s Orchestra and his drum work can be heard on the soundtracks of the following movies: A Thousand Clowns (1965), Wall Street (1987), Bossa Nova (2000), The Lake House (2006), and Whatever Works (2009).
Deppenschmidt has played with Mose Allison, Chet Baker, Keter Betts, Billy Butterfield, Charlie Byrd, John Coates, Jr., Al Cohn, Matt Dennis, Bob Dorough, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Stan Getz, Al Haig, Lionel Hampton, Barry Harris, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Hinton, Shirley Horn, J.J. Johnson, Larry McKenna, James Moody, King Pleasure, Maxine Sullivan, Clark Terry, Joe Venuti, and Phil Woods.
William Henry Deppenschmidt was born on Feb. 16, 1936, in Philadelphia. His father, also known as Buddy, was a saxophonist who performed as Buddy Williams; he also wrote arrangements for Paul Whiteman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller, and taught reeds at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. He and Deppenschmidt’s mother, Alice, divorced when Buddy was four, at which point mother and child moved to Richmond, Va.
Deppenschmidt took up drums and went pro by age 17, touring with Swing Era trumpet great Billy Butterfield and others. As a member of the Newton Thomas Trio, he shared a festival bill with Byrd, who heard the young drummer and hired him shortly thereafter. Byrd’s trio had a fruitful three-year run at the Showboat Lounge in D.C. On albums like The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd and Blues Sonata (featuring Barry Harris), you hear Deppenschmidt and Betts laying down supple, interactive swing for the famed nylon-string stylist.
