PRESCOTT — Jazz drummer Mel Zelnick, whose career began as a boy in a Harlem drum corps and led to stints with Benny Goodman and as a session artist for Capital Records, has died at 83.
Zelnick, who lived in the Arizona town of Mayer for many years, died of a heart attack on Thursday, stepdaughter Loretta Alden said. He had been in declining health since having heart bypass surgery several years ago.
In an interview last year with The Daily Courier newspaper in Prescott, Zelnick recalled his start at age 9 on the streets of New York City with fellow youngsters trying to learn drum rolls in a neighborhood drum corps.
"They were having trouble. They were stumbling," Zelnick said. "They looked at me, and they said, 'Yeah, you think you can do it?' So they gave me the sticks, and I said, 'Just show me how to hold it.' They showed me, and in two minutes I brought it into a roll. They could not believe it, and I could not believe it myself. It was so easy for me to do that."
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Zelnick attended the Juilliard School in New York City, then was a U.S. Army Band drummer during World War II, played with Goodman in the 1950s and on recordings by such Capitol studio artists as Peggy Lee in the 1960s.
He also played for Grammy award-winning pop vocalist Patti Page, legendary singer Ray Charles and jazz singer-songwriter Nat King Cole.
He later taught drummers in Prescott and Mayer, played at Prescott summer jazz performances and practiced his hobby of gemology.
Alden said funeral plans are incomplete, but a service will include performances by some of his students.
Besides Alden, Zelnick's survivors include his wife, Barbara "Bobbie" Zelnick, and daughter Jody Piano of Las Vegas.
