Kenny Clarke

American jazz drummer and vibraphonist (born January 9, 1914 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, died January 26, 1985 in Paris, France, aged 71) Clarke was an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming and a founder member of the jazz group, The Modern Jazz Quartet. A regular sideman for in the mid-1950s, he lived and worked in Paris from 1956. Clarke converted to Islam in the late 1940s and used the name Liaquat Ali Salaam on and possibly other sessions at the time. However, from the 1950s onward, he returned to being billed as "Kenny Clarke" professionally, including on his 1950s Savoy Records albums, in the Clarke-Boland Big Band during the 1960s, and up through his final albums in the 1980s, such as .