Funk Brothers drummer drove Motown hits

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DETROIT -- Uriel Jones, a drummer whose versatile style fuelled many classic Motown hits, has died. He was 74.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/03/2009 (6400 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DETROIT — Uriel Jones, a drummer whose versatile style fuelled many classic Motown hits, has died. He was 74.

Sister-in-law Leslie Coleman says Jones died Tuesday at a Detroit-area hospital after complications from a heart attack he suffered last month.

Jones played on tracks by the Temptations, Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and others. He was part of the Funk Brothers, the talented house band on Motown recordings.

CP The Funk Brothers' drummer Uriel Jones, left, Duke Fakir of The Four Tops, center, and saxophonist Gil Bridges of Rare Earth, sit in the recording studio at the Motown Museum, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009, in Detroit. Motown Records was founded 50 years ago today. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)
CP The Funk Brothers' drummer Uriel Jones, left, Duke Fakir of The Four Tops, center, and saxophonist Gil Bridges of Rare Earth, sit in the recording studio at the Motown Museum, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009, in Detroit. Motown Records was founded 50 years ago today. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)

Paul Riser, a Motown arranger and musician, says Jones had “a pulse in his playing that nobody else had.” But Riser said Jones also could play with finesse and restraint when the song called for it.

He is survived by his wife, June, and three children. A funeral has been scheduled for next Tuesday at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple.

— The Associated Press

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