He always said that he strove for a ‘powerhouse sound’, and that was what he delivered, sitting behind a vintage set of Slingerland Radio Kings and 24” ride and 22' crash cymbals. Roomful developed a growing reputation through New England for a style of musicianship that was almost prehistoric in the progressive rock days of the 1970s, and it was John’s driving style that was at the root of the band’s sound. The band, led by guitarist and singer Duke Robillard, with its lineup of three saxes, Greg Piccolo, Doug James and Rich Lataille, pianist Al Copley and bassist Eddie Parnigoni, was John’s dream band, playing classic rhythm and blues from the books of Buddy Johnson, Roy Milton, Tiny Bradshaw and the myriad other titans of jump blues and swing from the thirties through the fifties. He joined Roomful of Blues in 1970 after Fran Christina left, and thus began a musical journey that eventually led John all over the world, playing the music he loved.

The group, co-led by tenor player Scott Hamilton and guitarist Fred Bates, was causing a sensation in New England music circles with its emphasis on swing, and was the beginning of a long rhythm section relationship between John and the group’s bassist, Preston Hubbard. The advent of the Beatles changed musical tastes and for a few years, John worked sporadically until he teamed up with the Hamilton-Bates Blue Flames in the late sixties. His mother Jennie, a classically trained pianist, encouraged John’s interest in music, all the while admonishing him to learn to read music, telling him he would never get ahead if he failed to do so. Thus inspired, he took up drums at seventeen, and played in many early Rhode Island rock ’n’ roll and rhythm and blues bands, recording with the Del-Rays in 1961 and then spent three years with the area’s premier band, the Rockin’ Savoys, led by tenor sax player Louie Camp. Prysock’s drummer had the biggest cymbals John had seen, and he became fixated by the wash of sound they made as they rode atop the heavy backbeat propelling Prysock’s frenzied horn. John Rossi, the longtime drummer for Roomful of Blues, passed away on the morning of April 9th after a short illness.īorn in 1942, in Providence, Rhode Island, John grew up during the rock ’n’ roll era listening to Little Richard, Fats Domino and countless other treasures of America’s musical heritage.Īn epiphany occurred when he went to see tenor sax star Red Prysock at the Celebrity Club in Providence. Remembering Our Friend and Beloved Bandmate John Rossi.

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