74 Years Ago Today: Session Drummer Mark Craney Was Born

Mark Craney was born August 26, 1952, and grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where his drummer father became his biggest early influence, per Wikipedia. He played left-handed, unusual on a standard right-handed kit, and started out in local South Dakota bands, the Vandals and, while living in nearby Vermillion, a group called Zero Ted, before he ever left the state.

What happened next moved fast. Per Modern Drummer's 2014 interview with fellow drummer Doane Perry, Craney beat Perry out for the drum chair in violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's band in the mid-1970s, a gig Perry had already been told was his. Perry, curious who'd taken the spot, caught Craney's show at New York's Bottom Line and came away a believer: "He had this acrylic double bass Fibes kit, and he was a rock drummer. He had fantastic chops, great ability... He really played that music with an aggressive attitude, but with a lot of finesse and chops."

Craney's run through the second half of the 1970s reads like a who's who of fusion and session-heavy pop. He recorded Ponty's Imaginary Voyage (1976) and later Civilized Evil (1980), and he played Tommy Bolin's final tour in 1976, the year the former Deep Purple and James Gang guitarist died. He also drummed on Gino Vannelli's Brother to Brother (1978) and its tour, an album that produced Vannelli's biggest hit: "I Just Wanna Stop" reached number 4 in the US and number 1 in Canada, per Wikipedia, Craney's most commercially successful credit.

Once Craney relocated to California, he and Perry became close friends, and Craney started the Woodland Hills Drum Club in his own garage, an informal gathering of drummer friends that also staged benefit shows for musicians dealing with hardship. Perry credits Craney with introducing him to drummer Dean Zimmer and shaping Zimmer's phrasing years later.

Craney's highest-profile gig came in June 1980, when he joined Jethro Tull, staying through May 1981, per Wikipedia. He appears on the band's A album and its accompanying tour before drummer Gerry Conway took over the chair. Craney's close friend Doane Perry didn't join Jethro Tull until 1984, replacing Conway, and went on to hold the drum chair for 28 years, per Wikipedia. Craney also contributed to several tracks by the band Ph.D. and, in the mid-1990s, drummed for Eric Burdon's band. He died November 26, 2005, in Sherman Oaks, California, at age 53, of complications from diabetes and pneumonia, per Wikipedia.

Craney's resume ran from fusion to arena rock to jazz-adjacent session work inside a five-year stretch, exactly the kind of versatility a general-purpose stick is built for.