John Marshall – one of the world's greatest drummers – has died. He was not only a great musician – who had played with literally hundreds of the biggest names in jazz and rock, and pioneered the fusion of those two genres into something powerfully new – he was also a great human being. And I am proud to say that he was my friend and teacher.
He was the driving force in Soft Machine – for whom he had played drums for half a century – almost to the end of his life.
Although I didn't know it at the time, I was at his last gig, with the Softs, at Ronnie Scott's, in 2022.
And I was also with him at his home, just a few weeks ago, when he picked up the sticks for the very last time – to show me how something easy for him (but not for me) could be done.
His passion for playing the drums was still there then. It never died.
