June Gardner

Albert "June" Gardner (December 31, 1930 - November 19, 2010) was an American R&B and jazz drummer and bandleader from New Orleans whose professional music career spanned six decades.

Albert Samuel Gardner, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Albert, Sr. and Olivia Woodland Gardner, the youngest of their six children.

He was nicknamed June, short for Junior.

His brothers were Tom and Richard, his sisters Myrtle, Thelma, and Cleo.

Gardner said his father was from McComb, Mississippi and his mother was from “across the river”, meaning the west bank of the Mississippi.

They lived at 2909 LaSalle Street.

When he was a young boy the family moved to 2620 St. Andrew Street, between Magnolia and Robertson streets, into a house which no electricity and an outdoor privy.

His father worked for the Illinois Central railroad.

The family attended the First Evangelist Missionary Baptist at Felicity and Willow Streets.

In 1944 when Gardner became interested in playing drums his parents paid for lessons with Professor Valmont Victor.

"Twenty-five cents (a lesson) was a lot of money at the time, but they made arrangements for me to do it", he recalled.

He also took music classes when at Booker T. Washington High School, and played in the school’s marching band.

His parents could not afford to buy him drums, but the school had them for their students.

He said, "The earlier you’d get to school (you) had the best chance of getting a better drum."

His older brother Richard bought him his first drum set.

During his childhood Gardner heard the blues around his neighborhood.

"We lived across the street from some juke joints, all night long they played the blues."

He recalled hearing Blue Lu Barker, Alma Parnell, and T-Bone Walker among others.

He started playing at the Groove Room, a club within the Dew Drop Inn, at age fifteen.

Both clubs were owned by Frank Painia.

Gardner said Painia told him, when he complained to him about his pay, "You learning on my stage so I’m not gonna pay you as much as the other guys."

The band consisted of Edgar Blanchard (guitar), Stuart Davis (bass), Arthur Blackwell, (piano), and Gardner (drums).

Gardner admitted, "I was scared to death playing”, but “it was a great learning experience for me."

He was soon playing six nights a week, and made a decision to quit school for the life of a musician.

Gardner pointed out local drummers Weedy Morris (Idris Muhammad nee Leo Morris’s brother), Earl Palmer, Tenoo Coleman, and Ed Blackwell as influences, as well as Texas-born jazz drummer Wilbert Hogan.

Gardner left the Dew Drop to go with Jay Johnson’s band, then playing at the Rhythm Club, later called Club Rocket, at Jackson Avenue and Derbigny Street.

The band, including saxophonist August "Dimes" Dupont, opened for such acts as Andy Kirk, Luis Russell, Lucky Millinder, and Erskine Hawkins.

In 1947 he joined Edgar Blanchard’s Gondoliers, with Blanchard on guitar and Gardner on drums, at Percy Stovall’s Pelican Club on Rampart Street.

By the time of a 1996 interview Gardner admitted he was no longer religious, but said, "I carry the Lord in my chest twenty-four hours a day."

As a child, Gardner was aware of the celebrations taking place in his neighborhood on New Year’s Eve (his birthday), "I thought it was all for me", he remembered.

"None of my family was in music", he said.

After the family home got electricity they obtained a record player.

Gardner remembered hearing Dr. Clayton and big band records.

"We always had a piano and different musicians would come by and play", including Tuts Washington and Papa Yellow.

Champion Jack Dupree was a friend of the family’s and would play when he stayed with them on his visits to New Orleans.

Gardner followed parades in his neighborhood as a child.

"Everything passed on Magnolia (Street)", he said, including Mardi Gras Indians.

"I could feel Paul Barbarin or Freddie Kohlman" coming in a parade, even before he began playing drums.

Drummer Ed Blackwell agreed, "New Orleans has this heritage of marching and parading. All of the drummers that are born there come up hearing that everyday.".

Gardner would also go to vaudeville theaters, the Ritz and the Palace, to hear drummer Pickle Johnson.