HE IS one of the great jazz drummers. Born in the Bronx in 1943, Barry Altschul grew up loving the music of the jazz percussionists who filled his life. “My teacher and mentor was Charli Persip,” he told me, “but I listened to all the drummers of the era that I could find: from Gene Krupa to Papa Jo Jones, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Tony Williams, Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones.”

In the late 1960s he drummed with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea, and in 1972 he made the epochal album Conference of the Birds with Wolverhampton-born bassist Dave Holland and saxophonists Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers.

Never stopping, his more recent bands have included the FAB Trio with bassist Joe Fonda and the late violin virtuoso Billy Bang, and the now-times OGJB Quartet with Fonda, alto saxophonist Oliver Lake and trumpeter Graham Haynes. Their new album, Ode to O (‘O’ being the late Ornette Coleman) made in 2019, is truly a scorcher.