As jazz and funk music morphed and strayed into strange new territory in the late 1960s, drummer Lenny White was at the forefront, providing intoxicating rhythms and shuffling backbeats for Chick Corea's seminal group Return to Forever.

Born in New York City, he grew up seeing the eras of great drummers like Art Blakey, Max Roach and Kenny Clark in small clubs and started out playing in his teens with bebop saxophonist Jackie McLean, before making his recording debut at 19 on Miles Davis' legendary album 'Bitches Brew'. Stints with Freddie Hubbard (during which time he played on the landmark 'Red Clay' album), Curtis Fuller and the large Latin ensemble Azteca followed, but it was when he joined Return to Forever in 1973 that he really started to hone his versatile and languid grooves on the Grammy-winning album 'No Mystery' and the hugely popular 'Rainbow Warrior'. The band became regarded as pioneers of a fusion sound that melded together post-bop jazz with Latin soul and progressive rock, but after they split in 1977, White led his own band on albums 'The Adventures of Astral Pirates' and 'Streamline' for Elektra Records.

As White turned more towards cosmic funk sounds, he played on records by Chaka Khan in the 1980s and recorded with The Manhattan Project and Michael Petrucciani for Blue Note in the 1990s; he also released highly regarded solo works such as 'Attitude', 'Present Tense' and later 'Anomaly' in 2010. He then took up teaching at NYU and reunited with Return to Forever for albums 'Forever' and 'The Mothership Returns'.

Lenny White

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