U.S. drum legend Vernel Fournier dead at 72 (from a Nov. 2000 report)

JACKSON, Mississippi -- The jazz world has lost one of its premier brush drummers, New Orleans native Vernel Fournier.

Fournier, who played with such jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Ahmad Jamal, died Saturday in Jackson, Mississippi, of complications from a recent stroke. He was 72.

"He was such a fluid player," said Alvin Fielder, an internationally recognized jazz drummer and longtime friend. "He played beautiful brushes and with the brushes he was totally self-taught. All the other drummers would just go by and watch him in awe."

Fournier caught national attention in Chicago in the '50s as a drummer in the Ahmad Jamal Trio. He's best known for his quasi-rhumba beat on the trio's hit "Poinciana."

In the 1960s, Fournier moved to New York where he performed and taught jazz for about 30 years, until a debilitating stroke in 1994 damaged his spine and left him unable to play.

Reuters contributed to this report.