A master percussionist since the 1940s; a MacArthur Foundation Grant
recipient. His great quintet with Clifford Brown was cut short by Brown's death; some subsequent groups were almost as great. Has never been afraid to try new contexts for his playing, whether it was odd meters, his
all-percussion group M'Boom, free-improv duets, or chamber music. He was the first jazzer to evoke the Africa of Senghor and Lumumba, rather than the Africa of "jungle drums" exotica; it got him blacklisted.