Ted Harvey, Drummer played with Hound Dog Taylor and other blues musicians, dies
Blues Drummer died of natural causes on
Thursday, October 6, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois
at the age of 85
October 21, 2016
by Graydon Megan
Chicago Tribune
Bues drummer Ted Harvey, a master of the shuffle, played with Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, the group that gave Chicago's Alligator Records its start.
"If it wasn't for Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, I'd have a day job," said Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer. "And Ted was a third of that band.
"His whole job was to propel the band forward and to make it wonderfully easy for people to dance," said Iglauer. "His style was very much traditional Chicago style. He was probably the last great Chicago shuffle drummer."
Harvey, 84, died of heart failure Oct. 6 at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, according to his daughter, Cheryl Sims.
Theodore Harvey was born and grew up in Chicago. After graduating from Wendell Phillips High School, he went on to study music and get a degree from Northwestern University, according to Sims.
His family wasn't really musical, Sims said. "He started in grade school playing trumpet," she said. It was at Northwestern that he learned to play the drums.
After college, he played in what family members called "boy bands" while working full time, first for Campbell Soup Co. and later for the Postal Service.
From there he moved to music, playing with bands on Maxwell Street before connecting with another Theodore, Theodore Roosevelt Taylor, better known as "Hound Dog."
The band was Taylor and Brewer Phillips, both of whom played electric guitar and Harvey on drums. No bass, said Iglauer, who said the guitar players took turns playing lead and bass.
Iglauer was then working as a shipping clerk for Bob Koester at Delmark Records and had no plans to start a label of his own. He tried to persuade Koester, whom Iglauer called one of his heroes as well as his mentor, to record the HouseRockers.
"I tried to convince him to record the band, and failed to do so," said Iglauer.
"In a combination of 'I'll show him' and 'this band's got to get recorded,' I started a label," he said of Alligator's beginning.
Alligator did two studio albums and a live album with the HouseRockers before Taylor died in 1975. Of the 12 cuts on that first album, "Give Me Back My Wig" became an unexpected hit and the band's theme song.
In addition to appearing on all of Taylor's albums and touring the world with him, Harvey played drums with blues legends Jimmy Dawkins, Big Walter Horton, Barrelhouse Chuck, J. B. Hutto, Jimmy Rogers, Snooky Pryor and many others.
He was with Rogers for a long time, Iglauer said. He continued playing with other musicians until the late 1990s, when Sims said he took his last out-of-town trip.
"The blues was his passion," Sims said. "Any time he was playing, it was like he was transformed to someplace else. Sit him in front of a set of drums and give him a wad of gum and he just enjoyed."
Iglauer called Harvey a jovial man who always had a smile for everyone and liked places where people were not just talking but talking loud. Thanks to his music, he was often in those places.
His wife, Loretta, died in 2005.
Survivors also include two other daughters, Regina Harvey Harding and Leanise; sons Anthony, Milton and Theodore Jr.; 12 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
Services were held.
Additional Note: Services for Ted Harvey was held on Friday, October 14, 2016 at Gatling’s Chapel, 10133 S. Halsted, Chicago, with the wake from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. and the funeral immediately following.
Blues Drummer died of natural causes on
Thursday, October 6, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois
at the age of 85
October 21, 2016
by Graydon Megan
Chicago Tribune
 |
| Ted Harvey was the drummer in Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, the group that launched Chicago's Alligator Records, J.B. Hutto, Jimmy Rogers, Snooky Pryor and Big Walter Horton. Ted Harvey died on Thursday, October 6, 2016 of natural causes in Chicago, Illinois. He was 85 years old. (Photo Credit: Jeff Nield / Alligator Records) |
Bues drummer Ted Harvey, a master of the shuffle, played with Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, the group that gave Chicago's Alligator Records its start.
"If it wasn't for Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, I'd have a day job," said Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer. "And Ted was a third of that band.
"His whole job was to propel the band forward and to make it wonderfully easy for people to dance," said Iglauer. "His style was very much traditional Chicago style. He was probably the last great Chicago shuffle drummer."
Harvey, 84, died of heart failure Oct. 6 at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, according to his daughter, Cheryl Sims.
 |
| Ted Harvey perfected the Chicago Shuffle technique of drumming and played with Hound Dog Taylor, J.B. Hutto, Jimmy Rogers, Snooky Pryor and Big Walter Horton. |
His family wasn't really musical, Sims said. "He started in grade school playing trumpet," she said. It was at Northwestern that he learned to play the drums.
After college, he played in what family members called "boy bands" while working full time, first for Campbell Soup Co. and later for the Postal Service.
From there he moved to music, playing with bands on Maxwell Street before connecting with another Theodore, Theodore Roosevelt Taylor, better known as "Hound Dog."
The band was Taylor and Brewer Phillips, both of whom played electric guitar and Harvey on drums. No bass, said Iglauer, who said the guitar players took turns playing lead and bass.
 |
| Ted Harvey was the last surviving member of the legendary Chicago blues band Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers. Ted Harvey died October 6, 2016 of natural causes in Chicago, Illinois. |
"I tried to convince him to record the band, and failed to do so," said Iglauer.
"In a combination of 'I'll show him' and 'this band's got to get recorded,' I started a label," he said of Alligator's beginning.
Alligator did two studio albums and a live album with the HouseRockers before Taylor died in 1975. Of the 12 cuts on that first album, "Give Me Back My Wig" became an unexpected hit and the band's theme song.
In addition to appearing on all of Taylor's albums and touring the world with him, Harvey played drums with blues legends Jimmy Dawkins, Big Walter Horton, Barrelhouse Chuck, J. B. Hutto, Jimmy Rogers, Snooky Pryor and many others.
He was with Rogers for a long time, Iglauer said. He continued playing with other musicians until the late 1990s, when Sims said he took his last out-of-town trip.
 |
| Ted Harvey was the drummer in Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, the group that launched Chicago's Alligator Records, J.B. Hutto, Jimmy Rogers, Snooky Pryor and Big Walter Horton. Ted Harvey died on Thursday, October 6, 2016 of natural causes in Chicago, Illinois. He was 85 years old. |
Iglauer called Harvey a jovial man who always had a smile for everyone and liked places where people were not just talking but talking loud. Thanks to his music, he was often in those places.
His wife, Loretta, died in 2005.
Survivors also include two other daughters, Regina Harvey Harding and Leanise; sons Anthony, Milton and Theodore Jr.; 12 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
Services were held.
Additional Note: Services for Ted Harvey was held on Friday, October 14, 2016 at Gatling’s Chapel, 10133 S. Halsted, Chicago, with the wake from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. and the funeral immediately following.
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