Vernal Fournier; Jazz Brush Drummer

Vernal Fournier, 72, one of the finest brush drummers in jazz. Born in New Orleans, Fournier began playing drums at the age of 10, taking lessons in the city’s French Quarter. He played in clubs on Bourbon Street while attending high school and studied music at Alabama State College. After moving to Chicago in the 1940s, he played with such jazz stars as Lester Young, Sonny Stitt, Ben Webster and J.J. Johnson. He toured extensively with pianists Ahmad Jamal and George Shearing. In the 1960s, Fournier moved to New York, where he played and taught jazz for 30 years, until a 1994 stroke left him unable to play the drums. Fournier moved to Mississippi in 1998 and worked with student musicians. “He was such a fluid player. He played beautiful brushes and with the brushes he was totally self-taught,” said Alvin Fielder, who is also a jazz drummer. On Saturday of an aneurysm in Jackson, Miss.