Allee Willis is a Grammy-winning, Emmy, Tony and Webbie nominated songwriter, composer, artist, animator, director, pop culture collector, technologist, party thrower. Her songs have sold more than 50,000,000 records including Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” and “Boogie Wonderland,” The Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance,” Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield's "What Have I Done To Deserve This,” The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There For You (Theme From Friends)”, the Broadway musical The Color Purple and the current myspace smash, “Does She Love Me?” by Stallionaires.
Willis’ latest collaborator is Jerrie Thill, a 91 year old female drummer on an oxygen tank, who’s played drums and led her own all girl bands since the late 1920’s when she was discovered by the Capone Boys in Chicago. She has never stopped drumming and continues to gig in Los Angeles at least once a month.
Willis’ first two music videos, which she co-wrote, sang, produced, drew, animated, shot, edited, directed and starred in, were both featured on YouTube and have won numerous web awards. “Hey Jerrie”, released just over a week ago, exploded online and continues to climb, at one point ranking as the 12th most popular video on YouTube. It’s certifiably viral, all the result of pure word of mouth. The video was also featured twice in The Huffington Post this week.
“Hey Jerrie” is about Jerrie’s love of drumming and how it’s kept her 91 years young. Although she has numerous sets of drums, her favorite is still the Camco set she plays in the video and which she bought in the 1970’s when they were vintage even then. She uses only Remo snare heads.
Allee and Jerrie have received mountains of email from people saying they’re going to learn to play the drums. Alee is about to do a series of videos featuring her massive percussion collection, much of it handmade. Allee’s songwriting is always based around the drums.
http://www.moderndrummer.com/
