Jon Hiseman
June 21, 1944 – June 12, 2018
One of the most influential drummers in rock music has died at the age of 73. Jon Hiseman, best known for his work with Colosseum and Colosseum II, succumbed after a short battle with brain cancer.
Hiseman first got noticed during the 1960s after taking over from Ginger Baker in the Graham Bond Organization. He went on to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers before he co-founded the pioneering jazz-rock band Colosseum in April 1968. After they disbanded in 1971, he formed the short-lived Tempest, before bringing in Gary Moore and Don Airey for the more jazz-fusion Colosseum II in 1975. Hiseman also worked closely with his saxophonist/ flautist wife Barbara Thompson.
In 1994 Colosseum re-formed, and recorded the albums Bread And Circuses and Tomorrow’s Blues. The band played their final gig in 2015, after which Hiseman and his former Colosseum bandmates guitarist Dave ‘Clem’ Clempson and bassist Mark Clarke formed JCM.
Talking via Facebook, Clempson expressed “sadness and a feeling of utter disbelief” over the loss of his “dear friend and colleague of almost fifty years”. “Jon was a constant guiding light, inspirational and indefatigable, a true leader who will be greatly missed by his many colleagues and legions of fans,” Clempson added.
Earlier this year, JCM released debut album Heroes, which ironically was inspired by musicians who were close friends of Hiseman and have sadly passed away in recent times. It was during the subsequent tour that Hiseman was taken ill, leading to the diagnosis of the tumour and the subsequent cancellation of all shows.
In 2016, after winning Prog magazine’s Visionary award, Hiseman commented: “I didn’t feel like a visionary at the time.
I fell in love with jazz but also other music, like Elvis Presley. But how do you mix that together? Well, I thought you could take great vocalists and mix it together with that kind of music. It took me a few years to get the mix right, but with the live album [1971’s Colosseum Live] we certainly got it right. That brought it all together and the audiences really took to it immediately. Maybe the world was a lot more open in those days.”