Death of progressive rock and jazz drummer Jon Hiseman

Musician, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher Jon Hiseman, who has died aged 73, was regarded as one of the most influential drummers of all time.

He founded the seminal jazz rock/progressive rock band Colosseum in 1968 and resurrected it as Colosseum II with Don Airey and Gary Moore in 1975.

The project led to a 10-year partnership with Andrew Lloyd Weber and Hiseman’s drumming featured on recordings, TV specials and musicals.

He was still performing shortly before his death and released his last album in April this year.

Born in London in June 1944, Hiseman played in sessions in the mid-1960s, including on the early Arthur Brown single, Devil’s Grip.

In 1966 he replaced Ginger Baker in the Graham Bond Organisation and played for a brief spell with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.

He joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in 1968, playing on the album Bare Wires, before leaving to form Colosseum. Between the band’s first incarnation disbanding in November 1971 and the advent of the second version, he formed the band Tempest with Allan Holdsworth, Paul Williams and Colosseum bandmate Mark Clarke.

Hiseman also played in jazz groups and recorded and produced 15 albums with his wife, saxophonist Barbara Thompson.

It was during his stint with Colosseum II that Andrew Lloyd-Webber came knocking, on the hunt for someone to perform on an album with his brother Julian on cello.

Lloyd-Webber recruited the whole band into his Variations project and worked closely with Hiseman over the next decade.

In 1982 Hiseman built a state-of-theart recording studio next to his home and he and his wife produced recordings for film and television soundtracks.

Colosseum reunited in June 1994 and played the Freiburg Zelt Musik Festival, then a German TV Special, which was recorded and released as a CD.