Chuck Flores

Chuck Flores

Chuck Flores (January 5, 1935 - November 24, 2016) was an American jazz drummer. One of the relatively small number of musicians associated with West Coast jazz who were actually from the West Coast, Flores was born Charles Walter Flores in Orange, California, and grew up in Santa Ana. He was best known for the work he did with saxophonist Bud Shank in the 1950s, and for his two-year stint with Woody Herman, from 1954 to 1955, but also performed and recorded with such musicians as Carmen McRae, Art Pepper, Maynard Ferguson, Al Cohn, and Shelly Manne, who had been his drum teacher. Manne and others considered Flores an underrated drummer. In later years, Flores became a highly sought after and renowned educator whose students included: Danny Seraphine, Chad Wackerman, John Wackerman, Brooks Wackerman, Ray Mehlbaum, Pete Parada, Jamie Wollam, Jose Ruiz and Zack Stewart. Flores was a long time faculty member at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles

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