Ed Thigpen

Renowned for his subtlety and the minute precision of his technique, especially in his use of the wire brushes, Thigpen's international reputation was made during a six-year tenure with the Oscar Peterson Trio at the peak of its fame.

Edmund Leonard Thigpen was born in Chicago on September 28 1930, the son of Ben Thigpen, also a drummer, most notably with Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy. Ed's parents separated when he was small, and he moved with his mother to Los Angeles, where he attended Jefferson High School, famous as the alma mater of many jazz musicians, including Dexter Gordon and Art Farmer.

Thigpen became a professional musician at 18, with the band of the saxophonist Buddy Collette. In 1950 he moved to New York to join Cootie Williams's band at the Savoy Ballroom, and two years later was drafted into the US Army. He served in Korea and Japan, and on his release in 1954 joined Dinah Washington's accompanying trio.

Over the next five years he became a fixture on the busy New York jazz scene. He recorded with John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and Shorty Baker, among others; worked for short spells with the trios of Bud Powell, Lennie Tristano, Toshiko Akiyoshi and the harpist Dorothy Ashby; and served two years with the Billy Taylor Trio.

His particular aptitude for working in a piano trio became well known at this time. Thigpen displayed a lightness of touch and alertness in accompaniment that earned him the admiring nickname "Mr Taste". His ambition, from the moment he first heard it, had been to play with the Oscar Peterson Trio. It seemed a forlorn hope, since Peterson at the time used a guitarist in preference to a drummer.

When the guitarist Herb Ellis left in 1959, however, Thigpen was offered the job – only for the offer to be withdrawn when he asked for too much money. It was some months before it was renewed, this time successfully.

Those who heard and saw the trio in person during its heyday were astonished by the sheer completeness of its performance. All three members acted as one, with never the slightest hesitation or mismatch.

Thigpen and the bassist, Ray Brown, always appeared completely calm, exchanging just the occasional glance or half-smile no matter how hard they were pushed by Peterson's daunting improvisations and ferocious swing. Their secret, Thigpen later revealed, was to be ready for anything. It was quite usual for them to finish a performance in a club and lock themselves in until morning, rehearsing ways to meet even the most outlandish turn of musical events.

Albums on which the fruits of this labour are amply displayed include Porgy and Bess (1959), The Trio (1961), Live at the London House and Night Train (both 1962).

In 1960 Peterson fulfilled a long-standing ambition by founding a jazz conservatoire in his native Canada. The Advanced School of Contemporary Music opened in Toronto in January, offering practical instruction by leading professional players to high-flying students. The trio set aside time to act as teachers, and Thigpen, discovering that he had a natural bent for teaching, threw himself into the work. He even went to live in Toronto for a while.

Thigpen left Peterson in 1965 for the calmer surroundings of Ella Fitzgerald's accompanying trio, and a year later settled in Los Angeles to pursue a freelance career. The Hollywood recording studios were then working at full stretch, and he claimed to have lost count of the sessions on which he played in the course of about 18 months. They certainly included albums by Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Peggy Lee and Pat Boone.

Towards the end of 1968, tempted by the prospect of working with Tommy Flanagan, a pianist he greatly admired, Thigpen rejoined Ella Fitzgerald and toured the world with her for almost four years. He left in 1972 and settled in Copenhagen. His marriage had ended and he sought a fresh start.

He was soon busily employed on the European jazz scene, as both player and teacher. He remarried, formed his own band, Action-Reaction, taught at music schools in Denmark and Sweden, and wrote five books on the art of percussion, including The Sound of Brushes and Rhythm Brought to Life. To these were added several instructional videos and DVDs. In later years he made many professional return visits to the United States, but remained firmly settled in Copenhagen.

Ed Thigpen, whose second wife predeceased him, is survived by a son and a daughter of that marriage.