Clem DeRosa (né Clement Richard De Rosa; May 20, 1925 – December 20, 2011, in Texas)[1] was an American jazz drummer, composer, arranger, band leader, and influential music educator.
After being discharged, he worked as a professional drummer in 1950s, performing with Charles Mingus (Jazzical Moods, 1954), Marian McPartland, Teo Macero, Teddy Wilson, Thad Jones, Ben Webster, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Coleman Hawkins, Dennis Sandole, Wally Cirillo (1927–1977), John LaPorta (Conceptions, 1957),[4] Kenyon Hopkins, and Bobby Hackett.
During the 1960s, DeRosa's high school jazz band performed in Hecksher Park, Huntington, N.Y. with leading jazz musicians, including Angelo DiPippo, Zoot Sims, Ruth Brown, Marian McPartland, Eddie Daniels, Bobby Rosengarden, Billy Taylor, Jimmy Nottingham, Clark Terry, Jimmy Rushing, and many others.
The band also performed at Leonard Bernstein's home in Fairfield Connecticut along with Dizzy Gillespie; at Yankee Stadium for the University of Oklahoma in a nationally televised football game against West Point; and at half time at Buffalo in a nationally televised AFL game between the Buffalo Bills and the N.Y. Titans.
[5] He coauthored books with Mel Lewis, Dick Hyman, Michael Moore, and Ed Shaughnessy.