William Alexander "Sonny" Greer (December 13, c. 1895 – March 23, 1982)[1] was an American jazz drummer and vocalist, best known for his work with Duke Ellington.

[2] Greer lived in Asbury Park, New Jersey as a child with his father, an electrician with the Pennsylvania Road, and mother, a modiste, and his younger brother and sister.

[3] Greer started getting into music and taught himself how to sing and drum with the help of only one mentor, drummer Eugene “Peggy” Holland, who played with composer, J. Rosamond Johnson for two weeks.

[2] Greer started his career in his mid-teens when he began playing at resort hotels along the Jersey Shore with local orchestras.

After a performance in the Plaza Hotel, he received an invitation to appear in Washington, D.C. with the Howard Theatre where he played for three years until he met Duke Ellington.

[4] Music critic for the New York Times, John S. Wilson, wrote that Greer was “enthroned on a stand on which he was surrounded by a glittering array of paraphernalia.

[4] In 1950, Ellington responded to his drinking and occasional unreliability by taking a second drummer, Butch Ballard, with them on a tour of Scandinavia.