IF ONE musician disproved the canard that the modern jazz revolution of the 1940s was an entirely African-American phenomenon, it was the drummer Stan Levey. A white, ex- boxer from Philadelphia, he was singled out by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, the twin progenitors of bebop, to work with their groundbreaking quintet.

Together with the white pianist Al Haig, Levey was a member of their rhythm section during the winter of 1944-45, and played with a rhythmic fire only rivalled by Max Roach and Kenny Clarke. He helped to introduce to the world the basic tenets of modern jazz drumming, moving the pulse of the band to the cymbals, thereby freeing the drums themselves for rhythmic punctuations.

Levey had begun playing in his native Philadelphia, and in November 1942 was working at the Downbeat club there when Dizzy Gillespie was fired by Lucky Millinder and took over the house band, which also included the pianist Johnny Acea and the bassist Oscar Smith. So keen was Dizzy to encourage the promising young drummer that Smith remembered him grabbing the sticks to demonstrate the rhythms he wanted. When the band folded in January 1943, Smith described Levey as “a white guy who played well, and sort of passed for black”.

The following year Levey moved to New York. After playing for the bassist Oscar Pettiford and the saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, he was recruited by Parker and Gillespie to join them at the Three Deuces in place of Roach. Originally the band’s bassist was Curley Russell, with whom Levey worked out the intricate repertoire. Shortly before they left for the West, Gillespie fired Russell. Levey recalled: “I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m going to have to work it out all over again. But the newcomer was Ray Brown. I realised after eight bars I didn’t have to teach him a thing. He had it all down.”

In December 1945 the band left for California. Parker, denied his regular supply of drugs, began acting strangely on the journey. Levey spotted him wandering off into the desert as the train stopped to take on water, and only his quick actions helped Dizzy to recover his star soloist. The band met a mixed reception at Billy Berg’s in Hollywood, but their recorded broadcasts capture Levey’s playing at its finest.

They returned without Parker. “Dizzy gave me his ticket, and all night I was in a cab driving about trying to find him,” said Levey. “I couldn’t locate him, so I left the ticket at the hotel, and that was it. We went back to New York, and he stayed, cashed the ticket and got some stuff.”

On his return, Levey worked for a short while with Gillespie, but then moved into the big-band world, successively with Charlie Ventura, Georgie Auld, Woody Herman and finally Stan Kenton, with whom he worked for two years.

Levey returned to California with Kenton and lived there for the rest of his life, playing in the Lighthouse All Stars, and then working in the studios before deciding in 1973 to forsake the drums for his second love, photography. His decision was described by the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts as “a great loss to jazz”.

Fortunately he specialised in supplying pictures to record companies, and until only a year ago he was taking pictures of his former musical colleagues to adorn their album sleeves.

Stan Levey, jazz drummer, died on April 19, 2005, aged 80. He was born on April 5, 1925.