The renowned Maltese drummer, Tony Carr, born George Caruana, passed away on Friday morning, aged 98 years old.
Born in 1927, Carr began playing in bars along Strada Stretta before becoming one of the most desired session drummers in the jazz world. During the prime of his career, between the mid-1950s and the 1980s, he played with the likes of Paul McCartney, Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, Billy Eckstine, Donovan, the Alan Parsons Project, and many other musical giants.
Carr had moved to London in 1952 to pursue greater opportunities beyond Maltese shores and after a rough first years, he soon began making a name for himself in the years that followed. Eckstine, whom the Maltese drummer had toured Europe with, had praised Carr as the best drum accompanist he had heard in Britain.
Carr played in a time defined by wartime, and while becoming a reputable name amongst many of the period’s most notable performers in the United Kingdom, he was central in forging the Maltese jazz scene as well.
Carr was called to record within Abbey Road Studios and was also the session drummer for the billboard hit You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate.
His life and career were immortalised in October 2024 through a documentary entitled “Strait Street to Abbey Road,” based on his documentary that was written prior by the percussionist and documentarian, Ä użè Camilleri.