Ronnie Scott's jazz club has found some superb local candidates for the taxing task of drumming in its house band over the years – including the wilful Phil Seamen in the 1960s, the innovative Tony Oxley into the 70s, and Oscar Peterson's regular percussionist Martin Drew in more recent times.
For his balance of implacable timekeeping and graceful relaxation, his instant empathy with unfamiliar solo stars, his ability to power everything from a piano trio to a big band or a rock star, and his unswerving reliability and professionalism, Chris Dagley stood shoulder to shoulder with all of them. The London club is not a sentimental place, but it held a minute's silence for the immensely popular Dagley, who has died aged 39 in a motorcycle accident on the A40, returning home from the venue.
Dagley was raised in Dorridge, near Solihull in the West Midlands. His father David, a semi-pro jazz pianist, and mother Molly encouraged his musical enthusiasms from early on. The drummer Pete Cater has recalled Molly introducing her son to him at a Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra gig with the words: "This is Christopher, he wants to be a drummer." Cater vividly remembered the look in the six-year-old's eyes as he showed him his drumkit.
He gave the boy some lessons, and when Cater vacated the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra's drum chair in 1984, the 13-year-old Dagley – who had otherwise largely taught himself, practising Buddy Rich's dazzling technique in his parents' garage – was already good enough to take over. He quickly moved on to Bill Ashton's National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO), driving the band at the age of 15 with the confidence and precision of a seasoned pro. The actor and musician Max Beesley was also involved with the NYJO in the 1980s. Ashton's son, Miles, says Beesley "really wanted the drum gig with the NYJO" but "he went to a rehearsal, heard Daggers play one number, and said to himself 'forget it'".
Professional football was a feasible option for Dagley in his teens, but by 18 he was totally committed to music, and already running drum clinics for students. He moved from the Midlands to a shared musicians' house in Bushey, Hertfordshire, and on leaving the NYJO, he applied himself to learning all the skills of the complete professional (sightreading, arrangement, mastery of every type of contemporary groove). He was guided for a while by Bob Armstrong, Andrew Lloyd Webber's main drummer and session supremo.
Dagley was particularly drawn to the funk methods of the Americans Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta, skills that made him the ideal session-player. He was always content to let others run the show, but his work as an accompanist had as much of a personal signature and unobtrusive creativity as if he had been a leader himself.
"Daggers" worked with leading jazz soloists including Benny Golson, Randy Brecker, Jim Mullen and Don Weller, played in the BBC Big Band, and was a superb accompanist for artists as different as the acclaimed British vocalist Claire Martin and the jazz-classical crossover violinist Lizzie Ball. He also played and recorded with mainstream pop artists including Bette Midler, Lionel Richie, Take That, Jamiroquai, Liza Minnelli, Westlife, Will Young, Van Morrison and the Osmonds.
In 2006, when the revamped Ronnie Scott's opened, Dagley joined the pianist James Pearson and bassist Sam Burgess in a new house band. The group quickly matured into a world-class ensemble, as adept at carrying an entertaining show on its own as it was at accompanying the most diverse guest artists. Dagley adapted his punchy funk style to a cooler jazz approach, guided by his long-established discipline of recording his every performance on a DAT machine, for assiduous study and self-correction afterwards. Pearson recalled the trio once performing a tribute to the great swing pianist Erroll Garner. Pearson warned Dagley that the right drum technique was lighter than he was used to, and dependent on brushes rather than sticks. "He listened to about a minute of one Garner recording and he had it," Pearson observed. "He'd also check out other drummers in the club, and later that night, you'd hear him developing little variations on what they'd played. He only had to hear something once to nail it, and for a pianist he was a dream to play with."
According to Miles Ashton, Daggers "was playing as well as he ever played on the night he died". He continued: "To be as attractive as him, and as naturally talented as him, without anyone ever having a bad word for you, is some achievement in life."
Dagley is survived by his partner, Jan, and children Louis, Louisa and Lucy, and by his parents.
• Chris Dagley, musician, born 23 June 1971; died 28 July 2010