The Toronto jazz community has lost one of its busiest and most talented drummers. In the 1970s and into the 1980s, Jerry Fuller often performed six nights a week for most of the year. He performed with countless touring musicians, like Tom Harrell and Zoot Sims, and recorded with many others, including Oscar Peterson.

Mr. Fuller died July 13 at age 63, after over four decades of playing with the greats of Canadian and international jazz.

Kirk MacDonald, a tenor saxist who employed Fuller on several albums, said an unassuming and generous spirit informed his playing.

"I always found him to be a very giving player, willing to go with whatever was happening. So if you think of music as a conversation, he was a very good listener. He'd listen to what you'd have to say, then he would add something of his own."

Mr. Fuller was born in 1939 in Calgary. His father James played sax and led the band at the Palliser Hotel in Calgary from 1937 to 1944. The family then moved to Vancouver, where his father would become the leader at the Cave for the next three years. It was also where Mr. Fuller would take drum lessons from Jim Blackley, the drummer in his father's band.

In the late 1950s, Mr. Fuller studied harmony and arranging in Los Angeles at the prestigious Westlake College. After working across Canada, he settled in Toronto in 1963.

Mr. Fuller played equally well in smaller groups such as trios and big bands.

"He was kind of an unsung hero," pianist Bernie Senensky said of the soft-spoken Mr. Fuller. He was a first-call drummer, meaning that when big names were in town and looking for a rhythm section, his name was at the top of the list.

Mr. Fuller most admired bebop, the style associated with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie that has become the mainstream of modern jazz. He had grown up listening to it and remained devoted to it.

Fellow drummer Archie Alleyne said Mr. Fuller played sensitively and, above all, musically, unlike some of the more modern and bombastic drummers. He was especially influenced by Miles Davis' band of the 1950s. Its drummer, Philly Joe Jones, was his hero.

Mr. Fuller had an astounding memory for tunes and arrangements. Bassist Don Thompson recalled having played a recent gig with him. They hadn't played some of the charts since the 1960s, but Mr. Fuller remembered them note for note.

Earlier this month, when he didn't show up for a gig at the Rex, his musician friends later found him at his house the next morning. His headphones still on, he seemed to have died in his sleep.

Mr. Fuller leaves his mother Bernita, his brother Tim, and daughter Michelle.

Alleyne said the nature of the job means accompanying of musicians from all kinds of periods — something Mr. Fuller did with ease.

"We drummers have to adapt to whatever they want," Alleyne said. "There are very few drummers left that have his capability now. We look through a different window, and Jerry was quite capable of looking through that window."

It was made of music.