James Gadson, one of the most recorded session drummers in the history of popular music, has died at the age of 86. Gadson’s wife Barbara confirmed his passing to Rolling Stone, noting that he had recently faced a series of health challenges, including a surgery and a fall that injured his back. “He was a wonderful man,” she said. “He was a great husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and one hell of a drummer.”

Born June 17, 1939, in Kansas City, Missouri, Gadson grew up in a musical household. His father was a drummer who started him on cornet in his school’s drum and bugle corps. As a teenager, he sang doo-wop with a group called the Carpets, and later discovered funk music while stationed with the Air Force in Louisiana. After leaving the service, he taught himself drums and began working with Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, which set him on a path to becoming one of the most in-demand session players of the 1970s.

His discography from that decade alone reads as a survey of the era’s greatest records. He laid down the groove on Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” and “Use Me,” Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover,” Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You,” Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” and The Jackson 5’s “Dancing Machine.” Billboard reports that over the following decades, he continued working with an extraordinary range of artists, including Leonard Cohen, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Bobby Womack, B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Herbie Hancock, Paul McCartney, D’Angelo, Beck, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake, Lana Del Rey and Harry Styles.

“Most grooves, especially for dance music, are very simple,” Gadson told Modern Drummer in 2007. “You have to slow them down and simplify it. Then you can kind of feel whether it’s danceable or not.”

Tributes poured in following news of his passing. Beck wrote on Instagram: “He played drums on many of my records over the decades, from Midnite Vultures on, and has been a significant part of the sound of so many of my songs.” Questlove called him the defining figure in breakbeat drumming, writing that no drummer has had a greater impact on the art of danceable drums. Ray Parker Jr. added simply, “We played together for over 50 years. He changed the world.”