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------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ Memphis musicians praised drummer Jimmy Ellis, a musical mainstay on Beale Street for decades, for his versatility, soulful feel and easygoing demeanor. Mr. Ellis was a favorite drummer of many musicians in the city's jazz, blues and rock scenes. Mr. Ellis grew up in Detroit. His father, a saxophone player, gave him his first drum kit when he was "8 or 9 years old," said his wife, Dolly Ellis.After a four-year stint in the Army in the late 1960s, during which time he served in Vietnam as a paratrooper, Mr. Ellis landed in Boston. He studied music at the Berklee College of Music and played behind such noted stars as Chuck Berry and Solomon Burke.He came to Memphis in 1978 and visited the old Blues Alley club on Front Street. "He came in and asked if he could sit in," remembered saxophonist Herman Green, whose group was on the bandstand that night. "I really liked the way he played."Mr. Ellis soon joined Green's jazz quintet and picked up a number of other gigs, including a long-standing engagement playing in and around Handy Park on Beale Street with the Cadillac Blues Band featuring guitarist Fred Sanders. Sanders and Mr. Ellis appeared together in the 1999 Robert Altman film "Cookie's Fortune."In commemoration of Mr. Ellis, Sanders has organized a jam in Handy Park on Beale Street.In 1987, Green and Mr. Ellis formed the Herman Green & Jimmy Ellis Blues Review with a group of younger players, including bassist Richard Cushing and keyboardist Ross Rice.That band eventually morphed into the local jam band institution FreeWorld, a group that took its name on the suggestion of Mr. Ellis.Besides his wife, Mr. Ellis leaves three daughters, Jahme, Tiffany, and Teffanye.