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On 27 May 1967, a bravely original band called Pentangle made their first major appearance, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. They were not a typical folk group, although they included the folk scene’s acoustic guitar heroes Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, along with the singer Jacqui McShee.

But they were not a typical jazz band either, despite playing lengthy improvisations and including the jazz and blues exponents Danny Thompson on bass and Terry Cox on drums. Instead, they presented a subtle and often complex fusion of jazz, traditional styles, new songs and blues.

Cox, who has died aged 89, played a key role in creating Pentangle’s unique style, but also worked with a remarkable array of artists, including Charles Aznavour, the Bee Gees, David Bowie and Elton John.

He had joined Pentangle thanks to Thompson, with whom he had provided the rhythm section for Alexis Korner, the singer and guitarist known as “the godfather of British blues”. They played in Korner’s band Blues Inc and appeared on his albums Sky High (1966) and I Wonder Who? (1967). Thompson and Cox also played with the blues singer Duffy Power in his short-lived band Duffy’s Nucleus, which also included the jazz fusion electric guitar pioneer John McLaughlin.

Cox and Thompson accompanied Korner at his regular sessions for the 1965 BBC pop show Gadzooks! and it was there that Renbourn, also a regular on the programme, told Thompson that he and Jansch were starting a band, and asked if he would like to join. He replied: “I’ll bring my mate Tel”.

The band spent months developing their style, playing on Sunday nights at the (now demolished) Horseshoe hotel on Tottenham Court Road. McShee, now the last surviving member, remembers that Cox “just fitted in. He was a great percussionist. I remember the first time he played the drums with his hands. It was perfect, the right tone, the right sound. None of us had seen that before.”

Cox had to help drive the band without swamping the acoustic instruments, and it was a difficult balance. Pentangle received some bad reviews when they started out, but by the time they released their self-titled debut album in 1968 they had massively improved – with their reputation boosted by enthusiastic radio support from John Peel. A second album, Sweet Child, was released the same year.

In 1969 they became celebrities. Their third album, Basket of Light, reached No 5 in the British album charts, helped by the track Light Flight, which was used as the theme song for the TV series Take Three Girls. Cox expressed surprise that a piece with different complex time signatures could be a hit. The album featured him singing and playing glockenspiel as well as drums, and included one of his own compositions, Springtime Promises.

Pentangle were now playing festivals and major venues in Britain and the US. In San Francisco they were the support band for the Grateful Dead when they performed for four nights at the Fillmore West. Jerry Garcia, the Dead’s guitarist and singer, commented “they had a tasty jazz drummer that played brushes … it was a lovely band”.

Other American experiences were bleaker. In August 1969 they played for a week at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, where the cult leader Charles Manson decided he loved their music and invited them to a party at his ranch in Death Valley. Terry’s wife, Jill, was on tour with the band and, according to their son Dylan, she “sensed something odd” about Manson and advised them against going. A few weeks later, Sharon Tate was murdered by Manson’s followers.

The outcome transformed Terry’s life. Pentangle’s manager did not want the band linked to the Manson story, according to Dylan, and asked them to keep a low profile on their return to Britain. So Terry and Jill went off on holiday to Menorca – and liked it so much that they moved there permanently the following year. Jill opened a restaurant, Pan y Vino, where she worked in the kitchen while Terry made bread and greeted customers, though for much of the time he was away recording and touring.

While moving to Menorca he had continued working with Pentangle. The year 1970 had started well for the band, with a well-received concert at Carnegie Hall, New York, and one of Cox’s songs featuring in Tam-Lin (later re-released as The Devil’s Widow), a British “folk horror” film for which Pentangle provided the soundtrack. But neither the 1970 album Cruel Sister, or the two albums that followed, were as successful as Basket of Light, and Pentangle broke up at the start of 1973.

Cox moved on. He was already in demand as a session drummer, and during his time with Pentangle had played on a remarkable range of albums, including David Bowie’s second self-titled set (1969), which included his hit Space Oddity, Shirley and Dolly Collins’ Love, Death and the Lady (1970), and Open Up the Door (1970) by the Humblebums, the duo of Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty. He could also be heard on the Bee Gees’ Cucumber Castle (1970) and Elton John’s self-titled album (1970) and his Madman Across the Water (1971).

Now he began working with yet more artists, ranging from Lynsey de Paul to Mike Batt and Scott Walker. From 1974 to 1982 he was the drummer for one of France’s most popular singers, Aznavour, and played on his album Live at Olympia (1980). When home in Menorca he played with local jazz musicians.

Then came the Pentangle reunions. Cox missed the 1982 come-back at the Cambridge folk festival because he had broken his leg, but played on the albums Open the Door (1985) and In the Round (1986), which were recorded without Renbourn. The original lineup got together in 2007, when they were honoured with a lifetime achievement award, presented by David Attenborough, at the BBC Folk awards.

The following year the band toured the UK for the first time in 35 years. Watching their slick interplay at the Festival Hall, it sounded as if Cox and his colleagues had never stopped working together. A final reunion in 2011 included a Festival Hall concert on 1 August. Jansch died two months later.

Born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Cox was the son of William, a cabinet maker, and his wife, Christabel (nee Street). He attended local schools and became fascinated by percussion while a teenager. He took lessons from a local drummer and began sitting in with musicians at the Cadena Club in High Wycombe. His early career included work with the Al Fairweather-Sandy Brown Band and others, before he teamed up with Thompson in Korner’s band.

In 1963 he married Jill Lewis, whom he met when she hired him to play at the Georgian Club in Piccadilly, which she was managing. She died in 2017.

He is survived by their sons, Morgan and Dylan.

• Terence William Harvey Cox, drummer and songwriter, born 13 March 1937; died 19 March 2026