Jazz Drummers/ Percussionists Suggestions

John Marshall - great drummer, played for groups like Soft Machine.

I like Shelly Manne.

Don't know if he influenced anybody. Not really a jazz aficionado and wikepedia's not to be believed in this matter.

Chad Wackerman, used to be Frank Zappa's drummer,

but for a while now he has produced some great jazz/fusion music albums.

Burning Shed info:

The above album with 2 x LP [45rpm] + CD is currently available from Burning Shed for only £19.99 (plus a few quid for postage).

Or the vinyl only for a few pound less [but imo the CD is well worth having too]

It's on Spotify free too

Debs

Just offhand...

A very young Anthony Williams propelled Miles Davis to some of his greatest creative genius in the mid 1960s. Danny Richmond helped drive a lot of Mingus' creativity as well, from the late 50s on.

Jack DeJohnette just celebrated his 70th birthday. He has been an important drummer and band leader for the last several decades.

Manu Katché... All 3 of his jazz albums. Very impressive.

I got to see Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers in Fort Worth back in the mid 80's at a no longer extant venue called "The Caravan of Dreams" - it was a club type place, and we sat at the first table from the stage, not 10 feet away.  You could stay for both sets if the second set didn't need the seating for new arrivals.  And I was able to get every member of the band to autograph the program, including the great Art himself.  One of the most (possibly the most) outstanding musical experiences I have ever had.

It was this iteration of the Messengers:

Quite a number of drummers have/are influencing others:

Jack Dejohnette

Buddy Rich - for his very present style

Antonio Sanchez - modern style

Han Bennink - free jazz

Steve Gadd - overall smooth influence

Dave Weckl - accomplished style

.... you could list more

RaceTripper,

You beat me to Tony Williams who introduced John McLaughlin to Miles Davis and then set him on the road to success through the Tony Williams Lifetime. Another Drummer who influenced McLaughlin in the 60s was Tony Oxley  who had a big impact on the British Jazz scene throughout that decade.

Pete L.

Right, but Tony Williams had a profound influence on Miles years before McLaughlin entered the scene. The mid-60s quintet (with ESP, Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, etc) is arguably one of Miles finest bodies of work, and much of Miles creative burst and the sound of it was due to the energy and drive Tony brought to the table.

FWIW: I don't care for much of the fusion period that started after In "A Silent Way" and "Tribute to Jack Johnson" so I never became much of a McLaughlin fan (although I love Shakti: Handful of Beauty).

+1

I really thought about adding him to my original post.

Elvin Jones and Roy Haynes should also be on the list.

Check this site. Plenty to look after: http://www.digitaldreamdoor.co...z/best_jazzdrum.html

One guy is missing, a young drummer that really impressed me with the Wayne Shorter Quartet: Brian Blade. Saw them play 3 times and Blade is a vital part of Shorter's eco-system

Paul Motian

I would  add Billy Cobham to the already stellar recommendations. Thanks everyone.

A very large +1!

Also Jo Jones with Basie et al , Philly Joe Jones with Miles and Elvin Jones with Coltrane (you can't keep up with them Jones's !) and a personal favourite, Billy Higgins.

I too saw Art Blakey close up at the Band On The Wall in Manchester in the mid-1980's - awesome!

Vlad

There are so many great jazz drummers, but not all great drummers are influential. I thought I'd try to answer the OP's question: "Just wondering if any of you jazz lovers have anybody else you think has had that much influence on other musicians. Any suggestions?"

And, indeed, in terms of equaling Art Blakey in terms of influence on non-drummers who passed through his group and went on to become major, influential artists in their own right (Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett, just to name two), I can't think of a single other example on drums ... you have to look to Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, etc. for non-drummers matching that criterion.

As far as jazz drummers who can match Blakey's influence on other drummers, though, there are more than a few: Baby Dodds, Jo Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motian, to name a few.

Thanks for the input Simon. Just out of curiosity, how do you go about working with drummers(read choosing!) and when can we expect new material from you?

Cheers

Tony

Art Taylor had quite a career, playing with many jazz greats, and eventually forming his own band -- Taylor's Wailers.

Kenny Clarke was another great drummer/leader, forming the "Big Band" along with pianist Francy Clarke.

But the jazz drummer that first came to my mind was Joe Morello.  His technique was flawless, and I think most other drummers consider him the Godfather of odd time signatures.  Recall that "Take Five" was released in 5/4 time.

There were quite a few great jazz drummers, but it's pretty hard for anyone to top Art Blakey -- he was the man, and for a very long time...

Hook

Add Kendrick Scott and Marcus Gilmore...just saw them...

Add to the good list above, here are few of my favourite drummers:

Bernard "pretty" Purdie: Here, doing the Purdie Shufle. Very low key but he's one of the most talented living drummer who set many distinctive cool grooves.

The Great Chick Webb  ( Ella Fitzgerald started her career with him ). Here's the legendary music battle of the century when Benny Goodman challenged Chic Webb.

Ed Blackwell - Member of the seminal Ornette Coleman group (when he replaced Billy Higgins). Helped shape free jazz. His work with Don Cherry is highly original and recommended.

My personal favorite drummer along with Paul Motian.

Masahiko Togashi - Despite his discs been very hard to find outside japan, this guy's sense of space and timbre compares with the best of them from the USA. Part of the influential japanese jazz scene that included other luminaries such Masayuki Takayanagi, Kaoru Abe, etc. His disc "Rings" is the place to start (super hi-fidelity too).

Buddy Rich.

Thanks for asking, Tony. The answer to both questions is: it's complicated, and I'll split my replies into two separate posts.

As for choosing drummers ... on the one hand, I love drummers, and I love all kinds of drummers, and I've been very lucky to play with some really great ones, including the one I married, Sarah Allen. And each one, as with any musician, has their own musical personality, their own set of skills and areas of expertise. I try as best I can to go with their flow; drummers are usually the main determining factor in how the music comes across overall. As long as they have good time, a good feel, a strong sense of momentum and propulsion, and play well with others, I can adjust to whatever stylistic idiosyncrasies they may or may not have that do or don't necessarily align with my own.

On the other hand, when choosing the ideal drummer for my own music, I have an almost neurotically specific set of requirements:

• I want an unerring sense of time and perpetual forward momentum ... I never want to feel for even one second that I'm watching someone wavering on a tightrope 50 feet above the floor; I want to feel like I'm watching a river flow as strongly as it's flowed for thousands of years, I want dependability like the sun rising every single day.

• I want a solid and exceptionally comfortable feel, like the most luxuriously riding automobile ever made, like sitting on a sofa that makes you feel like you're back in the womb.

• I want a drummer who has an impeccable sense of narrative flow, knowing exactly which sound or combination of sounds on which of their instruments, and exactly how loud or soft, and exactly where in time it's placed, that is going to further the story of the music at every single moment; a drummer who "sees" the big picture of the music the way a master conductor like Leonard Bernstein does, and can not only illuminate that picture to shine on the whole piece of music, but inspire the other musicians to do so, too.

• I want a drummer who has a broad range of authentic stylistic elements; there are a lot of rock drummers who can play passable jazz, and there are jazz drummers who can play acceptable rock (but, truth be told, far more drummers in each camp who only think they can play the other style convincingly but really can't). I want a drummer who makes the music get up and dance, and makes the listener involuntarily want to do so as well.

• I want a drummer who can make the momentum lean slightly forward on a ride cymbal, while simultaneously making the back-beat lay back on the snare, and know how much to lean forward or lay back, and when to double-up the feel, or to cut it in half, when to use a loose swing feel and when to use a sharp-as-a-tack straight-8th feel and can change from one to the other in a heartbeat as needed.

• I want a drummer who has a master classical musician's sense of dynamics, achieving the most subtle gradations in the vast range from whisper-soft to screaming-loud. I want a drummer who has an innate sense of form in musical composition, and can clearly illustrate the form with all skills possible.

• I want a drummer who imparts an irrepressible sense of joy to the music, who can play with the absolute freedom and abandonment of little kids in a playground.

• I want a drummer who comes up with a much better drum part than I could ever think of.

• Basically, I want a drummer who plays the exact right thing, in the exact right way, at every single moment of every single tune on every single gig or record date, without fail ... is that too much to ask? (insert emoticon here)

And in my experience, even though, like I said, I've been so fortunate to have played with so many truly great drummers, the one I go to first when given the opportunity, the one who delivers all of the above, is Mark Walker.

All the best,

Fred

Again, thanks for asking ... I'm grateful for your interest.

I'm always writing new music, and as of this point, I have easily three or more albums-worth of solid material ready to record given the opportunity. I also have easily two or more albums-worth of demos and partially-finished unreleased tracks accumulated over the decades.

My most current project is a 12-song, album length song-cycle set to the poetry of Robert Creeley ... I started writing it over 10 years ago, and a couple of years ago turned my focus to finishing the whole cycle. This isn't an "art song" cycle, although there are a few elements in common, nor are the songs "jazz" even though there is common ground there, too. Rather, I consider it more of a singer/songwriter kind of thing, written by a singer/songwriter trapped in the body of someone who can't sing; the idea would be to use multiple singers, perhaps a different one for each song, and to flesh out the instrumentation using a widely varied palette.

But the key word is "opportunity" ... one of my failings is that I'm really not one of those gung-ho DIY artists that has the time and energy to write the music, scramble to fund the recording, make the recording, publicize the recording, book the gigs, be a tour manager, etc. That's usually a younger person's game, and while I've never been that good at it, now that I'm older it's even more difficult.

All my associations with record labels -- Windham Hill, Columbia, Naim -- have resulted from them approaching me. Now that I seem to have been shifted into "alumni" status here on the Naim label, and with no one else currently knocking on my door, I'm not sure where or when the next opportunity will arise. I could try the Kickstarter-type route, but, frankly, I would need to pay someone to facilitate even that because it's tremendously time/energy-consuming in and of itself, and I already have too little time for music itself as it is.

This might be "too much information" for some ... artists are not supposed to let folks see behind the curtain. And while I certainly don't intend this as a whining woe-is-me complaint, I do want to tell it like it is since you asked.

All the best,

Fred

Simon,

Thank you for your brutal honesty.   We usually hear so many stories of struggling artists but most of us have not a damn clue how hard this business is. All credit to you!

KR

Tony