Musicians Blog

My Number One Favorite Drummer Of All Time Is:  "Papa" Jo Jones

"PaPa" Jo Jones shifted the timekeeping role of the drums from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal, greatly influencing all swing and bop drummers. Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson were just two who learned from his light but forceful playing, as Jones swung the Count Basie Orchestra with just the right accents and sounds.

After growing up in Alabama, Jones worked as a drummer and tap-dancer with carnival shows. He joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in Oklahoma City in the late '20s. After a period with Lloyd Hunter's band in Nebraska, Jones moved to Kansas City in 1933, joining Count Basie's band the following year. He went with Basie to New York in 1936 and with Count, Freddie Green and Walter Page he formed one of the great rhythm sections. Jones was with the Basie band (other than 1944-46 when he was in the military) until 1948 and in later years he participated in many reunions with Basie alumni. He was on some Jazz at the Philharmonic tours and recorded in the 1950s with Illinois Jacquet, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Lester Young, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington among others; Jones appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with both Basie and the Coleman Hawkins-Roy Eldridge Sextet.

Jo Jones led sessions for Vanguard (1955 and 1959) and Everest (1959-60), a date for Jazz Odyssey on which he reminisced and played drum solos (1970) and mid-'70s sessions for Pablo and Denon. In later years he was known as "Papa" Jo Jones and thought of as a wise if brutally frank elder statesman.

Check some video here: http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/jojoneswebster.html

Dennis Chambers : Another Drummer To Check Out

Dennis Chambers started playing drums at the age of 4, and by the age of 6 I was playing in night clubs. I had no former education in music. All my musical training came from playing in night clubs. At the age of 18 Dennis went from high school to a band called "Parliament and Funkadelic".

Dennis joined the band in 1978 and played with them until 1985. Starting in 1985, he did a lot of session work in New York and was the house drummer for "Sugar Hill Record Company". After that, he joined "Special EFX" in 1985. In 1987 he joined the "David Sanborn Band" and the "John Scofield Band" which ended in 1989. Shortly afterwards he joined the "Mike Stern/Bob Berg Band". Since then he has been playing in various other bands such as: Randy Breckers Band and Michael Breckers Band/Mike Urbaniak's Band/Bill Evans Band/CTI All Stars/George Duke/Stanley Clark's Band/Steve Kahn's Eyewitness Band/John McLaughlin Band.

Dennis also recorded his own record called "Getting Even" on Pioneer Records, and an instructional video on DCI.

Check out the video: http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/Dennis_chambers1.html

Also visit his website: http://www.dennischambers.com/