Nasty Drummer Challenge- Papa Jo Jones

Papa Jo Jones is one of the grandfathers of orchestral jazz drumming. Dude is a maniac, and i will only slightly go into his history. Jo Jones was playing with orchestras to preform the soundtracks to silent films, where they were providing sounds for everything that happened in the movie they were preforming to. Starting off in that kind of a world, Jo created a style of drumming that flowed and changed with the melodies of the songs, and soon after playing in theaters, he was the lead drummer in Count Basies Big Band for decades.

First, im posting a video of a closeup of Jo going wild on a solo. He was one animated motherfucker, just grinning for the camera and pulling off crazy nonsense effortlessly. Love how he strips his set down to just his hands and feet before bringing those sticks back into play for his nasty drum rolls.



Next, a song from a Count Basie album, Live with Frank Sinatra. It was a short album, but sweet as shit; Basie arranged some classic hits to fit his own big band style, and Jo Jones was just riding along happy as can be. I have heard him explain how he reads jazz charts, changing the course of his drum style depending on which instruments are driving the song forward. No better example than of the traditionally slow paced Im Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, where Basie kicks it up a notch and lets those horns ride under Franks timeless singing.

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter by ninko