Billy Drummond


Willis Robert "Billy" Drummond Jr. is an American jazz drummer.

Early life

Billy Drummond was born in Newport News, Virginia, where he grew up listening to the extensive jazz record collection of his father, an amateur drummer and jazz enthusiast. He started playing the drums at the age of four, and was performing locally in his own band by the age of eight, and playing music with other kids in the neighborhood, including childhood friends, Victor Wooten, and the other Wooten brothers, who lived a few doors away and through whom he met Consuela Lee Moorehead, composer, arranger, music theory professor, and the founder of the Springtree/Snow Hill Institute for the Performing Arts. He attended Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music on a Classical Percussion scholarship and, upon leaving school, became a member of a local Top 40 band called The Squares with bassist Oteil Burbridge.

Career

In 1986, encouraged by Al Foster, who had invited him to sit in at the Village Vanguard and advised him to take the next step, he moved to New York and almost immediately joined the band, Out of the Blue, with whom he recorded their last album, Spiral Staircase. A year later, he joined the Horace Silver sextet, touring extensively with him before becoming a member of Sonny Rollins's band, with whom he toured for three years. During this period he also formed long-term musical associations with Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Buster Williams, James Moody, JJ Johnson, Andrew Hill, and others.
He has made four albums as bandleader, including his Criss Cross album Dubai, which was included in the list of “50 Crucial Jazz Drumming Recordings of the Past 100 Years” by Modern Drummer magazine. His most recent album, Valse Sinistre, leading his band Freedom of Ideas, with Micah Thomas, Dezron Douglas and Dayna Stephens, came out on the Canadian Cellar Live label in August 2022. He has made five albums as a co-leader, including We’ll Be Together Again with Javon Jackson and Ron Carter. In addition to touring he is Professor of Jazz Drums at the Juilliard School and New York University.
A sideman on over 350 records, Drummond has played and recorded with, among others, Bobby Hutcherson, Nat Adderley, Ralph Moore, Buster Williams, Charles Tolliver, Lew Tabackin and Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, James Moody, Sonny Rollins, Andy LaVerne, Lee Konitz, Dave Stryker, George Colligan, Ted Rosenthal, Bruce Barth, Joe Lovano, Andrew Hill, Larry Willis, Toots Thielmans, Freddie Hubbard, Chris Potter, Eddie Gómez, Stanley Cowell, Javon Jackson, and Sheila Jordan. He is a long-time member of Carla Bley's Lost Chords Quartet, Sheila Jordan's Quartet, and the Steve Kuhn Trio.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

  • 1991: Native Colours
  • 1993: The Gift
  • 1995: Dubai
  • 2000: The Drummonds, Letter to Evans
  • 2000: The Drummonds, Pas de Trois
  • 2001: The Drummonds, Beautiful Friendship
  • 2003: The Drummonds, Once Upon a Time
  • 2006: Mysterious Shorter with Nicholas Payton, Bob Belden, Sam Yahel, John Hart
  • 2022: ''Valse Sinistre''

As a member

Out of the BlueSpiral Staircase
Three's Company

  • ''We'll Be Together Again''

As sideman

With Nat AdderleyThe Old Country A Night in Manhattan
With AtlanticoEn Rouge New Easter Island
With Carla Bley
With David CheskyJazz in the New Harmonic Primal Scream Trio in the New Harmonic: Aural Paintings
With Stanley CowellAre You Real Reminiscent No Illusions
With Anthony FerraraEarly Spring Gold Faded Factory Fresh
With David HazeltineWaltz for Debbie Mutual Admiration Society Alice in Wonderland Cleopatra's Dream Manhattan Mutual Admiration Society 2
With Eddie Henderson
  • 1998: Reemergence
  • 1998: Dreams of Gershwin
  • 2001: Oasis
  • 2009: For All We Know
With Vincent HerringDawnbird Secret Love Days of Wine and Roses
With Jonny KingIn from the Cold Notes from the Underground
With Steve Kuhn
  • 1997: Dedication
  • 1998: Countdown
  • 1999: The Best Things
  • 2001: Temptation
  • 2002: Pastorale
  • 2002: Waltz – Red Side
  • 2002: Waltz – Blue Side
  • 2004: Easy to Love
  • 2005: Pavanne for a Dead Princess
  • 2007: Baubles, Bangles and Beads
  • 2010: I Will Wait for You
With Tim LinRomance in the Formosa Emmpathy
With Jeremy PeltTales, Musings, and Other Reveries Jive Culture
With Chris PotterVertigo This Will Be – live
With Andrew RathbunSemantics Lost in the Shadows
With Mike RichmondThe Pendulum Tones for Joan's Bones
With Tim RiesAlternate Side Live at Smalls – live
With Renee RosnesFor the Moment Without Words Art & Soul With a Little Help from My Friends Life on Earth
With Archie SheppTrue Blue Deja Vu
With Jim SnideroStrings Close Up Crossfire
With John SwanaJohn Swana and Friends Feeling's Mutual
With Walt WeiskopfSimplicity Sleepless Nights Siren Sight to Sound
With Scott WendholtScheme of Things What Goes Unsaid
With Larry WillisBlue Fable The Offering
With Peter ZakThe Decider Nordic Noon The Eternal Triangle Standards One Mind
With others