Billy Drummond

Willis Robert "Billy" Drummond, Jr. (b. Newport News, Virginia, June 19, 1959) is an American jazz drummer.

Drummond learned jazz from an early age from his father, who was a drummer and a jazz enthusiast. He played in bands from age eight and studied at Shenandoah Conservatory. He moved to New York at the behest of Al Foster in 1986. Since then Drummond has played and/or recorded with Out of the Blue (1988-89), Joe Henderson (1988-89), Horace Silver (1989), Ralph Moore (1989 and subsequently), John Faddis (1989-91), Walt Weiskopf (1990 to 2002), Sam Newsome (1990), Bobby Hutcherson (1990 to the present), Buster Williams (1990-93), Charles Tolliver (1991), Lew Tabackin and Toshiko Akiyoshi (from 1991), Hank Jones (1991), Nat Adderley (1991), John Swana (1991, 1993), Vincent Herring (1991-93), James Moody (early 1990s), Steve Kuhn (from 1992 to the present), Sonny Rollins (1994-95), Andy LaVerne (1994), Lee Konitz (1995), Dave Stryker (1996), George Colligan (1997), Ted Rosenthal, Bruce Barth, and Jonny King, David Hazeltine and Joe Locke, Sheila Jordan (from 1995 to the present), is a member of Carla Bley and the Lost Chords (to the present), Andrew Hill (from 1997-2000), Archie Shepp (1999-2002), Larry Willis (2006 to the present), Eddie Henderson (1996 to the present), Freddie Hubbard (mid-1990s). Influences include Tony Williams, Max Roach, Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart, among others. He now leads a New York-based band called Freedom of Ideas. He is currently also Professor of Jazz Drums at the Juilliard School of Music and NYU in New York.

He has recorded three CDs as a leader: "Native Colours", "The Gift" and "Dubai" Criss Cross Jazz, which was voted Number 1 Jazz CD of 1997 by the New York Times.

References

*Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler, "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz". Oxford, 1999, p. 154.
*Gary W. Kennedy, "Billy Drummond". "Grove Dictionary of Jazz" online.