Philly Joe Jones

foursticks

Pioneer Member
I did a search and nothing showed up, much to my dismay....

Anyhow, I recently bought Cookin' and Relaxin' by The Miles Davis Quintet and was very impressed with his drumming. He plays whats just right for the song and I love his drumming on Airegin from Cookin'.

What are your thoughts on him?
 
I think it's safe to say there aren't a ton of Jazz guys on this forum, which explains the lack of Jazz drummer threads. . Maybe it's like someone said in another thread, we Jazz guys already know how great these guys are, why bother to post?=)
IMO, those 4 Miles albums on Prestige (Steamin'; and Workin' in addition to the 2 you mentioned) are some of Philly's best stuff.

I'd also add his stuff with Sonny Clark, Hank Mobley, Dexter Gordon, Coltrane (just one), Red Garland...well, most things he did in the 50's and 60's, really. Let's not forget his solo stuff like 'Philly's Big Beat' and the classic 'Blues for Dracula'.

Philly was a quintessential Hard Bop drummer and a musical master indeed. His brush book is a classic I learned from and still use it to teach even today. His musical phrasing along with his tight swing pattern always give him away...

G
 
jazzgregg said:
we Jazz guys already know how great these guys are, why bother to post?=)


To help the rest of us find the good stuff. That's what drummerworld forum is all about, helping each other out.
 
Philly Joe is a great great legend of a drummer. I love the four sessions Cookin, Relaxin, Workin and Steamin- Salt Peanuts off of Steamin' is THE lesson on uptempo hard bop drum soloing and time playing.
Other albums that I love are Sonny Rollins- Newk's Time, Miles Davis- Milestones and Hank Mobley- Workout. I think every drummer should transcribe some Philly Joe Jones and Max Roach soloing regardless of genre. Everyone has something to learn from either of these guys.
 
according to that video on drummerworld, philly joe played with monk? did not know that, any albums you guys know of with this monk+philly thing goin on?
 
Great video! I've never been able to find any really good solo videos of him. THANKS!!!
 
My teacher was a student of Philly Joe's -It's too bad he's not the online type, I'm sure he'd have a ton to add to this.

One thing he told me that some people don't realize is that philly joe was a really heavy rudimental player. He taught my teacher heavily from Wilcoxin's 150 rudimental solos book. They used to practice them on a padded bar-stool.

...but, yeah, one of the all time greats. The other thing I can think of right now that my teacher told me about him is that one of the big ideas behind his playing was that you have to play with conviction -that, above all, you have to "mean what you say." ...I think he even put out a later album as a leader called with that title or something.
 
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Milestones was the first jazz cd that I listened to and Philly Joe Jones was the first jazz drummer I really listened to. His drumming on the track Billy Boy is sublime and served as a inspiration then and now.
 
Auger- a guy I used to study with, Garry Deboeck used to live with Philly in Vancouver for a couple months. I guess you could say he studied with Philly but Garry was already one of Canada's best jazz drummers at the time. Very much in an old-school mode but MAN could he play. Anyways, he said he tried to hang with Philly and learn as much as he could... Philly said "Just work through the Stone and the Wilcoxon, man. Those will get you by." Seeing as Garry already had great hands he was a little put off lol. Some of the stories that Garry recounted to me about Philly were ridiculous and hilarious. Stuff like instead of paying the hotel bill, he'd jump off of the second story balcony and other stories. The way Garry recounted these stories, he made it seem like Philly was quite the character. RIP Philly Joe Jones.
 
the first philly album i heard was blue train-john coltrane. all i knew was that was they way i wanted to play. incredible drummer, incredible musician.
 
.. I -do- love Mister'.Philly.' Joe Jones. I have collected all his records-Long--Playings +.cd's ..O N L Y..as bands-leader(at his mane). As Videos-'drummers'-collectionist I have found around others-collectors some live-concerts with 'Philly' Joe Jones.Very very ..impressive.. to see how he 'masters' the brushes and the way he 'rolls'-accents on snare-drums.. I also have his 'R A R E' -Brushes- method of -12-strokes-'diagrams'. I -do- love .Mister'.Philly.' Joe Jones...! ciao fab-'drums'-
 
fabdrums said:
.. I -do- love Mister'.Philly.' Joe Jones. I have collected all his records-Long--Playings +.cd's ..O N L Y..as bands-leader(at his mane). As Videos-'drummers'-collectionist I have found around others-collectors some live-concerts with 'Philly' Joe Jones.Very very ..impressive.. to see how he 'masters' the brushes and the way he 'rolls'-accents on snare-drums.. I also have his 'R A R E' -Brushes- method of -12-strokes-'diagrams'. I -do- love .Mister'.Philly.' Joe Jones...! ciao fab-'drums'-

I also have his brush method book. Philly Joe is one of my favorites. I was collecting all of his albums for awhile (don't have them anymore), even the Count Dracula one where he does a dracula impression on the record.
I start with the Miles stuff, 'Milestones', 'Round Midnight. Then I got as many Blue Note records I could with him on it. His solo stuff, "Stop Look and Listen" and Tadd Dameron compositions album are amazing. The intros and solos he plays are great. He knows the arrangements so well and plays all kinds of melody stuff throughout. Kind of like Tony Williams, the intro solo sets up the tune, and you can hear the song in the solo and then the band comes in. A great lesson in musically drumming.
Sonny Clark's 'Cool Struttin' is a great one also with Philly Joe.
 
...bit of random trivia for those who didn't already know: I learned that he was also an expert taylor and made most of his own clothes. I found that interesting and impressive considering how well they used to dress back in the day.
 
Everybody Digs Bill Evans has some great Philly playing on it.

Yeah man, I was listening to this again last night. The man swung hard. Great, ballsy brush playing on Oleo.
 
While I'm not the biggest straight up "jazz" fan in the world, I really do like what I'm hearing from Philly Joe Jones. Man can swing, and came up with some really interesting riffs. When you take into account the time he was doing it in, it's pretty damn amazing. Amazing brush work also. I know Donati came to LA to study with him at a young age.
 
I was just thinking, "What on earth's toteman doing posting in a Philly Joe thread?", but I see you still managed to work Donati in there. Good effort :)
 
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