“There’s one guy, Donald Bailey, who plays with Jimmy Smith. He doesn’t play many solos, but I really like what he does with the group. I like Billy Higgins a lot. He thinks about drums the way I do. We’ve talked a lot of times. He doesn’t play enough though. But he’s real. He plays the truth. A lot depends on conception. You’ve got to draw things out of drums. You can’t just beat on the drums. There’s much more to drumming than that.”
– Roy Haynes, interview by LeRoi Jones, Down Beat, March 1962
Interestingly, much of the interview, conducted 15 years into his recording career, is about Roy Haynes as an underrated drummer, who can’t get any press, and never really got his due.
For more on Donald Bailey, here is a blog blog post about him, by Vinnie Sperazza, and another by Ethan Iverson.
I am happy to help you with any of the materials on the site, and with anything else drumming related— contact me for private lessons, online world wide, or in person in Portland, Oregon. All levels of players, and all people, are welcome.
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