Billy Drummond

Drummer Billy Drummond first came to international prominence in the bands of the legendary Horace Silver and, later, J.J. Johnson and Sonny Rollins, with whom he spent three formative years. Now one of the busiest players of his generation, he is an extremely versatile player as at home with the likes of Andrew Hill (he is on Hill's album Dusk), Tony Malaby (he is part of Malaby's Reading Band), and Carla Bley (he is one of the Lost Chords), as he is with Buster Williams, Stanley Cowell and Steve Kuhn, with whom has recorded multiple times and has a 20+ years association. He has appeared on over 300 albums as a sideman and has three critically acclaimed recordings as a band leader, including cult hit Dubai (Criss Cross), which was voted # 1 on New York Times Best CDs of the Year by jazz critic Peter Watrous. It features the two tenors of Chris Potter and Walt Weiskopf , along with bassist Peter Washington, and Drummond's powerful, highly musical drumming at the helm. The material is a compelling mix of originals by the leader and members of the quartet, rounded out with compositions by Dewey Redman, Pat Metheny and Billy Strayhorn. Dubai received high praise from critics, and received a four star review in Downbeat in which the author, Fred Bouchard, wrote: “a case has been made for Billy Drummond's new persona: one of the hippest bandleaders now at work.”

Born in Newport News, Virginia, Drummond grew up listening to his father's extensive jazz record collection (including Max Roach, Miles Davis, James Moody, Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins and The Three Sounds). Encouraged by his father, also a drummer and saxophonist, he was given his first drum at the age of four and was playing in local bands (including the elementary school band, where he learned to read music) by the time he was eight. After graduating from Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, where he studied classical percussion for two years before switching to jazz, Drummond moved to New York, at the behest of Al Foster in 1988, and was almost immediately recruited to the young band Out of the Blue (OTB), recording Spiral Staircase for Blue Note Records, before becoming a member of Horace Silver's Sextet.

Since then, Drummond has been called upon in the studio and on the bandstand by the jazz world's elite, including Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Carla Bley (as a member of Carla Bley and the Lost Chords), Chris Potter, Lee Konitz, Eddie Gomez, Buster Williams, Nat Adderley, George Cables, Charles Tolliver, Andrew Hill, Steve Kuhn, Hank Jones, Joe Lovano, Christian McBride, Joe Locke, NEA recipient Sheila Jordan, Larry Willis, Javon Jackson, Archie Shepp, Charles McPherson, Tony Malaby, Eric Reed, Eddie Henderson, Marty Ehrlich and international artists Franco Ambrosetti (Switzerland), Karin Krog (Norway), Sadao Wantanabe (Japan), Toots Thielmans (Belgium), Barney Wilen (France), Tommy Smith (Scotland), Yakov Okun (Russia) and Tony Lakatos (Hungary).

In addition to maintaining a busy touring schedule, Drummond is also Professor of Jazz Drums at the Juilliard School of Music and NYU in New York and gives private lessons and workshops around the world.