Jazz Articles about Billy Drummond

About Billy Drummond

Album Review

According to bassist Will Lyle, his mentor the late drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. once told him that an album is like a snapshot--a picture of where you are musically at that unique point in time. After scanning the personnel list on Lyle's latest recording, The All Seeing Eye, a second piece of advice must have been, “surround yourself with the best possible musicians you can find." If so, Lyle took that guidance to heart, fleshing out his rhythm ...

Album Review

Bob Schlesinger: Falling From Earth

Read "Falling From Earth" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
December 20, 2025

Many a music project was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Colorado-based pianist, composer, and educator Bob Schlesinger's Falling From Earth (Self-Produced, 2025) has had a longer gestation and more interesting rebirth than most. With funding from the Pathways to Jazz fund, part of the Boulder County Arts Alliance, Schelsinger initially planned for his first release as a leader to be a trio album with legendary Bill Evans bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Billy Drummond, whose expansive career with many ...

Album Review

The Irv Grossman Sextet: Sound Advice

Read "Sound Advice" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
February 9, 2025

Trumpeter Irv Grossman has assembled a stellar sextet that delivers a compelling session of straight-ahead jazz steeped in tradition and camaraderie under the title of Sound Advice. Surrounding himself with a dream team of musicians, including tenor saxophonist Sam Dillon, alto saxophonist Andrew Gould and, on several tracks, trombonist Jimmy O'Connell. The horns are supported by an unflagging rhythm section of pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Todd Coolman and the irrepressible Billy Drummond on drums. The album's repertoire consists of charts ...

Album Review

Ilya Osachuk: The Answer

Read "The Answer" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
November 19, 2024

Canadian bassist Ilya Osachuk is positive proof that the jazz education system in Canada and the US is in fine shape. Born in Winnipeg, Osachuk graduated from the University of Manitoba's Desautels Faculty of Music in 2021 with a Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Performance. He then moved to New York and gained a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from the Juilliard School in 2023. studying bass under Ben Wolfe and Gerald Cannon and composition and arranging under Andy ...

Album Review

Tim Lin: Empathy

by Jack Bowers
July 2, 2023

Saxophonist Tim Lin, still fresh enough on the scene to be described as a “young lion," tips his horn to a number of his mentors on Empathy, his second album as a leader, following 2021's Romance on Formosa. As on that earlier album, Lin, a first generation Taiwanese-American (from Fremont, CA), has chosen a charming blend of standards and jazz staples to complement a lone original composition, “Fourth Right," by the superb pianist Andy LaVerne. And as before, Lin plays ...

Album Review

Skip Grasso: Becoming

by Jack Bowers
March 2, 2023

If guitarist Skip Grasso's name was not so prominently displayed on the album cover, a listener would be hard-pressed to ascertain that Becoming was his gig. Yes, Grasso does bring a lot to the table, but no more than pianist Anthony Pocetti, bassist Harvie S or drummer Billy Drummond who together round out Grasso's impressive quartet. Grasso has chosen an interesting title for the album, as “becoming" can mean “a process of change" or “gee, that looks ...

Radio & Podcasts

Electric and Eclectic

by Patrick Burnette
August 18, 2022

The newest of the new. That's what our podcast brings you, sometimes, anyway, and this episode features four bangers from brand-spankin' 2022. Three of the four offer some “fusion" elements of one kind and another, and the other Mike keeps at arm's length because it edges him into the Jackie attack zone, and long-time listeners know that's not where he likes to be. Also, the boys threaten to eat Pandas, so there's that.Playlist Discussion of Joy Lapps' album ...