Jimmy Hobson Musician - All About Jazz

Updated: February 9, 2023

Born: June 9, 1952

Drums are as fascinating to me now as in my first ten years of life - Unable to look away from the Sears catalog drum page under my bed covers, or, to this day catching myself staring at the drums on stage or in the studio.

My first snare drum arrived Christmas day 1965 and seven days later the neighbors gave me a practice pad to keep the noise down.

As a beginner I had great difficulty with the rules, grammar and logic of "How to play drums" which in my childhood ADD state put a limitation on my creative spirit. Questions like "Why does the dominate hand have to hit the ride cymbal? Can't I hit any drum whenever I want as long as the time keeps flowing? It turns out that this incomprehension was my lucky youthful gift - Keeping good linear time without consciousness & having all strokes and notes connect with the time and groove.

Career Highlights playing drums in Performance and or Recording:

1971 / 72 - Original "Hair" Rock Musical - Paris, France

1976 - Dorothy Morrison "Oh Happy Day"

1977 - Matthew Larkin Cassell "Pieces", "Matt The Cat"

1978 / 1990 - Residing in Los Angeles, CA: Billy Preston; Michael Sims; The Limeliters; Justo Almario; Billy Childs; Tom, Walt & Bruce Fowler; Judy Collins; Ofra Haza; Lee Musiker; Wayne Bergeron.

1991 to present Residing NYC & SF Bay Area: The Sundogs; Hall & Oates; Maria Muldaur; Evelyn Champagne King; Celine Dion; Jerry Garcia Band (with Melvin Seals); Lorn Leber; Taylor Dayne; Noel Jewkes; Dick Conte.

Awards

Multi-Platnum / Platnum / Gold Record Award(s) for Celine Dion's self titled Celine Dion; Gold Record Award for Hall & Oates' Change Of Season and Gold Record Award for Taylor Dayne's Soul Dancing.

Gear

Gretsch USA Custom Bop; Yamaha Maple Custom; Yamaha Recording Custom.

Tags

From Modern Drummer Magazine :

Bohemian, native Californian, and GMS Drums endorser Jimmy Hobson
personifies the phrase "variety is the spice of life."

..."I was influenced by who my father listened to—
Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk—and espe-
cially Art Blakey."
...Hobson has logged in hours of experience in many various situations.
In the early 1970s he landed the drummer's seat in the European
touring company of the musical Hair...

From Modern Drummer Magazine :

Bohemian, native Californian, and GMS Drums endorser Jimmy Hobson
personifies the phrase "variety is the spice of life."

...This helped Jimmy to prepare for his extensive work in L.A. and the Bay Area in various studio and television situations, such as his long stint with the
Limeliters—backing the likes of the Kingston Trio and Judy
Collins—and with the group Master Chorale.
More recently Hobson has recorded in New York with pop
artists Kathy Troccoli and Celine Dion. "For Celine Dion, I played on
two of the more hip-hop style tracks, which, to an extent has an implied three
against four groove." And Hobson should know: His self-pub-
lished book Polymotion specifically covers the topic. "Polymotion"
is about overlaying time signatures—basically phrasing in threes
while playing in 4/4. You'll find that Weckl, Gadd, Garibaldi—or
any of the great James Brown drummers—are always playing
something phrased off of a dotted note. It's that sort of overlaying
of time signatures that creates a flow in music—a circular kind of
thing."
• Georgia Antonopoulos

From Modern Drummer Magazine :

...James Hobson's Polymotion
is subtitled "Rhythmic
Counterpoint For Drummers"
and deals with developing the
ability to phrase in three while
playing 4/4 rock, funk, jazz, or
fusion. The exercises deal with
a variety of rhythmic and stick-
ing patterns, which the author
first illustrates on snare drum
and then applies to a full
drumkit (snare, high tom, low
tom, bass drum, hi-hat).
Completing all the exercises in
the 45-page book should give
anyone confidence about play-
ing "over the barline" fills and
solos phrased in three over a
4/4 pulse. The book sells for
$21.95 plus P&H and is available from Jimmy Hobson.