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Jimmy Madison

If you were to list all the groups Jimmy Madison has worked with since his arrival in New York, it would read like a Who’s Who of modern music. A musician at four years, and a professional at age twelve, he has been playing jazz all his life. Leaving Cincinnati to join Miami trumpeter Don Goldie at age 19, he was quickly hired by bandleader Lionel Hampton after a gig at New York’s world-famous Metropole. Since then, he has performed and recorded with such diverse musical stylists as Marion McPartland, Bobby Hackett, James Brown, Gerry Mulligan, Nina Simone, Al Cohn, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Joe Farrell, George Benson, Richie Havens, Stan Getz, Hubert Laws ,Lee Konitz, Anita O’Day, Art Farmer, John Lewis, Ray Baretto, Shirley MacLaine, Maceo Parker, Ron Carter, Jon Hendricks, The Joffrey Ballet, Chet Baker, David Berger, Quincy Jones, Toots Theilmans and The Duke Ellington Orchestra, to name only a few.

Honing the skills needed to accompany all the various types of music played or sung or danced by the artists listed above has given Jimmy a rich appreciation for all music. His work as a teacher/clinician has broadened that appreciation even more.

Although Jimmy has led groups on several occasions, including an 18-piece big band with composer Angel Rangelov, he is mostly known as a sideman, having long been featured at jazz venues internationally. Once, in a review of the Red Rodney Quintet’s appearance at NYC’s Blue Note, Gary Giddens of the Village Voice called Jimmy “the best kept secret in jazz.”

Ron Carter: Anything Goes

by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
July 11, 2024

Ronald Levin Carter (born Ferndale, Michigan, on May 4, 1937) needs no introduction. Let's just say that he is the bassist's bassist. On Ron's hands, the bass and the man become the same entity, the same person. Played by Ron Carter, the acoustic bass sounds like... Ron Carter! That's why he is one of the three top bassists in the music history. However, if Ron needs no introduction, his Anything Goes album does. Recorded on June & July, ...

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Extended Analysis

Dave Schnitter: Sketch

by Samuel Chell
August 27, 2004

Dave Schnitter Sketch Sunnyside Records 2004

Not only did David Schnitter have the longest tenure of any tenor saxophonist in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers but he was always present on the most exciting and memorable of Bu's sets that I was privileged to catch. His return to music and recording after a sabbatical of over 20 years is at once cheering and disturbing. There may have been more schooled and disciplined players preceding and ...

Book / Magazine

Jimmy Madison To Release His Autobiography 'Drummer Boy' On September 1st, 2025

Source: Jimmy Madison
July 24, 2025

Internationally renowned jazz musician, Jimmy Madison, will release his candid, long-awaited autobiography that intersects the worlds of music and mountain climbing on September 1, 2025. In Drummer Boy, Madison shares both his vocation and his avocation from peak moments spent behind his drum kit to breathtaking moments climbing mountain peaks across the globe. His energy and devotion to both passions fill this gripping story that takes readers onto famous stages and into base camps at extreme altitudes. The New Yorker ...
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"The best kept secret in jazz." —The Village Voice

“...an exceptional talent deserving of far greater recognition. —Jazz Times

“...one of the most gifted, sensitive and brilliant musicians I ever worked with..." —David Amram

“...dynamic and sensitive...driving and inventive percussion work." —Downbeat

“I love playing with Jimmy because he is so musical." —Red Rodney

“...a superlative drummer...attentive, imaginative, swinging" —The New Yorker

“All the while, the steady steady white boy on the drums, Jimmy Madison, pulls everything in together. He makes sense of it and carries the crowd along