Jazz Drummer Quotes & Sayings

In 1962 I wrote for 'Jazz News,' using the pseudonym Manfred Manne, which I picked because of a jazz drummer with that name. I later dropped the 'e.' — Manfred Mann

I had a jazz trio, a rock n' roll band, and I played drums in junior high, high school, college, big bands, and I played timpani in the symphony. I am a drummer. It's the one instrument I actually play pretty well. It's just hard to carry on your back. — J. D. Souther

In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead. — David Amram

I love more percussions more than anything. I always wanted to be a drummer. — Pharoah Sanders

Even though I'm a jazz-trained drummer, I cut my teeth playing rock. — Jimmy Chamberlin

The greatest contribution jazz has made in music has been to replace the role of the conductor with a member of the ensemble who, instead of waving his arms to keep time and convey mood, is an active member of the musical statement. That person is the drummer. — Elvin Jones

Why would someone for whom talking was torture want to talk all the time before thousands of Athenians? Because otherwise he'd have drown himself at high tide. My sister- so shy, so sincere- once wanted to be an actress. The best jazz drummer I've ever heard had only one arm. We all choose a calling that's the most radical contradiction of ourselves. — David Shields

I was a jazz drummer, and it was my life for a while: what I lived and breathed every day. — Damien Chazelle

Keith Moon is not interested in jazz and won't ever be a jazz drummer because he's more interested in looking good and being screamed at. — Pete Townshend

People like Art Blakey and Buddy Rich, you look at them playing music, and it's just like looking at a heavy metal drummer. I mean, they're playing with the same amount of ferocity. It's not to say all jazz is like that. — Damien Chazelle

If you mess around with jazz, you better have a good drummer and a good bass player. — Gunther Schuller

Just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean you don't have to keep time. — Thelonious Monk