How This Top Jazz Drummer Spends His Sundays

Willie Jones III knows it’s not easy to make a living as a jazz drummer in 2019.

But he also knows that, for those willing to hustle, there’s a way. Mr. Jones started playing with Roy Hargrove when he moved to New York from Los Angeles in 1997. He went on to join the bands of Horace Silver, Cedar Walton and others. “Now I don’t have to make calls or send emails, because a lot of great musicians know me,” he said.

From Nov. 14 through 17 at Dizzy’s Club (part of Jazz at Lincoln Center) Mr. Jones, 51, will lead a quintet playing music inspired by his “all-time favorite drummer,” Billy Higgins, who recorded with Ornette Coleman and Thelonious Monk, among others.

When Mr. Jones is not leading a band or playing in someone else’s, he is teaching or recording. Twice a month, he flies to Chicago to teach in the jazz studies program at Northwestern University. Alongside Wynton Marsalis, he is currently featured on the soundtrack of the film “Motherless Brooklyn.”

Mr. Jones lives with his wife, Zooey Tidal Jones, a publicist, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

SEVEN UP No matter how late I’m up the night before, I’m up before 7. It’s because Zooey is not a night owl like me. I hear the TV in the living room. She’s in there doing yoga stretches. Usually, we’re on the subway to Equinox in Manhattan by 7.

Source: The New York Times

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Keywords:

Willie Jones, III • Roy Hargrove • New York City • Los Angeles • Horace Silver • Cedar Walton • Jazz at Lincoln Center • Drummer • Billy Higgins • Ornette Coleman • Thelonious Monk • Mr. Jones (Elvin Jones album) • Chicago (band) • Northwestern University • Wynton Marsalis • Motherless Brooklyn • Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn • Up Series • I'm Up (Gucci Mane mixtape) • I'm Up (Gucci Mane mixtape) • Night owl (person) • Yoga • Equinox • Manhattan •