Readers have asked me why we have so many articles about the late Tony Williams. I want to reply, “have you heard him?” Tony is in the pantheon of the greatest drummers who are recognized by their first name, last name, or nickname; Buddy, Elvin, Neal, Gadd, Bonham, Ginger, Moon, Gene, Baby, Klook, Philly Joe, Alex, Bozzio…the list goes on and on.
There were lots of drummers who made the transition from jazz to rock in the fifties and sixties. But Tony was the first to become a star jazz drummer – at 17 with Miles Davis – and THEN pioneered jazz-rock fusion with Davis’s group and his own group, the Tony Williams Lifetime. Tony fused jazz drumming and rock drumming together in a very aggressive style that was not a copy of other jazz drummers before him or fusion drummers to follow.
I discovered Tony Williams in high school when I first heard his 1972 album “The Old Bum’s Rush” at a friend’s house. It changed my whole idea of what drumming was supposed to be and started my interest in fusion music and jazz.
Some of the new drumming techniques that Tony pioneered included rapid fire full flams, flat flams(flats), and very wide open flams around the snare and toms. He would sometimes use them as fills, but often would just play them loudly where you wouldn’t expect them. I recently found out that the wide open flam is a rudiment found in the ancient French military drum rudiments called the Charge Stroke.
Another pattern that he used to great effect was the closed single stroke roll around his five toms which he played in a way that mimicked long legato tones played on a horn or organ. And he was a master of the single stroke roll.
He was not afraid to hit the drums. When he played loudly he played very loudly. He used big drumsticks and tuned his drums wide often with no muffling. When he played softly, it was sublime.
One particular technique that he invented is playing very fast eighth notes on the hi-hat with the foot. I suspect he did not want to be locked into playing the typical quarter notes on two and four that was expected in swing jazz and be bop. I adapted that into my playing early on. I found that it frees my right hand up from playing hi hat 8th notes so that it can play other things while the left foot is holding down the hi-hat ostinato.
I could go on and on about the different ways in which Tony influenced my playing. I never got to hear him live and I regret it. I encourage all rock drummers, in particular, to explore Tony’s playing to learn how he influenced much of what we play.
The 1985 Zildjian Day Clinic video above is a great first look at his different techniques. He didn’t play typical solos at drum clinics but, rather, demonstrated techniques that drummers should learn in an amazing display of constant stream of consciousness motion.
He starts with flowing seamlessly between double stroke rolls, single stroke rolls and paradiddles with no accents - this changed my approach to playing and teaching. I had always practiced and taught paradiddles with accents but started teaching all the rudiments without accents. It my first step away from my training in the military rudiments and into the realm of modern stickings.
He plays a lot of different patterns on the snare drum then moves into single stroke rolls between the toms. At 7:14 he starts playing the flat flams, or flats as I call them. This was a signature technique that he used often. It’s an extremely important sticking, especially on drum set, that was never included in the rudiment lists. Toward the end of this solo he plays single stroke rolls between the hand and the foot around the drums. Impressive.
There is not a lot of cymbal work in this video. But the Miles Davis Quintet in Stockholm video below shows his ride cymbal technique and interplay with the other musicians in one of the greatest jazz groups ever. Even if you don’t understand or don’t like jazz, you need to watch this to understand why so many drummers cite Tony as one of the most important drummers of last century.
This is my favorite recording of Tony - “Footprints” on the Miles Smiles 1967 album. All the drums are in the right channel with just enough bleed from the other instruments to still hear the song. So switch to just the right channel and you can really hear the details of his playing. And remember that he was only 20 years old!