Drumming News :
Overview of an article by Tammy La Gorce for The New York Times, with additional biographical details included.
For Willie Jones III, one of modern jazz’s most praised drummers, rhythm doesn’t start onstage — it starts on the basketball court. “No matter how late I’m up the night before, I’m up before 7,” he told The New York Times’s Tammy La Gorce. His wife, Zooey Tidal Jones, is already up doing yoga, and together they head from their Bedford-Stuyvesant home to Equinox in Manhattan.
“Zooey takes a class. I go straight to the basketball courts,” he said. “There’s a lot of cardio involved, which keeps Father Time off my back. For a musician, I’m very good. For a musician over 40, I’m really good.”
Afterward, they stop at The Smith for breakfast — his usual order: caramelized French toast with bananas. Then it’s back to the business of music.
Born in Los Angeles, Jones earned a full scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts, studying with jazz legend Albert “Tootie” Heath. After moving to New York in 1997, he joined Roy Hargrove’s band and went on to play with greats like Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Herbie Hancock, and Wynton Marsalis.
“Now I don’t have to make calls or send emails,” he said. “A lot of great musicians know me.”
Photo By Anna Yatskevich
Jones is also a bandleader, producer, and educator, heading his label WJ3 Records, which has released 18 albums. Since 2009, he’s taught jazz drums at Northwestern University and continues to mentor young musicians worldwide.
He appears alongside Wynton Marsalis on the Motherless Brooklyn film soundtrack and has headlined stages from Jazz at Lincoln Center to Central Park SummerStage.
For Jones, success is about steady work and passion. “It’s not easy to make a living as a jazz drummer,” he said. “But for those willing to hustle, there’s a way.”
Read the original article by Tammy La Gorce for The New York Times here.
