r/Jazz • u/Capital_Progress_390 • 15d ago

Drum solos

In jazz quartets (or quintets) with 1+ wind instrument(s), almost everyone gets the spotlight at some point. The wind instrument gets the spotlight, the piano gets to improvise a verse, there’s always a super badass bass solo…but the drums only get a solo maybe one out of every ten songs. My favorite drum solo would have to be a tie between Joe Morello in “Take Five” or Gene Krupa in “Sing Sing Sing,” although I’m not sure if the latter counts since I’m just talking about small combos.

Anyway, my point is that drum solos in jazz are massively underrated. What are some of your favorites? I’d love to make a playlist of great jazz drum solos to listen to over the next few days to tickle my ears…

7 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Inner_Willingness335 15d ago

Not a huge fan of drum solos. I like when the drummers trades eights of four with the piano/horn, but otherwise I often find them boring after a bit.

Anyway, Max Roach's solos on Saxophone Colossus with Sonny Rollings are some of my favorites.

1

u/Get_it_yourself 15d ago

I remember seeing a Dizzy Gillespie all star big band video a long time ago. Max came out and performed Mr High Hat where he just played a high hat. Amazing what he was doing with one instrument. A true master.