Billy Hart

Billy Hart stands as one of the most important and creative drummers in improvisational

music, not only as a drummer and musician, but also as an educator and thinker. In my research

on Billy Hart, I found his perspectives on hearing and thinking about music extremely interesting

and helpful, opening up my mind to different ways of understanding and experiencing music.

Born in Washington DC on November 29, 1940, Billy Hart grew up only about five

blocks away from the Spotlight Club in Washington DC. His grandmother lived across the street

from the legendary Washington DC saxophonist Buck Clayton, who became Hart's first

introduction to jazz music. Clayton gave him 78 RPM records of Charlie Parker with strings,

igniting Hart's love for jazz. He began frequenting the Spotlight Club, watching jazz musicians

who performed there, despite being underage to enter. Through the large fans in all clubs at the

time, he observed the musicians performing. Hart began teaching himself to play the drums by

playing along with records and started asking around to sit in at jam sessions, despite not being

taken seriously initially due to his age and inexperience. However, Buck Clayton intervened and

took him to sit in with the group he was playing with. It was during this time that Hart met his

greatest musical influence, Washington D.C. pianist and vocalist Shirley Horn. Hart often

mentions that she taught him to play the drums, and he still plays the drums the way she taught

him to this day. They only recorded one album together, later in Hart’s career in 1978, called “A

Lazy Afternoon,” as a trio with bassist Buster Williams, but they toured extensively together.
Hart then began working with other musicians around Washington DC, such as Wes

Montgomery and Jimmy Smith. He received calls from both James Brown and Jimmy Smith on

the same day, but chose his passion over the possibility of fame and fortune, opting to work with

Jimmy Smith because that was the music he loved. During his time with Jimmy Smith in the

1960s, Hart became interested in different, more "out" styles of drumming, listening to

drummers such as Sunny Murray, Rashied Ali, and Milford Graves. He developed a fondness for

multidirectional styles of music, such as the later works of John Coltrane. After Wes

Montgomery's death, Hart moved to New York and began playing and recording with musicians

such as Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, and Pharoah Sanders. He was also a member of Herbie

Hancock's "Mwandishi" sextet from 1969 to 1973. Later, he performed with McCoy Tyner and

Stan Getz. Getz frequently commented on Hart's ride cymbal pattern, urging him to "undulate,"

which Hart interpreted as implying a 6/8 caracara rhythm while playing time on the ride cymbal,

and talk extensively about this undulation and african influence in drummers such as Billy

Higgins, Roy Haynes, and Elvin Jones.

Overall, Billy Hart remains an extremely important figure in many different aspects of

jazz. He exemplifies an open-minded approach to the instrument and collaborating with others,

reflecting the depth of knowledge and thought of history and lineage required to excel as a jazz

musician.

Drummers Listed in Billy Hart Interviews

Rashied Ali
Donald Bailey

Louis Hayes

Albert “Tootie” Heath

Mickey Roker

Sunny Murray

Milford Graves

Andrew Cyrille

Beaver Harris

Barry Altschul

Chris Dave

Bud Powell

James Mtume

Joe Dyson

Lenny McBrowne

Vernell Fournier

Edgar Bateman

Pete La Roca

Notable Quotes

1. On Playing Ride Cymbal: Wavy is not the term. What I use as an example with my students is

this: Say you’re seeing somebody in the hospital and he’s got tubes in his arm and he’s got the

machine on. If the line on the heart machine is flat, you’re dead. It it’s going up and down,

you’re still alive. That’s how I explain undulation. It’s an energy field that moves horizontally.
2. Q: Joao Gilberto once told you to “play like the rain.”

A: Yeah, it’s a nice image. The great drummers around Washington, D.C., they all had phrases

like that. They’d say, “Don’t play like that, do like this.” And that’s exactly what Joao was doing.

That’s Brazilian rhythms. He was actually talking about kind of a samba pattern that didn’t even

have a name back then. They now call it partido alto.

3. There is a video of a Tony Williams clinic that I am going to

quote. Tony says, “As far as I am concerned, I don’t have my

own style. I was always trying to play like Art Blakey, Philly Joe

Jones and, Max Roach. I wanted to play like they played, if they

were me!”

4.So I could sit there, and watch myself play…check

out my posture. Sitting there watching myself, that’s how I

learned to play Wes’ beat

5.The snare drum, (as I understand it) relates to the treble

clef of any ensemble. (The bass drum relates more to the bass

clef.) That means your snare drum could be the trumpet section

of a big band. It implies a certain tradition of arranging, whether

it’s Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Thad Jones: it’s how

you put that in the mix. That’s what Wes needed, that tradition.

6.Rhythm is at least equal to hamony in the scheme of human

evolution. It’s just that the European concept (since it was so

devoid of rhythm) related harmony to emotion so clearly that it

used to seem like the only way to do it. At this point, we know

differently: obviously rhythm can give you that same emotional

value.

7.And when you are looking at Roker, that is what you are not

looking at: the island element. The cascara rhythm. Roker had

the cascara in his ride cymbal beat, just like Higgins and

Haynes. And drummers who have the cascara beat in their

cymbal will always be very popular

8. “Remember this, Billy: people have a tendency to only

like themselves when they sound like somebody else.”

9. “Jorge, you played great! Just make sure

that at least once a set, you play something only you can play.”

10. So, anyway, the feathering of the bass drum, it creates that

depth, that mood. It affects people psychologically immediately.

When you think about Elvin Jones, you think about that depth.

When you think about Art Blakey, he has that depth, that bass

drum depth. And of course, there are subtle versions of it,

depending on how smooth the texture is: is it cotton, is it silk,

and so on.

11. Oh, just the texture. Even if it seemed a little dated, it

immediately got the point across. Immediately. No rushing or

dragging or playing too loud or playing too soft – just the right

shit. Relaxed. No worries. No scuffling. Just total fucking selfconfidence. [chuckles]

12.So I’ve taken that to heart. I’ll tell you how I’ve used it: a lot of

times, you have to make a decision, or you feel you’re at a point

where you feel you have to make a decision. “Should I do this, or

should I do that?” And you have a fraction of a second to think.

And my answer is, if you thought of it – do that. Rather than fuck

around.

Use the confidence of playing what you hear, no matter what.

Just play it. Some people will ask you, “Well, what should I do?”

And I say, “Play it. Just play it.”