kenny washington

Journal #10 – Billy Drummond, Doug Hammond, Bill Stewart, Kenny Washington

I’ve been working on scheduling guests for the podcast and should have a new episode out around the end of September if all goes as planned.

Here are a few things I’ve been enjoying over the last couple of weeks.

Billy Drummond is on Instagram!

Billy Drummond is finally on Instagram. There’s a great video of him playing in his basement to an audience of legends that you should go check out. I still pinch myself that I got to interview him way back on episode 3 of the podcast.

https://www.instagram.com/billydrummonddrums/

Doug Hammond – Spaces

This is my first real exposure to Doug Hammond and it feels like a whole new world has been unlocked. My friend and mentor, drummer Phil Hey, had me check out Spaces from 1982 as an introduction to Doug. It’s just great and features a trio with Steve Coleman on alto and Muneer Abdul Fataah on cello, plus Byard Lancaster and Kirk Lightsey.

I’ve had it on repeat all week and was excited to find a documentary and a couple of drum books he’s written, so a full post is coming once I’ve had time to digest some of it. His playing, writing, and life are all very inspiring!

It’s also on Bandcamp: https://doughammond.bandcamp.com/album/spaces

Bill Stewart with Gilad Hekselman and Ben Street

Here’s a great new clip of Bill Stewart playing “Evidence,” posted a couple of weeks ago on YouTube. It’s a direct shot of Bill the whole time, and the soloing is amazing, as always.

A Young Kenny Washington!

From The Jazz Life series, filmed at the Vanguard: Johnny Griffin with Ronnie Mathews, Ray Drummond, and a very young Kenny Washington on drums—he was in his early twenties! This is so fun to watch and it’s awesome to see Kenny as a young man.

Have a great weekend.

Kenny Washington On the Air

Huge thanks to Billy Drummond for sharing that Kenny Washington is returning to the radio with his own program!

His show will air for 2 hours every Monday 5-7pm (PST) / 8-10pm (EST) on Jazz 88.3 KSDS out of San Diego and will be streaming live.

Here are a few words from the man himself:

“After 20 years, I’m happy to announce that I’m back on the radio waves at KSDS Jazz 88.3, San Diego. The series is called Jazz Across America which airs M-F, 5 pm-7 PST/8 pm-10 EST with a different host each evening. I’ll be celebrating the great live music that has been recorded in the New York jazz clubs and ballrooms of the past 80 years.
I’ll also be dipping into the “maniac archives” from time to time playing rarities from my collection. Let me take care of your jazz listening needs on Mondays starting Feb. 14, 2022 from 5 pm-7pm (PST), 8 pm – 10 (EST). You can catch us on the web www.jazz88.org. Please be sure to tell your friends and enemies that The Maniac’s Back!!!!”
Kenny Washington

March 26/27 – Kenny & Joe

Here’s a quick post to give a heads up about a couple of things I’m especially excited about this weekend.

The Bill Charlap Trio is streaming from Smoke both Friday and Saturday nights! This means we’ll get up close with the great Kenny Washington. Get your tickets here.

Joe Farnsworth

On Saturday, it’s time to swing with Joe Farnsworth. He’s presenting an online master class in the afternoon. You can sign up and find more info here.

If you can’t make it or if you simply missed Quincy Davis’ interview with Joe, you can find that on Instagram. Quincy has been killing it lately with his Drummer 2 Drummer series and I can barely keep up. So much good stuff over there!

Feed the Second Line

If after all of this you still have money left, please consider donating to Feed the Second Line. They’re doing important work in New Orleans to make sure that the musicians are fed and supported during this time of very limited work.