Papa Jo Jones (not to be confused with Philly Joe Jones) was one of the forefathers of the drumset, on the front lines of the instrument’s evolution. It’s cool to me that the drumset is young enough as an instrument for footage to exist of founders like Jones.

Observations:

– Check out Jones’ performance faces. He’s making a lot of them, and NONE are the “oh wow I’m in so much pain because I’m such a deeply artistic person” thing that is so common currently. But somehow his playing is still cool. I’m not saying that his facial expressions here are any better than the artsy ones, but at least it’s clear that his expressions are coming from a performer’s mentality, rather than a pretentious mentality.

– Lots of old school jazz drum solos quickly become simply a rudiment demonstration. Jones uses plenty of rudiments, but always to form musical phrases. Playing rudiments is never the purpose of playing drums.

– Speaking of Jones’ phrasing, check out how “hooky” so much of it is. He’s demonstrating well what most guys are trying to describe when they wrongly use the term “melodic.” There’s a ton of storytelling going on in this solo.