On Sunday, July 19, at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, world-renowned drummer and educator Billy Hart will conduct a free Zoom presentation, “The Evolution of Contemporary Jazz Drummers.” Hart has recorded over six hundred albums, including seminal dates with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Joe Zawinul, Sam Rivers, Pharoah Sanders, John Scofield, Lee Konitz, Hank Jones, Pat Martino, Charles Lloyd, Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, and Dave Douglas. In the presentation, he will reflect on the history of jazz drumming through the work of Baby Dodds, Sonny Greer, Gene Krupa, Papa Joe Jones, and others using video, recordings, and storytelling, and he’ll show how artists such as Max Roach paved the way for contemporary jazz drummers like Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Billy Higgins, Tony Williams, and Hart himself, and how contemporary jazz drummers influenced the art and culture of black music and led to the renaissance of young drummers today.

Registration for the event is required. To do so, go to healdsburgjazz.org.

Photo by George Wells.