Billy Drummond

At 62, Billy Drummond has certainly earned the title of elder statesman, though the sobriquet in this case has little to do with lifespan. Chalk it up to experience—he’s been playing since he was four, and has accumulated well over 350 album credits—and to his influence as an educator through his tenures at Juilliard and NYU. In that role he serves as a conduit for some of the music’s defining voices, having played with such legendary figures as Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, and J.J. Johnson.

Still, the unassuming drummer hardly plays the role of sage on high. “The older you get, the less you know,” he insists with a laugh, over Zoom from his home in West Orange, New Jersey. “I wish I could go back and [relive those experiences] with this headspace. When you’re involved in something like that, you’re not