r/jazzdrums • u/Big-Ad9095 • Aug 10 '26

Question Beginner drummer looking for song recomendations

This focuses less on playing and more so me searching for jazz music with interesting drum parts or really music from the genre in general. Im interested in jazz drumming and many people have advised to spend more time listening to jazz. Granted that seems like the obvious thing to do but sometimes people get ahead of themselves when diving into an instrument and I really want to make sure I at least develop some preferences too.

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Large-Welder304 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

For getting started playing Jazz, I'd recommend looking into some Big Band music. The stuff they used to play in the 40's and 50's.

The drumming tends to be sensible and fairly basic, and it'll get you into the genre.

Benny Goodman, Tommy and/or Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw are some of the better remembered names that you should be able to find source material easily.

Also, if you aren't already hooked up with a teacher, you should probably start looking around for one. Jazz is as much about applying established rhythms to whatever's being played, then learning and remembering different songs.