Jo Jones "Most people don't know how to play drums," "Papa" Jo Jones once said. "They beat them." It was "touch," he believed, and not volume or dramatics that made a band swing, and he proved it every time he played. The drummer Buddy Rich called him "the greatest time-keeper of all." He started in show business at age eleven with touring circuses, carnivals and medicine shows, doubling as a drummer and tap-dancer, and he played with several territory bands before joining Count Basie in 1934. There, as part of the All-American Rhythm Section—Basie on piano, Walter Page walking the bass and, eventually, Freddie Green playing rhythm guitar—he set a new standard for drummers of the Swing Era. Delicate, relaxed, supremely tasteful, emphasizing the sizzle of the hi-hat cymbal over the insistent thump of the bass drum, he provided the ideal cushion for soloists like his great friend, Lester Young and helped broaden the dynamic range of the whole band. Jones' influence was felt everywhere. "It was as if we had been waiting for him," drummer Louie Bellson remembered. "Drummers listened and said, 'Yeah, that's where it is. That's the way drummers should sound.'" Many tried to sound like him. None ever quite succeeded. Count Basie Roy Eldridge Ella Fitzgerald Benny Goodman Earl Hines Johnny Hodges "Papa" Jo Jones Charles Mingus Joe "King" Oliver Max Roach Sonny Rollins Fats Waller View press release for more information.