Phil Collins names his favourite jazz drummers of all time
Half of Genesis’ most significant songs have been about pushing the boundaries of what rock and roll could do. Although the band’s second life as hitmakers may be the one they are most remembered for today, the band iteration with Peter Gabriel at the helm made for the most forward-thinking rock music ever created in the 1970s on albums like Foxtrot. That said, Phil Collins was just as interested in looking beyond rock and roll.
Despite being known as the second lead vocalist behind the group, Collins initially hesitated to step out from behind his drum stool to sing. Although the band had many different singers come in to audition for the position, none of them sang as well as Collins could, ultimately providing an excellent middle ground between Gabriel’s tone of voice with a little bit more grit in his delivery.
While Collins often gets the brunt of the blame for the band deciding to go down a pop direction, there were still plenty of adventurous turns when he stepped up to the mic. Across albums like A Trick of the Tail, Collins is flying up and down the kit and weaving together complex time signatures without a care in the world, only scoring a significant pop hit a few albums later with ‘Follow You Follow Me’.
When discussing his influences, though, Collins’ taste stretched far beyond traditional rock and roll. While waxing poetic about the likes of Ringo Starr and Charlie Watts, Collins was just as taken with the sounds of jazz drummers like Buddy Rich when he was a kid. Coming from the world of swing, Rich could be considered a heavy metal drummer years before the genre was invented, having so much power in his signature delivery.
Around the same time the British Invasion started, Collins talked about the finesse of Rich’s technique, ranking him among the greatest drummers he had ever seen. While Collins was getting into artists like John Bonham of Led Zeppelin around the same time, swing was just one component of his jazz background.
Outside the world of swing, Collins also had an extreme affection for Tony Williams, who was then known for working with acts like Miles Davis. While Collins would say that he couldn’t stand drum solos, Williams always made the art of the drum fill engaging, telling Modern Drummer, “I can watch Tony Williams do a drum solo because it will blow me away. Either you got it or you ain’t. That’s what it boils down to”.
Considering the influence of jazz and rock in the musical oeuvre, it wasn’t long until both genres collided to create fusion. Amid the fantastic acts to come out of the new genre, like Weather Report, Collins always loved what Steve Gadd could do behind the kit. A mainstay of the session circuit, Gadd was known for contributing to many different iconic records, famously laying down one of the single greatest drum solos of all time on Steely Dan’s groundbreaking album, Aja.
Although Collins had a healthy amount of jazz to listen to, it all fed into his music, keeping that signature sense of swing even when playing in abnormal time signatures throughout the band’s catalogue. Collins may have been able to hit with the force of a rock and roll drummer, but his power was only matched by his jazz vocabulary.
Phil Collins’ favourite jazz drummers:
- Buddy Rich
- Tony Williams
- Steve Gadd
