On drums...

Can somebody please explain what jazz drummers are thinking about?

[color=#800000]“Is it jazz yet?”

Kidding aside, if you are thinking about it a lot, then Ron’s comment about ‘never getting the feel’ will probably apply.

…and if you are following the notation that Ron posted, but have more than two limbs, this may be where Greg’s confusion begins. Getting comfortable with a ‘swing feel’ with all limbs included, and developing independence within that feel is probably the next step. I would even venture a guess that Greg’s sense of ‘…imitating being cool…’ comes somewhat from thinking too hard about the mechanics of the feel, and the creative stuff doesn’t get a chance. You are not really a fraud, you're just acting like one.

After that, it is, like any good conversation, more listening than playing, and engaging in the dialogue. Hearing when someone else is giving you room to speak, anticipating the opportunities to make statements together, to set up and/or accentuate each others’ statements, and to make statements with empty spaces.

Then comes confidence to complete phrases. The times and places I screw up are when I have begun and idea, and question whether it will work, and quasi-abort.

Could jazz be just reggae played backwards?

Well... NO.
However, in Samba, one & three are important and should be stressed frequently... something I failed to understand until
it was imparted to me by a guitarist friend, the Samba master, Paul Meyers, and suddenly it made sense and fell in place.

Ron

When I asked what are they thinking about, it was in the same sense of when a woman drives off with the petrol nozzle still in the car. Not literally asking what she was thinking about, because it might have been her makeup. I don't know.

Imitating "being cool" is generic: jazz is cool, so playing ding ding uh ding ding uh ding is cool, and fairly hilarious, but what makes it meaningful, against what used to render it sounding like a lame chicken, is keeping the accent off the skipped beat, as Ron stated.

Could jazz be just reggae played backwards?

The original theory was actually somewhat 'date sensitive'.

You mean, like, if Paul McCartney is still dead?

Ah, you were asking about female jazz drummers.

You mean you knew the answer, all along?!