Tony Williams!

When I was studying jazz in college, I would sometimes get critiqued by bandmates on my playing in a way that frustrated me. I thought what I was playing was super cool and that I was getting unfairly picked on. When I first started listening to the drumming of Tony Williams (on the iconic Miles Davis album "Four & More") I realized what people were talking about. When Tony plays, his ideas are fully formed and thoughtful. Improvised, but played with confidence and clarity. My ideas while being decent in my mind were not fully formed and therefore not making the transition from "cool idea" to musical expression and coming across as frankly, sloppy. Tony played with so much bravery because he practiced 8+ hours a day since he was a little kid. I....didn't. I was inspired at that point to play catch up as best I could and started practicing as much as I possibly could. I tried to get to a point where I could easily take an idea and make it into a musical reality. I'm still working on it.