50 ways to leave your lover

What passes for dazzling technique in rock is no big deal for a competent jazz drummer. The way rock drummers hold their sticks limits the precision and speed with which they play. Loud, louder, and loudest. "50 Ways" was not that sort of tune, but required a little more finesse. That's a dirty word in rock music.

Here is a clip of Jo Jones, legendary jazz drummer, playing both fast and loud.
Notice at :58 where he changes to a closed left hand to get power, then back to open hand at 1:34.
This is a master at work.

What passes for dazzling technique in rock is no big deal for a competent jazz drummer.

@stager Totally agree dude! When jazz drummers started to migrate into rock in the late 60’s, early 70’s — think Blood Sweat n Tears, Jefferson Airplane, Cream — their jazz influence was all over it.  I honestly could never play straight jazz.  I’m not good enough and honestly the difficult  time signatures I mostly couldn’t wrap my head around.  If I had a better brain and more talent I would’ve loved to play jazz cause it’s just a totally beautiful art form.  I saw Chick Corea play with his Electrik Band at the Blue Note in Manhattan with Dave Weckl on drums, Victor Wooten on electric bass, John Pattiuch, Gale on lead guitar.  I can’t even relate to you that experience.

A friend of mine worked for Phil Ramone at A&R off and on and was working the day Simon recorded "50 Ways . . . " According to him, Simon had the song but hadn't figured how it would sound best. They tried several different takes but Simon wasn't happy with any of them. He and Ramone decided to break for lunch to see if inspiration struck. When they came back from lunch, Steve Gadd was warming up with a pattern he'd learned in high school, supposedly. Simon and Ramone heard that and immediately knew it was the right sound for the song. Can't verify it; I wasn't there but my friend is pretty reliable.

I am with @soix on wacky jazz time sigs. 7/4 is not intuitive to me. If I was ever playing on time in that signature, it was an accident, and found out the hard way sitting in with a jazz group a couple of times. My best performance was serving them beers at the break!

50 ways gets all the press among drummers, but Steve was doing this stuff way before. Check out Jim Croce’s “workin at the car wash blues”. Great track by Steve, also with a marching band style. And I just have to add- all these You Tube drum cover stars- I remember when playing along with records was step one in learning drums. Now it’s an end goal. So be it. The world changes, but as all of you drummers know, there is a BIG difference between playing with a record and playing with a band.