If you’ve ever searched for Jazz drum backing tracks, you already know the problem, there just aren’t many good ones out there. And the few you do find often feel stiff, lifeless, or more like a click track with instruments glued on. That’s not how jazz is supposed to feel.
After years of teaching and playing jazz professionally, I realized something important: about half of Jazz drumming is patterns… and the other half is learning how to connect those patterns to real music. Without that connection, even the hippest ideas sound mechanical. That’s exactly why I decided to create my own Jazz drum backing tracks from the ground up.
These aren’t generic loops or MIDI exercises. They’re real Jazz standards, re-imagined and recorded by top-level Jazz musicians, designed to help drummers lock in, listen deeper, and actually play music. If you’ve been looking for Jazz backing tracks that push your time feel, musical awareness, and confidence on the bandstand, you’re in the right place.
Jazz Drum Backing Tracks With A-list Pros
A few years ago, I moved from Honolulu, Hawaii to the Kobe area of Japan. Since then, I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the best Jazz musicians in the country. Two such players are pianist Dr. Phillip Strange and bassist Tetsuro Aratama.
We play a lot together and when I was planning to create these new Jazz Standards for drummers, I knew they would be perfect.
Both Phil and Tetsuro have solid time and astounding musicality on their instruments. They are also two of the easiest guys to work with. They have super positive attitudes. You can read about the importance of attitude in professional music here.
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Making Video Jazz Drum Backing Tracks
These Jazz drum backing tracks for drummers started as video tracks. In my Jazz brushes course, the Brushes Mastery Course, I wanted to do more than just record audio drum practice tracks. I wanted to make video tracks so that drummers could actually see the musicians playing their instruments.
As much as possible, I wanted to create a feeling that drummers are playing with these superb musicians.
I used two GoPro Hero 8 cameras for the video and a Zoom H2N Handy Recorder for the audio. My setup and recording process was quick and easy without the fuss of multi-track recorded audio. I was pleasantly surprised with the result.
Here’s a sample of one of the tunes we recorded for the course.
Reimagined Jazz Standards
Most Jazz standards are recorded with the original melodies. Using the melodies of copyrighted songs then requires licensing fees which can get quite expensive.
To side step all of this, Phillip Strange and I worked out our own melodies to the chords of famous Jazz Standards. We are using the same chords from many tunes we know and love but with reimagined melodies.
This allowed us the creative freedom to match the feeling and mood of the original Standard. Through this arranging process, I came up with the name Almost Jazz Standards for the drumless tracks version of these video tracks. They’re Jazz Standards but with a twist in the melody.
Above is the lead sheet from one of the Almost Jazz Standards, Contemplation. A clever arrangement by Phillip Strange of Charlie Parker’s tune, Confirmation.
I also created a drum chart (drum sheet music) for this song. We ended up recording the arrangement at about 170 BPM so the drum chart reflects that tempo. You can see the first page below.
Grab the Jazz drum backing tracks and charts included in this collection!
Real Musicianship
Phil and Tetsuro are pros to the core. They came in and knocked out 23 takes in no time at all. As you can hear above, their playing is on a very high level. They also recorded songs in 3/4 (Jazz Waltz) and 5/4 (like Dave Brubeck’s famous song Take 5).
As drummers, we want to constantly seek out musicians who are better than we are. Their skill will then pull us up to another level of ability on drums. When playing with Phil and Testuro and the Brushes Mastery Course video tracks or with these Jazz drum backing tracks, your playing will expand.
You will be able to hear and play things you couldn’t before. Practicing with this level of musicianship will prepare you to play with most any player in the Jazz world.
Tetsuro Aratama and Phillip Strange recording Almost Jazz Standards.
3 Volumes of Jazz Drum Backing Tracks
As a drum teacher for over 20 years, I wanted to create Jazz drum practice tracks that could really prepare drummers for playing live music. Connecting our drums to the playing of the other musicians is how we get gigs!
I also wanted to create drum practice tracks that covered the many styles of music we get asked to play in the World of Jazz drumming. The 3 volumes of the Almost Jazz Standards 23 drumless tracks or video tracks in the Brushes Mastery Course include, Jazz Swing, Bossa Nova, Samba, Afro-Cuban, Pop, New Orleans Second Line and many more styles.
We actually recorded 15 different Jazz Standards with many songs having 2 versions. Extra takes give you more opportunities to practice responding to and interacting with the music.
Another bonus is that all tunes have drum charts too. I think drum charts, also called drumming sheet music, is helpful. Drum charts are simply road maps to a song. Once you have the road map, you know where the music is going. This will help you to know what to play and when to play it.
Final Thoughts on These Jazz Drum Backing Tracks
Any drummer wanting to learn and play Jazz music, will encounter Jazz Standards. They are foundation of Jazz music. Learning Jazz Standard tunes structure will help you learn the language of Jazz music.
The language of Jazz is like any other language. When you can hear it, understand it and speak it, you can really express your ideas. Jazz is a musical conversation. You’ll be a part of this conversation from the beginning to the ending of practice song.
To learn this language, you need to practice listening to and playing with musicians who are fluent in Jazz language. Phil and Testuro’s fluency is easy to hear and understand. Their playing will greatly improve your own Jazz language fluency.
If you want your Jazz drumming to feel more musical, these Jazz drum backing tracks will help you get you there. Keep swinging my friend!
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