Without their nicknames, two legendary jazz drummers might’ve been easily confused.

But “Papa Jo Jones” came along first.

Jo Jones was born Oct. 11, 1911, in Chicago. But it was after moving to Alabama that he began learning several instruments, including the sax, piano and drums.

Jones worked as a drummer and tap dancer for carnival shows until joining Walter Page’s band, the Blue Devils, in Oklahoma City during the late 1920s. He later became pianist Count Basie’s percussionist in 1933, and along with Freddie Green on guitar and Page on bass, the assembly became one of the more important groups in jazz history.

With a couple of years out of the music biz while tending to his military duties, Jones returned to the Basie band in 1948, performing in the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series. It was about this time that the nickname “Papa Jo Jones” arose, to avoid confusing Basie’s drummer with “Philly Joe Jones” of the Miles Davis group.

Jones split with Basie in the late 1940s and forged his own style. He was one of the first drummers to promote the use of brushes, and to shift the role of timekeeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal. Sometimes Jones would omit playing his bass drum entirely, instead focusing on keeping a ride rhythm with the hi-hat as it opened and closed. Jones also was known for timekeeping rhythms on a suspended symbol, a technique now widely adopted with the instrument known as a “ride cymbal.”

Jones became regarded as the premier jazz drummer of the swing era; a transitional figure between classic and modern jazz percussion. He also starred in several films, including the musical short “Jammin’ the Blues” in 1944.

Jones style and prominence was no doubt a major influence on a generation of drummers, most notably Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson.

In 1985, Jones was honored with the American Jazz Masters fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. Jones died on Sept. 3 of that year.