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Skinny Hightower: The Drummer Who Plays Everything Else, Too

A Billboard chart-topper who started on drums as a toddler builds Feels Like Destiny almost entirely by himself

Sister Nancy

Built Almost Alone

Skinny Hightower started on drums as a toddler. On Feels Like Destiny, his seventh album, he plays nearly everything else too.

Most records with a full-band sound have a full band behind them. Feels Like Destiny, out August 21 on CastOver Records, mostly has one man: Skinny Hightower. Paris Move reviewer Thierry De Clemensat noted that Hightower handles keyboards, bass, drums, percussion, guitar and production across the album, with two flutists the only additional players. The credits also list Hammond B3, Rhodes, Moog bass and the string and horn arrangements.


It makes sense that the drums come first. Born Jason Carroll in Wichita, Kansas, Hightower started on drums as a toddler and later moved on to piano and bass, JAZZIZ reported, with his parents’ jazz and gospel records as the early soundtrack. His own site puts it simply: a drummer who happens to be a multi-instrumentalist. On “Hypnotic,” he says, the drums take center stage for much of the track, which is rare in his catalog.


Billboard’s Smooth Jazz Airplay chart has put him at number one three times. Community Voice reported that “Taboo” (2017) topped the chart, and “Blue Moon” and “Now or Never” from his 2020 album followed. This summer “Red Lights,” made with trumpeter Alex Parchment, peaked at number two. The Wichita Eagle reported that he spent five years in the U.S. Army, and that his stage name started as a nickname from fellow soldiers once they learned he was a jazz musician. His first album, Cloud Nine, came out in 2016 while he was still serving.


Feels Like Destiny is his seventh album, and it sounds like a musician who knows where his sound comes from. Paris Move heard the language of 1970s soul, funk and jazz, but with harder, more insistent rhythms, cleaner production and a slightly psychedelic way of building grooves. The review names Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Billy Cobham and Brad Mehldau among his influences. It also hears Santana in some of the guitar riffs. The closer, “Deeper Than You Think,” is a reinterpretation of a George Benson composition.


Hightower told Paris Move the title wasn’t brainstormed. Once the music was finished, it simply seemed inevitable. The reviewer’s closing thought is worth keeping in mind: after an album this self-contained, the next step might be opening it up to other voices, or even his own.


His catalog even crosses paths with the first Jazz·Fusion story we ran: his track “Jubilee” features bassist Julian Vaughn. For many listeners outside smooth jazz radio, this is a first introduction. It’s a good one: a record that rewards a full listen.


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A note on this article: This piece was researched and drafted with Funknuz AI, then edited, fact-checked, and finalized by our editorial team. All sourcing is linked above. AI can make mistakes, and so can we — if something reads off, that's on us, not the tech.

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