I really enjoyed watching these videos Don, especially the first one. You can see a bit of the evolving Tony Williams style in the three videos. Even as he got more adventurous in his playing style, he never sacrificed the pulse of the tune.
I am sharing a series of eight videos filmed at the Blue Note New York in 1989. The sound and camera angles are really good. This was filmed during his Yellow Gretsch "big drum" era and he uses more cymbals too. In his earlier years the ride cymbal sound was a thin crash/ride sound that sometimes overpowered the stick articulation.....although that was a signature style for him. In these eight clips you'll notice a much drier and articulate ride cymbal sound and those K crashes fade fairly quick too.
His use and placement of three floor toms is very interesting. You will notice the largest floor tom has a tremendous low tone.....deeper than his 24" bass drum. His other toms are also larger sizes compared to today's normal sizes, but he tensioned them fairly tight to faciltate his fast stickings with clarity. His wooden shell snare drum sounds medium tension and fairly dry.
These videos show a quintet version of Lifetime with a good mix of tunes, solos, and drum textures. If you compare the 17 year old Tony Williams' earlier drumming with Miles Davis, I think it is still trademark Tony Williams but with more musical maturity, although he still shows his adventurous nature quite well.