Favorite Drummers

[Wombat]

Karen Carpenter - 1975 Playboy Readers Poll for Best Rock Drummer. She could really play but her looks didn't hurt in a Men's Mag poll, either.

She edged out John Bonham, Ringo and Keith Moon. Ugly buggers. Bonham was not pleased.

 

[bluefuzz]

One more: Christian Vander of the incomparably strange Magma.

 

[Fluffy]

To be repeated: Jon Hiseman. I saw him several times with Barbara Thompsons Paraphernalia and Colosseum. Here is a picture from 2007:

His drum solos were long and legendary. The first time I saw him performing a solo he played for about 15 minutes. At its end he played incredibly fast, and then - to the astonishment of everybody - he somehow activated a hidden switch and it sounded twice as fast. The public was roaring.

A singular highlight of his solos were the parallel rolls on bass and snare drums with moving speed (fast on snare and slow on bass -> slow on snare and fast on bass -> and back), see beginning at 4:35 in this video below. I asked him once during a break how much practice it took him to play this double roll. The short answer was: 10 years

I want to raise a point about solos – I don't think they what makes a good drummer. I've heard many drummers that can playing amazingly intricate solos, but as a drummer on a song or piece of music with a band they sound mediocre and uninspired (and by the way, there are also many cases of the opposite). I think a good drummer is one that can support and elevate the music that he plays along to, and musicality and inventiveness are the most important things.

Plus, it takes listening to just a couple of technical-death-metal songs to realize that playing fast is not interesting by itself, and unbelievingly fast drummers come and go all the time.

 

[barolloadv]

Dave Weckl and Mike Portnoy is the best in the world, then arrive Vinnie Colaiuta and Steve Gadd

 

[North_Sky]

I think a good drummer is one that we like...good rhythm, good tempo, good beat, gets alone well with the band, smiles, inspires us to dance, ...all that jazz.

For others it could be one that measures well.

 

[Fregly]

I want to raise a point about solos – I don't think they what makes a good drummer. I've heard many drummers that can playing amazingly intricate solos, but as a drummer on a song or piece of music with a band they sound mediocre and uninspired (and by the way, there are also many cases of the opposite). I think a good drummer is one that can support and elevate the music that he plays along to, and musicality and inventiveness are the most important things.

Plus, it takes listening to just a couple of technical-death-metal songs to realize that playing fast is not interesting by itself, and unbelievingly fast drummers come and go all the time.

Yes x1000. Ever heard those math metal players? Music for bright sociopaths.

 

[KR500]

Forgot to include Fred Below in my earlier post

 

[Hiten]

Everyone admires a fight back and being successful to it, so I would add Rick Allen.
Regards

 

[600lbs of Sin]

Through the years I’ve come to realize, you can’t have a good band with out a good drummer. It’s most apparent with local club bands. The singer, guitarist can be good but if the percussion isn’t, your not going anywhere. I believe the reciprocal to be true as well.

In fact, can anyone name a famous band with an awful drummer?

I believe an easier exercise would be to name famous bands where the singer or guitar is solid or worse.

 

[600lbs of Sin]

Through the years I’ve come to realize, you can’t have a good band with out a good drummer. It’s most apparent with local club bands. The singer, guitarist can be good but if the percussion isn’t, your not going anywhere. I believe the reciprocal to be true as well.

In fact, can anyone name a famous band with an awful drummer?

I believe an easier exercise would be to name famous bands where the singer or guitar is barely adequate or worse.

 

[GD Fan]

I want to raise a point about solos – I don't think they what makes a good drummer. I've heard many drummers that can playing amazingly intricate solos, but as a drummer on a song or piece of music with a band they sound mediocre and uninspired (and by the way, there are also many cases of the opposite). I think a good drummer is one that can support and elevate the music that he plays along to, and musicality and inventiveness are the most important things.

Plus, it takes listening to just a couple of technical-death-metal songs to realize that playing fast is not interesting by itself, and unbelievingly fast drummers come and go all the time.

Agreed. A drum solo is when you make a beer and bathroom run during the show.

 

[Fluffy]

In fact, can anyone name a famous band with an awful drummer?

Metallica is the prime example.
Lars Ulrich played some charmingly-quirky beats in his career, but without the supreme songwriting of the rest of the band he would have ended up forgotten. When you see him live it's obvious he can't really hold anything more than a simple beat. Actually, I think a lot of riffs from the early thrash days sound so broken not because of some advanced rhythmic abilities, but because lars came up with weird drum lines that didn't quite resolve to 4/4, without realizing it. It's still a debate to this day what exact time signature is used in the song Master of Puppets (hint: is involves booze).

 

[RickSanchez]

Honorable mentions:

• Clive Deamer (session guy; played for Portishead and more recently w/ Radiohead)
• Sarah Jones (session gal; played for Bloc Party, Hot Chip, Bat for Lashes)

But I grew up listening to this guy so he's always been my favorite ...

 

[Shadrach]

Almost chose hm as well. Big MMW fan.

I'm not a traditional jazz fan but I listen to MMW a lot. Very talented bunch.
There are a number of other talented drummers who just don't get the exposure that the run of the mill rock drummers seem to.

 

[murraycamp]

Through the years I’ve come to realize, you can’t have a good band with out a good drummer.

Preach. Like what Art Blakey says. If the rest of the band is better than the drummer, it's not jazz.

 

[Ron Party]

Preach. Like what Art Blakey says. If the rest of the band is better than the drummer, it's not jazz.

I'm guessing the members of the great Return To Forever, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola and Stanley Clarke, might beg to differ.

 

[DarrylG]

Jack DeJohnette and Victor Lewis.

 

[Biblob]

How come nobody has mentioned Larnell Lewis? He is very talented!

Also my favorite song from Snarky Puppy

Edit: for the ones interested, the whole (live-)album is watchable at

 

[Totoro]

Dannie Richmond, Paul MotIan, Joey Baron, just a few who haven’t been mentioned.

 

[Sal1950]

The one and only, Mick Fleetwood