 RecordSage says: Amazing drummer! Played with Chic Corea and many others. Incredible technique, style and sheer power that's unmatched in contemporary jazz or most any other music. Speaking of "played with Chick Corea"... Jack DeJohnette Oh boy, Jack DeJohnette is a genius and among my favourites. But would mind if I add a more classical jazz drummer to this list? Elvin Jones was my #1 when I started to listen to jazz and I atill can't forget his "jazz machine". It should be * would you mind * of course  Maurice White is right up there too. I've seen him in person twice and his capabilities were stunning. At last Invictus, you and I are in total sync. Elvin! How about Ed Blackwell? Another drummer that I love who, again, played with Corea; Barry Altschul. A monster. BBW, you're an Earth, Wind & Fire fan? There were a lot of great jazz drummers through history. Art Blakey, for one. You got that right, [b]K7{/b], Paul Chambers, Paul Motian (especially with Geri Allen and Charlie Haden), Billy Cobham, Steve Gadd, Tony Williams (damn! Tony Williams work with MIles!) and on and on..... damn it, Godfrey, will you please preview, dude?! ok ok I promise..... All of the above-mentioned drummers were great, no question. But in terms of sheer technique, power and drumming ability - I don't think anyone can touch this guy. Earlier Billy Cobham ruled the space single-handedly, having the most incredible technique out there. The man played with Miles Davis, then Bread and on his own and he was really something. But in terms of 'meat', if you will - Dave Weckl rules on the drumming spectrum! Listen to the guy play on his own with a bunch of MIDI controlled instruments which he triggers with his sticks - it's a mind-bending experience, practically impossible to duplicate... and I've studied drumming for a few years and played for a number of years.... @GD - Paul Chambers? Do you mean Dennis Chambers? I never heard fo Paul Chambers... which of course doesn't mean that he isn't out there. And how about Alphonse Mouzon... another great drummer. And since we've switched from fusion to regular jazz (thanks invictus) - how about rock? Anyone heard someone stronger than Stewart Copeland on the rock side? d'oh! Of course I meant Dennis Chambers, a Cali boy, too. It must have been the Elvin Jones on my mind thing. I love Billy Cobham's work with Mahavishnu. I'm going to have to check out your boy, Weckl. Got a starting point recommendation? Paul Chambers is a bass player who worked with Elvin.... I'm Kinda fond of 'Uga Booga' myself. ... well that kind of goes with out saying.... leave it to Skwirly to state the obvious. GD, start with Master Plan. Did anyone mention Chick Web or Buddy Rich? I don't know if its fair to compare rock and Jazz drummers but I will anyway and mention the most obvious: John Bonham, Neil Pert, and for my father I would include Ginger Baker. I love the Police though and Stewart Copeland is fantastic. Part of the genius(? ) of stewart copeland is to borrow rythem from types of music, like reggea. BBW, you're an Earth, Wind & Fire fan?Yes Kore, HUGE E,W&F fan. I've seen them in concert twice and once at Jones Beach. These guys never get old. Maurice is liquid... Buddy Rich.. YES! Another awesome drummer. I'd also like to throw in Jimmy Marinos of the Romantics. I know he wasn't in there with the others but he was sort of an upcoming Phil Collins. Singing and drumming is a tough proposition but the man could flail the sticks and stay vocally smooth. BTW, I meant to add... at the last concert I saw him in, Maurice tossed his right drumstick into the air and it must have gone, my guess, 30 or 40 feet up. His right hand stayed motionless while his left bopped away. With absolute perfect timing, the stick hit his right hand as he brought it down and wailed one of the best solo's I've ever seen. The crowed freaked out. Dave Weckl, Jack DeJohnette, Elvin Jones, Maurice White, Billy Cobham... Guys, this thread has already become sacred and deserves some pops! Godfrey, bingo! Being an Ornette Coleman fan, Ed Blackwell was of course among my heroes. Is it possible for a guy from N'awleens not to be superb? Rifkala, maybe we should put John Bonham and Ginger Baker to another place considering they were rock drummers. But especially Ginger was an extraordinary talent, capable to play any genre of music, I think. He was the essential part of Cream experience. Rich, thanks for reminding the legendary Earth, Wind and Fire! Wow, what a R&B dynamite it was! I still listen White's solo cover of "Stand By Me" with great pleasure. Ornette is just simply magical. Invictus, did the madman genius Han Bennink ever perform in your town? Chick Webb was amazing, especially considering his life circumstances. It's interesting to me that Maurice White has gotten so much mention here as a drummer. I knew he played. After retiring from EWF he played gigs with Mose Allison that I know of, and probably others, but EWF always had a drummer-don't know the name-on recordings, and in the live performance vids that I've seen, and Maurice was up front singing. Well, I listened to Weckl on his site, and dude has monster chops, no doubt, problem for me though, I can stand the music. Feels hollow and mechanical to me. Non-jazz. ... Invictus... EW&F was one of the few bands in our school that could cross the line between disco fans and rock fans. They were one of those bands that just about everyone appreciated. Godfrey, wow I am impressed that you know that much about Maurice. Maruice started his musical career as a drummer. Did a lot of jazz, soul and R&B. Yes, the band frequently used other drummers but Maurices brother Fred most often filled the position. When in concert, Maurice almost always took at least some time sitting on the drums and always amazed the audience. Well, if you guys will throw people like Buddy Rich in here, let's not forget another father of the field - Gene Krupa, whose drumming technologies are used in every day drum teaching (along with Buddy's). Other highly mentionables would be people like David Garibaldi (of Tower of Power), Danny Seraphine (early work with Chicago... until Terry Kath did the Russian exercise). I didn't particularly care for drumming savvy of people like Ginger Baker, but if you place him in this circle - let's not forget the great late Keith Moon and his replacement at times Simon Phillips. And Phil Collins certainly deserves applause for his ability to play drums well. GD, the music Dave puts out is very 'drumatic', if you will... but this is about his drumming, not his music. And I still say he's unmatched today on the pure drumming scale. One one hand you have to be a drummer to truly appreciate how good the man is. On the other hand, when you are (or have been) a drummer and listen to someone like Weckl - you want to quickly and quietly go and burn all of your drumsticks, because you have full knowledge that there's no way in he** you'll ever reach that level of mastery... an excellent way to learn humility  Just listening to Elvin Jones now -- hot. Love Tony Williams. Bonham really was a great rock drummer -- last song on iTunes was a live Dazed and Confused. Oops, almost forgot Ian Paice (the Deep Purple guy)... shame on me It's great to see so many drums comments - I've always maintained that it's the main instrument in any band I was tortured (and not Guantanamo-alleged style, but really tortured) on piano for 3 years starting at age 6... but when I started drum lessons at 12 my grandma used to say "look at everyone in the family playing instruments... they go to parties and play piano, guitar, accordion etc. and everyone likes it - what are you going to do, bring your drum set and play what? why don't you pick a normal instrument, like piano..."... but for me the pull was too much, besides I wound up taking lessons from the best teacher in town.... Invictus, did the madman genius Han Bennink ever perform in your town?Yes Godfrey, in October 2004 he was in Istanbul for Akbank Jazz Festival and performed with alto saxophonist Benjamin Herman and bassist Ernst Glerum. But unfortunately I was out of town and couldn't go the concert. Bennink is another extraordinary talent, having done great works with Sonny Rollins and another legendary musician, Pat Metheny. I regret I don't have any recordings of him in my personal archive. I saw him recently. Wish I could have seen him in his prime. My uncle has stories of seeing him in performance in the 70's in Germany. Four foot diameter bass drum. Wind-up symbol playing monkeys. Hub caps. Sirens. Not to mention monster chops. He describes free improvisaitonal music performances then as full of humor and big fun, quite different from the sit down stiff and serious events they have, in most part, become. Pity. One of the greatest thrills of my life was sitting on the steps of the stage at the Jazz Showcase while watching Elvin play, and having him speak with me while he did. It is always a very difficult thing to rank or compare artists, but I feel that the real measure is what they did to change the medium. In that light, I'd vote for Elvin every day of the year as the leading percussionist in jazz history. He changed the way every jazz, funk, rock, and who knows how many other styles of drummers played who followed him, even if just due to the influence he had on others who influenced them even if they never personally heard him, simply by the force of his creativity. Many years ago there was ... That was beauty, Mr Bear, thank you very much. |
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