Favourite Drummer - / track for drumming

Got to be Reni.

I could have chosen just about any Stone Roses track, but Reni (and Mani) on Fools Gold and I Am the Resurrection is just incredible, so I'll go for those.

Nicholas

John Bonham.

The engine room of Led Zep.

No wonder they packed it in when he met his maker. Irreplaceable.

Bonzo's Montreaux gave him full license to indulge.

Peter

Bonzo or Moon - Live at Leeds

John Hiseman, Dave Mattacks and Ringo would be my choice.

Carl Palmer (Crazy World of Authur Brown and Atomic Rooster) had his moments.

Charlie Antolini - Knock Out.

Bonzo is it for me as far as rock goes. Others may disagree but my favorite work is on Presence. Achilles Last Stand and Nobody's Fault But Mine are my favorites. The sound, the technique, the feel. He had it all.

I also have some other not as popular favorites - i.e. Kenny Jones, Bill Bruford, Prairie Prince, Aynsley Dunbars work on various sessions, including Nils Lofgren, Ian Hunter, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Journey (early), Jefferson Starship. I did not LOVE all those bands efforts, but his drumming always stood out. I saw him a number of times with different bands and always impressed when he got a chance to breathe a little.

I was also a big Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu, solo) fanatic growing up. Moving that direction was also Dave Weckl. Billy had the monster single stroke roll, and Weckl the single handed roll which defies common sense and gravity.

Further into classic jazz territory its all Art Blakey to me

quote:

Originally posted by John M:
Aynsley Dunbars work on various sessions, including Nils Lofgren, Ian Hunter, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Journey (early), Jefferson Starship. I did not LOVE all those bands efforts, but his drumming always stood out. I saw him a number of times with different bands and always impressed when he got a chance to breathe a little.

Aynsley's a great drummer, he also played with alex harvey, aynsley dunbar retaliation, blue whale, derry wilkie & the pressmen, eddie boyd, eric burdon & the new animals, fallen angels, flo & eddie, freddie starr & the flamingos, herbie mann, jack dupree, jeff beck, john mayall, john lennon, kathi mcdonald. keith emerson, little chrisley, lou reed, merseysippi jazz band, michael chapman, michael schenker, mogg way, mother's army, pat travers, sammy hagar, shuggie otis, stu james & the mojos, the best of british blues, the excheckers, the flamingos, tony spinner, ufo, leslie west and, of course, whitesnake.

If you listen to side 2 of the first Black Sabbath album, it is dominated by a very long version of Warning as written by Aynsley Dunbar. Yet another great drummer from Liverpool.

quote:

Originally posted by northpole:
John Bonham.

The engine room of Led Zep.

No wonder they packed it in when he met his maker. Irreplaceable.

Peter

Dave Gohl offered a testicle to be able to play as well. Ouch.

Jono

I always liked the drumming of Stewart Copeland during his Police days. No specific track springs to mind.

Like previous posters, I think Bonham was the best.

One of the most impressive tracks for drumming is Soundchaser by Yes, with Alan White. It's quite a showy track for the drums, not really an example of drummer as part of a group, but it is very impressive.

The drumming on Zappa's On Size Fits All is pretty good - Chester Thomson, if memory serves.

Mark S

Ray Cooper - go to Drummerworld

Dave Lombardo - Slayer
Killer tracks, Criminally Insane, Angel of Death

It will blow your mind

bonzo for me but my fav track is: in my time of dying.
a real corker
scotty

Bonham - my awe increased in watching the Led Zepplin DVD.

Cobham - I was listening to his wonderful, underated, first album 'Spetrum' last night.

Gadd - the drumming on Aja is special.

Hiseman - plays the best drum solos and is generally great player.

BUT don't forget Bill Wyman (the Rolling Stones get forgotten too often for my liking).

I often find I play air drums to The Band and Levon Helm's funkiness.

Probably in a similar vein, and quite bizarrely, I've always loved Kenny Buttreys drumming on 'Out on the weekend' the opening track of Neil Young's Harvest.

BUT my absolutely favourite drummers are Tony Willams. His work with the great 60s Miles quintet is awesome. Something I didn't really appreciate so much until I combined an olive CDX and the remastered 65 to 68 box set.

BUT if push comes to shove, I've reckoned Jack DeJohnnette to be my favourite drummer of all time. Talk about grace and power. Try the Keith Jarret live outing 'Changless'.

Steve Gadd
Pick Withers
Terry Williams
John Marshall
Buddy Rich
Brian Bennet
Tony Meehan (who sadly died earlier this year)

Listen to Elvin on "A Love Supreme". Just incredible imagination.

Messenger -

Yeah that spectrum album is off the hook. When I was a teenaged drummer, my band used to try to cover "stratus" and it was not half bad. So it was a little better than half good - and listening to the old tapes, I hate to say mine was the sucky half. Since my guitar player went on to play with John Hiatt and now the Counting Crows, I guess I don't feel so bad. He could do a passable imitation of Tommy Bolin's work on Spectrum. I even had a set of clear acrylic Fibes drums, just like Billy. Just couldn't make 'em sound like him dammit!

And I like your naming Kenny Buttrey - he really sounded great on all those cuts, and also on the Crazy Horse album with "Let's Go Downtown" and other great cuts - "I dont want to talk about it" etc.

Levon Helm, especially Up on Cripple Creek, is a great call!

I also have an Olive CDX/XPS so maybe I better try out that Tony Williams box you mention. I have Ego and another Lifetime cd that I cant really get my ears around, but I know he is a monster.

How about Simon Phillip's work on Jeff Beck's album "There and Back" I know he is quite prolific, but I especially like this one. I saw this tour and I think he was about 18 or something and he blew me away.

ROTF

Re Aynsley Dunbar : Thanks for the complete list. My friends think I am some kind of mutant for my ability to retain bits of music trivia, i.e. band lineup changes, session musician's resumes' etc., but you are from another planet - and i mean that in a most respectful way. Your average person on this side of the atlantic knows little about him other than maybe his work with Starship. I am not going to ask to name the albums he appears with the artists you list, because that would ruin the fun of discovering them! (Flo and Eddie - must be the Zappa connection.) Shuggie Otis? Who knew? Not me.

I love the cracking sound of his snare. When I saw him with Journey in '78 (along with Montrose with Sammy Hagar and UFO - its all quite incestuous and many of the names you listed seem quite obvious partnerships) he was playing a huge set with eight singled headed "concert toms" that really sounded amazing and well mic'd. He really blew my mind, especially on this number called Kohoutek. This was before Journey was Top 40 oriented and much more of a jazz rock fusion offshoot from Santana.

Now its off to the record store...thanks for the inspiration

The late Pip Pyle. Look to his drumming on Gong - Camembert Electrique.

John M

You played Stratus? Wow! That you even attempted it earns my admiration.

If you sit and think too hard about what you're posting to this (or any) site, you'd end up going up your own backside. So, it is particularly nice when someone does not think I'm a complete nutter for mentioning Billy Cobham and Kenny Buttrey in the same post. Couldn't be much different, could they?

Having recently started posting the Music Room, it strikes me how often the things that I am moved to mention are live recordings.

I've certainly got to stop looking at the hifi section 'cos it keeps costing me £4,000 for lumps of coal! Here, at least the slivers of silver only tend to cost a tenner.

The Tony Williams that seduced me is the Miles Davis box set of the 65-68 Quinet (Hancock, Carter, Shorter). If you're moved to buy one, Miles Smiles would probably do it. It is difficult for me to conceive how a human being can play some of that stuff, let alone one who was only something like 19 at the time.

Enjoyed your posts John. My fading brain cells struggle to remember what day it is!

Richard

John Bonham

diccus

For me its got to be Danny Carey, of Tool. Never heard anyone who can play so well.....and i actually play drums!!!

Jon Theodore of the Mars Volta is pretty exceptional too. Both aren't your typical rock/metal drummers. Lots of jazz and ethnic influences.

Ryan

Nobody has yet mentioned Neil Primrose - from travis !! -

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Thanks for that.JOURNEY its been doing my head in trying to remember that bands name.now i have got to go and get the album again on cd it had a red cover i think it was just called journey.regards munch

munch - for what its worth, there are four journey albums with Aynsley Dunbar that people love to dump on, but I must admit I adore. The first, just called Journey, is the best in my opinion. It has more of the Santana band roots and improv feeling than the next two that began to get a little lost in a prog/rock/jazz/pop/metal quagmire. The last with Dunbar (below) was infinity and they found the corporate rock formula with Steve Perry on vocals.



Look Into the Future is worth it for the Beatles cover "Its All Too Much"



The third is "Next" and it has some moments like Nickel and Dime (in 10/8 and 5/4 time, get it?)


And the last with Aynsley Dunbar was Infinity, when Steve Perry joined and changed the whole thing to a top 40 hit machine most people know. Dunbar still rocked it though!