Give the drummer some. And then some more.

May 19, 2007 5:55 AM

DRUMMERWORLD is your one-stop destination for great photos, videos, mp3s and capsule bios for hundreds of drummers from all styles of popular music. Learn more about the rhythmists who've been the driving percussive force behind your favorite music. Baby Dodds, Al Jackson, Jabo Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, John Bonham, Sly Dunbar, Zigaboo Modeliste and many, many, many more.
posted by flapjax at midnite (37 comments total)

You forgot the greatest of all.
posted by jonmc at 6:06 AM on May 19, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Nah, Pretty Purdie wasn't forgotten! I just figured you'd pop in and link to him in a comment! (But it took you 11 whole minutes, man...)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:10 AM on May 19, 2007

That site also has really great forums--I've learned a lot from the kind people there.
posted by DMan at 6:12 AM on May 19, 2007

How do you know when the stage is level? The drummer drools out of both corners of his mouth.

I kid, I kid.
posted by 6am at 6:28 AM on May 19, 2007

6am, it's a small world. I put that joke (and a couple more!) in a comment just the other day.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:41 AM on May 19, 2007

Did you hear about the drummer who locked his keys in his car?

It took him three hours to get the bass player out.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:59 AM on May 19, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

What do you call a person who always hangs around with musicians?

The drummer.

(rim shot)
thanks, I'll be here all week...
posted by porn in the woods at 7:06 AM on May 19, 2007

This really is an amazing site. Gavin Harrison's Cymbal Song is a damn cool video.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:11 AM on May 19, 2007

Recommended viewing: Papa Joe Jones drum solo.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:04 AM on May 19, 2007

My favorite: Danny Carey of Tool: Forty Six and Two solo
posted by anthill at 8:37 AM on May 19, 2007

Well they are one for two with my top favorite all time drummers. There's no page for Martin Lopez, though he's at least on the wish list (and acknowledged in the forum.) It's good to see Gene Hoglan covered, however.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:51 AM on May 19, 2007

"I've always found Copeland's drumming stiff & wound too tight." - Flapjax, via mouseover text.


PISTOLS, Sirrah! At DAWN!!
posted by jonson at 9:27 AM on May 19, 2007

Also, W.T.F. on this thread being 13 comments old and no mention of the greatest rock & roll drummer/ayn rand fanatic to ever write lyrics about giant Snow Dogs & their famous battles?
posted by jonson at 9:29 AM on May 19, 2007

This is good. Actually I've seen the Clyde Stubblefield page before, but that's ok because he's a monster (I believe that's the correct technical term.)
posted by ob at 9:52 AM on May 19, 2007

This list is worthless with Buddy Rich.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:55 AM on May 19, 2007

I wish there was video of Han Bennink playing the cheese kit.
posted by hototogisu at 11:37 AM on May 19, 2007

Who would have thought I'd get to reference Bill Cobham twice in one month, eh? Another great music post, thanks again flapjax.
posted by davehat at 11:45 AM on May 19, 2007

Why do we keep giving the drummer some?

Because they keep losing it.
posted by eriko at 2:12 PM on May 19, 2007

So, you just hadda link to Neil frickin' Peart, eh, jonson? What, it's not enough that he's been on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine every other month for the last 20 years? *sigh*...

Oh well.

Hey, y'all, there's a lot of drummer jokes out there!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:15 PM on May 19, 2007

don't forget JoJo Mayer. dude is practically Buddy Rich reincarnated and modernized. some amazing video of him on there. i pretty much blew a day watching videos on that site last winter when i should have been playing my own kit...
posted by spish at 6:18 PM on May 19, 2007

Cool as hell F@M.

this cgi Peart is way cool.
posted by vronsky at 6:36 PM on May 19, 2007

My vote for the greatest.
Insofar as these sorts of statements have any meaning at all.
posted by Wolof at 7:09 PM on May 19, 2007

And those Bonham/Zep vids are midblowing flap. He wields those sticks like the hammers of fucken Thor!
posted by vronsky at 7:12 PM on May 19, 2007

Wolof and vronsky: Interesting, your latest 2 comments, concerning 2 drummers who are, obviously, so utterly different from each other, and both so very great.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:20 PM on May 19, 2007

Chiming in with my personal shout-outs -

a) as if the groove wasn't enough by itself, the man can SING! Take a load off, indeed;

b) it just doesn't get any greasier.

Thanks for this, flapmeister.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 9:08 PM on May 19, 2007

Oh yeah, f_o_f, I hear you on both counts. Levon was one of those "made of music" guys, and speaking as a drummer who also sings, he holds a special place in my heart. And, hey, the pulse behind Little Feat? What more need be said? (And you gotta love that little mini electric fan he has set up next to his drum kit and pointed at his face in that photo!)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:16 PM on May 19, 2007

FaM, I sent this link to a musician friend of mine, and told him to check out The Ocean link on the Bonham page.

his response - "OH YEAH BABY. (I've seen vids from this show before....Plant's dick
print quickly becomes the only thing I can see on the screen....I have
to turn away in latent homoerotic shame...)

:-)"
posted by vronsky at 4:05 PM on May 20, 2007

This list is worthless with[out] Buddy Rich.

Any comparisons that include Jo Jones and the guy from Tool are impossible from the beginning. So many great kit drummers; my favorites I've seen over the decades (in order of appearance) include Tony Williams, Keith Moon, Billy Cobham, and Stanton Moore. And, of course, Buddy Rich.

I don't even like big band music that much, but it seems impossible to deny that Rich was the biggest, baddest show drummer ever. I was listening the other day to a box set I just got called The Engine Room, one famous drummer after another, and suddenly the CD just jumped up and took off. It was Rich's turn, from 1946, a tune called Quiet Riot.

Look at the drummerworld videos themselves — most guys get a handful, jonmc's guy gets 9, but Rich has over 20. Spectacular ones, too; I first found that site about four years ago while looking for his famous stick trick solo.

Actually, Steve Gadd has even more videos at the site; you could argue that instead of Pretty Purdie, Gadd is really the "greatest of all" studio drummers. An even stronger case could be made for Hal Blaine, who estimates he's played on some 35,000 tracks, including a remarkable 150 Top 10 songs, and almost 40 #1s. At one point, Blaine played on the Record of the Year six years in a row.

Then again, speaking of greatness, how many legendary jazz drummers could be amazing enough to blow everyone away in a wild Western?

p.s. I'm surprised the MeFi crowd doesn't include any Terry Bozzio fans. Also, Jojo Mayer, completely new to me, is, as spish says, remarkable. (He also seems like a great personality, in addition to drummer.) There's a nice little Nerve video at Mayer's own website.
posted by LeLiLo at 11:43 PM on May 20, 2007

Alright.

Bring on the hate.
posted by dreamsign at 12:41 AM on May 21, 2007

Bozzio is great, as are Jack DeJohnette, Dennis Chambers, Bill Bruford, Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell, Narada Michael Walden, Andrew Cyrille, Famoudou Don Moye, Philip Wilson, Al Jackson, and ten thousand other guys three to six hundred or thousand million people ever or never heard of.

Bonus Australian content — Greg Sheehan, Andrew Gander, Louis Burdett.

To this point nobody has mentioned Samm Bennett either.
posted by Wolof at 4:54 AM on May 21, 2007

If anyone else wants to pick up the baton, there are no hand drummers at all mentioned in this thread.
posted by Wolof at 4:57 AM on May 21, 2007

If anyone else wants to pick up the baton, there are no hand drummers at all mentioned in this thread.

Well, there's certainly a dearth of hand drummers at the Drummerworld site, that's for sure. Of course, it's not really their focus. It's pretty much all about the trap set over there. I'd take this opportunity to link to some YouTube vids featuring some cool percussionists, but I'm kinda saving 'em up for a future FPP!

To this point nobody has mentioned Samm Bennett either.

What? That motherfucker can't play!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:57 AM on May 21, 2007

flap/samm: here's a page of movies for when you get around to your percussion FPP. Many not as professional as the Drummerworld ones (which after all are made for sale), but still enjoyable.

Speaking of greatness (and percussion movies), I'd like to see any of the big-shot kit drummers named above do this with a few little maracas. Unbelievable.
posted by LeLiLo at 2:30 PM on May 21, 2007

Hey lelilo/richard: yeah, that Torres guy is definitely badass with the mini maracas, and certainly no slouch on the cajon, as well! Shakers are a whole world unto themselves, and they comprise an area of percussion that I've always had something of an affinity for, as opposed to say, tabla, which has always scared the hell out of me!

And thanks for the Martin Cohen (that guy is indefatigable!) Congahead page. A great resource!

And I see from your profile that you do a little of the ol' percussing (watch your language, boy!) yourself. Latin stuff? Pots and pans? Washboard? Mrdngam? What are your weapons of choice?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:00 PM on May 21, 2007

Dumbstruck after watching the Buddy Rich video lelilo.
posted by vronsky at 5:29 PM on May 21, 2007

Dumbstruck after watching the Buddy Rich video lelilo.

Every time I watch that, I swear they speed the clip up about 2/3 of the way through. Buddy pretty much went all out all the time, even in drum duels with lesser mortals like Jerry Lewis and Animal the Muppet.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:02 AM on May 22, 2007

I see from your profile that you do a little of the ol' percussing... yourself.... What are your weapons of choice?

I'm a pretty bad hand drummer; I prefer playing with sticks, standing up. I started performing in public about 9 years ago with timbales, but banging out Jimi Hendrix and Who songs on them, no sensitive Latin stuff. Then bought two toms on stands — from an excellent drummer named (Mike) Bennett, who spends some time on our island in Maine, but more and more now in The Gambia — and added a stand with 5-bell agogo, cowbells, and Blast Block.

Last winter, when I went on a 9-day tour with my favorite oddball improv band from near the Maine/New Brunswick border, they lug so many instruments along (200+, counting everything) that I left the timbales at home. My stuff is shown on the left of this photo I took before our gig at a high school just north of Syracuse NY. (The school hadn't put away a lot of their drums, gongs, etc., so I built up a mini-wall of percussion for the night.)

[Shots of our instrument tables]

We were on tour ultimately to perform at the first International Society for Improvised Music conference at the University of Michigan, where we were the only band to feature megaphones and a theramin and a rubber chicken, intercut with old vinyl like parakeet training records and Speech After the Removal of the Larynx. We talked on the road, in fact, about how we're kind of a throwback, a (not as good, white) version of say The Art Ensemble of Chicago, which included a total concert experience way back when — costumes, dance, comedy, lots of percussion — not just the standard changes.

I especially love playing with the improv band because you can't make mistakes, really, and they also let me play flute, recorder, keyboards, vibes, melodica, and other stuff I'm not much good on.

My favorite thing with the drums is to try to play a combination of the heat of Kodo, the most thrilling music I've ever heard, and the cool of the parade rhythms of New Orleans, as exemplified by Johnny Vidacovich.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:48 AM on May 22, 2007