I grew up on Bruford, too. For many years, he was the bee's knees. Now, there are so many drummers who are superior, both technically and in feel. That's my opinion, of course, and my musical preference has a lot to do with that. I do still love Bruford's stuff he did with National Health more than his stint with Crimson, which I also love but view as being rather pedestrian... comparatively speaking. I also love the Bruford Tapes, with Alan Holdsworth, Jeff Berlin and Dave Stewart (from National Health).

I also love the guy from DEERHOOF, whose name I cannot recall at the moment, and who plays like a retarded genius. Just a weird, weird band with a very pleasing aesthetic. Not for everyone.

Marco Minneman, Gary Husband, Steve Shelton (Confessor), all great. Weasel Walter, another good one. Check out "Incarceration by Abstraction" by The Flying Luttenbachers. $%&#ing awesome.

Kev

Check out Manu Katche' and Paco Sery, who played with Zawinul and still plays with Sixun... Both cats are DEEP!

gavin harrison of porcupine tree.

joey jordison of slipknot.

IMHO, nobody's "the best." .... just my personal favorites.

OK. It's my turn.... Drums being my first instrument, well this a loaded question.

Elvin Jones.



Too many drummers these days are drumicians and not musicians. Having said that if your musical there's no escaping the fact that music either gets to you or it doesn't.

Elvin is one of a generation that lived to push the envelope and create new forms of music. Just the sheer balls and nerve to play so differently and musically is what makes Elvin so great.

Interestingly Buddy Rich happened to think that Steve Gadd, Danny Seraphine, Bobby Colomby (BST) where the only cats contributing anything new and that everyone else was copying them. Well of course you'd have to include Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, Jack De Johnette and a host of others.

The fact remains that if your an improvising musician you have to deal with jazz, especially on the drums.

Jazz saved America. Jazz is the foundation of our modern music of today and if one connects with the courage that these artists displayed in order to be themselves, then we can have the energy to be truly original today.

Todays drummers ... I'd have to say. Terry Bozzio

David Jones

Steve Jansen

A final thought for now, if great means some guy in a corner of the world that you've never heard who is highly original, truly great, then that's a great drummer.

Actually. Just watching Keith Jarret Trio now, I remembered that Elvin didn't think that what he was doing was so far out.

His first comment from this amazing doco is classic.

Hey, Bozzio is great to watch and listen to, I saw him with Jeff Beck he did one fill that was so awesome that Jeff just stopped playing and turned around to check him out.

But, Frank Zappa said Dunbar was even better than Bozzio.

Hey Jeff.

Thanks for bringing Aynsley Dunbar to my attention again. I just re-read his interview in Modern Drummer magazine back in May 82.

Dunbar really was a cut above, wasn't he. Take a man who is completely in service of the music, with a strong rudimental background and a strong conception of what his sound is and you have Dunbar. I think he came up at a time when the music industry was starting to assert it's opinions of what standards recording/live might be. He much preferred to play live and thought recording to be self indulgent a lot of the time. He was able to freely express himself with Jefferson Airplane.

I distinctly remember his slammin' tuneful and direct sound. Totally coming out of the American drum tradition, yet completely contemporary at that time.

Ah, just found this.
http://www.aynsleydunbar.com/html/body_md_1.html

I love this interview with Bill.

Destroy the thing you love......! 1:07 Classic punk honesty.

So many of us seem to like Bill Bruford. Gradually going tornado,is still one of my Bruford favs.I still find him to be very inventive and exciteing to listen to.Whether fast,slow ,or inbetween,Crimson,Earthworks or whatever,he still gets my vote.......But, I also have to put a vote in for Trilok Gurtu. How about Phil Collins with Genesis and Brand X??? Neil Peart??? My 1st concert was the Hemispheres tour,and I've gone to every concert since then. His energy live is unbelievable,and that he can maintain that now,for a 3 plus hour show,blows me away. You got me,I can't pick just one fav.It's impossible!!!!! Fun thread though.

Thanks, wondered how long before someone mentioned Neil Peart. I don't play drums, but I purchased one of his videos "Anatomy of a Drum Solo", where he breaks it down and showed what influences each part of his solo was based from. Great video, not really an instructional vid, anyone can watch it and enjoy.