What's Great Drummer?

It's interesting to me how many fellow drummers talk about who the best drummer is. I believe we miss the point of what makes a "great drummer". Most, if not all the greats have a style of music in which they perfected their technique. And with that, have taken a path that draws us to them in regards to what we find influential. I find it amusing when a jazz drummer is compared to a rock drummer. Of course that great jazz drummer you so admire must have been influenced by someone or some type of music, and so is that great rock drummer. However, at some point they made a choice to perfect their technique of drumming into a certain style of playing of their own. So belongs to them something they have created, a style of playing all their own. So what makes a great drummer? I believe you must be the creator, be the stylist, be different, and above all

Not all drummers specialize in one style and work it and make it their ow to the exclusion of all other styles. Tony Williams played swing jazz with Miles Davis, fusion jazz with Jan Hammar, and rock'n roll with Ronnie Montrose. Billy Cobham plays swing jazz, big band jazz, fusion, and rock with the Grateful Dead. Charlie Watts, one of the best known rock drummers, is also a pretty darn good jazz drummer. Will Calhoun of Living Color fame is also a great jazz drummer. He won the Buddy Rich award for high school big band drummers when he was in high school in NYC. I saw him at a clinic playing with a big band in 1999 and he was amazing. Greg Bisonette is known as a rock drummer, but also played in the North Texas State University One 'O Clock Lab Band. Vinnie Calauita, Steve Jordon, and Steve Gadd have done a simlar wide spectrum.

If a person can play many different styles and make them all their own and sound good and make the band sound good, that's a great drummer.

I'm not saying that they CAN'T play anything else and do it well. By the way, jazz, jazz fusion, rock fusion, I see jazz as a root here. Living Color is very much rock fusion. One other thing, how many Dave Weckl wanna be's do we have out there? I also noticed that many of the drummers you mentioned go back a ways. Steve Gadd, one of my favorite drummers, a style all his own and very versatile. I saw him on a video playing with Dave Weckl, and Vinnie Colaiuta. When you see all three playing in a solo drum off you get the impression.......what a mess! Really, you can't even compare these guys against one another. They all play jazz, but what's the point?.....style, and you can't even compare it when they are playing on the same stage together. So, my point is.....having your own style and being great at it. I didn't say you MUST stay playing in jazz, latin, rock or whatever to be a great drummer. Whichever drummer influences you when you decide to pick up the sticks and start practicing. The fundamentals and technique are established as you study different styles of music. However, most drummers gravitate to a certain style of music at some point. Now I ask you, why was Buddy Rich so great? He was a jazz drummer, he didn't play with the beatles or was known for jazz fusion. I heard him play a little rock in West Side Story.......lol. Why Buddy? Because........he was the greatest! He was the Mahuamid Ali of drumming. Was he versatile? He didn't have to be.

Buddy Rich was very versatile , listen closer. He covers all the major bases , rooted in swing for sure , but very versatile. In regards your general premise I agreed and disagree with you all at the same time.

Yeah sure, lots of admirable musicians; past, present, to be - certainly not limited to drummers.

Lots of qualities go into making a "great drummer"

Versatility is definitely one of those qualities. Guys who can step into any situation and deliver a solid performance. You know all the famous studio guys who play on a multitude of different recordings.

But for me, what I think makes the greatest drummers is complete comand over the instrument. I know that sounds a bit general but really not alot of guys have it.

To me its most evident in time. Guys that have an internalized sense of time to such a degree that they are able to do anything they want with the instrument. And to me the greatest example of this is Tony Williams.

Another part of "complete comand" is having the chops (not necessarily speed) to drop WHAT ever you want in WHERE ever you want it. To me Buddy Rich demonstrates this better than nearly everyone else I've ever heard. Tony does too. As do quite a few others. I would put Jojo up in this catagory now too.

Basically the greatest drummers are ONLY limited by their creativity and not by the ability to execute it. And I really believe only a few guys in the history of drumming (that I've heard obviously) have demonstrated it.

I think the greatness of a drummer lies in the ear of the beholder, so to speak.

My idea of great drummers has changed throughout the years (ok ok, decades) as my musical tastes have changed. With that in mind, I think it's difficult to say who is great and who is not, to a certain extent.

Just more input.

I think great drummers are all over the place,how many times have seen a bar band that had a great drummer.

I can't say that I know enough about drumming on a technical level to be able to pick apart any drummer really, but I do know that there are alot of differant ways a drummer can keep the beat to a song. So I think being creative and experimenting with differant combinations and sounds is one of the greatest properties to a great drummer. I was very intrigued when I found out you can take a fast guitar piece and either make it a fast song with quick drumming, or you can slow the atmosphere of the song down with slower drumming such as using a fast and steady double kick to match the guitars speed but do a slow tempo for the hi-hat and snare.

In a word, Feel Like Bruce Lee and Obi One said "don't think, Feel."

I will also agree with the others. Knowing time, knowing your instrument, knowing dynamincs, it changes over time and depends on the minute.

To me, is more about knowing how to keep time, knowing how to play ahead, behind and right on the beat, knowing how to play in the pocket and the groove. Those drummers that can rush and drag along with the other players around them and make it sound natural. Those drummers that realize that perfect drums ALL the time sound like Steven Hawkins speaking.

Drummers that can feel the band, room, and crowd as to what to play and when and have the ability to make it fit. It's been said that the greatest actors are the ones where you don't notice the acting. Like Tom Hanks didn't "play" Forrest Gump, in the movie, he WAS Forrest, you just watched and followed the story and was drawn in by it.

I believe a great drummer is the same way, you forget that you don't really like big band music but are listening and not moving until this song is over, that the drums are loud and you want to get closer, that the bar band is playing covers of Abba tunes and your tapping your foot and wanting to dance.

A good example is the Rod Stewart song "Maggie May", how could have you made the drums any better? it just fits to what you would play in your head. Oh yes I know, it's not Dream Theatre or Peart, Buddy or Calhoun, but it fits the "Feel" of the band, song, room, crowd etc.....Hope this makes sense

In a lot of ways, despite the noise, and the general space our kits take up on stage, drummers tend to be invisible. By this, I mean that if you are Solid on the beat, put all the accents in the right place, cue the rest of the band vis a vis solos, codas, etc....no one in the audience notices. But, god help you should you miss any of the above. Bass players, Guitarists, keys, etc, they flub a note, just keep going. If a drummer has no meter, or blows the intro or extro of a song, everyone in the room knows it. Then, we're no longer invisible.

There's no doubt that the level of technical sophistcation in the drum world these days is phenomenal. I could, when I was a kid, name you the top 10 drummers in the world ( yes, the usual names) I wouldn't even hazard a guess now, or how you could quantify what ' BEST IN THE WORLD ' means anymore. There was no Berkley schools of music, Percussion Institute, et al. Now, said schools turn out technical monsters by the baker's dozen, and I'm positive that there's a hundred guys out there who are just as monsterous as the New Breed (Donati, Minneman, Lang, Harrison, Mayer, D'Virgillo, et al) who dazzle us all at the clinics with their pyro.

But, what makes a drummer ' Great', as well as being a ' GREAT ' drummer?

Rock solid meter, tastefulness and the knowledge of what NOT to play as well as what to play, Flexibility in being able to work in many styles/genres, Discipline not only in your playing, but in how you relate to your fellow musicians, being dependable, having the technical ability to bring what you know to a chart or arrangement that enhances it, makes sound different than another player. Most of all, bringing a sense of fun to the situation. This is MUSIC, darn it, its what you practice in your basments with your bands for, that 4 hours on a Friday or Saturday night when all the crap from the week disappears, and you get to do something that not many others can do. Let's face it, those of us who are weekend warrior musicians know that whatever small cash we play for is almost besides the point. The point is getting out and PLAYING, moving people, getting reactions, having fun on stage, all the while being professional enough to NOT sound like a bunch of duffers out on a lark.

I could go on, but I think it would be just variations on a theme. I said back there that it would be next to impossible to pick a ' WORLD's GREATEST' drummer these days, and I really believe that. But , I do believe there's a short list of ' greatest Equals' , players who truly stand out over everyone else. My personal vote for First Among Equals is Vinnie Colaiuta.

:thu:PEACE:thu:

there are a lot of "great" drummers who don't play anything while there are drummers with their big double kick multi tom setups, and that doesn't make them great.

some of the simplest drummers that i find great are Ringo, Mick Fleetwood, Simon Kirke and the Motown "Funk Brothers" drummers just to name a few. these guys don't play anything and play circles around the "travis barkers and joey jordisons" of the world.

Good ears.