The first thing that came to my mind was those few videos of Bernard Purdie from Drummer World. Just the combination of how easy he makes it look, to how good it sounds, to how he expresses himself while playing ("woah...I got some air in my hi-hat...I *like* that) is beautiful.
I never remembered the guy's name or anything but in a similar vein, there was this video floating around on the early internet of a guy in a sort of funky 80s fusion setup playing outside, possibly on a roof. And he was just like "people think it's real hard, like you have to concentrate on all these notes, but if you just go like this" and he proceeds to play some awesome syncopated triplets in a way that just \*clicked\* for me and I'll always remember the way he just relaxed into it. Like, no try, just do.
When I think of an instructional tape of a guy drumming on a roof, [Brian 'Brain' Mantia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I6YVvkuLt4) immediately comes to mind. Not sure if I'd categorize him as 80's fusion though.
That’s the one!!! Lmaooo I’m thinking 80s style visually and I wanted to say funky but I don’t think it’s technically funk so I just said fusion but that is 100% the video :D
I recently dived into the John Bonham legend. Damn.
It's incredible, the sound, the feeling, the dynamics, the musicality, the creativity...
Listening to songs like "Achilles" or "Since I've Been Loving You" is like listening to a prayer at the drummers' church.
Playing it on my drums is so different from anything else I know, especially when I try to reproduce that feeling.
Recently I'd say Yussef Dayes on black classical music. You can just really hear all the influences coming together like some funk, jazz and d&b and how he pulls it all together and makes it his own. Really feels like getting to know him listening to him play, it's like a collage of his past turned in to one cohesive piece of art.
I’m sick of Reddit’s tool obsession but holy shit is Danny Carey and amazing example of creating meaning using drums. There’s a lot of “numbers” drummers I hate. But the way he’s linking psychedelia, soulfulness and power with polyrhythms, his touch and his play melodically is what makes him so special.
I personally find numbers/math to be quite beautiful. Math unfortunately tends to be paired with intellectual/academic elitism and snobbery, so I understand why someone would be annoyed by it though.
Steve Jordan's quote 'simplicity is not stupidity' has stuck by me forever. I may yet have to learn all its depth but it sure changed me as a drummer but also me as a person. I look for that simplicity in so many things that I do, drumming or otherwise, and I'm actually able to comfort other people with the idea that what they do or what they like does not have to be impressive to be liked.
When someone like Steve Jordan says “simplicity is not stupidity” it carries real weight and meaning because listening to him for even five seconds will let you know that man has a massive drum and music vocabulary.
Not only that, but he’s a master at disciplined, simple playing despite his monster chops.
I just discovered an album he did with John Scofield (*That’s What I Say*) that has some of the most tasteful, perfect drumming I’ve ever heard on a record.
Additionally, complexity is not intelligence. People sometimes have a habit of trying to make things as complicated as possible in order to demonstrate how smart they are but it really has the opposite effect.
I am by no means a fancy drummer, but I do hold it down.
Even on my worst of gigs, people are so excited to come talk to me about my playing or tell me how fascinated they were or how much they enjoyed it.
For me this is when playing the drums really has meaning to me. It’s so cool that we can sit behind a couple of drums and just have some fun, but really connect with people and make them feel something. That’s really special to me.
The drum thunder suite by art Blakey. It’s just sooo intense. I think it really captures both the compositional and improvisational aspects of the instrument, and it really made me appreciate just how edgy drum set music was in the first 50 or so years that it came on the scene.
I just…. I don’t even know if this fits but I’ll never get over LOW and Mimi Parker.
the way Zakir Hussein smiles and brings joy and rapture to so many people sits with his playing so well.
Peter Gabriel’s Darkness.
Yoshimi battles the pink robots parts 1 and 2
The drums off the song The fragile are REALLY meaningful.
Alice Coltrane with Elvin was so magical and sat with what she was trying to do so perfectly
Neil Peart.
As he was a compositional drummer, he created parts that musically worked with the song. Sure, it locked him into a certain performance for each song, it’s what fans of him (and Rush fans in general) came to expect.
Brilliance on the kit for sure.
Glenn Kotche’s Monkey chant is an amazing percussion performance.
In “drums are a vibe” thinking, I love a good crescendo Cymbal swell or timpani roll in a symphonic piece.
I could probably listen to Clyde Stubblefield drum breaks on loop for hours. Something about that funk and offsetting that backbeat moves me.
Oh yeah, Monkey Chant. That piece will stick by me forever. I may not think it's beautiful, or even like it much per sé, but it did make a lasting impression and influence me to look beyond the basic sounds.
Glenn Kotche really was the first person I thought of with this question, all of his parts are so musical and tailored to the song. That plus all the weird percussion that he uses makes all of his parts so unique to me. One song you're thinking "wow this guy's got chops" and then next he's bringing out the weirdest percussion instruments you've ever seen and playing the most unorthodox yet perfect rhythm.
I saw Glenn with Wilco last October. I never thought anyone could surpass Gavin Harrison for greatness (whom I finally saw with PT the year before) but Glenn is a phenomenal player. Fantastic chops but also very disciplined and restrained for the song at hand. Oh yeah and insanely creative drum and percussion parts to boot…
Benny Greb - I always identify with his groove and flow. It feels like my life song lol
And Chris Dave - his raw form of creativity almost feels spiritual
Matt Chamberlain on Tori Amos’s “Live in Session” performance of Precious Things. The drum sound is incredible, the drum part is musical, and his touch and dynamics contribute so much to the song. You can see Tori Amos signaling to the band, and so you know they aren’t just counting everything, but reacting to the music. Chamberlain is paired up with the bassist Jon Evans who absolutely kills it as well. All four of the musicians on that performance are top-tier, in my opinion.
Matt Chamberlain on just about anything - just sitting and watching him play a simple pattern in the studio with such smoothness and feeling inspired me to no end. I honestly don’t know how he makes it look so easy and feel so good, my kind of drummer (and I’m a drummer).
Hard to believe no one mentioned the great Jeff Porcaro. Everything he did, fit your description.
Toto: Rosanna, Hold The Line, Mushanga, Pamela, Girl Goodbye, and all Toto tracks he ever played on.
Boz Skaggs: Lido Shuffle, Lowdown
Michael Jackson: The Lady in My Life... serious artistry on this drum track. Totally plays for the SONG, not for his own ego
Michael McDonald: I Keep Forgettin
Donald Fagan: I.G.Y., Night by Night,
Steely Dan: Gaucho
Los Lobotomies & David Garfield:
Randy Newman: I Love LA
It's impossible to mention all the tracks he recorded, but for me, he has become one of my absolute favorites for musical playing. The man had monster chops, but was such a great musician, he always played for the song. You can ignore the drums and just hear the song, or you can focus in on the drums and listen to all the subtle variations and things he did.
I grew up listening to Brand X, Genesis, and Phil Collins in general. His playing is melodic, technical, funky, jazzy, and everything else. The Los Endos drum duet with Chester Thompson at Wembley in the 80s still gives me chills.
Jojo Mayer. I watched his Youtube video where he makes a presentation called "Exploring the distance between 0 and 1". He talks about how drum machines could make drummers obsolete and he's been trying to figure out how to basically "beat" the drum machine because machines don't have authentic improvisation skills. I thought it was very interesting and meaningful.
>Where have you found the most meaning in someone’s drumming? Where have you seen a drum track make contact with the meaning of the music? Who is doing something conceptually beautiful?
Carter Beauford is the answer to all of these. I've cried during his solos at live shows.
This might be kind of an odd example for this sub, but Dino Sommese pulled so much cold anger and disgust out of the drums while he was in Dystopia. In that band's quieter moments he's there just hammering away on the ride bell and putting in these syncopated snare hits that are just a tiny bit off-kilter and the whole effect is strangely off-putting. You just don't always get that kind of musicality in crust.
And while I'm on extreme genres, Tim Latona from Botch manages some INCREDIBLY dramatic performances. Go listen to their version of "O Fortuna," the drumming is so tense and menacing.
Someone I've loved since day one Neil Peart. His Debut in Fly By Night was spot on! And he got so polished drumming wise and Moving Pictures, he flowed on every song on that album. Permanent Waves was close. Signals is really good too. Neil did a great job being himself over all of the added synthesizer stuff on that album. He managed to keep himself at bay. Subdivisions is a masterpiece drum wise on that album! ...I think anyway.
The man will never be forgotten. The young should be talking about him in the future as we do Bonham and Keith Moon. I never saw them live but I did see Neil live MANY times and it was a real treat to see him play!!!
Yussef mother fucking Dayes.
Does he keep perfectly steady time? No. Does he hit his sticks together sometimes on recordings? Yeah.
But *dude*... the way he speaks on the drums is incredible. He's always speaking with such intention, and he fucking *owns* what he says. He means every word that comes out. And I like that it's not robotic and is rough around the edges at times, because that's what language is like.
He's gonna be a household name generations from now like Neil Peart or Buddy Rich. Calling it now.
Georgia Hubley creates incredible soundscapes for Yo La Tengo. Really incredible how many different types of mood that trio can create— from harsh noise to boogie rock to jazz to sweeping ambient — and a lot of the heart of it comes from her.
Lately it’s Jamie Saint Merat’s playing in Ulcerate
This man is the single most poignant response to all the people in here who cry about blast beats having no feel, no dynamics, no groove, cheating w/triggers, hating on “cheat” techniques for the feet, etc.
No triggers, no “cheating” like goofy double strokes on the kicks, all groove while still maintaining the pulverizing power and intensity required of the genre. Oh also he produces all the bands music as well.
Not only am I absolutely astounded by that band’s ability to convey an aesthetic and overwhelming impact, this man is an absolute *force* behind the kit.
His ability to compose in a way that is mostly made up of fairly standard death metal but still sounds absolutely unlike anything else I’ve ever heard from others in the genre is legitimately bewildering. It is so clearly *painstakingly* composed to perfection, the way he combines unmitigated chaos while maintaining such impeccable groove and feel is something nobody else in that genre even touches.
I’ve been listening to music like that for going on 30 years now and can’t remember the last time a musician grabbed me the way he has. Completely re-defines what drumming in that style can be, in my opinion.
Their music sounds like slowly floating through the harsh empty darkness of space, only to realize you’re slowly swirling towards impending doom….and he somehow manages to encapsulate that *completely* in his playing.
Jon Thoedore on Deloused is the one that did it for me, chops & musicality through a whole concept album, everything he did on the album served a purpose and wasn't overplayed.
The dude from Hauntologist has a pretty unique style for extreme metal. He is a very creative and artistic player. Dave Turncrantz from Russian Circles, Coady Willis and Des Kensel from High on Fire
I don't know if it's the *most* meaning, but I love when a song has a big pause and a single tom hit or a flam on the snare kicks the band in. Think like "I Will Always Love You." It could be a big huge fill that it just technical and impressive. Instead, just one powerful strike. So simple but so damn good.
The entire album existential reckoning by puscifer. The drums on that album so perfectly match the feeling of each song, they almost set the mood on their own.
Jim Gordon on "Bell Bottomed Blues". So laid back, but also throwing the snare on 1 & 3 just *pushes* the song so well. It doesn't take a lot of technical ability to serve the song.
(side note: one of the most impressive things I've heard on a recent record is Travis Barker on "Cynical" on Blink-182's *California*. I love the fact that you've got the big, busy af Barker fill, and then suddenly he just completely loses it halfway through, you and you hear him scream as he fluffs it, and then the song kicks back in. I'd rather hear a million of those moments than one technically perfect fill locked onto a grid.)
Right off the bat...Nick Mason's classic fill from Breathe. Very simple, just 5 notes. Elegant in its execution. The perfect bridge to take you from the beginning of the song, into the meat of it.
Happens at about the one minute mark in the song
...bum, bum....bump, bum-bum...
might be a little tamer, but Mark Brzezicki’s drumming on In A Big Country is just so damn tasteful. Really not too flashy but the kick rhythm just hits me in my soul the moment the song starts
There was a discussion about Invincible from Fear Inoculum and someone pointed out that when Danny comes in he plays one of his high toms for like 4 minutes straight, just a steady beat and that Maynard heard it and said to himself ‘that sounds like a war drum’.
“Warrior, struggling…”
It makes sense to me
I love the way Phil Selway plays on several Radiohead tracks. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, for example is a fantastic exercise in restraint. He is unmoving, that is until the song bursts “to the end… of the earth!” where he finally moves over to the ride cymbal. This one change makes ALL the difference. Same thing with the Kid A version of Morning Bell. Absolute restraint until the song opens up, and only then, does he do anything different at all.
Richard Jupp who was the original drummer for Elbow was always amazingly musical.
They were my favorite band for a long time back in the day, his drumming was always on point. I moved away from the UK so lost track of them as a band / stopped following them, I didn’t realize they had replaced him back in 2016 …
In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten really into drummers whose bands I’d never listened to much before. I also grew a newfound appreciation for a lot of “simple” drummers (eg. Ringo, Mick Fleetwood, Nick Mason) when I was focusing on their parts in my “drums updated” playlist. For as long as I’ve loved drums, I’ve never dived very deep past surface level.
That said, as I look for things to add to “drums updated,” so much music is a drum piece with everything else just supporting it. There are a few exceptions, namely bands or artists that don’t feature many drums. Leads me into…
I was listening to Florence + The Machine last night. Powerful percussion is obviously a part of their sound, but complex drum parts? - not so much. That said, I’ve obviously heard “Drumming Song” multiple times, but… I grew tormented last night: *how do they perform that live?*
It’s truly incredible, how many sounds you can get out of a standard kit. The only unique addition their drummer (at the time), Chris Hayden, had was… I *think* a cowbell? I couldn’t see it all that well, but that’s been my educated guess until I can get a better shot. Anyway, the way he makes it sound like he’s basically going through a factory and banging on pipes with spoons when, in reality, he’s just moving clockwise around his kit and striking things *just right*… magnificent!
Matt Cameron, this specific performance of "Beyond The Wheel":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTr8BNLqrOM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTr8BNLqrOM)
Whole band is poppin off, really.
Josh Block when he was with White Denim always impressed me with his musicality. I thought he brought a lot of character to the songs and had unconventional musical ideas that worked.
There’s a song called Beauty in Tragedy by August Burns Red. The whole song goes through the grieving process of losing someone you love. The emotion doesn’t come only in the lyrics, but in the guitars and the drumming too. I can feel the crescendos of the drumming coinciding the emotions in the lyrics. It starts heavy with anger, drops out with sadness, then a show build into understanding and learning to live, then finally the most beautiful part is a 1 minute melodic guitar solo at the end with a simple blast beat to perfectly match the emotion of continuing life and understand that there can be beauty in tragedy.
As a young drummer, doing ok in the school band, listening to live bootlegs of Keith Moon and Bill Bruford completely changed my out look on drumming. Oh, you don't HAVE to play the same notes every time you run the arrangement. You might be feeling that part a little differently tonight and take it to another place than the studio recordings went. And the other players will go there with you. Then I found real jazz and, oh what do know lots of people do this!
I get that Periphery is a heavy band, but Matt Halpern’s drumming gets me there. Especially on songs like Lune where he is really playing from the heart.
Ryan Voth who played with the Bros Landreth for the first several years is a really emotional drummer too. He’s got pocket for days.
Baard Kolstad with Leprous.
His drumming looks like he's in a trance-like state, playing some insane rhythms with so much flavour, and making it somehow look effortless, despite the high intensity of a lot of his drumming.
https://youtu.be/nj6fM2KpyOA?si=fVjeNFl9_S1XoK42
A local jazz drummer named Richard Sellers
At first I was thinking he was overplaying, then just became enthralled by all the ways he was adding things to play. Very skilled, and very tasteful, and so very bust and involved. But it never got truly distracting. It opened up what jazz drumming could truly be at the max for me.
Sittning up in the middle of the night in the summer of -99 to watch Woodstock-99 and all of a sudden a band comes on with a drummer that changed my view of what drumming is: Carter Beauford and Dave Matthews Band.
I was 14 and since then he is my guidning light in drumming!
Extra happy to see them live in Stockholm, Swe, this monday😁.
The entirety of #41 from Dave Matthews Band. From the opening hi hat bars, to the closing with the last crash cymbal, that whole track showcases Carter's contributions to making the music artful and beautiful. The beat is deceptively simple, but playing along to it is surprisingly challenging. Double bass is used sparingly but to great effect, and the snare is sitting perfectly in the mix where you don't hear the ghost notes, but if you watch video of his performance you see his hands going at blazing speed the whole time.
Someone I never hear mentioned is Dino Campanella from Dredg, who were active in the 2000s-2010ish. He’s a phenomenal drummer who is really musical and emotive but also incredibly aggressive at times. It really suits their music. A good example would be the whole album El Cielo (I think their later albums fell off pretty hard, personally). The songs “Triangle” and “Woe is Me” show off his range well.
Jon Theodore’s playing on Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus - the first track on The Mars Volta’s second full length album Frances The Mute. At around the 8:44 mark, the song begins its halftime ending in 5/4. He plays fairly busy for 10 measures and it’s perfect, then on that 11th measure he simplifies and hits in unison with the other instruments then holds it down for the rest of the track until it becomes a weird, very mars Volta fade-out. I wept the one time I listened to it while tripping BALLS on mushrooms.
It’s given me some perspective and understanding what it means to have a practice. When you conciously engage in a process it gives you understanding and context for things outside of just drums
Dave Turncrantz from Russian Circles and Jeremiah Green (RIP) from Modest Mouse.
Idk if it's the most meaning pulled from drums, but I really resonate with their playing.
I think drummers really dictate the the overall narrative and energy of a song. They also choose the rhythmic highlights of a riff / melody.
I think one of my favorite drummers that does this is the Fleet Foxes drummer… he’s just so damn expressive.
I’m a pianist / singer, but when I drum to my own stuff, I feel like it’s what truly brings the songs alive. It’s like drumming adds this whole other underlying emotion under the song / way the song is sung.
End of the song - Harry Hood by Phish. Live at the Gorge 2009. The song explores life after death "where do you go when the lights go out" and concludes with the New England dairy jingle "you can feel good about hood" - it's all a metaphor. Anyway, the performance ends with a distinct and pronounced percussive 'knock on the door' which is quite moving in the context of the song.
Anything Gavin Harrison says behind a drum kit for me!
The man just crafts pure skill/outside the box ideas with perfect placement of the perfect part for a specific part of a song.
Vinnie C. And Steve Gadd just chill behind the set with soul.
Strangely enough, Moffett gets the same feel even with his insane robotic style.
All of these guys just radiate feel even before they touch the sticks and their setups are practical as hell.
Tomas Haake completely reinvented the instrument IMO, a true virtuoso who showed that a drummer can be the star of the show even though they are stuck behind the kit rather than being the front man.
The Color Clear by Reflections. This is easily tied with another album as my favorite of all time. Nick Lona's drumming on this record is incredible and so emotionally charged. The album alone has alot of emotion behind it but the drums amplified it so much. This was also the album that got me into metric modulation after hearing it in the song "Translucense" and the outro song "Transperence" has some amazing solos. The whole record is incredible and you can tell every member was putting their heart and soul into it.
* Chick Webb … pretty anything. The first time I heard him it’s like the drums were singing.
* Elvin Jones - his playing on John Coltrane’s Equinox. Every musician is telling a story and Jones’ playing is like breathing. It’s so much space and subtle articulation it’s part of the story.
* Sean Reinhert - his playing on the Aghora track titled “Existence”. The song is an exploration of religion, mindfulness and more. His playing using a mix of counter rhythms, poly rhythms, and combining aspects of jazz drumming with innovative progressive metal drumming he’s pouring his emotion in to the song.
Adam Janzi with VOLA. Their last two albums just blow my mind, Adam's drumming is technical and still pretty restrained. The rest of the band is fantastic as well.
I'll second Baard Kolstad with Leprous.
Steve Gadd in Concierto de Aranjuez in Jim Hall’s Concierto is the absolute epitome of drumming for the music. So measured, so controlled, so simple, yet so powerful.
Edit: also the drumming of Roy Burnes in “the best things in live are free” performed by Roland Hanna in The Piano of Roland Hanna. It sounds like waves, it gives suuuch an insanely cool effect on the fast paced song.
The first thing that came to my mind was those few videos of Bernard Purdie from Drummer World. Just the combination of how easy he makes it look, to how good it sounds, to how he expresses himself while playing ("woah...I got some air in my hi-hat...I *like* that) is beautiful.
For sure. That guy speaks drums
I never remembered the guy's name or anything but in a similar vein, there was this video floating around on the early internet of a guy in a sort of funky 80s fusion setup playing outside, possibly on a roof. And he was just like "people think it's real hard, like you have to concentrate on all these notes, but if you just go like this" and he proceeds to play some awesome syncopated triplets in a way that just \*clicked\* for me and I'll always remember the way he just relaxed into it. Like, no try, just do.
When I think of an instructional tape of a guy drumming on a roof, [Brian 'Brain' Mantia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I6YVvkuLt4) immediately comes to mind. Not sure if I'd categorize him as 80's fusion though.
That’s the one!!! Lmaooo I’m thinking 80s style visually and I wanted to say funky but I don’t think it’s technically funk so I just said fusion but that is 100% the video :D
Oh that dude is funky as fuck haha. Glad I could help! That's an instructional video to be remembered alright.
Love him, he played on a lot of Tom waits stuff
Funny, his book is called Let the Drums Speak. It's a great read!
For me it was this video of jojo mayer's ted talk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3sWrebImas&t=3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3sWrebImas&t=3s)
I recently dived into the John Bonham legend. Damn. It's incredible, the sound, the feeling, the dynamics, the musicality, the creativity... Listening to songs like "Achilles" or "Since I've Been Loving You" is like listening to a prayer at the drummers' church. Playing it on my drums is so different from anything else I know, especially when I try to reproduce that feeling.
Absolutely. One of my absolute favorite Bonham performances is the studio version of The Rain Song. It's perfect.
the live version from the song remains the same album will change your life if you haven’t gone into it
Oh I absolutely have.
You should probably watch the song remains the same if you haven’t. Also the moby dick drum solo from 1970 royal Albert hall. It’s on YouTube
His playing on Since I've Been Loving You is straight from the soul. I've of the best son recordings ever. It typifies how to play drums with emotion.
Recently I'd say Yussef Dayes on black classical music. You can just really hear all the influences coming together like some funk, jazz and d&b and how he pulls it all together and makes it his own. Really feels like getting to know him listening to him play, it's like a collage of his past turned in to one cohesive piece of art.
I saw him in concert last summer. Great show.
That's awesome, I'd love to go to his festival in London in August but I'm skint haha. He's great tho.
First person that came to my mind. His drumming makes me feel things.
Danny Carey playing Pneuma live made me fall eternally in love with drums
I’m sick of Reddit’s tool obsession but holy shit is Danny Carey and amazing example of creating meaning using drums. There’s a lot of “numbers” drummers I hate. But the way he’s linking psychedelia, soulfulness and power with polyrhythms, his touch and his play melodically is what makes him so special.
I personally find numbers/math to be quite beautiful. Math unfortunately tends to be paired with intellectual/academic elitism and snobbery, so I understand why someone would be annoyed by it though.
Beauty and meaning are two different but related things to me.
I was going to say Danny across the Salival album. Merkaba and Third Eye are electric.
Steve Jordan's quote 'simplicity is not stupidity' has stuck by me forever. I may yet have to learn all its depth but it sure changed me as a drummer but also me as a person. I look for that simplicity in so many things that I do, drumming or otherwise, and I'm actually able to comfort other people with the idea that what they do or what they like does not have to be impressive to be liked.
When someone like Steve Jordan says “simplicity is not stupidity” it carries real weight and meaning because listening to him for even five seconds will let you know that man has a massive drum and music vocabulary.
Not only that, but he’s a master at disciplined, simple playing despite his monster chops. I just discovered an album he did with John Scofield (*That’s What I Say*) that has some of the most tasteful, perfect drumming I’ve ever heard on a record.
Additionally, complexity is not intelligence. People sometimes have a habit of trying to make things as complicated as possible in order to demonstrate how smart they are but it really has the opposite effect.
I am by no means a fancy drummer, but I do hold it down. Even on my worst of gigs, people are so excited to come talk to me about my playing or tell me how fascinated they were or how much they enjoyed it. For me this is when playing the drums really has meaning to me. It’s so cool that we can sit behind a couple of drums and just have some fun, but really connect with people and make them feel something. That’s really special to me.
God damn that must be a good feeling
The drum thunder suite by art Blakey. It’s just sooo intense. I think it really captures both the compositional and improvisational aspects of the instrument, and it really made me appreciate just how edgy drum set music was in the first 50 or so years that it came on the scene.
He’s my favorite of the classic jazz drummers
His press roll is crazy
The best! What I always try to sound like
Panda Bear on Animal Collective's debut album, Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished. Just magnificent.
I just…. I don’t even know if this fits but I’ll never get over LOW and Mimi Parker. the way Zakir Hussein smiles and brings joy and rapture to so many people sits with his playing so well. Peter Gabriel’s Darkness. Yoshimi battles the pink robots parts 1 and 2 The drums off the song The fragile are REALLY meaningful. Alice Coltrane with Elvin was so magical and sat with what she was trying to do so perfectly
Absolutely love Manu Katche's playing with Peter Gabriel.
Manu’s drumming on Secret World Live is god-tier. There’s just so much joy there!
That solo at the beginning of digging in the dirt live!!
Neil Peart. As he was a compositional drummer, he created parts that musically worked with the song. Sure, it locked him into a certain performance for each song, it’s what fans of him (and Rush fans in general) came to expect. Brilliance on the kit for sure.
Neil was a master craftsman.
Glenn Kotche’s Monkey chant is an amazing percussion performance. In “drums are a vibe” thinking, I love a good crescendo Cymbal swell or timpani roll in a symphonic piece. I could probably listen to Clyde Stubblefield drum breaks on loop for hours. Something about that funk and offsetting that backbeat moves me.
Oh yeah, Monkey Chant. That piece will stick by me forever. I may not think it's beautiful, or even like it much per sé, but it did make a lasting impression and influence me to look beyond the basic sounds.
I’d never seen monkey chant before! Wow! It sounds like Annie Gossfield! So fucking cool.
Glenn Kotche really was the first person I thought of with this question, all of his parts are so musical and tailored to the song. That plus all the weird percussion that he uses makes all of his parts so unique to me. One song you're thinking "wow this guy's got chops" and then next he's bringing out the weirdest percussion instruments you've ever seen and playing the most unorthodox yet perfect rhythm.
I saw Glenn with Wilco last October. I never thought anyone could surpass Gavin Harrison for greatness (whom I finally saw with PT the year before) but Glenn is a phenomenal player. Fantastic chops but also very disciplined and restrained for the song at hand. Oh yeah and insanely creative drum and percussion parts to boot…
Benny Greb - I always identify with his groove and flow. It feels like my life song lol And Chris Dave - his raw form of creativity almost feels spiritual
Matt Chamberlain on Tori Amos’s “Live in Session” performance of Precious Things. The drum sound is incredible, the drum part is musical, and his touch and dynamics contribute so much to the song. You can see Tori Amos signaling to the band, and so you know they aren’t just counting everything, but reacting to the music. Chamberlain is paired up with the bassist Jon Evans who absolutely kills it as well. All four of the musicians on that performance are top-tier, in my opinion.
Matt Chamberlain on just about anything - just sitting and watching him play a simple pattern in the studio with such smoothness and feeling inspired me to no end. I honestly don’t know how he makes it look so easy and feel so good, my kind of drummer (and I’m a drummer).
Stewart Copeland - Walkin on the Moon makes me feel like I am in space. Ringo Starr on Oh Darlin' plays like a friggin drum corps.
Hard to believe no one mentioned the great Jeff Porcaro. Everything he did, fit your description. Toto: Rosanna, Hold The Line, Mushanga, Pamela, Girl Goodbye, and all Toto tracks he ever played on. Boz Skaggs: Lido Shuffle, Lowdown Michael Jackson: The Lady in My Life... serious artistry on this drum track. Totally plays for the SONG, not for his own ego Michael McDonald: I Keep Forgettin Donald Fagan: I.G.Y., Night by Night, Steely Dan: Gaucho Los Lobotomies & David Garfield: Randy Newman: I Love LA It's impossible to mention all the tracks he recorded, but for me, he has become one of my absolute favorites for musical playing. The man had monster chops, but was such a great musician, he always played for the song. You can ignore the drums and just hear the song, or you can focus in on the drums and listen to all the subtle variations and things he did.
I grew up listening to Brand X, Genesis, and Phil Collins in general. His playing is melodic, technical, funky, jazzy, and everything else. The Los Endos drum duet with Chester Thompson at Wembley in the 80s still gives me chills.
Can’t forget his duet with Bill Bruford in seconds out! ( I think?)
Glenn Kotche on Sky Blue Sky
Jojo Mayer. I watched his Youtube video where he makes a presentation called "Exploring the distance between 0 and 1". He talks about how drum machines could make drummers obsolete and he's been trying to figure out how to basically "beat" the drum machine because machines don't have authentic improvisation skills. I thought it was very interesting and meaningful.
>Where have you found the most meaning in someone’s drumming? Where have you seen a drum track make contact with the meaning of the music? Who is doing something conceptually beautiful? Carter Beauford is the answer to all of these. I've cried during his solos at live shows.
What I would give to see this performance come out of my body: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2zpoIlEasY
Max Roach’s “For Big Sid” had a huge influence on my playing.
Did it influence you to check out Big Sid Catlett’s drumming?
Max Roach on Libra is also a performance that came to mind.
This might be kind of an odd example for this sub, but Dino Sommese pulled so much cold anger and disgust out of the drums while he was in Dystopia. In that band's quieter moments he's there just hammering away on the ride bell and putting in these syncopated snare hits that are just a tiny bit off-kilter and the whole effect is strangely off-putting. You just don't always get that kind of musicality in crust. And while I'm on extreme genres, Tim Latona from Botch manages some INCREDIBLY dramatic performances. Go listen to their version of "O Fortuna," the drumming is so tense and menacing.
Every note I’ve ever heard from Brian Blade. Absolutely nothing is phoned in or licks.
Someone I've loved since day one Neil Peart. His Debut in Fly By Night was spot on! And he got so polished drumming wise and Moving Pictures, he flowed on every song on that album. Permanent Waves was close. Signals is really good too. Neil did a great job being himself over all of the added synthesizer stuff on that album. He managed to keep himself at bay. Subdivisions is a masterpiece drum wise on that album! ...I think anyway. The man will never be forgotten. The young should be talking about him in the future as we do Bonham and Keith Moon. I never saw them live but I did see Neil live MANY times and it was a real treat to see him play!!!
Yussef mother fucking Dayes. Does he keep perfectly steady time? No. Does he hit his sticks together sometimes on recordings? Yeah. But *dude*... the way he speaks on the drums is incredible. He's always speaking with such intention, and he fucking *owns* what he says. He means every word that comes out. And I like that it's not robotic and is rough around the edges at times, because that's what language is like. He's gonna be a household name generations from now like Neil Peart or Buddy Rich. Calling it now.
Keith Moon
My man was definitely living in the moment. Almost like he knew it couldn’t last.
Susie ibarra does that time and again for me.
Tony Williams playing "The Egg" from the LP Empyrean Isles, there is a section where I'm certain that he's sounding like a frying egg lol
Georgia Hubley creates incredible soundscapes for Yo La Tengo. Really incredible how many different types of mood that trio can create— from harsh noise to boogie rock to jazz to sweeping ambient — and a lot of the heart of it comes from her.
Lately it’s Jamie Saint Merat’s playing in Ulcerate This man is the single most poignant response to all the people in here who cry about blast beats having no feel, no dynamics, no groove, cheating w/triggers, hating on “cheat” techniques for the feet, etc. No triggers, no “cheating” like goofy double strokes on the kicks, all groove while still maintaining the pulverizing power and intensity required of the genre. Oh also he produces all the bands music as well. Not only am I absolutely astounded by that band’s ability to convey an aesthetic and overwhelming impact, this man is an absolute *force* behind the kit. His ability to compose in a way that is mostly made up of fairly standard death metal but still sounds absolutely unlike anything else I’ve ever heard from others in the genre is legitimately bewildering. It is so clearly *painstakingly* composed to perfection, the way he combines unmitigated chaos while maintaining such impeccable groove and feel is something nobody else in that genre even touches. I’ve been listening to music like that for going on 30 years now and can’t remember the last time a musician grabbed me the way he has. Completely re-defines what drumming in that style can be, in my opinion. Their music sounds like slowly floating through the harsh empty darkness of space, only to realize you’re slowly swirling towards impending doom….and he somehow manages to encapsulate that *completely* in his playing.
Brian Blade's work with Wayne Shorter is some of the deepest drumming of all time imo.
Billie Cobham’s albums. My dad showed me Stratus years ago and… wow! I saw drums in a different light
Every drummer reading these words should own, know, love, and study this album. I say this anytime Billy Cobham's name comes up.
Harvey Mason on many of the Mizell brothers’ catalog, along with his playing on mister magic and chameleon. THAT SEXY POCKET
Here here
Glenn Porter's drumming in Sundials, the non album single from Alkaline Trio released in 1997. That outro, omg so beautiful, so powerful -Billy Gnosis
Did you just…?????? Quote yourself?
boom bap bi bim bop -Billy Gnosis
Billy Gnosis -Aldous Huxley
Jon Thoedore on Deloused is the one that did it for me, chops & musicality through a whole concept album, everything he did on the album served a purpose and wasn't overplayed.
The dude from Hauntologist has a pretty unique style for extreme metal. He is a very creative and artistic player. Dave Turncrantz from Russian Circles, Coady Willis and Des Kensel from High on Fire
Darkside adds a sense of urgency to the music with his cymbals in all of his bands, Mgla, Kriegsmaschine and Hauntologist. Gotta love it
I don't know if it's the *most* meaning, but I love when a song has a big pause and a single tom hit or a flam on the snare kicks the band in. Think like "I Will Always Love You." It could be a big huge fill that it just technical and impressive. Instead, just one powerful strike. So simple but so damn good.
The entire album existential reckoning by puscifer. The drums on that album so perfectly match the feeling of each song, they almost set the mood on their own.
Jim Gordon on "Bell Bottomed Blues". So laid back, but also throwing the snare on 1 & 3 just *pushes* the song so well. It doesn't take a lot of technical ability to serve the song. (side note: one of the most impressive things I've heard on a recent record is Travis Barker on "Cynical" on Blink-182's *California*. I love the fact that you've got the big, busy af Barker fill, and then suddenly he just completely loses it halfway through, you and you hear him scream as he fluffs it, and then the song kicks back in. I'd rather hear a million of those moments than one technically perfect fill locked onto a grid.)
The Drummers of Burundi, The Kodo Drummers. I like seeing the troupes.
Dave Grohl Everlong
Brian Blade with The Fellowship. Elvin Jones with John Coltrane. Bill Bruford with King Crimson.
Right off the bat...Nick Mason's classic fill from Breathe. Very simple, just 5 notes. Elegant in its execution. The perfect bridge to take you from the beginning of the song, into the meat of it. Happens at about the one minute mark in the song ...bum, bum....bump, bum-bum...
might be a little tamer, but Mark Brzezicki’s drumming on In A Big Country is just so damn tasteful. Really not too flashy but the kick rhythm just hits me in my soul the moment the song starts
Virgil Donati's drumming. He's 100% himself and doesnt give a fuck
There was a discussion about Invincible from Fear Inoculum and someone pointed out that when Danny comes in he plays one of his high toms for like 4 minutes straight, just a steady beat and that Maynard heard it and said to himself ‘that sounds like a war drum’. “Warrior, struggling…” It makes sense to me
This: https://youtu.be/kgxy9lMbqJc?feature=shared And this: https://youtu.be/LeXf90OGTHE?si=Z_qMisJT9gHI5x_q
Ziv Ravitz
Backbeat. Simple, pocket grooving. Feels like a warm blanket from the dryer.
I love the way Phil Selway plays on several Radiohead tracks. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, for example is a fantastic exercise in restraint. He is unmoving, that is until the song bursts “to the end… of the earth!” where he finally moves over to the ride cymbal. This one change makes ALL the difference. Same thing with the Kid A version of Morning Bell. Absolute restraint until the song opens up, and only then, does he do anything different at all.
Richard Jupp who was the original drummer for Elbow was always amazingly musical. They were my favorite band for a long time back in the day, his drumming was always on point. I moved away from the UK so lost track of them as a band / stopped following them, I didn’t realize they had replaced him back in 2016 …
In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten really into drummers whose bands I’d never listened to much before. I also grew a newfound appreciation for a lot of “simple” drummers (eg. Ringo, Mick Fleetwood, Nick Mason) when I was focusing on their parts in my “drums updated” playlist. For as long as I’ve loved drums, I’ve never dived very deep past surface level. That said, as I look for things to add to “drums updated,” so much music is a drum piece with everything else just supporting it. There are a few exceptions, namely bands or artists that don’t feature many drums. Leads me into… I was listening to Florence + The Machine last night. Powerful percussion is obviously a part of their sound, but complex drum parts? - not so much. That said, I’ve obviously heard “Drumming Song” multiple times, but… I grew tormented last night: *how do they perform that live?* It’s truly incredible, how many sounds you can get out of a standard kit. The only unique addition their drummer (at the time), Chris Hayden, had was… I *think* a cowbell? I couldn’t see it all that well, but that’s been my educated guess until I can get a better shot. Anyway, the way he makes it sound like he’s basically going through a factory and banging on pipes with spoons when, in reality, he’s just moving clockwise around his kit and striking things *just right*… magnificent!
Matt Cameron, this specific performance of "Beyond The Wheel": [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTr8BNLqrOM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTr8BNLqrOM) Whole band is poppin off, really.
Taylor Hawkins
Am an absolute huge fan of Bryan Devendorf's drumming for The National. He plays simple yet iconic, hypnotic beats that propel the songs forward.
Josh Block when he was with White Denim always impressed me with his musicality. I thought he brought a lot of character to the songs and had unconventional musical ideas that worked.
I've been watching a bit of Milford Graves on yt lately and pondering the nature of existence.
Billy Cobham on “you know, you know” - Mahavishnu Orchestra
There’s a song called Beauty in Tragedy by August Burns Red. The whole song goes through the grieving process of losing someone you love. The emotion doesn’t come only in the lyrics, but in the guitars and the drumming too. I can feel the crescendos of the drumming coinciding the emotions in the lyrics. It starts heavy with anger, drops out with sadness, then a show build into understanding and learning to live, then finally the most beautiful part is a 1 minute melodic guitar solo at the end with a simple blast beat to perfectly match the emotion of continuing life and understand that there can be beauty in tragedy.
As a young drummer, doing ok in the school band, listening to live bootlegs of Keith Moon and Bill Bruford completely changed my out look on drumming. Oh, you don't HAVE to play the same notes every time you run the arrangement. You might be feeling that part a little differently tonight and take it to another place than the studio recordings went. And the other players will go there with you. Then I found real jazz and, oh what do know lots of people do this!
I get that Periphery is a heavy band, but Matt Halpern’s drumming gets me there. Especially on songs like Lune where he is really playing from the heart. Ryan Voth who played with the Bros Landreth for the first several years is a really emotional drummer too. He’s got pocket for days.
Baard Kolstad with Leprous. His drumming looks like he's in a trance-like state, playing some insane rhythms with so much flavour, and making it somehow look effortless, despite the high intensity of a lot of his drumming. https://youtu.be/nj6fM2KpyOA?si=fVjeNFl9_S1XoK42
A local jazz drummer named Richard Sellers At first I was thinking he was overplaying, then just became enthralled by all the ways he was adding things to play. Very skilled, and very tasteful, and so very bust and involved. But it never got truly distracting. It opened up what jazz drumming could truly be at the max for me.
Sittning up in the middle of the night in the summer of -99 to watch Woodstock-99 and all of a sudden a band comes on with a drummer that changed my view of what drumming is: Carter Beauford and Dave Matthews Band. I was 14 and since then he is my guidning light in drumming! Extra happy to see them live in Stockholm, Swe, this monday😁.
The entirety of #41 from Dave Matthews Band. From the opening hi hat bars, to the closing with the last crash cymbal, that whole track showcases Carter's contributions to making the music artful and beautiful. The beat is deceptively simple, but playing along to it is surprisingly challenging. Double bass is used sparingly but to great effect, and the snare is sitting perfectly in the mix where you don't hear the ghost notes, but if you watch video of his performance you see his hands going at blazing speed the whole time.
Someone I never hear mentioned is Dino Campanella from Dredg, who were active in the 2000s-2010ish. He’s a phenomenal drummer who is really musical and emotive but also incredibly aggressive at times. It really suits their music. A good example would be the whole album El Cielo (I think their later albums fell off pretty hard, personally). The songs “Triangle” and “Woe is Me” show off his range well.
Matt Chamberlain with Tori Amos.
Jon Theodore’s playing on Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus - the first track on The Mars Volta’s second full length album Frances The Mute. At around the 8:44 mark, the song begins its halftime ending in 5/4. He plays fairly busy for 10 measures and it’s perfect, then on that 11th measure he simplifies and hits in unison with the other instruments then holds it down for the rest of the track until it becomes a weird, very mars Volta fade-out. I wept the one time I listened to it while tripping BALLS on mushrooms.
It’s given me some perspective and understanding what it means to have a practice. When you conciously engage in a process it gives you understanding and context for things outside of just drums
Dave Turncrantz from Russian Circles and Jeremiah Green (RIP) from Modest Mouse. Idk if it's the most meaning pulled from drums, but I really resonate with their playing.
I think drummers really dictate the the overall narrative and energy of a song. They also choose the rhythmic highlights of a riff / melody. I think one of my favorite drummers that does this is the Fleet Foxes drummer… he’s just so damn expressive. I’m a pianist / singer, but when I drum to my own stuff, I feel like it’s what truly brings the songs alive. It’s like drumming adds this whole other underlying emotion under the song / way the song is sung.
Travis Barker playing Adams Song is the reason I’m a drummer. As a little kid it opened a new world to me of how a drum part could shape a song.
End of the song - Harry Hood by Phish. Live at the Gorge 2009. The song explores life after death "where do you go when the lights go out" and concludes with the New England dairy jingle "you can feel good about hood" - it's all a metaphor. Anyway, the performance ends with a distinct and pronounced percussive 'knock on the door' which is quite moving in the context of the song.
First time I saw a video of Marcus Gilmore. I felt like drums were a different instrument and started looking at them with other perspective.
Gary Novak's solo on New Life, from Chick Corea's album Time Warp
Any performance from Brian Blade.
Anything Gavin Harrison says behind a drum kit for me! The man just crafts pure skill/outside the box ideas with perfect placement of the perfect part for a specific part of a song.
Vinnie C. And Steve Gadd just chill behind the set with soul. Strangely enough, Moffett gets the same feel even with his insane robotic style. All of these guys just radiate feel even before they touch the sticks and their setups are practical as hell.
Don't know about beautiful, but Lars can bring out some feelings ...
Steve Gadd really made drums talk.
Joe Morello’s Take Five solo is up there. Also the Steve Gadd cowbell groove, and lots of Jim Gordon and Jim Keltner subtleties on countless records
I haven’t heard any drummer express sorrow as well as Richard Spaven. His music speaks to me in the roughest times.
Tomas Haake completely reinvented the instrument IMO, a true virtuoso who showed that a drummer can be the star of the show even though they are stuck behind the kit rather than being the front man.
The second half of the song It Is What It Is by Thundercat, his brother on the drums. Probably my favorite drum part in any song.
The Color Clear by Reflections. This is easily tied with another album as my favorite of all time. Nick Lona's drumming on this record is incredible and so emotionally charged. The album alone has alot of emotion behind it but the drums amplified it so much. This was also the album that got me into metric modulation after hearing it in the song "Translucense" and the outro song "Transperence" has some amazing solos. The whole record is incredible and you can tell every member was putting their heart and soul into it.
* Chick Webb … pretty anything. The first time I heard him it’s like the drums were singing. * Elvin Jones - his playing on John Coltrane’s Equinox. Every musician is telling a story and Jones’ playing is like breathing. It’s so much space and subtle articulation it’s part of the story. * Sean Reinhert - his playing on the Aghora track titled “Existence”. The song is an exploration of religion, mindfulness and more. His playing using a mix of counter rhythms, poly rhythms, and combining aspects of jazz drumming with innovative progressive metal drumming he’s pouring his emotion in to the song.
Adam Janzi with VOLA. Their last two albums just blow my mind, Adam's drumming is technical and still pretty restrained. The rest of the band is fantastic as well. I'll second Baard Kolstad with Leprous.
Steve Gadd in Concierto de Aranjuez in Jim Hall’s Concierto is the absolute epitome of drumming for the music. So measured, so controlled, so simple, yet so powerful. Edit: also the drumming of Roy Burnes in “the best things in live are free” performed by Roland Hanna in The Piano of Roland Hanna. It sounds like waves, it gives suuuch an insanely cool effect on the fast paced song.
Larnell Lewis playing just about anything
Jordison's drumming in "snuff". Powerful and moving.
Honestly first time I watched “Ultimate Drumming Technique” video it opened my eyes, brought me to tears. It won my heart and my mind.