Liebezeit vs Baker vs Bruford vs ____________________

he crushes weckl and colaiuta on that imo, they're just all like "duggaduggaduggadugaaduggaduggadugga PSH PSH PSH PSHHHHH duggaduggadugga pshhh" while he's grooving the shit out of everything

i love the way he'll hang back a moment, find (or make) space in their noise, and just swing on in like a wrecking ball

This is one of my favorite Gadd solos (starts around 4:53):

Drum geek sick chops youtube thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFVzqrfMTRI#t=322

xxxp have not, but will investigate
i want a ticket to the island!

here's gadd in full blast mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-yPdckNaDo

o hell yeah, that was inspirational (@hurting)

bass solo leading up pretty fn sick too

http://youtu.be/PuBFSFqLF5E?t=6m13s

crazy

oh yeah, that's like a famous gadd lick

hurting otm in this thread, i'm not a baker fan.

btw i ran into gadd twice in new orleans when he was there with james taylor iirc, he was the nicest and most curious dude ever. the first time was at the fairgrounds where he was just walking around checking all the new orleans bands out, asking us "what's good? what am i saying, it's all good!" then later he was at a club where my brass band was playing...he couldn't stay for the show, but they were playing a cd of ours over the PA and he was like, "wait, this is you guys? this is amazing!" and asked for a copy.

Ugh, fucking Steve Gadd. He's like an exaggerated caricature of the worst aspects of fuzak session hackery. Him and Weckl.

check out Blakey blatantly aping Baker starting around 4:50

Haha, that's hilarious.

Would probably go with Liebezeit, narrowly over Bruford. Bruford can swing mightily, and came pretty damn close to taking Tony Williams' shit to another level. But Liebezeit is such a monster.

a relentlessly groovy monster

It's a session-off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6b_nBM-V8

One thing that's fun about these nerd-fests is that it's presented like some sort of a challenge, but all these dudes can play anything.

(There's a point around 2:30 where it looks like Vinnie is playing a one-handed roll!)

Almost a fun read from Steve Vai:

"I was just enamored with Vinnie. Back in the Frank days, his whole approach, when I heard Vinnie play, his phrasing - it satisfied something in my heart. It was easy to get certain rhythmic gratification from straight up-and-down-type players. Playing grooves, alternate grooves here and there. But Vinnie just came in and threw a wrench into the works. The guy is an alien. He was able to touch buttons with his sense of polyrhythms that no one has ever done. Frank's band was the perfect soundboard for that. I started transcribing his playing for The Frank Zappa Book. I mean, there's five to six different notations for the hi-hat!" (laughs)

"I'll tell you a really great Vinnie story. He's one of the most amazing sight-readers that ever existed on the instrument. One day we were in a Frank rehearsal, this was early '80s, and Frank brought in this piece of music called "Mo 'N Herb's Vacation." Just unbelievably complex. All the drums were written out, just like "The Black Page" except even more complex. There were these runs of like 17 over 3 and every drumhead is notated differently. And there were a whole bunch of people there, I think Bozzio was there."

"Vinnie had this piece of music on the stand to his right. To his left he had another music stand with a plate of sushi on it, okay? Now the tempo of the piece was very slow, like "The Black Page." And then the first riff came in, [mimics bizarre Zappa-esque drum rhythm patterns] with all these choking of cymbals, and hi-hat, ruffs, spinning of rototoms and all this crazy stuff. And I saw Vinnie reading this thing. Now, Vinnie has this habit of pushing his glasses up with the middle finger of his right hand. Well I saw him look at this one bar of music, it was the last bar of music on the page. He started to play it as he was turning the page with one hand, and then once the page was turned he continued playing the riff with his right hand, as he reached over with his left hand, grabbed a piece of sushi and put it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet, pushed his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar."

"It was the sickest thing I have ever seen. Frank threw his music up in the air. Bozzio turned around and walked away. I just started laughing."

Always, not almost a fun read. Whoops.

Steve Vai, almost a guitarist I want to hear.

i wouldn't call that a one-handed roll, he's playing double strokes to fill in between the right hand notes, but you're right, facility is not an issue for any of these dudes.

haha, i was trying to find a video of buddy rich doing a one-handed roll and i came across this one that i hadn't seen before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0V4Aqs2D48

"shit!" (1:24)

The classic Vinnie story, love it.

just wanted to mention I'm listening on Spotify to an album Jaki did with Pascal Comelade, Pierre Bastien and Jac Berrocal called Oblique Sessions and it fucking rules and is reminding me how oddly inscrutable is his greatness. On paper it seems like Jaki has a very simple approach and should be very copyable but no imitator sounds like him.

LL, I think you would like Pram. Seconding the recommendation of their album Helium. And their EP Meshes. They have a toytown bros quay thing going on. Their drummer ain't no Jaki but I can cert believe he loves him.

Both Moonshake and Pram rule. I have respect for Long Fin Killie but never want to listen to them.

Also - Jaki & Pierre Bastien? OMG, must hear.

yeeeeeeeeeees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pJoiRGGxco

the dude in Beak> sounds kind of like Jaki Liebezeit

my favorite Pram song, one of my alltime favorite songs period, is "Chrysalis".

i think the guy on the vid is their current drummer. i dig him just fine but you should check out mid period pram (helium & sargasso sea plus the eps from that era) for some serious jaki grooves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6csU_OLskUo

the dude in Beak> sounds kind of like Jaki Liebezeit

isn't that Geoff Barrow (main Portishead dude)?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, December 4, 2013 8:40 AM (2 hours ago)

lol same video i posted yesterday. great tho!

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, December 4, 2013 8:11 AM (3 hours ago)

fight

i wish Pram's singer didn't sound like Laetitia Sadier so much

Jeebus, Pram still exists? I saw them open for Sea & Cake in DC in maybe ... '97? '96?

yeah I thought about responding to that tarfumes post, but I mean if Steve Gadd is your definition of a "hack" and you consider him to be a similar drummer to Dave Weckyl, why bother.

I always thought Soul Coughing's drummer Yuval Gabay was a lot like Liebezeit too.

Pram have been around since 1990.

i wish Pram's singer didn't sound like Laetitia Sadier so much

Oh hai

re: Gadd et al, there's this weird slick oily film all over everything they do that really puts me off. But more than that, I don't hear any tension or drive or excitement or depth in their playing. fwiw.

I can see saying that about Weckyl, but not Gadd

Weckl, sry, keep putting in the y

For tension, drive, and excitement from Gadd, I think "Aja" is a great example. Pretty much my go-to song for him.

I will say there are records I love that Gadd's on where he doesn't bug/distract me (Aja, except for his solo bit, and some Paul Simon things). But there's a commonality in approach that I hear where they're both laying back in the same kind of way; not necessarily playing behind the beat, but playing very, I dunno, relaxed, but in a way that (probably irrationally) strikes me as smug.

I will say that I don't always love his sound -- it can be on the dry and dead side for my tastes.

Pram has a singer?

Yes, Rosie! Its p much 'her' band iirc? Listen to 'chrysalis' on ye spotify!

Don't hold Weckyl's '80s hair against him.

Gadd looks smug because he is a survivor. Aaaaample drugs.

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-2ylOmIkzU

Grrr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-2ylOmIkzU

I've been following this thread for 2 weeks and just noticed Baker's name. There's absolutely no way that Ginger rates with either of the other two, that's just silly.

ginger baker is a dude who like ever since I have been playing drums I have heard people rating highly and then I would check him out, and even when I was a beginner I was kind of scratching my head, like maybe there was something I didn't get about the nuance of his drumming

There is no nuance in his drumming, that's the point. Like Elvin Jones said, "This guy plays like he has delusions of grandeur".

there are only two drummers who've done work that I insist on making people listen to (as in "you gotta check out the drumming on this track"). Jaki and Jim White. Bruford is amazing but it's like he's not even human, I dunno.

ok, that link appears to start at about the right place. I noticed the one i had on Facebook started 3hrs and 9 minutes into a longer recording. Looks like that's bookmarked at the right point though