I recently attended a Return To Forever concert, and it made me wonder - which bands feature multiple virtuosos on their respective instruments? Like in the top 1% of all professionals?
Let’s start with Return To Forever. The current iteration has Chick Corea (keyboards), Jean-Luc Ponty (electric violin), Lenny White (drums) and Stanley Clarke (bass). I would argue all of them are in the top 1%, especially Clarke, who might be the world’s best bassist.
Let’s add: Weather Report - Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Wayne Shorter (sax), Jaco Pastorius (bass) and perhaps Alex Acuna (drums), too.
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Bela Fleck (banjo), Victor Wooten (bass), Roy Wooten (percussion).
The Pat Metheny Group: Pat Metheny (guitar), Lyle Mays (keyboards), Antonio Sanchez (drums)
Either Miles Davis quintet: Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Paul Chambers (bass), Shorter, Herbie Hancock (keyboards), Tony Williams (drums).
There are more, no doubt, so let’s have 'em! I expect Rush to appear quickly…
Mmm…I’m a huge Rush fan but I’m not even sure I could make that argument. I’d easily put Neil Peart in the tip top eschelons of drumming but I don’t think I could make the same claim for Geddy Lee or Alex Lifeson and their respective instruments. They’re awesome, no doubt. But top 1%? Dunno.
They are mostly jazz groups, which by nature have many personnel changes, but also have a long-term continuity.
The OP sets an impossible task, since “top 1%” is purely subjective. But in rock terms of the time, Cream clearly qualifies; all three members – Eric Claption, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker – were considered among the best at their instruments.
Top 1% = 100 out of 10,000. If you put 10,000 random professional guitarists in a room, I’m pretty sure Alex Lifeson would be one of the 100 best.
Kansas - Phil on drums, Walsh on keys AND vocals (all the replacements have not come close, vocal-wise), Livgren on everything…monsters, I tell you, MONSTERS!
Some of the musicians named by the OP seem a little dubious to me.
Jaco Pastorius is one of those players who’s reputation seems to have grown exponentially after his untimely death. His blackout alcoholism was really the stuff of legend (“Jaco PassedOutOnUs”) maybe moreso than his actual playing. There are many, many bass players around who are easily more talented than ever Jaco was, even at his very best. Dying young, under murky circumstances was his true lasting legacy, not for any groundbreaking work on a bass guitar.
And FutureMan (Roy Wooten) as one of the top 1% of percussionists??? He is primarily known for his gimmicky stage persona and creating his “Synthax-Drumatar” which is a cross between a drum machine and a bass guitar, not for being a serious, world-class percussionist. (As a bit of disclosure, I have met him briefly on a couple of occasions, and he seems like a pretty nice guy, but I don’t think he is under any illusions that he’s among the world’s elite players)
Agreed. I love the Flecktones, and Bela is certainly in the 1% list for banjo. I could make the case for Victor Wooten. FutureMan is entertaining but he’s no where near the level of the others.
I think you could make a far better case for Strength in Numbers - Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Mark O’Connor, and Edgar Meyer. The first three are certain 1%'ers, and you could make the case for either of the last two.
The Beatles? Masterful voices (I’d count that as an ‘instrument’), great at every instrument they played. Kind of cliched answer, but I’d say it’s true.
I am also a huge fan of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, and I have seen them play live at least 15 to 20 times, all over the USA, including several times at Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Jazzfest in New Orleans, Seattle’s annual Bumbershoot Festival as well as opening up for the Grateful Dead in San Francisco.
I think Futureman is an EXCELLENT showman, but that doesn’t put him among the elite percussionists alive today.
The Flecktones have been touring with original member Howard Levy who, his bio says, is “Acknowledged as the world’s most advanced diatonic harmonica player.” That qualifies him. His piano is also spectacular. The convert I saw this year was incandescent.
And FutureMan is in the top 1% of people who play his instrument. You can’t deny it.
Blind Faith had Steve Winwood as well as Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. That should qualify them, although I’m not sure which category to put Winwood in. Keyboards, probably.
I get the feeling this is going to be a lot of people talking about their favorite bands.
Having said that, I know it isn’t three, but Zeppelin had Jimmy Page and John Bonham who could arguably be considered to be in the top 1% of their instrument (at least in their genre/in their heyday). I don’t don’t know enough about JPJ to make that kind of call about him and as much as I loooove Zeppelin, Robert Plant has never been my favorite vocalist, but that’s still half of their members.
Not a knock on Mr. Lifeson in particular, but I’m not so sure (though I can be enlightened). If you define ‘professional’ as ‘making a living at’, I wonder if there are in fact 10,000 professional guitarists in existence. That seems about or a little higher than the total number I’d estimate. But anyone who knows the field can set me straight.
Paul, definitely. Perhaps George. But John Lennon’s talents were as a composer, not a guitarist, and Ringo – though underrated – is very good, but not great.
The “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” version of Traffic had Steve Winwood and Jim Gordon (Gordon was also in Derek and the Dominoes, and was considered the top sessions drummer of his time).
The first Jeff Beck group album, Truth, had Beck, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, and Nicky Hopkins (great piano player), plus Rod Stewart on vocals (this lineup recorded “Beck’s Bolero”). It was a one-shot for Page and Moon, but Beck, Stewart and Hopkins were on both their albums. Hopkins probably didn’t tour with them, though (he had Crohn’s disease and his health wouldn’t allow it).
Zeppelin came to mind when I saw the thread title and John Paul Jones probably is among the very top bassists of all time. He was voted 3rd bestof the millennium by Guitar magazine.
And I do like Plant, too, but I don’t know about top 1%. I think it’s harder to be objective about vocalists.
The Steve Morse Band and the Dixie Dregs. Steve won so many Guitar Player awards that he was retired from it. Rod Morgenstein is a hell of a drummer and has won a ton of Modern Drummer best drummer awards. Dave LaRue has also won tons of awards for his bass skills.
Usually I don’t pay much attention to awards, but the serious music magazines actually pick decent players instead of the sensation of the day.
Oh, and they were nomiated for some Grammys along the way.
Yeah, Howard is all sorts of unbelievable genius when it comes to harmonica. He used to be a regular at the cafe I worked and I got to know him and his work fairly well. Believe it or not, the guy could even wail on an ocarina, playing crazy, jazzy licks on it, with a tone that only Howard seems to be capable of.
But his piano work, as you note, is remarkable, too. It’s not as extraordinary and groundbreaking as his harmonica playing, but he more than holds his own on that instrument. The man is one of those people who picks up an instrument and makes playing it look like magic.
