All of us drummers, have been brought up listening to the greats. “The greats” is going to vary by generation, and will evolve as a matter of course.
People much older than me would say that Max Roach, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson et al. were the guys that a new drummer needs to listen to. There was a time when Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, and John Bonham were the current hot shots. More recently, we have Neil Peart, Carter Beauford, and ugh Tommy Lee. Today’s youth is going to be looking towards Danny Carey (one of my favorites) Vinny Paul, Joey Jordison, and David Silveria from Korn.
IMO, to overlook any of these drummers, is to choose to not learn. All music evolves, and always will for the foreseeable future.
This is not a “favorite drummer” thread, but rather one meant to expand the horizons of people that are new to this, drummers and otherwise.
When I used to sell drums, and was surrounded by the culture, we used to play the instructional videos that we sold in order to give people an Idea of what they were like.
Few people, if any, bought the videos we showed. That changed one day. We got a new video featuring Akira Jimbo. I think it was “Independence” a remarkable video, and a stunning display of limb independence as well as musical knowledge. The video depicted him playing four distinct rhythms on all four of his limbs. I think he even mixed time signatures in there.
Now, to the layperson, this looked like a neat trick. To a drummer it meant much more. Every drummer plays one rhythm and time signature at a time. Good drummers can simultaneously play two patterns/time signatures. VERY good drummers can play three at a time, and this Jimbo dude is almost a freak of nature.
“Independence” was the cause of many hours of lost work in that store. It was also the cause of several hours worth of customers lives that were spent in our store.
Akira’s second video “Pulse” came out a while later, and it was an even bigger hit. I’ve bought two videos in my entire life and this was one of them. He played the drums, but also played the role of an ancillary keyboard player by way of triggers. This can be seen in his Youtube videos that show him playing 007/Mission Impossible songs on his kit.
So, type “Akira Jimbo” into Youtube, and you will find AMAZING videos of him.
Oh yes, BTW I have an Alesis DM5 drum Module for sale, in case anyone’s interested. The mice have failed to eat all of the bait on the traps, so I have at least a few hours worth of sustenance available to me. Some people don’t collect their rain water as they should, so I have half a cup of rain water at my disposal, when it rains, and from the mossy drain spout.
I’m gonna just pass out now