The best 15 world drummers of all time

1.John Bonham
In the first cut of Led Zeppelin's first album, John Bonham forever changed the way he plays drums in rock. Years later, Jimmy Page was still stunned by the disorienting impact of the "Good Times Bad Times" hype: "Everybody bet Bonzo was using two drums, but he was just one," Page recalled. Heavy, moved, virtuous, and careful, so was the technique that Bonham would conquer before his death in 1980. In his paleolithic and brutal touch, he never relapsed into laziness; In his breathtaking rhythm, never bowed down to unnecessary idiocy. He always dodged both pitfalls with his glorious stampede in "Moby Dick." "I spent years in my room - literally, a few fucking years - listening to Bonham drums and trying to emulate their swing, their arrogance behind the beat or their speed, their power," Dave Grohl once wrote in Rolling Stone. "It was not just memorizing what he did on those records, but acquiring his instinctive sense." This was the path that almost every post-Bonham rock drummer would follow at one point or another of his career, and the quest that allowed a good portion of them to find their own rhythm.

2-. Keith Moon
The "best Keith Moon drummer in the world", as he described himself, abhorred the mechanical repetition of rock percussion, as well as repetition in life in general. Moon (the inspiration for the character of the Muppets, Animal) broke drums and hotel rooms with such ferocity that meant that he was more the performance than just being a rock drummer. He is known for refusing to play alone and for treating the drums as the main instrument of The Who. "His pauses were melodic," bassist John Entwistle told Rolling Stone, "because he was trying to play with all the band members at the same time." Moon the Loon got fixes in unused places and only the parts with synthesizer of Who's Next stabilized its hesitant sense of the time. "Keith Moon himself was orchestral, as if he played the timpani or cymbals in an orchestra," said Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction. "It makes you feel that any part is important, even if it's not at the end of four bars. I love drama, theater, and I love the excitement that puts it." Moon's favorite trick was, however, to throw firecrackers through the hotel's toilet, a trick he used until 1978 when he died of an overdose at age 31.

3-. Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker combined a jazz training with a powerful polyrhythmic style in the best power trio in the world. He had a great talent for playing the drums, and condemned for having a difficult personality (with which even he struggled to cope) . While constantly fighting with fellow crews Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton, the London-born drummer incorporated stage mastery into the rock world with double-bass virtuosity and extended solos. After the breakup of the short-lived band Blind Faith (the first "supergroup", in which he played alongside Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech), Baker moved to Nigeria where he lived for several years in the 1970s. "He understands The African rhythm better than any other western, "said afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen. In those years, Baker kept busy with an impressive array of projects, flaunting his brave character, executing intricately braided grooves in the mid-70s, in the underrated Baker Gurvitz Army adventure where he armed jazz combos with star soloists Such as Bill Frisell, while also offering strong collaborations with Public Image Ltd and Masters of Reality.

4-. Neil Pert
When Neil Peart was introduced to a test to enter Rush in 1974, his future bandmates saw in him a way to stay with the fans of The Who. "We were impressed with Neil," recalled guitarist Alex Lifeson. "He was very much like Keith Moon, very active, and he gave the drummer everything." Ironically, Peart's biggest contribution to rock drums would come from the polar opposite of the aesthetic that Moon represented: the most accurate and meticulously planned touch of rock history. While Rush's progressive ambitions flourished in the 1970s, Peart revealed himself to be an obsessive craftsman - a fact also noted in his fantastic lyrics - using esoteric instruments such as orchestral bells, temple blocks and timpani for songs like " Xanadu "and" The Trees ". The band's music became more dynamic in the 1980s (with its major transitional works like Moving Pictures and a more pop sound) and Peart incorporated electronic percussion and began to look sideways at mainstream innovators like Stewart Copeland. Rush's recent work on albums like Clockwork Angels of 2012 features some of Peart's best contributions: an impressive drive of mind and strength. He retired from the tours, but remains the most revered rock drummer alive.

5-. Hal Blaine
"If Hal Blaine had only played the drums on Ronettes' 'Be My Baby', people would still stand up and say his name," Max Weinberg once said. However, the drummer born as Harold Simon Belsky, recorded with Sinatra, The Beach Boys and Elvis, to name a few. Wrecking Crew leader, the group of Los Angeles sessionists who dominated the circuit of studies during the 60s and 70s, Blaine became the most recorded drummer in history (he lost count after 35,000, but within them there were 150 Top Ten and 40 Number One). He played for Phil Spector on "Wall Of Sound," but his true legacy is his chameleon's adaptability. "I just wanted to be a good chaperone," he reflected. Mission accomplished.

6-. Clyde Stubblefield & John "Jabo" Starks
Not one but two drummasters defined the rhythm of James Brown: the underestimated John "Jabo" Starks and Mr. Funky Drummer himself, Clyde Stubblefield. Starks started in jazz and blues; Stubblefield came from the R & B world. Coincidentally, the two started playing in Brown's band weeks apart. They were complemented: Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson told Rolling Stone that "Starks was a Beatle and Clyde, a Stone." Their combination gave Brown some of his best songs, including "Cold Sweat", "Superbad" and, of course, "Funky Drummer". Sampled, his punches were key in the instrumental of the golden age of hip-hop.

7-. Gene Krupa
"He was the first rock drummer," Neil Peart said of Gene Krupa in 2015. "He was the first drummer to be the center of attention, the first to be singled out. He did simple things but always gave them a spectacular look . " Krupa's agitated attack with the four-by-four drumming of his brand and the appearance of the cowbell-influenced by New Orleans drummers Baby Dodds and Zutty Singleton-brought Benny Goodman's innovative big band in the 1930s to New heights and, along the way, Krupa inspired a generation of future rock giants: Bonham's "Moby Dick" or Peart's "The Rhythm Method" would be unthinkable without him. Together with Buddy Rich, his nemesis, Krupa is the father of the drums as a sport and show.

8-. Mich Mitchell
"It was just wonderful," Queen's Roger Taylor said. And Stewart Copeland of The Police admitted that "all the things I did and were quite proud of, I thought they had come out of me, but no, I had taken them out of Mitch." However, in 1966, when it came to choosing a drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the decision was literally face-to-face: a coin tossed into the sky to decide between Mitch Mitchell and Aynsley Dunbar. Mitchell won, and this disciple of Elvin Jones brought an impressive improvisational quality to the power trio of Hendrix, generally building tense grooves that later faded into a counterpoint as fluid as structured with Jimi's guitar.

9-. Al Jackson Jr
Al Jackson Jr., a Soul Stax sessionist, was known until his death, at age 40 (in 1975), as the "Human Chronometer." Their sharp rhythms articulated the accompaniments of Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Al Green (with whom he co-wrote the hit "Let's Stay Together"); And, as his reputation grew, different superstars - like Eric Clapton - began to ask this battery genius. As co-founder of Booker T. & the MG, Jackson contributed to the creation of funk and hip-hop. "I put it in the same bag as Ray Charles or Billy Preston with a unique class," Sam & Dave's Sam Moore about Jackson, who touched on "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" . "I'll tell you without turning: I could make the shit smell like roses."

10-. Stewart Copeland
It may be that the sting melodies have become universal, but The Police sounds like this because of Stewart Copeland's use of space, subtlety and aggression. Of the greatest drummers in history, he is less interested in hitting the drummer (whose sound remains remarkably sharp) and its parts often involve intricate patterns with hi-hat (as it appears in Peter Gabriel's theme " Red Rain "). Miles, his father, was a diplomat who moved the family to various parts of the Middle East, and that particular education made Stewart decorate The Police with distant rhythmic accents to his native England. Despite his sustained antagonism, Sting allowed the band's first album to be a tribute to Stewart's energy and focus. "All these years I've been trying to get that Stewart Copeland drummer and hi-hat sound," said Primus's Les Claypool, who started playing with him in 2000, "and he would sit in the middle of that drums a little old. And suddenly the sound came in. It made me realize that it's all about how he attacks the drums. "

11-. Benny Benjamin
For years, Berry Gordy refused to record unless the great swing drummer Benny Benjamin was in the studio. "I had a pulse that kept the beat better than a metronome," said Motown founder of the best drummer of his label. Benjamin is on many of Motown's hits, from Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want" to "My Girl" by The Temptations; His session partners, with whom he formed the Funk Brothers, called him "Papa Zita." The addiction often kept him out of school until he died of a stroke in 1969. Benjamin was mentor to the young Stevie Wonder: "I learned only by listening to him," Wonder said in 1973. "Benny could have been quietly the best. "

12-. Charlie Watts
According to Keith Richards, when the Rolling Stones began "they could not live up to" Charlie Watts, who played in Blues Incorporated, a group with good repercussion led by Alexis Korner. Over time, the Stones seduced him and he asked them to join the band: "They're incredible, man," he told Richards, "but they need a good drummer." Beyond sporadic jazz projects, Watts seamlessly complemented Jagger, Richards and the rest, with swing ("Brown Sugar"), tense four-by-four rhythms ("Satisfaction") and discreet Impressionism ("Sympathy for the Devil" ), Rarely bragging, for over 50 years. "When we got Charlie, we saw that it was really made for us," Richards said.

13-. D.J. Fontana
In hundreds of the earliest recordings of Elvis Presley, Dominic Joseph "D.J." Fontana was the very forefront of rock & roll, playing drums with a rustic swing at a time when the country and bluegrass groups were avoiding batteries altogether. He was the pioneer of a kind of litany, with arrangements often imitated, from that irregular drummer in "Blue Suede Shoes" to the waves of cuts in "Hound Dog". "He had amazing technique and fast hands, so he could do those arrangements with Buddy Rich drumsticks whenever he wanted to. He played like a big band drummer: with the throttle in full," Levon Helm once said. "Now Elvis had a real base, some architecture: DJ released Elvis."

14-. Ringo Starr
"I remember the moment: I was standing, looked at John and then looked at George, and the expression on our face was like, 'Fucker, what is this?'" Paul McCartney recalled, remembering the first time Beatles played with Ringo Starr. "And that was the beginning, actually, of the Beatles." Underrated in the late 1960s, when extravagant drummers such as Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell emerged, Ringo did not just articulate the greatest band of all time but helped shape his music and focus it: listen to the ecstatic sway with the Which opens "She Loves You", the cool solidity of "Ticket to Ride" or the way she released beautiful and memorable "rhythmic hooks" in many of the Beatles' most beloved songs. Personally, his good character made him the most accessible member of the band. "John had his ups and downs," said Yoko Ono, "but Ringo was always very kind, and he really believed in peace and love." As a left-handed drummer playing a drum kit for right-handers, Starr created his own way of shaping novel and lush "funny fills", and his steadfastness became a banner for those simple rock musicians, Playing in each song with feeling and swing. "Ringo was the king of feeling," said Dave Grohl.

15-. Buddy Rich
An unrivaled technique and unparalleled hand speed allowed Rich, a self-taught vaudeville star, to quickly overcome the reign of Gene Krupa (who called him "the best drummer who has ever lived"), to start a career in concerts With Tommy Dorsey. But Rich's influence extended far beyond the era of big bands or even jazz: John Bonham and Bill Ward learned from him how to move from a simple background rhythm to a blatant improvisation of patterns, and was the Figure that encouraged Phil Collins to abandon the double hype and concentrate on the hi-hat. "I would say from the standpoint of pure technique it's the best I've ever seen in my life," Queen's Roger Taylor recalled.

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