Best Drummer

Where are Manu Katche, Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta, Simon Phillips, Mark Zonder, John Molo and Mark Brzezicki etc.?

Neil Peart for me then.

Neil Peart gets my vote.

Collins, Bruford, Palmer & Bonham are also brilliant.

Calvo wrote: It's impossible to list every drummer in the world in this poll

But you have the option of include more names to that list (25 in total??) and then have a couple of continuation lists as well. Incomplete (actually far from complete) polls aren't even fun anymore, and they tend say more about the limited horizons of the compilers and those fill 'em in - sorry but that's how I feel after being bombarded with too many far from sensible polls, here in prog Archive in the last 11 months. The only thing I've learnt there is bias towards Neil Peart  - and this is at least the second poll to say so - but personally I don't buy it. However, having tried myself to compile a more concentual poll, by asking which names Progarchives' subscribers would like be included, but only got  3 or 4 responses, I know running "sensible polls" is difficult/impossible. How flexible is the system here and so that some persons create separate polls of 100 keyboard players, guitarists, bass players, drummers etc. (listing names alphabetically to reduce pollsters' bias) and giving everybody 3 votes for each poll to nominate 3 drummers (but not the same one three times)? Then again, who do you make drummers or guitarists 101 to 350..........................?

And named names in this poll? If Weckl and Bozzio are there, now firmly in the jazz rock fusion medium, why not Chad Wackerman, Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Husband, Dennis Chambers (who seems to do more session work than most drummers, from straight jazz via jazz rock into prog rock), and then a long list of ecertas.?

What about Christian Vander, Jaki Liebezeit, Chris Cutler, Daniel Denis, Pip Pyle, Pierre Moerlen and Billy Cobham?

Bruford is my pick from the available options.

As I noted in another similar thread, for me the determination of who is the "best" drummer (which is already a subjective idea) is made by asking a single simple question: who could play who else's parts?  For example, could Peart play Bruford's parts in Crimson, Yes or UK?  Could Collins play Peart's parts in Rush?  Could Portnoy play Collins' parts in Brand X?  Etc.

In this regard, I believe the two best drummers in prog are Marco Matteuzzi and Claudio Trotta, both of Deus ex Machina.  Either of them could easily step into Crimson, Yes, Rush, UK, Dream Theater, et al, and play those drummers' parts.  However, with the possible exception of Bruford (and possibly Collins, maybe, given his work with Brand X), none of the drummers above would last four minutes in Deus ex Machina, especially when DeM is really moving...

If you want to hear "frightening" drumming, listen to DeM's live album, Diacronia Metronomiche.  Trotta's drumming on that album is almost beyond comprehension: no matter how fast or complicated they get, Trotta does not lose one second or miss one beat.  And we're talking about live drumming, where you don't get a chance to overdub if you screw up.

Peace.

The-Bullet wrote: Far from an expert here, but I'd go for Bill Bruford and Billy Cobham. Jazz seems to be the foundation of choice for upwardly mobile drummers.

Check out:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002J2Q/ref =m_art_li_1/104-5031100-8251915?v=glance&s=music

and who is present; it supports your case.

Hello!!

PHIL COLLINS...

Roger, from Portugal