Yeah, but he also wrote a lot of their lyrics and music and contributed heavily to the image of the band. It's kind of like saying Roger Waters was just a bassist, or that Clarence Clemons was just a sax player.

No, I don't mean he wrote lyrics etc., I'm talking about how you use the drums to compliment the song and change around mood etc. As my drum teacher says, being a musician is being an artist with the instrument, you use it to create your painting, and all the emotion in it, anyone can play drums, and anyone can be a robot who gets good enough to play well, but being a musician, taking the technique to the next level and adding the 'art' to it, that's what being a musician is in comparison to being just a 'drummer'. A drummer plays drums to play drums, a musician plays drums to make his music into an art. It's a weird thing and most people think you always play drums to make music into an art, but that's not true. You find distinctive differences. It's the same reason Michael Angelo Batio is JUST a guitarist, while Steve Vai is a true musician.

Yeah I know what you mean. His work on their early stuff was so ridiculously good though. I mean pretty much the entire Awake album is a percussive masterpiece.

my 5 favorite drum performances right now

1 bud powell un poco loco played by max roach
2 million dollar legs by tony wiliams
3 airegin hubert laws steve gadd on that one
4 boz scaggs lowdown played by jeff porcaro
5 baden baden by modern jazz quarted played by mr kenny clarke it sizzles

Danzig's ex-drummer Chuck Biscuits was a fantastic drummer (sadly he hasn't recorded anything in over ten years), extremely loud and raw. His style reminds me a lot of John Bonham and Matt Cameron:



Here is the live version of the song, twice as wild as the original:



Biscuits goes crazy during this performance.

I'm not sure I'd call him the next Tony Royster yet, but this kid is pretty damn special... already better than travis at 7

Who is that kid!? He's got a terrific sense of feel for the kit and his rolls are very good for his age. Like his style, maybe not the next Jr but that kids really good.

Cedric Evens Jr. And who knows, I think those videos of Royster started with him at age 12...

This is why Baker is my favorite of all time.

He's the fucking man. I'm glad someone else my age 'gets' him!

I feel like a broken record saying this, but he has by far my favorite technique of any rock drummer. The subtle use of double-bass, some of the best grooves ever laid down on a kit, incredible dynamic and improvisational sense, etc.

That performance there is much more explosive and less "bloated" than the Wheels Of Fire live version. He just totally murders it!

Listening to more Bruford.
So far I definitely prefer his Yes work to his King Crimson work.

However, Fracture is such a wicked performance!

One more red nightmare and Red are my favorite performances by him, but just about everything he's done is pure gold.

Yes! Yes! I love Ginger. You totally 'get' him man (I mean obviously, YOU'RE the drummer here...)

He's so damned subtle, grooving, precise, and DAMN does he have a mind for percussion, just DAMN, one of the deepest, most unique and subtle minds ever I think. Like Bill Bruford's mind, honestly. That is RARE. The more I listen to Ginger, the more I appreciate him. Are you familiar w any of his post Cream work? I wanna check it out someday

(Oh and I think he might have done the best of the three musicians on Fresh Cream...(where's the ducking-behind-a-wall smiley when ya need it?!?!))



Baller

What's your fave performance of his so far my man? Cheers

Oh ya...almost forgot...Bruford has said many times that Ginger blew him away and was one of his biggest influences, and was basically the one rock drummer in the 60s that really impressed him (Bill mostly listened to jazz as a teenager, at least as far as listening for drumming goes)

I think CRJ is a drummer too, isn't he?



Yeah, the stuff with Ginger Baker's Air Force that I heard was pretty awesome.
He's also done some pure jazz and I think he did some weird African tribal stuff too.
*Could be wrong on that last one though*



The end of Rollin & Tumblin is just fierce! He's just playing out of his skin there, nothing but high-octane adrenaline.



It may sound cliche, but Heart Of The Sunrise. Easily.
Not just Bruford's drumming, but the WHOLE SONG blew my mind. Just a staggeringly brilliant composition.