Under Rated or Fairly Unknown Drummers

Check out Sammy Davis Junior or Mel Torme.
Both are surprisingly good for singers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bYvZEpHEMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USxvJFfKXrE

Wow! Had no clue Stevie played. That's awesome. Always loved his music. I've seen vids of Sammy playing before. All around talented guy.



As far as under rated or fairly unknown, I'll just throw Jon Fishman in the ring from Phish. Besides being a great jazz drummer, he plays songs that jam on from 8-20 minutes or more. Great chops, not overly "show-ee". I'm quite biased. I've been a Phish fan for nearly 3 decades now.

Kenny Arinoff was "unknown" for the longest time. Then BAM! Everyone wanted him on their album. I met Kenny in our hometown in a record store the first time in '92. Got his autograph. Then a few years later I hung out with him and another friend as I was DJ'ing in a local restaurant/bar. He rocks! Great guy. My best friend took lessons from Kenny in the late 70's for a few months.
 
Stevie Wonder. I saw him live twice and he is an absolutely fabulous drummer. If you listen carefully to his recordings where he plays drums he has a very unique and distinctive style that is hard to mimic.

Absolutely. Very difficult to play like Stevie. Innervisions has some great drumming, and all by Stevie.
 
Bun E Carlos is definitely definitely definitely underrated. The man plays laid back yet incredibly groovy. His fills are always memorable, musical and pay a constant homage to the greats of the past. Plus, he smoked while playing!

The hats alone on this song are worthy of the highest praises from the tallest mountains.
 
There's another thread on here that has kind of devolved into the subject of what constitutes "good" drumming, and that immature drummers tend to screw things up by over-playing, adding unnecessary fills, and that kind of thing. Out of that discussion, one of the names that popped up as a drummer who played great time without adding a bunch of superfluous nonsense is Roger Hawkins.

Roger who? I'd go out on a limb and say that many people have no idea who he is or what he drummed on, but he is, IMO, one of the great unsung drummers of the 20th Century. He was part of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, known as the Swampers, and played on such hits as:

Old Time Rock & Roll - Bob Seger
I'll Take You There - The Staples Singers
Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Land of 1000 Dances - Wilson Pickett
When a Man Loves a Woman - Percy Sledge

This is of course not by far an inclusive list, but it illustrates that Roger Hawkins is one of those drummers who isn't well known, even though his session catalog is well known.

There are a lot of other less-known drummers out there too - Hal Blaine is probably one of the most obvious ones most of us know, but who isn't really known of outside of musician's circles.

Who are some other drummers who come to mind - guys like country legend Lonnie Wilson, John "JR" Robinson, or Russ Kunkle - guys who have worked with just about everyone. List some of your favorite unsung drummers and some of what they've played on. I'd love to dig in to some more of that.
Definitely!..absolutely! 100% spot on!
 
Jean-Paul Gaster ~ Clutch.
I will post his name on every one of these threads, I believe he is grossly underrated.

Yes he's fabulous! what a groove and feel for the music
 
Donny Vosburgh was amazing for a white dude playing funk in Atlanta back in the day. Saw these guys rock in early 80's when they were still playing highschool proms lol.

 
Jean-Paul Gaster ~ Clutch.
I will post his name on every one of these threads, I believe he is grossly underrated.

A buddy took me to see them at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto a few years back. I didn’t know of them at the time, but I still remember the show.
 
A buddy took me to see them at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto a few years back. I didn’t know of them at the time, but I still remember the show.
I first saw them as an opening act for Sepultura on the Chaos A.D. tour. They were little known and local to MD at the time. I was hooked.
 
Bun E Carlos is definitely definitely definitely underrated. The man plays laid back yet incredibly groovy. His fills are always memorable, musical and pay a constant homage to the greats of the past. Plus, he smoked while playing!

The hats alone on this song are worthy of the highest praises from the tallest mountains.

I think Bun was a little more in the limelight back in the 80's when I got into drumming, but do agree that he get lost among a lot of the other 70's/80's drummers

I would add Jerry Gaskill of Kings X as a great groove drummer who gets over looked...


he created such great space for Dug and Ty to play and sing in...and gave the group a distinct, phat heaviness

he is also one of the coolest people I have ever met. When they played in Columbus on the Kings X album tour, we were eating in the little restaurant that used to be next to the Newport. We had out Kings X shirts on. He and Dug, and some of the crew came into the place to eat. They saw us sitting there and asked if they could eat with us!! We ate and talked for about an 2 hours before they went back in for sound check. That was life changing for us!!

Got to see them 3 years ago again at The Alrosa Villa, and also talked to them after the show that night. He didn't remember us from the Newport gig - whichh was understandable...

pics from that night!!

Jerry and I (I am tryign to soak in some talent in this pic)
IMG_0890.jpg

Dug and I...(also tryign to soak in some more talent) Ty is behind talking to my guitar playing friend Andy about pedals...
IMG_0886.jpg
 
Pick Withers, who played on Dire Straits albums up to (and including) Love Over Gold.

I'd always known that Pick Withers was a bit of a special drummer, but until I started playing the drums myself, I didn't realise just how good he was, and how much special sauce he brought to the Dire Straits sound.
God yes...Communique is hypnotizing.
 
I think we should just talk more about how insanely over-rated Ringo and Bonham are. Followed by some spirited big kit versus small kit debate and finish up with some chops versus groove discussion.

I can't believe you lumped Bonzo in with Ringo.

Reported.
 
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