Concert stage layout -- who made who?


Last night I was visiting a friend to listen to his SET setup. It sounded very nice - kinda the polar opposite philosophically from my own system... but anyway.

We were listeing to Bave Brubeck's Time Out. I wondered after listening for a while about the soundstage placement of the musicians. The drums were on the right (in some tracks) along with the keyboards. The clarinet(?) and flute seemed to be in the left of center portion of the stage (that's not a political comment) while something else (I can't remember what it was) was placed far off to the left.

Generally nowadays with Jazz/folk/rock the drums are in the center/back, while the star/singer is in the front while the other status instruments are immediately to the right and left of the singer/star. Okay, so here's the question: did the layout of the soundstage dictate where people stood on the stage, or did the stage dictate the soundstage?
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Tvad, know any renowned left handed drummers? Solo piano is commonly spread from the performer's perspective too, treble right, bass left. Symphonies seem to be displayed from the conductor's perspective, violins left, cellos right. In the good old days, so called full-featured preamps had channel reversal switches to flip the image 180 degrees.
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Phil Collins is a phenomenal drummer, for sure. His groove on Robert Plant's "In the Mood" is killer.

Terry Bozzio is right handed, but plays ambidextrously (sp?). In other words, he can lead with either hand. Simon Phillips does it like no one I've ever seen.

I guess if you want the proper drum orientation while listening to your system, you'll have to turn your chair around.
What i'm wondering is, just how big are some of these drum kits and how long of arms do some of these guys have? I hear cymbals five feet to one side and toms five feet to the other side. I don't know how they run back and forth hitting them while still keeping beat with the kicks : ) Sean
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