What's in your CDP tonight? the minority report

Loomis - might this be the one you were referring to?

"Art Blakey & Ginger Baker:  "Drum Battle" (1972)

http://artblakey.com/battles/

that's the one--there's also a jones/baker battle (just type in ginger baker elvin jones on the youtube site). let us know what you think...

Dizzy Gilliespie

Hello Loomis...OK.  Well, I watched the Baker/Blakey "drum battle".  With all due respect, I couldn't pick a clear cut "winner" there.  Not to my mind anyway.  Even if Blakey gets the edge overall, I didn't think Baker got humiliated.  I'm not a drummer though so I'll defer to those that know more...just expressing my opinion.  I was impressed by Art.  I knew the name but that's it.  Some of the rolls he did were outright ferocious.  Lot of sound from a smallish kit too, I thought.  He used an awful lot of cymbal though...not my preference.  Maybe give him a bit of an edge on variety.  Rhythmically, I found Baker's playing a little more complex but also thought he was more repetitious than Blakey.  Differences in styles for sure...seemed like Art had the lighter hands.  Baker more of a rock feel.  (If I were blindfolded, can't swear I'd say that - but that's how it seemed).    BTW - wish the video quality were better.  Hard to make out facial expressions clearly.  Found it interesting how intently AB and GB watched one another...esp.GB on Art.  Couldn't tell if AB's look was boredom, disdain or what...video quality was just not that great.  It WAS interesting stuff.  Thanks for bringing it up.  I will check out the Elvin Jones/Ginger Baker video too.

gh, thanks for checking it out. i don't really disagree with your analysis--my own sense (not being a drummer either) was that baker tends to default to that same sorta tribal/african rhythm while blakey shows a much wider dynamic range and in general, seemed to have supreme mastery--i.e. he  shifts from cool to frenzied in a heartbeat. i was probably being unfair to baker earlier--he's still a great rock drummer--but since he's generally regarded as the spawn of satan i won't apologize in person.