jond’s nomination of Jim Keltner (of which I heartily approve and second) begs the question: what constitutes a "Rock" drummer? Before Keltner starting playing in The Playboys (Gary Lewis’ backing band) in the mid-60’s, he was, in his own words, a Jazz snob. He is Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell’s first call drummer (as well as Ry Cooder’s, and many other guitarists and songwriters), and does mostly studio work. Is he a "Rock" drummer? Does he even play what you consider Rock music?
The same can be asked about Steve Gadd, who has been working with Eric Clapton for years. I guess you could call Clapton’s music Rock, but Gadd was trained in rudiments and played in the Army/Navy Band during the Vietman War era (a good way to not have to go shoot or be shot at!). I just watched a documentary on Clapton’s 2014 World Tour, and Gadd played very few fills (the opposite of Neil Peart, who never passes up that opportunity), focusing on establishing the structure of each song, and creating the feel and groove of the band. Gadd is a fantastic drummer (one of the handful of best in the world, imo) who can, and does, play one of the best drum solos I’ve ever heard and seen. Very advanced technical ability, but he doesn’t feel the need to constantly prove it by over-playing, a rarity.
Seeing a Led Zeppelin tribute band live last night reminded me of just how guilty John Bonham was of over-playing (completely unnecessary fills which in no way advanced the song, and in fact just duplicated what someone else was playing), and how his style of playing was adopted by the vast majority of Rock drummers that followed him. Over-playing is by far the number one complaint about drummers by other musicians. Good ones, that is ;-) .
