Great musicians who should have been famous except....

bomd +1 / DMST is a great band!

 A couple more great drummers (I suspect you already know about LOL): 
Billy Martin from "Medeski, Martin, & Wood"
Yasunori Takada from the band "mono"

Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Vinnie Colaiuta, Lennie White, Chester Thompson  - “under rated”. I think not -  all of them are some of the most respected and well revered players in the business - dead or alive ( tony) -  they have never been under appreciated.  

Perhaps Roy Haynes might make that list - or Jeff Hamilton - possibly Brian Blade and Bill Stewart - but these are all drum gods - along with many others - hardly under appreciated - they may not have the wealth and exposure of the arena rock power house drummers - but they are appreciated highly by their contemporaries and musician fans 

Bill Stewart is astonishing...I've seen him over the years with Scofield, and 2 current heavy rotation albums around my house are "Toy Tunes" with Larry Goldings and Peter Bernstein, and "Band Menu" with Larry Grenadier and Walter Smith III...highly recommended!

@boxer12

Yeah. Familiar with Billy Martin, not Yasunori Takada though. Looks like his band, Mono, did some output in Tzadik Records which I can get behind. I’ll check ‘em out!

That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard about AVH. He was an and probably still is an awesome drummer. I never ever heard of anyone not knowing who AVH was. Every one that I knew knew that AVH and EVH were brothers in VH. AVH underrated as a drummer????? NEVER EVER !!!!!!!