So last night I came home from a short tour of the Midwest and logged in here and read a blog on the most influential modern rock guitarist. It was fascinating to see what people thought. The last I checked Mike McCreedy from Pearl Jam was in the lead, which was a bit of a surprise because his phrasing, tone, and basic technical skills were the least of all those listed. But then again there is something that is to be said of speaking to the heart.
So I was just in Denver, Kansas City, and St Louis in 3 days. All by airplane, so it was a quick in and out tour. But I met some great people, and when I do tours where I travel thousands of miles in the matter of hours the great diversity of this country comes into sharp focus! I ran 4 miles Thursday morning on Market Street in San Francisco and was playing a show in downtown Denver 7 hours later. Crazy. And 24 hours later I was in Kansas City, chatting up some locals about jazz greats like Lester Young, and of Course Miles, and Ellington.
I got into a heated exchange with some Republicans in Kansas City about Bush, but then I forced the conversation over to drumming and I said Philly Joe Jones and Elvin Jones were probably the most influential drummers in the development of drum set playing. It led to the way Mitch Mitchell played drums with Hendrix, and the way Jack DeJohnette played with Miles in the late 60's and early 70's that led to modern fusion playing and to the eventually rock drumming greats of Bonham, Peart, Ferrone, Gadd, and Colaiuta.
So who do you guys think are the greatest drummers ever?